ICT for Development
Gujarat to start e-diagnosis in all villages
May 10, 2008, Business Standard
The Gujarat government is all set to implement an e-medicine scheme for rural areas. This scheme will be be implemented through the e-gram telecentre e-governance initiative. The plan will be operationalised once 18,000 villages are covered by the e-gram scheme.
MSTC e-commerce initiative lauded
June 26, 2008, iGovernment
This is the report of proceedings from a conference organised by the Metal Scrap Trading Corporation(MSTC) which discussed the effects of e-commerce vis a vis physical trading. Over the past few years, MSTC has moved in a full-fledged way to online trading. The report says that the company uses its portal to provide services to producers of indigenous scrap, coal, manganese ore and iron ore.
Karnataka plans IT network in rural areas
June 20, 2008, iGovernment
The recently elected Karnataka government has decided to come out with a policy which intends to benefit rural areas of Karnataka. The Information Technology minister has hopes that IT investment in rural areas will create job opportunities and improve the standard of living. The government hopes to start IT training centres in villages in partnership with technology majors and the policy will also provide incentives to telecom players especially BPOs to set up shop in those areas so as to create employment opportunities.
India's foray into telemedicine faces difficulties
April 13, 2008, The Economic Times
India had sought to tap into the opportunities provided by the telemedicine infrastructure and thus become a hub of providing medical services to the world. But significant hurdles remain in the way of achieving this aim, primary among which is the certification of qualifications of Indian professionals in this field.
Sikkim adopts GIS for poverty mapping
June 25, 2008, iGovernment
The Sikkim Government has taken the initiative in harnessing satellite based communication technologies to facilitate targeted development programs in the poorest gram panchayats. This will give a great fillip to the dissemination of information to the remotest areas of this mountainous state and it is hoped that this project will spur rural enterpreneurship and thus improve the economic condition of the poverty stricken areas.
Government plans to subsidise internet for rural India
June 19, 2008, The Economic Times
After having failed to meet its target of rural broadband connections, the Government of India is planning to subsidise Internet connectivity in rural areas. This subsidy is quite extensive covering 50% of the cost incurred by service providers in installing infrastructure. Running costs of Internet would cost half of the costs in urban areas. The scheme will be implemented in a phased manner and will focus on remote areas and North Eastern states.
Going global through digital technology
May 19, 2008, Deccan Herald
This article talks about the fact that trading in tea is all set to go digital away from the traditional system which involves the presence of middlemen. Over the past few years, the plummeting tea prices and the continued erosion of margins by traders meant that the actual tea growers continued to be worse of.
e-Health and Public Sector Reforms in India
February 2008, Tarun Seem, egov
This article points to the pivotal role that ICTs can play in accelerating India's health sector reforms. E-health can, for example, help in managing patients in remote locations locally with guidance from specialists in urban centres, without having to travel far, thus compensating for the shortage of infrastructure, manpower and services rural areas. This, however, will require rather high initial investments. The licensing terms and conditions, bilateral and interconnection agreements, non-existence of regulations, security and trade issues are also serious bottlenecks which need to be addressed.
The promise of educational radio
(Draft-should not be cited), April, 2008, Sajan Venniyoor
Radio has always been an extremely useful tool in imparting education to diverse communities. Traditionally this role has been played by the All India Radio in India. Recently there has been further expansion in this field with the result of a range of productions to aid learning. However, the most exciting development in this area has been the government allowing the functioning of community radio.
DoT to allow niche operators in rural areas
March 27, 2008, The Business Line
Teledensity rates in rural India is still quite abysmal, the latest figures showing them to be 20 times less than that in urban areas such as Mumbai and Delhi. However, this sector has been given a fillip by the government which is now allowing niche operators to provide services in rural areas. These operators can lease the telecom infrastructure from the big telecom players and provide services to their particular area.
