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Microsoft has announced the worldwide availability its Citizen Service Platform (CSP) along with free templates to help customers implement technological solutions to some of the most common issues governments face.
The company announced that the CSP application framework is designed to help governments of all sizes to responsively deliver services to citizens via the internet.
The CSP, a culmination of Microsoft’s partnerships, programmes and projects conducted with governments over several years, was developed based on challenges faced by diverse government offices and different regions worldwide, the company said. [Via]

Gujarat bagged the award for the `Best e-governed State’ for 2006-07 at the 42nd Computer Society India(CSI) Convention, organised to recognise the best e-governance initiatives in the country, especially in the government sector. A total of 17 awards were presented.

Other highlights:

1. Goa, Jharkhand, Kerala were declared as joint winners of the `Progressive e-Governed State’
2. Department of Electricity of Lakshadweep, and Department of Health and Family Welfare, Gujarat were declared joint winners under the `Best e-governed Department’ category
3. The Department of Education, Delhi, bagged the special jury award under the same category for its initiative in the admission, examination and management of teachers. Continue Reading »

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.

With a view to provide specialized health services to patients in rural areas, a two way telemedicine link between Sir Ganga Ram Hospital here and Community Health Centres at Haryana and Rajasthan was established today.
Launching the pilot project ‘Village Resource Centre´ (VRC), a link between the hospital and CHCs in Gohana, Haryana and Kaithun, Rajasthan, Union Minister for Science and Technology Kapil Sibal said the Ministry is planning to start 15 other VRCs in different parts of northern India soon.
“The project aims at providing quality healthcare, early diagnosis, treatment and tertiary consultation from SGRH to medical kiosks established in village hospitals,” Sibal said.
The VRCs will also provide services like rural medical insurance, farming advise, weather updates, water management, employment generation through vocational courses and educational facilities.
[Via]

In an effort to lure young voters to the polls, Connecticut Secretary of the State Susan Bysiewicz recently announced Thursday that her agency’s Web site will offer a video showing how to use the state’s recently acquired optical scan voting machines. The 90-second video can be downloaded onto personal recording devices, including iPods, and will also be available on YouTube.
Bysiewicz acknowledged that most young people who know how to use an iPod would likely understand how to use an optical scan machine. But it still makes sense to provide instructions on the Internet, where young people get much of their information, she said.
She pointed to national efforts to remind young people to vote through text messages on their cell phones apart placing ads in newspapers, on cable TV and radio.
“We’re trying to get the information out to all the age groups using the media that they’re most likely to use on a regular basis,” she said.
For years, Connecticut used lever voting machines. The new system requires users to fill out ballots by hand and feed them into scanning machines.
[Via]

The Madurai Division of Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) will phase out the use of paper slowly with the introduction of Enterprising Data Management System (EDMS), which would pave way for keeping records in electronic form, and facilitate LIC transactions by a policy holder from anywhere in the country. The Madurai division will serve as a pilot scheme in the south zone, and the second division in the country.
Between 1-14 August, LIC sold 73,432 policies, mopping Rs82 crore as premium.
[Via]

The fishermen of Veerampattinam will soon have a mobile phone enabled intelligence system that will tell them everything from where to fish to when to venture home because the weather could turn ugly. M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) is working on on a solution to provide real time information on mobile phones using CDMA. The features:
1. Weather updates to help the fishermen decide whether or not to venture out
2. Information on fish concentration to increase catch
3. A GPS capability is also being worked out, which would make rescue operations easier.
The pilot project involving 10 fishermen is running on the Tata Teleservices Ltd , whose coverage extends to a range of 15-20 km off the coast, covers about 80% of the fishermen’s requirement. “It is currently in Phase 0—we hope to move through four phases over a period of one and a half years. By November this year, we would like to perfect the application, and make about 100 phones available across the coast,” says Parag Kar, senior director of Qualcomm in India and SAARC.
The cost of the handset is estimated at less than Rs 2,500, and would be subsidized by Qualcomm and MSSRF.
[Via]

LiveMint: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India’s biggest phone services firm, will piggyback a state-of-the-art wireless broadband network that it’s setting up for a large computer kiosk network for the Union government to offer up to 85,000 customers high-speed wireless broadband services.
A draft tender circulated by the state-owned BSNL among hardware vendors details a range of voice and value-added services to be offered. “The class of service features shall support…real-time and extended real-time voice and video traffic for voice over IP, fax, video conferencing and video on demand applications,” says the draft tender, indicating the type of services for which it plans to use the network.
The service will use the emerging Wimax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access), which is capable of data speeds of 10 megabits per second (mbps). In comparison, third generation (3G, a fast mobile phone standard) networks promise data throughput of 2mbps and data-friendly cellular networks deliver speeds of up to 512 kilobits per second.
The centres, to be run on the public call office model by village-based “entrepreneurs”, are being designed to provide government services such as issue of certificates, registration of births and deaths, along with commercial information. Read on …

LiveMint: Goa is set to become the first state in India to be fully connected through a high-bandwidth broadband network.
By March, the network will be rolled out together by the state government and Bangalore-based tech solutions company United Telecom Ltd in a so-called public-private partnership model.
Optic fibre cables and wireless technologies will be used across the state and will also link some 200 computer kiosks that deliver government services to the state’s residents.
United Telecom is also providing connectivity for 450 common service centres in Jharkhand. Read on …

Hindustan Times: The government is now ready to bring in a regulation for television through Internet and Internet Protocol Television (IPTV).
A joint group comprising officials from the Information and Broadcasting and the Telecom ministries has been constituted to draft a regulatory framework for IPTV and Internet television. “The group is due to submit its report soon,” an official said.
The joint group will also examine the issue of content. “For IPTV and mobile television, only the channels approved by the ministry can be allowed. But it would be difficult to enforce the same in case of internet television,” the official said.
The government is considering the law under which the new broadcast modes can be regulated as well as how it should be done. “The current broadcasting law does not cover IPTV, internet television or mobile television because the mode of transmission is not traditional–meaning, satellite or terrestrial,” a senior I&B ministry official said. For the ministry, the issue is that if the new broadcast modes are considered cable services, the definition of broadcasting service and cable operators will need to change, an official said.
Ministry officials believe that by the time the new technologies are ready to be implemented on a big scale, the regulatory framework will also be ready. So far, MTNL and the Bharati Group have announced IPTV services on a pilot basis in South Delhi. Prasar Bharati has started mobile television services for six channels in New Delhi area. Read on …