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India fares poorly in global ICT ranking
In an annual report published by the World Economic Forum and INSEAD, which ranks countries in terms of global information and communication technologies (ICT) according to latest series of Networked Readiness Index; India ranked 69 this year. This is a further slip from its 43rd position in 2011. The report that examined 142 developed and developing nations in terms of their ability to leverage advances in ICT’s to drive economic productivity and social development, saw China almost 20 ranks ahead of India, at 51. The report underlines that overall India delivers a very mixed performance with encouraging results in few areas and a lot of room for improvement in the political and regulatory environment. It also showed the need to improve in areas of business and innovation environment, in which the nation was rated 71 and 91 respectively. Referring to the long procedures of paper work that needs to be completed before starting any business processes in India, the report highl
Indian government launches Open Government Platform to promote transparency and citizen engagement
Today India and the US launched the release of the jointly developed ‘Open Government Platform’ (OGPL) in New Delhi, India. The OGPL is a software platform, which will aim to provide enhanced public access to government data and documents, and spur citizen engagement and interface with the Government. The OGPL combines and expands the best features of the India’s “India.gov.in” and the U.S. “Data.gov” sites. The Open Government Platform was launched by ShriKapilSibal, Hon’ble Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India. This collaborative endeavour was started as part of a series of initiatives announced by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama in November 2010 in Delhi. This initiative has been chaired on the Indian side by Mr Sam Pitroda, Adviser to Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations and on the US side by Mr Aneesh Chopra, former Chief Technology Officer to President Obama. On the US side, the p
The 5th IFIP World IT Forum
IFIP WITFOR is a unique global platform that brings together leading academics, top policymakers, corporate powerhouses and key development practitioners from a variety of fields to share and debate ideas on how advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are changing ordinary lives and powering development. IFIP has been organising WITFOR every second year since 2003 in cooperation with the government of the host country. The inaugural WITFOR was held in Lithuania, in 2003, followed by Botswana (2005), Ethiopia (2007) and Vietnam (2009). As the venue for the 5th IFIP WITFOR, India seeks to add unique value to WITFOR by offering a distinctive combination of enormous developmental challenges and globally-proven ICT capabilities to address them.
BANGLADESH: Mobile technology boosts health care
KALIAKAR, 23 February 2012 (IRIN) - Recent mobile phone initiatives in Bangladesh are allowing patients to reach a health worker for advice at no cost 24 hours a day, receive prenatal care reminders and even send complaints about patient care. “It is difficult to manage doctors for [a national population of] 140 million people. We are using mobile phone service to bridge this treatment gap, “Abul Kalam Azad, a senior official at the Directorate General of Health Services, told IRIN. Close to 60 percent of the population - some 85 million people - use mobile phones in Bangladesh, according to a December 2011 report from the country’s telecommunications regulatory commission. Cut off from formal medical care, some patients turn to untrained or “fake” doctors, leading to fatal remedies, said Azad, who wants to counter this trend with sound health advice. Since 2009, the government has provided cell phones to 482 sub-district and district government hospitals, which are used as
India's First Cloud-Based e-tutor tablet Launched
After creating a flutter with the Aakash Tablet, the Indian government has launched the country's first cloud-based tablet for school students, called the e-tutor tablet. Sam Pitroda, advisor to the Prime Minister, unveiled the Rs 7,500 tab that will come with built-in educational content and will be available from April onwards. It is a collaborated effort between e-tutor and Oztern Technology and targeted at students from Class 1 to 12.


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