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Tamil Nadu Villages Get Internet, Telemedicine Facilities

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]

2007 09 25 Dhirender Best Practices
Digital Divide
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Karnataka Prepares For E-Halli Centres

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]

2007 09 25 Dhirender Digital Divide
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Coming Up - Your Utility Bills Online

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]

2007 09 17 Dhirender Best Practices
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Google Pitches In For The Australian Elections

google-20070915_2.jpgGoogle 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.

2007 09 15 Dhirender Best Practices Comments (0) Permalink

SBI Cards Comes Under RTI

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.

2007 09 09 Dhirender India
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IT@School Linux Goes In For Tests

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

2007 09 08 Dhirender Best Practices
Digital Divide
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Blogs Sweep Vietnam As Young Push State-run Media Aside

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]

2007 09 07 Dhirender Best Practices
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South Korea Continues To Lead The World In Global e-Government

The seventh annual survey conducted by Darrell M. West, director of the Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University, and a team of researchers evaluates online government Web sites of countries around the globe. The researchers evaluated government Web sites based on two dozen criteria, including disability access, the existence of publications and databases, the presence of privacy policies, security policies, contact information, and the number of online services.
This year’s study reviews 1,687 government Web sites in 198 countries during June and July 2007. A variety of different sites were analyzed, including executive, legislative and judicial offices as well as departments and ministries of the government such as health, education, foreign affairs, interior, finance, natural resources, foreign investment, transportation, military, tourism and telecommunication.

Some highlights:
South Korea Continues to Lead World in Global e-Government
Turkey moves up from rank 27 in 2006 to9
Portugal moves up from rank 48 in 2006 to rank 7
India moves up from rank 77 in 2006 to 47

Get the complete Global E-Government Report, 2007 [pdf]

2007 09 06 Dhirender India
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Partnering For A Safe Neighbourhood

slp-20070907.jpgFormed as a result of the Crime & Disorder Act 1998, the idea behind the Partnership is that no single agency can tackle crime, disorder, or drugs by itself, and that it takes the joined-up efforts of a number of different agencies to make a real difference to community safety issues in Leicester.
The Safer Leicester Partnership (SLP) is made up of a number of different agencies, including Leicester City Council, Leicestershire Constabulary, Leicestershire Fire & Rescue Service, Leicestershire & Rutland Probation Board and local NHS Primary Trusts. It was formed as a result of the Crime & Disorder Act 1998.
The Partnership also includes partners from the private sector, such as the local Chamber of Commerce and the voluntary sector, including victim and witness support services, and is committed to providing a fair and equitable service to everyone in the community regardless of their ethnicity, sexuality, gender, disability, religion or age.

Note: Currently the website contains tips on staying safe, but going forward could perhaps increases its services to providing street views via cameras, emergency contact via mobile phone, etc. I would think that Citizen involvement would be instrumental for a safe neighbourhood. The website does not render very well in Firefox.

2007 09 06 Dhirender Best Practices
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Tackling Global Warming Online

cdmbazaar-20070906.jpgThe cost-free CDM Bazaar was unveiled by the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, the parent treaty of the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, to encourage an exchange of information among buyers, sellers and service providers involved in the scheme.
Here, projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions in developing countries and contribute to sustainable development can earn certified emission reduction (CER) credits.
CDM Bazaar allows participants to post information, such as potential emission reduction projects looking for financing, CERs available for sale, buyers looking for carbon credits to purchase, services available, carbon market related events, and employment opportunities.
The Kyoto Protocol requires 36 industrialized countries to cut greenhouse gas emissions overall by at least five per cent below 1990 levels between 2008 and 2012.
[Via]

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