Governance2.Org

The third conference in the series of international e-Government conferences, this conference provides a platform for sharing of experiences and networking opportunities with key decision makers in the government, development agencies and industry players.
Download the report from eGovWorld 2006

When: Novermber 29 – 30, 2007
Where: The Grand, Vasant Kunj, Nelson Mandela Road, Phase II, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, India
Website: http://www.egovworld.org

Madhya Pradesh government has set up a School for Good Governance and Policy Analysis here to review state policies and its effect on a target group.
The school will function as an autonomous `think tank’ in the field of good governance in international and domestic context and will analyze problems regarding governance. It will also prepare an action plan and assist in implementation of the same.
[Via]

The Maharashtra Knowledge Corporation Limited (MKCL) has in partnership with several institutions developed a comprehensive software framework for a web-based network of colleges affiliated to universities. This digital university product is a one-stop platform aimed at providing information about the university, its departments, colleges/institutes and various courses on offer.
Besides admissions and exam-related information, students will be able to access information on schemes —government as well as other agencies — for backwards, tribals, economically backward, minority classes and the physically challenged. Information will also be available on scholarships and free-ships, concessions, loans, employment, placement and competitive examinations etc.
An integral aspect of the project will be customised services which students can access through individual logins. This includes a range of administrative services like personal profile update, eligibility form, application for examination, admit card, personalised result, application for verification, revaluation and convocation as well as applications for migration certificates and transcript status of various applications.  [Via]

A community project to provide high speed Internet, telemedicine, e-education and e-governance services to the rural areas of Tamil Nadu was made operational in Vadugambadi, about 60 km south of state capital Chennai. The facilities will be provided for the first time in India with the High Speed Packet Access (HSPA) and Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) systems under the Gramjyoti programme of the central government.
At the three community centres cum panchayat offices, the Apollo Hospital’s telemedicine service has provided a paramedic, who can do basic check ups for those needing medical attention.
There are plans to bring about 100,000 villages under the fold of the programme.
[Via]

E-Halli, conceptualised on the basis of former President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam’s ‘Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA)’, aims at bridging the information gap between villages and cities. The E-Halli centres would provide services and information about various schemes of Government departments, both Central and State, gram panchayats, banks, hospitals, blood banks, diagnostic centres, veterinary centres, market prices, agricultural farming, business, educational institutions, timings and fare of busses, trains, flights, the place of reservation and goods transport system.
In the first phase, the centres will be established in 10 districts, and grow to finally cover 5,628 gram panchayats in the State. [Via]

People across the country may soon access their water, electricity and other utility bills online.
The national mission on e-governance in urban local bodies, covering  423 cities across the country, will cost Rs 787 crore and cover services and management functions, including online registration and issue of birth and death certificates, approval of building plans and payment of property tax and other utility bills.
All 35 cities with a population of 10 lakh or more are proposed to be covered in the current financial year. In the next five years, the project is supposed to cover all the 423 cities having a population of one lakh and above.
[Via]

Google Australia on Friday unveiled what it described as the world’s most powerful dedicated election website, capable of exposing inconsistencies in the public pronouncements of political leaders.
With an election due in Australia before the end of the year, Google claims its website would be a powerful tool for voters and would help generate debate during the upcoming campaign.
Prime Minister John Howard, who has announced policies online for the first time in the lead-up to the election, said politicians were now taking the Internet seriously. However, its user-generated content means it is also a potential minefield for politicians.
Google’s Australian-developed election site includes a feature called “On the Record”, where users can type in a politician’s name, along with an issue of their choosing.
It then scours parliamentary transcripts and the politician’s personal website to find any statements on the issue, allowing voters to check whether their representatives are being consistent.
It also gives voters electoral information through a range of online tools including YouTube, GoogleEarth and GoogleMaps. Google said it was the first time so many features had been available on a single election website. [Via]

Given the earlier Bourne promotion on Google, this seems to be a route that Google is increasing taking – given the resources they are able to pull together, it doesn’t seem like a bad idea.

Hindustan Times: The central Information Commission (CIC) has ruled that SBI Cards is a public authority and customers were entitled to seek information about the credit card company under the Right to Information (RTI) Act.
The ruling came after two SBI cardholders, Arun Kumar Verma and Dileep Ayachit, sought information under the RTI Act on particulars regarding credit cards. The petition was filed after the SBI Cards and Payment Services said that it had not received cheques issued by a cardholder. The bank later said it had received the cheques.

Hindu: In the largest such simultaneous deployment of ‘free-and-open’ software in India, over 15 lakh Kerala schoolchildren on Friday start taking their quarterly practical tests in Information Technology on personal computers using a special Linux version.
The IT@School project of the State Education Department has developed an operating system based on the Linux version Ubuntu. Called IT@School GNU Linux Version 3.0, it was distributed to 2,832 high schools — over a thousand of them government schools, the rest aided and unaided ones.
Between September 7 and 22, children of Classes 8, 9 and 10 will use some 30,000 PCs to do their quarterly practical examinations in IT.
The State’s path-breaking e-learning initiative Akshaya had raised popular expectations, but the cost of proprietary software licences in bulk was unaffordable. This led to the State emerging as a pioneer in the use of Open Source resources in a host of education and e-governance projects

Pop stars are doing it, so are millions of teenagers and even Communist Party politicians — blogging has taken Vietnam by storm and spawned an alternative communications universe to dusty state media.
In an online phenomenon that has exploded in a little over a year in this youthful and booming nation, millions of net surfers now reveal all as they share daily gossip and thoughts on their fast-changing society.
When Vietnam hosted world leaders for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit last year, student volunteers and state-paid staff provided behind-the-scenes looks at the event.
Bloggers have fought wars over the cultural divide between Vietnam’s north and south, but they have also raised funds for the needy, arranged organ donations and given support to people suffering deadly diseases.
Vietnam may be a one-party state that censors its official media and the Internet, but this hasn’t stopped millions of yong people embracing a world of carefree online chatting their parents could only have dreamed off.
[Via]