Centre for Internet and Society

India's cyber cafes going porn-free

praskrishna — 2011-05-06T04:53:41Z

Pornography fans in India who like to indulge in the sexual eye candy at public cyber cafes may be in for a forced intervention as a new government ruling bans porn websites, requires cafe owners to keep a one-year log of all sites accessed by customers and forces customers to produce an ID card prior to use. This news was published on msnbc.com on April 28, 2011.

These new guidelines, which were released April 11, are getting a lot of pushback from privacy advocates in India, who cite the legality of watching porn in the country.

"Watching pornography is not illegal in India," Pawan Duggal, a lawyer who specializes in IT laws, told The Times of India."It's absurd to ask cyber cafe owners to tell their customers not to access pornographic material even as law allows individuals to access adult websites unless it's not child pornography. The new rules require a second look."

The "Information Technology (Guidelines for Cyber Cafe) Rules, 2011" imposed by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (aka the Department of Information Technology) have several requirements, all of which have met with more questions and concerns over the impact on everyone who accesses the Internet through the cafes, not just porn watchers. Here are the notable issues that show some Big Brother tendencies:

Cyber cafe owners must register with an unnamed agency for licenses for their establishments.

Cyber cafe users must produce a legally valid form of identification prior to using a computer, such as school ID, passport, driver's license and voter ID card. Children without ID must be accompanied by an adult with acceptable identification documents.
If the cyber cafe user isn't able to produce legit ID, then they may be photographed through a webcam.
Refusal to produce identification or to be photographed will result in the user not being allowed to use a computer at the cyber cafe.
"All the computers in the cyber café shall be equipped with the safety/filtering software so as to the avoid access to the websites relating to pornography, obscenity, terrorism and other objectionable materials."
Webcam photos will be part of the log cyber cafe owners need to maintain for a minimum of one year, either in print or online. Cyber cafe owners will also be required to submit monthly reports to the Ministry's overseeing agency that give details about computer use, including: "History of websites accessed, logs of proxy server installed at the the cafe, mail server logs, logs of network devices such as routers, switches, systems etc. installed at the cyber cafe and logs of firewall or Intrusion Prevention/Detection systems, if installed."
Finally, the guidelines bring down barriers between users by disallowing partitions of more than 4.5 feet at computer stations. Children are not to be allowed to use the computers unsupervised.

Duggal told The Times that he thought these rules may very well force cafe owners out of business.

Non-profit watchdog Privacy India has these guidelines square in its sights, protesting: the redundancy of the licensing process (cyber cafes are already subject to registration and licensing), how the guidelines may make cafe owners vulnerable to liability for the actions of their users and blocking internet access to children from "poorer classes, (since they are most likely to routinely access internet through cyber cafes) and denies them the opportunity of developing their computer skills which are crucial for the growth of the “knowledge economy” that India is trying to head towards."

Naturally, privacy is the issue that most concerns the group, which would insist on a purge of the logs after "the minimum retention period." Here's what they have to say about kids and their right to privacy:

In addition, we believe that children are more susceptible to exploitation and consequently have a heightened privacy expectation which must be honoured. We recommend that the current sub-rule be deleted and replaced with a clause which specifically exempts children from proving their identity and forbids taking photographs of them under any circumstance.

And why adults need it, too:

There are many uses of the internet for which a user may legitimately require privacy: For instance, patients, including HIV patients and those with mental illness, may wish to obtain information about their condition. Similarly sexuality minorities may wish to seek support or reach out to a larger community. Enforcing the architecture stipulated in this rule would discourage their access to such vital information. In addition, this architecturewould make it easier for cyber crimes such as identity theft to take place since it would be easier to observe the login details of other users at the cyber café.

The group is also not a fan of all the info that cyber cafes will be sitting on. "We further believe that access to the history of websites and mail server logs is a serious invasion of a person’s privacy, and should be omitted from the back up logs."

As if all those new guidelines weren't already cramping the carefree surfing experience, cyber cafes will also be subject to periodic visits by police inspectors who will have the power to demand all logs and check for compliance.

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Global IP Convention, 2011

praskrishna — 2011-05-08T04:04:31Z

The Global IP Convention, 2011 is being held at the Lalit Ashok Hotel in Bangalore from 28 to 30 April 2011.

Institute of International Trade and Sughrue are the knowledge partners, Thomson Reuters, Licensing Executives Society India and Society of Indian Law Firms are the supporting organisers, and the sponsors include Bird & Bird, Finnegan, watermark, MOS AID, Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, Philips, Kilburn & Strode, Lakshmi Kumaran & Sridharan, Questel, SCOPE, EVALUESERVE, STN, DoW, United Phosphorus Limited, Yahoo India, Indian Oil, DANIEL, Global IP Services, Jitendra Intellectual Property, Novel Patent Services Limited and resurgentindia. CIPA, iam, World Trademark Review, manupatra, Lex Witness and LexisNexis Butterworths Wadhwa are the media partners. The event is convened by Tata Consultancy Services and Intangible Business.

Speakers

Narendra K. Sabharwal, Former Deputy Director General [World Intellectual Property Organization]
Chid Iyer, Partner [Sughrue Mion PLLC, USA]
Michael R. Dzwonczyk, Partner [Sughrue Mion, PLLC, USA]
Jay Lytle, Partner [Sughrue Mion PLLC, USA]
Susan Pan, Partner [Sughrue Mion PLLC, USA]
Alban Kang, Managing Partner [ATMD Bird & Bird LLP, Singapore]
Anand K. Sharma , Partner [Finnegan, USA]
Dr. Raj Gupta, Partner [Finnegan, USA]
Richard Baddeley, Principal [Watermark, Australia]
Thayne Forbes, Joint Managing Director [Intangible Business, UK]
Ralph J. Gabric, Partner [Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, USA]
Nicholas G. de la Torre, Partner [Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, USA]
Manish Mehta, Partner [Brinks Hofer Gilson & Lione, USA]
Rana Gosain, Senior Partner [Daniel Advogados, Brazil]
Nick Lee, Partner [Kilburn & Strode LLP, UK]
Ravi Srinivasan, Partner [JA Kemp & Co. UK]
Paul Teng, Partner [COOPER & DUNHAM LLP, USA]
Richard Liu, Regional IP Director, Asia Pacific [Yahoo!]
Pravin Anand, Managing Partner [Anand and Anand]
V Lakshmi Kumaran, Founder and Managing Partner [Lakshmikumaran & Sridharan]
N. L. Mitra, Senior Partner [FoxMandal Little]
Dr. Rahul Verma, Assistant Vice President [Evalueserve]
Deepak Maheshwari, Director - Corporate Affairs [Microsoft]
S K Murthy, Patent Counsel [Intel India]
Vinod Kumar, Sr. Director, Business Development *TBC [MOSAID Technologies Inc., Canada]
Terry Ludlow, Founder and CEO [Chipworks, Canada]
Benjamin C. Adams, Director - Legal and Intellectual Property [Nokia]
Alex Jamal, Director-Patent Licensing [Ericsson Group]
Dr. Pinaki Ghosh, Head IP [Infosys Technologies Ltd]
Dr. Viswanathan Seshan, Country Manager -IP&S India [Philips Electronics India Ltd.]
Chandra Bajagur, Head- IP [Shell Technology India Private Ltd]
Dr. Aravind Chinchure, Head-IP [Reliance Industries Ltd.]
Dr. Anindya Sircar, Head – IP [Infosys Technologies Ltd]
Dr. Arun Kumar Kashyap, Chief Research Manager – IPR [Indian Oil Corporation Ltd]
Anup Kacker, General Manager (IP) [Indian Oil Corporation Ltd]
T C James, Director [National Intellectual Property Organisation]
Dr. Samiran Mahapatra, Open Innovation Director- Asia [Hindustan Unilever Limited]
Dr. A.S. Narayan [Unilever Research Center]
Dinesh Jotwani, President, National Bar Association of India [National Bar Association of India]
Santanu Mukherjee, Lead IPR Attorney [Qualcomm India Pvt. Ltd.]
Neeraj Panchal, Senior Manager – IP [John Deere]
Murthy Kotra, General Manager, Technical Information Services [Dow Chemical International Pvt. Ltd.]
Arun Bhardwaj, Director – Business Development [Dell Global]
Dr. Raghunadh Vajjula, IP Analyst [GE India Technology Center]
Anubha Sharma, Senior Legal Counsel and Head-IP [Bharti Enterprises]
Dawn Jos, Patent Strategy Coordinator- Asia [Texas Instruments]
Dr. Pradeep V Desai, Principal Consultant [Tata Consultancy Services]
Faiz ur Rahman, Manager – IP [Wipro Technologies]
Ayan Roy Chowdhury, Senior Manager - Legal & IP [Sony Entertainment Television]
Stephen Mathias, Partner [Kochhar & Co]
Lokesh V, Founder and CEO [Innomantra Consulting]
Lakshminarayanan R, IPR Specialist [Nokia]
Prof. Dr.-Ing. Sigram Schindler, CEO [TELES AG Informationstechnologien, Germany]
Navneet K Bhushan, Founder Director [Crafitti Consulting Pvt Ltd]
Hasit Seth, Director [Coofluence]
Mohammad S. Rahman [Rahman LLC, USA]
Sunil Abraham, Executive Director [Centre for Internet and Society]
Dr. Vijay Soni, Executive Vice President-IP [Glenmark Generics Inc]
Dr. Balu Gupta, Vice President - Patent Estate [Dr. Reddy's Laboratories]
Dr. Rajiv Saha, General Manager, IP *TBC [Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd]
Gautam Bakshi, Head – Corporate Intellectual Property [PROMED Research Centre]
Dr. Swati Bal-Tembe, Vice President [Piramal Life Sciences Ltd]
Dr. Alpesh Pathak, Head- API Patent Cell [Alembic Research Center]
Ashwini Sandu , Senior GM- IPR [United Phosphorus Ltd]
Jayanthi M, Senior Executive – IPM [Intas Biopharmaceuticals Ltd]
Dinesh Pillai, CEO [Mahindra Special Services Group]

For more details, click here

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For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/notices/global-ip-convention

The Task of the Translator after Google

praskrishna — 2011-10-07T05:36:43Z

Hans Verghese Mathews, a distinguished fellow with the Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) will give a public lecture on April 30, 2011.

The talk will consider again ― proceeding upon the increasing 'searchability' of literary corpora that the Web will presumably allow ― the special task assigned the translator by Walter Benjamin: which was the 'restitution' of 'originals' through the 'afterlives' given them by their 'traducings' into other languages. A reformulation of that task will be attempted: but the exercise will be conducted in an illustrative way, in the course of examining the approved translation into English of El Aleph, one of the more famous among the early ficciones of Borges.

Hans Varghese Mathews

Hans Varghese Mathews read philosophy as an undergraduate, at the University of Southern California, studying logic and aesthetics; and went on to obtain a doctorate in mathematics, from the University of Wisconsin, studying algebraic topology primarily, with mathematical logic and philosophy as subsidiary subjects. He has been a research associate with the Indian Statistical Institute, and has written extensively on visual art for Frontline; he currently directs mathematical modelling for an analytics firm, and is a contributing editor to the online journal Phalanx. He has an abiding interest in the formal understanding of painting and poetry; and a more recent and dominating interest in the mathematisation of the social sciences.

VIDEO

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/events/lecture-by-hans

Thousands queue for iPad 2 across Asia

praskrishna — 2011-05-23T07:10:28Z

The iPad 2 went on sale in countries across Asia and beyond Friday as Apple's updated gadget entered an ever more crowded market. This article written by Joyce Woo was published by AFP on April 28, 2011.

Apple's original iPad defined the tablet computer market and was swiftly followed by offerings from the tech industry's main players, from Samsung and Dell to BlackBerry maker RIM and Toshiba.

A late arrival to the tablet party was Sony, which only this week announced its own tablets a full year after the original iPad went on sale.

Now Apple is moving into round two of the battle of the tablets with a lighter, thinner, camera-equipped version of their original machine.

First in line in a queue of around 400 rain-soaked people outside an Apple store in Hong Kong was 16-year-old mainland Chinese student Dandy Weng, who travelled to the city from neighbouring Guangdong province for a device.

"I have waited for over 12 hours and haven't slept in 48 hours -- I'm very tired but excited," he told AFP. "I will be the first in China to have the iPad 2! I'm speechless, it's so exciting."

A queue snaked around the Apple shop in a major shopping centre, with some shoppers loading trolleys with as many as a dozen iPads, priced from HK$3,888 ($500) for the 16GB Wi-Fi only model to HK$6,488 for the 64 GB Wi-Fi and 3G model.

Those trying to buy an iPad 2 online via Apple's Hong Kong site, however, will have to wait a little longer -- all versions of the gadget were already out of stock before midday.

At an Apple authorised retail shop in Singapore, only 100 devices were available for sale and most official Apple retailers in Malaysia quickly sold out of the iPad 2.

"Each of our flagship stores had 600 devices each on sale and they ran out just like that," an official with a major Apple retail chain in Kuala Lumpur said.

Trade in "grey market" second generation iPads remained brisk in computer malls in the city such as Low Yat Plaza.

"We can charge more because there is a lot of demand and there is still not so much supply in Malaysia," seller Ang Chee Wei, 34, told AFP, adding that he had sold more than 20 of the devices so far.

"I bring in my iPad 2 from the US so I can still make some money until there are more iPads on the market."

Queues also formed outside retailers in the Philippine capital Manila.

John Quindo, 39, was first in line after standing patiently outside an Apple reseller for three hours.

"I'm excited because the Philippines is usually late (with Apple product releases)," he told AFP.

In India, over 150 outlets across the country opened their doors to Apple lovers seeking a new gadget, with the firm reporting a "phenomenal" initial response from customers.

Nishant Shah, director of research at the Centre for Internet and Society in the southern city of Bangalore, said he expected demand for the iPad 2 to be "huge", with Indian consumers increasingly brand-conscious.

Shilpa Malhotra was on the hunt for an iPad in Mumbai, but at an Apple outlet in the upmarket area of Breach Candy she was told that she could not buy one off the shelf immediately.

"I'm going to check to see if any other stores have got it in stock," she said, getting into a taxi.

The shop had taken orders and pre-payment for nearly 50 of the new iPads since Thursday, meaning dozens more customers wanting to buy the gadget on Friday were placed on a waiting list.

Anyone booking on Friday would get their device in 15 days' time, a store worker said.

In South Korea, 100 invited customers lined up from midnight at the central Seoul branch of KT, a local partner for iPhones and iPads.

The iPad 2 was also launched in Japan on Thursday after a month's delay caused by the devastating quake and tsunami.

A Wi-Fi only version of the gadget will be available in China on May 6.

It also hit stores Friday in Israel, Macau, South Africa, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, after being first released in the United States on March 11.

The California tech firm sold 15 million iPads last year following the original device's launch in April, generating $10 billion in revenue.

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New internet rules open to arbitrary interpretation

praskrishna — 2011-05-06T04:58:57Z

Six years after an e-commerce CEO's arrest for a pornographic CD sold from his website, the government has introduced a liability on intermediaries such as Facebook and Google to "act within 36 hours" of receiving information about offensive content. This article by Manoj Mitta & Javed Anwer was published in the Times of India on April 27, 2011.

Under the rules notified on April 11 under the Information Technology Act, the intermediaries are required to work with the internet user "to disable such information that is in contravention" of the prescribed restrictions. While most of the restrictions in the rules are based on the criminal law (stuff that is blasphemous, obscene, defamatory, paedophilic, etc), some are so loosely worded that they could easily be misused against netizens accustomed to speaking their mind freely, whether on politics or otherwise.

One glaring example of an ill-thought-out provision is the prohibition on saying something that is "insulting any other nation". Since this expression has been mentioned without any qualifications, it could be invoked against anybody who talks disparagingly about other countries.

Apart from encroaching on free speech, the subjective notion of insulting a nation â€” as opposed to valid criticism â€” opens scope for arbitrariness and politically motivated interpretation. The authorities may not, for instance, take action against any content that is bashing Pakistan but may be touchy about similar attacks on the US.

Since such violations and the remedial action taken on them could become a subject of police probe, the rules state that "the intermediary shall preserve such information and associated records for at least 90 days for investigation purposes".

Given their legal repercussions, activists termed the new rules "draconian". Pranesh Prakash of Centre of Internet and Society alleged, "The rules seek to expand government's reach to control content on the internet. This is neither reasonable nor constitutional as the rules undermine the free speech guaranteed by the Constitution."

The intermediaries are also required to appoint a grievance officer and publish his contact details as well as the mechanism by which "users or any victim who suffers" can notify their complaints. The grievance officer is required to redress the complaints within one month of the receipt of the complaint.

Industry sources hold that the 36-hour deadline imposed on the intermediaries to take action on complaints would unduly affect their freedom as service providers in the Indian jurisdiction. A Google spokesperson told TOI that the proposed guidelines could be "particularly damaging to the abilities of Indians who are increasingly using the internet in order to communicate, and the many businesses that depend upon online collaboration to prosper."

Read the original article published by the Times of India here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-rules-arbitary-interpretation

India Puts Tight Leash on Internet Free Speech

praskrishna — 2011-05-01T02:20:24Z

Free speech advocates and Internet users are protesting new Indian regulations restricting Web content that, among other things, can be considered “disparaging,” “harassing,” “blasphemous” or “hateful.” This article by Vikas Bajaj was published in the New York Times on April 27, 2011.

An Internet cafe in New Delhi. New rules require Web sites and service providers to remove some content that officials and even private citizens find objectionable.

The new rules, quietly issued by the country’s Department of Information Technology earlier this month and only now attracting attention, allow officials and private citizens to demand that Internet sites and service providers remove content they consider objectionable on the basis of a long list of criteria.

Critics of the new rules say the restrictions could severely curtail debate and discussion on the Internet, whose use has been growing fast in India.

The list of objectionable content is sweeping and includes anything that "threatens the unity, integrity, defense, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order."

The rules highlight the ambivalence with which Indian officials have long treated freedom of expression. The country’s constitution allows “reasonable restrictions” on free speech but lawmakers have periodically stretched that definition to ban books, movies and other material about sensitive subjects like sex, politics and religion.

An Indian state, for example, recently banned an American author’s new biography of the Indian freedom fighter Mohandas Gandhi that critics have argued disparages Mr. Gandhi by talking about his relationship with another man.

Although fewer than 10 percent of Indians have access to the Internet, that number has been growing fast — especially on mobile devices. There are more than 700 million cellphone accounts in India.

The country has also established a thriving technology industry that writes software and creates Web services primarily for Western clients.

Even before the new rules — known as the Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011 — India has periodically tried to restrict speech on the Internet. In 2009, the government banned a popular and graphic online comic strip, Savita Bhabhi, about a housewife with an active sex life. Indian officials have also required social networking sites like Orkut to take down posts deemed offensive to ethnic and religious groups.

Using a freedom of information law, the Center for Internet and Society, a Bangalore-based research and advocacy group, recently obtained and published a list of 11 Web sites banned by the Department of Information Technology. Other government agencies have probably blocked more sites, the group said.

The new Internet rules go further than existing Indian laws and restrictions, said Sunil Abraham, the executive director for the Center for Internet and Society. The rules require Internet “intermediaries” — an all-encompassing group that includes sites like YouTube and Facebook and companies that host Web sites or provide Internet connections — to respond to any demand to take down offensive content within 36 hours. The rules do not provide a way for content producers to defend their work or appeal a decision to take content down.

"These rules overly favor those who want to clamp down on freedom of expression," Mr. Abraham said. "Whenever there are limits of freedom of expression, in order for those limits to be considered constitutionally valid, those limits have to be clear and not be very vague. Many of these rules that seek to place limits are very, very vague."

An official for the People’s Union for Civil Liberties, an advocacy group based in New Delhi, said on Wednesday that it was considering a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the new rules.

"What are we, Saudi Arabia?" said Pushkar Raj, the group’s general secretary. "We don’t expect this from India. This is something very serious."

An official at the Department of Information Technology, Gulshan Rai, did not return calls and messages.

The rules are based on a 2008 information technology law that India’s Parliament passed shortly after a three-day siege on Mumbai by Pakistan-based terrorists that killed more than 163 people. That law, among other things, granted authorities more expansive powers to monitor electronic communications for reasons of national security. It also granted privacy protections to consumers.

While advocates for free speech and civil liberties have complained that the 2008 law goes too far in violating the rights of Indians, Internet firms have expressed support for it. The law removed liability from Internet intermediaries as long as they were not active participants in creating content that was later deemed to be offensive.

Subho Ray, the president of the Internet and Mobile Association of India, which represents companies like Google and eBay, said the liability waiver was a big improvement over a previous law that had been used to hold intermediaries liable for hosting content created by others. In 2004, for instance, the police arrested eBay’s top India executive because a user of the company’s Indian auction site had offered to sell a video clip of a teenage couple having sex.

"The new I.T. Act (2008) is, in fact, a large improvement on the old one," Mr. Ray said in an e-mail response to questions.

Mr. Ray said his association had not taken a stand on the new regulations. An India-based spokeswoman for Google declined to comment on the new rules, saying the company needed more time to respond.

Along with the new content regulations, the government also issued rules governing data security, Internet cafes and the electronic provision of government services.

Read the original article published by the New York Times here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/internet-free-speech

India Can Restrict 'Objectionable' Web Content under New Rules

praskrishna — 2011-05-23T09:48:17Z

Internet sites and service providers in India now have the authority to order the quick deletion of offensive online content – in a move that is causing great concern among free speech proponents. This article by Ed Silverstein was featured in TMCnet Legal on April 27, 2011.

The new rules are called "the Information Technology (Intermediaries guidelines) Rules, 2011" and allow for rejecting content that is found to be objectionable.

"The list of objectionable content is sweeping and includes anything that ‘threatens the unity, integrity, defense, security or sovereignty of India, friendly relations with foreign states or public order," reports The New York Times.

The new rules are also more restrictive than prior laws, Sunil Abraham, the executive director for the Centre for Internet and Society, told The New York Times.

The rules require that intermediaries, who include websites like YouTube and Facebook (News - Alert) and companies that host Web sites, remove offensive content within 36 hours, The Times said. There apparently is no appeal process, The Times adds.

"These rules overly favor those who want to clamp down on freedom of expression," Abraham told The Times. "Whenever there are limits of freedom of expression, in order for those limits to be considered constitutionally valid, those limits have to be clear and not be very vague. Many of these rules that seek to place limits are very, very vague."

The Times of India also complained that, "While most of the restrictions in the rules are based on the criminal law (stuff that is blasphemous, obscene, defamatory, paedophilic, etc.), some are so loosely worded that they could easily be misused against netizens accustomed to speaking their mind freely, whether on politics or otherwise."

For example, one prohibition is saying something that would be "insulting" to "any other nation," The Times of India said.

"Since this expression has been mentioned without any qualifications, it could be invoked against anybody who talks disparagingly about other countries," The Times of India explains.

In addition, India’s MediaNama, adds, "These rules give the Indian government the ability to gag free speech, and block any website it deems fit, without publicly disclosing why sites have been blocked, who took the decision to block it, and just as importantly, providing adequate recourse to blogs, sites and online and mobile businesses, for getting the block removed."

Free speech advocates may try to challenge in the new rules in Indian courts.

In addition, the Indian government has issued new regulations on data security and Internet cafes, The New York Times reports.

The New York Times also reported that an India-based spokeswoman for Google (News - Alert) declined to immediately comment on the new rules.

But a Google spokesperson told The Times of India the guidelines may be "particularly damaging to the abilities of Indians who are increasingly using the internet in order to communicate, and the many businesses that depend upon online collaboration to prosper."

The Bangalore-based Centre for Internet and Society has also published a list of 11 Web sites banned by the India’s Department of Information Technology.

In a related matter, TMCnet reports that Freedom House has ranked India 14th among 37 countries on "free and unrestricted access to the web."

The number of Indians with Internet access is increasing, with many users in the nation favoring mobile devices. Over 700 million cellphone accounts now exist in India, The New York Times said.

Read the original here

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Iraqi Minister meets Secretary, Indian Ministry of Panchayat Raj

praskrishna — 2011-05-01T03:52:26Z

His Excellency Mr. Abdul Kareem El-Samarai, the Iraqi Minister of Science and Technology was among 15 other senior bureaucrats from Iraq who met with Mr. ANP Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj to discuss the Ministry’s efforts at introducing ICT at the Panchayat level through its e-Panchayat initiatives. This was as part of their study tour to India in association with UNDP-Iraq and UNDP-India. They also met with Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Additional Secretary, DIT earlier in the day who briefed them about the various aspects of the National e-Governance Plan envisaged by the Government of India to make government services accessible and affordable to all Indian citizens. This news was published by the Karnataka News Network on April 27, 2011.

"India-Iraq cooperation will extend beyond ICT to all other areas of governance within two months" announced Mr. El-Samarai in a separate meeting today as part of the study tour in Delhi convened by Communication Multimedia and Infrastructure (CMAI) Association of India in partnership with the Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore.

The meeting was also attended by top level telecom officials of the country including Mr. Satya Pal, Advisor to the DoT, Mr. NK Goyal, President, CMAI, Mr. B.M. Baveja, Senior Director and Group Head, Ministry of IT and Mr. S.N. Gupta, Chief Regulatory Officer, BT Telecom among others. Mr. El-Samarai emphasised that Iraq’s newly elected Government is stable and is taking all efforts to use ICT to provide basic services to Iraqi citizens apart from forwarding reforms in health and educational sectors. He stressed on the need for Iraq’s neighbours to respect the sovereignty of the country and welcomed India’s cooperation in Iraq’s efforts in introducing e-governance initiatives and use of ICT in the country. "We look forward to cooperation with India in enhancing our national efforts at governance reform", he said.

"E-Governance is crucial to effect a higher growth rate in India – upto 12% - and ensure that the growth is inclusive and sustainable", said Mr. Aggarwal while noting that e-governance is not only electronic governance but also “empowered governance". The delegates were also addressed about the recent developments in the e-governance strategy of the government including formulation of the National e-Governance Plan, mobile governance and standardisation initiatives, and establishment of data centres and Citizen Service Centres (CSCs) across the country.

The delegation's visit to Delhi was followed by their visit to Bangalore last week in context of the ‘Building e-Iraq National e-Governance Strategy’ of the Iraqi Government which attempts to increase transparency and government accountability in Iraq through ICT in addition to providing better services to citizens through e-governance initiatives. “This visit is not an end in itself but the beginning of an expanded cooperation between Iraqi and Indian Governments in forwarding national efforts at development and reform through use of technology”, said Ms. Caitlin Wiesen, Country Director of UNDP-India.

The delegation visited the National Informatics Centre and got a glimpse of the technology used at the NIC to manage data integration and ICT infrastructure for the entire e-government framework of the country. They also got a direct experience of the technology as they interacted with the NIC officials at Gandhinagar and Chennai directly from the Delhi office through video conferencing technology. Mr. B.K. Gairola, Director General of NIC addressed the delegation about the functions of the NIC including infrastructure for GIS facilities, cyber security for government departments, establishment of data centres and MMPs executed by the NIC to strengthen e-governance processes in the country.

The delegation had a meeting with the Secretary, IT, Government of Delhi yesterday about the National Convergence Mission Plan. They had also visited Narayana Hrudayalaya, Bangalore One Centre and Azim Premji Foundation in Bangalore last week apart from other e-governance initiatives. “We really appreciate the efforts of UNDP in organising the study tour and we will take all efforts to strengthen the relationship that Iraq shares with India”, said Mr. El-Samarai. The last leg of the study tour included a meeting with Mr. Patrice Coeur-Bizot, UNDP Resident Representative who noted that 60 years of cooperation between UNDP-India and the Indian Government resulted in the first ever discussion on e-governance in India under the auspices of the UNDP. “I cannot stress enough on the importance of forging synergy of efforts between UNDP-India and the Iraqi e-Government initiative”, he said. The tour will be concluded by a reception hosted by the Country Representative, UNDP-India before returning to Baghdad.

For more details contact- krithika@cis-india.org (Krithika Dutta, Centre for Internet and Society-Bangalore)

Read the original news published by Karnataka News Network here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/iraq-tour-of-india

No access to pornography in cyber cafes, declare new rules

praskrishna — 2011-05-01T01:09:50Z

Fresh guidelines, which are part of Information Technology (guidelines for cyber cafe) Rules 2011, will require cyber cafe owners to "tell users" not to surf websites that contain "pornographic or obscene material". Experts termed the rule arbitrary, saying that watching pornography is not an offence in India. This article by Javed Anwer was published in the Times of India on April 26, 2011.

According to the rules notified on April 11, all cyber cafes in the country will have to register with an "agency as notified" by the government. While some of the guidelines deal with the security threat posed by "anonymous internet users", most aim to make sure that people don't use cyber cafes to access pornographic material.

Pawan Duggal, a lawyer who specializes in IT laws, said the new guidelines were arbitrary. "Watching pornography is not illegal in India," he said. "It's absurd to ask cyber cafe owners to tell their customers not to access pornographic material even as law allows individuals to access adult websites unless it's not child pornography. The new rules require a second look."

The new rules suggest cafe owners install filtering software and keep a log of all websites accessed by customers for at least one year. Cafe owners have also been asked not to build a cabin/cubicle with a height of more than four and half feet. In a cyber cafe where there are no cubicles, "owners will have to place computers with the screens facing outward" or towards open space. The move is aimed at reducing privacy a cyber cafe user can get.

Duggal said if implemented earnestly, the new rules will put most of cyber cafe owners out of business.

Internet activists termed the guidelines "unconstitutional". Pranesh Prakash, a programme manager with Centre of Internet and Society, said the rules will violate privacy and will hamper internet users' ability to freely express themselves.

The new rules make it mandatory for user to carry an identity card. Cyber cafe owners have been asked to give user logs to the "registration agency" every month as well keep these records along with the log of websites accessed at the cyber cafe safe for a period of one year. A few cafe owners said that technically, it would be a daunting task to keep a record of every website accessed using their computers for a year.

While minors, if carrying identity cards have been permitted to use computers in a cyber cafe, they won't be allowed inside cubicles if not accompanied by guardians or parents. There is also provision of photographing cyber cafe users using a webcam or other device. The photographs will have to be authenticated by the user. Prakash said that photographing users raises serious privacy questions, especially in the case of children.

Read the original article published by the Times of India here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/no-pornography-in-cyber-cafes

The world is your oyster, by invitation only

praskrishna — 2011-05-01T01:40:59Z

Recent trends show the world of social networking actually reflects the social divides and groupings in the real world. This article by Shreya Ray was published in the Livemint on April 26, 2011.

Looking for love and thinking it’s a shame someone as gorgeous as you is single? Worry not, for Beautifulpeople.com is here. The UK-based site guarantees beautiful singletons a chance to find “beautiful relationships” through their network. The homepage gives you a little snapshot into what they are all about. A cluster of model-like people, different ethnicities and yet, ironically, strikingly similar in their Anglo-Saxon good looks: high cheekbones and sharp noses. Membership is open for all with one caveat: The photo you submit must first be rated by your peer group (that is, the people already deemed “beautiful” by the website), only then do you get admission.

Based on a similar principle of peer-group approval is Facebook’s Compare People application, where you rate friends based on their smile, eyes, sex appeal, profile picture (and other school-report card qualities such as “helpfulness”). And then, of course, there are quizzes such as “How Beautiful Are You”, in which too your final score is based on where you stand vis-à-vis other people in the network.

To be fair, this isn’t just a fetish of the beautiful and those who want to officially belong to “beautiful-only” groups. Because, in just the same way, the social networking world is just as populated by people wanting to either be part of “rich-only” (Affluence.org) or “smart only” (Epernicus.com, for researchers) groups, and most recently, the India-based Vagad Visible (Vagadvisible.com, for the Vagads, a small clan within Kutchi Jains), among others. The world of social networking is about everyone wanting to be something “only” and in that sense, to quote Chicago-based social networking expert David Armano, it is “less about being social”.

Exclusivity: The invite-only system allows social networks and other Web platforms to control and stagger the growing load on their infrastructure. Raajan/Mint

Unsocial networking

One of the latest improvements on Facebook towards the end of 2010 was the option that allows you to edit friends with hyperactive user activity (people who are forever cluttering your page with Farmville updates or quizzes) and “hide” such user activity from your feed. “On Facebook, groups are smaller gatherings, individuals which are invite-only. On Twitter, users create lists to help them filter out signal from noise. Lists on Twitter are not really about exclusivity, but they do say something about how people desire to extract more value from a network,” says Armano, in an email interview.

Sunil Abraham, executive director of the research institute Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore, says the “hierarchy on the online attention economy often reflects the class and social divides in the real world”.The term attention economy was first used by Michael Goldhaber in December 1997 to describe a new arrangement in which the “flow of attention” metaphorically replaced money as the currency of the Internet.

Quantitative research in the Philippines has shown that rich people are less likely to respond to messages that say “will you be my friend”, he adds, citing the work of researcher Raul Pertierra. “On Facebook, the act of friending someone may appear symmetric. But privacy settings on content, groups and feed configurations may be used to fine-tune the exact power dynamics of the relationship. In platforms such as Twitter, the asymmetry is explicit: For example, Twitter, where I can follow you but you need not follow me,” he says.

Technology has aided this aspect of exclusivity. “There are now beta releases of social software which typically get released to a smaller group of influential and digital savvy individuals. There are now services such as Klout that partner with brands to reward individuals who have the largest social graphs,” adds Armano. Klout measures your overall online influence using over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter and rates you as True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

The other way of practising exclusivity—unlike Facebook, Twitter and other “open” networks—is to just come out and say it: invite only. Beautifulpeople.com will only admit you on the basis of your looks; asmallworld (Asmallworld.net), becoming increasingly popular among the First World swish set, can only be accessed by invitation; and Affluence.org very categorically states it is a place for wealthy individuals to “connect” (membership is free but requires a verifiable minimum household net worth of $1 million, or Rs. 4.5 crore) and “engage in meaningful conversations”. There are others that are slightly work oriented: The Behance network (Behance.net) is a place for creative professionals and you have to seek a membership invitation by describing your creative work. Sermo (Sermo.com) is a place for physicians to “share medical insights”.

Vahad Visible is completely restricted to the Vahad community (a user’s credentials are authenticated by a phone interview and other records), and is social networking meets matrimonial meets classified ads.

The why

There are many reasons for this exclusivity. First, technical. “The invite-only system allows social networks and other Web platforms to control and stagger the growing load on their infrastructure,” says Abraham.

There is also a marketing and commercial aspect to it. Affluence.org, for instance, provides a forum for “exclusive, high quality content and advice from experts on subjects such as art, technology and travel”. Similarly, asmallworld has advertisements for accommodation (it also doubles up as a couch-surfing site of sorts, only these are all rich people living in the First World), among others. Both the technical and the commercial aspects, however, are tied to the larger, that is, sociological aspect of exclusivity. For instance, the “invite-only” system also creates a sense of exclusivity and then drives registrations, says Abraham.

Sociologically, the recipient of this exclusivity, according to Armano, “feels special and rewarded for their social status”. “Those who deal in exclusivity are looking to create smaller “higher quality” networks of individuals who they deem are connected in a way which benefits them,” he says. The way we configure our social network and allow access to our feeds on Twitter or the Facebook page are based on our individual priorities and objectives. “Exclusive social networks are meant for those with overlapping priorities and objectives. The generic social networking websites are meant for finding long-lost classmates and friends and weak ties in general. Exclusive social networks are for accumulating new contacts and building strong ties,” says Abraham.

The dichotomy about social networks, adds Armano, is that “in theory, they flatten social norms” and also make certain things more accessible—like personal publishing. “However, networks do not guarantee that you will find yourself in the desirable social circles. You still have to do that the old-fashioned way—networking,” he adds.

Read the original article published by Livemint here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/world-is-your-oyster

India Proposes Restrictions on Tapping Telephone Calls

praskrishna — 2011-05-06T05:53:43Z

An Indian government report has recommended that interception of telephone calls by government agencies should be limited to situations when there is a "public emergency" or "public safety" is at stake. John Riberio's article appeared in the PC World, TechWorld and CIO. Pranesh Prakash, program manager from the Centre for Internet and Society has been quoted in these articles.

John Riberio's article was published in the following publications:

PC World [April 26, 2011]
TechWorld [April 26, 2011]
CIO [April 26, 2011]

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/tapping-telephone-calls

The Gary Chapman International School on Digital Transformation — Deadline Expires on April 30

praskrishna — 2011-04-26T06:23:02Z

The application period for the Gary Chapman International School on Digital Transformation is now open! The deadline for applications is April 30, 2011.

The UT Austin Portugal program is now accepting applications for the third annual International School on Digital Transformation, to be held July 17-22 in Porto, Portugal. Advanced students and emerging professionals, social entrepreneurs, and activists from around the world with an interest in digital technology and the enrichment of civil society are invited to apply.

For the past two years, this intensive residential program has brought together scholars, policy experts, community advocates, designers, and hackers to explore the potential for digital media to empower citizens, strengthen communities, and contribute to a more vibrant civil society. The School is named for Gary Chapman, an internationally renowned Internet policy expert and member of the faculty at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at UT Austin who founded this innovative program and passed away suddenly last year. His life continues to inspire the School.

The School is conducted in English and in previous years has attracted faculty and participants from Portugal, South Africa, Finland, India, the U.K., the U.S., and Brazil, among many other countries. During the week, innovators in digital communications serve as teachers and mentors, presenting current projects and engaging in discussion. Faculty and students will be regarded as peers during the School.

Participants of the School will have the opportunity to present and discuss their own projects with those having similar interests, and explore ways to further develop their work. Additionally, members will collaborate on group projects involving digital media and civil society. Consisting of approximately 40 participants and 15 faculty, the School seeks to create an atmosphere of scholarly collegiality, fostering dialogue among diverse perspectives including those of design, policy, activist, and research backgrounds. The daily schedule will include time for presentations, bar camp style meetings, and informal conversations among faculty and students.

The School’s program for 2011 will focus on these themes:

Information access and open civic discourse
Digital tools for government transparency
Evolving Internet content regulation and the public’s right to information
Digital media and the democratic process
Factors influencing the growth of online civic engagement

The School will be held at the Hotel Eurostars Das Artes, a four-star hotel near the heart of Porto’s historic district, an area renowned for its active arts culture, wine, architecture, and breathtaking views. A link to the hotel site is below.

Participant fees are:

370 Euros, which includes

Six nights of lodging in a single room at the Eurostars Das Artes
Six days of breakfasts at the hotel (Monday-Saturday)
Six dinners at a local restaurant (Sunday-Friday)
The daily program of meetings, with coffee breaks
An evening cultural activity

170 Euros for UT-Austin-Portugal PhD Program students (this includes the items listed above, minus hotel and breakfast. Students will be asked to pay an additional charge for lodging, unless they are based in Porto andwish to stay at home.)

All participants should expect to pay for travel to and from Porto, lunches, and any incidental expenses such as bar tabs and outings to cafes or other Porto sites not included in the official agenda.

The Gary Chapman International School on Digital Transformation is organized by the UT Austin-Portugal program, a cooperative endeavor between the University of Texas at Austin and some of the top universities of Portugal. The co-directors of the School are Dr. Sharon Strover of the University of Texas at Austin and Dr. Artur Pimenta Alves of the University of Porto. More details on the program will be added and updated as they are confirmed.

The Eurostars Das Artes is a deluxe hotel located near many shops, restaurants, and art galleries and about a 20-minute walk to the Praça da Ribeira, at the shores of the Douro River. More information may be found here. For more information on the broader program, please see this.

There is limited space and the final deadline for applications is April 30. For questions regarding the program or call for applications, please contact Karen Gustafson at kegustafson@gmail.com.

Read the original news here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/international-school-on-digital-transformation

Who the Hack?

praskrishna — 2015-05-14T12:16:59Z

A hacker is not an evil spirit, instead he can outwit digital systems to bring about social change, writes Nishant Shah in this column published in the Indian Express on April 24, 2011.

One of the most sullied words that have pervaded public discourse, with the rise of the internet, is “hacker”. The word conjures up images of a silent, menacing, technology-savvy young man, who, with his almost magical control over the digital realm, manipulates systems, changes the laws, rewrites the rules and takes complete control. We hear stories about criminals hacking often enough — people who break into national security systems and retrieve sensitive information, teenagers who crash servers by spamming them with unnecessary traffic, users who commit credit fraud by phishing or breaking into bank accounts, or shutting down entire systems by erasing all the code.

Hackers v/s Crackers

As many of us know, the term hacker has a different origin and meaning than its abused application. In fact, people who perform maleficent activities using their technological prowess are called “crackers” — these are people who use their ability to interact with a system in order to make personal gains or to harass others. A hacker is a person who has extraordinary technology skills and is able to manipulate digital systems and makes them perform tasks which were not a part of their original design. Which means that a geek who can hack into a server and uses the free space to host a free website, aimed for public good, or a techie who writes a programme that can use the idle computing time of your machines to run peer-to-peer networks, or a teenager who can break the constraints of an existing software to integrate it with other programmes, are all hackers. A hacker is defined by his ability to play around with the basic elements of a system (not necessarily digital and internet-based) and perform actions, sometimes for social good, but often, for fun and to explore the digital world’s frontiers. They are not the evil spirits that we often imagine them to be.

Hackers can be suffused with a spirit of civic good and of social beneficence. Around the world, hackers have used their technology skills to make public interventions to resolve a crisis in their environments. From the now notorious Julian Assange and his WikiLeaks platform to more positive efforts like Ipaidabribe.com, a civic hackers have emerged as our new heroes. Ipaidabribe.com is a civic hacking website, which allows users to use digital storytelling as a method by which they can start discussions on corruption and what we can do to change the systems.

Many digital natives are civic hackers. Aditya Kulkarni, one of our earliest participants with the “Digital Natives with a Cause” programme, is a digital native civic hacker. Like many young people in India, Aditya, from Mumbai, found the field of electoral politics opaque. He found it difficult to understand why good people voted for bad leaders and why large sections of the society shirk their responsibility to vote, thus leading to flawed governments. He, with his friends, started VoteIndia.in, a website where they collected information from public domain sources about electoral candidates in their local constituencies, so that voters could make informed decisions. The website was an instance of civic hacktivism.

I talk about hacking because I want to draw your attention to the phenomenon that started with Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption stance and the series of public interventions that surrounded it. Hazare has emerged as a hero for many. He has been trending on Twitter, there are pages dedicated to him on Facebook, Tumblr blogs have been spreading his word, text messages have urged people to come out in support. While there is much speculation about Hazare’s politics and the media spectacle that it has created, little attention has been given to Hazare’s almost exclusively off-line campaign and the way in which social media tools have been able to capture his momentum and turn it into a series of civic hacktivist interventions.

Flashmobs with people bearing candles and chanting against corruption emerged in cities. Public consultations organised by young people saw critical engagement with questions of corruption. The interwebz have been abuzz with people expressing opinions and calling for public mobilisation. Anti-corruption convictions have found resonance with people who, otherwise, despite having access to these technologies, would not necessarily have engaged in these kinds of civic hacktivities. This, for me, is not only a sign of hope but also a moment of understanding that digital activism is not always restricted to the digital domain.

As in the case of Aditya, and that of Hazare, the germ of an idea is often offline. The processes of protest and demonstration towards social change travel across the physical and the digital world. The idea of a digital native as a civic hacktivist reminds us that the young person behind the computer, in a virtual reality, is not dissociated from the embedded contexts of everyday life. Their skills with the computer often help them make critical interventions to mobilise social change.

See the original article published by the Indian Express here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/digital-natives/blog/who-the-hack

Learning from Fukushima

praskrishna — 2011-08-30T12:47:25Z

Take remedial steps and demystify the unreasoning dread of nuclear power, says Shyam Ponappa in his latest column published by the Business Standard on April 7, 2011.

Official statistics report over 22,000 deaths related to fires, 27,000 by drowning and 144,000 in traffic accidents annually in India[1]. By contrast, the number of deaths resulting from the Chernobyl nuclear accident is about 10,000 in total, estimates Frank von Hippel, a nuclear physicist at Princeton, who is co-chairman of the International Panel on Fissile Materials (other estimates: World Health Organisation 4,000; International Agency for Research on Cancer 16,000; Belarus 93,000 plus 270,000 cancer patients; and Ukraine 500,000). Against this, he estimates the number of deaths owing to pollution from coal plants in the US alone at 10,000 each year [2].

In this context, what are we to make of a top Indian scientist’s demand for stopping nuclear power production in India pending a transparent safety audit of all nuclear plants? Why not stop all traffic because of traffic accidents, to paraphrase another leading scientist? Should we shut down all our cities and towns until the sewerage systems work? A conscious effort should be made to demystify nuclear power.

To consider this rationally, let’s begin with some reported facts. The Fukushima accident happened after the earthquake, after the plant shut down. The plant was designed to withstand waves of six metres, but was struck by an eight-metre high tsunami, according to the US’ National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (other estimates range between 6.71 and 14 metres).

The reactor core takes several days to cool after being shut down and requires external cooling. The cooling system lost power from the grid because of the earthquake. The backup diesel generators worked for an hour, then stopped (there are conflicting reports on the reasons). The backup batteries then powered the pumps until they ran out. There are also conflicting reports of alternate diesel generators that were either of insufficient capacity or could not be connected for reasons that are unclear (flooded connectors, incompatible plugs and so on). The tsunami devastated the surroundings even as it hampered assistance from elsewhere. The failure appears to have been in the supply of power and water, that is , ancillary services.

Japan has 55 nuclear power reactors and it experiences frequent earthquakes. Though there have been instances of plants being shut down after earthquakes (2007: electrical transformer fire at Kashiwazaki-Kariwa, and some leaks of slightly radioactive water reported; 2004: one unit at the same plant was shut down), there has been no failure of nuclear plants because of earthquakes. So, no new facts relating to earthquakes or tsunamis seem to have surfaced to cause India to shut down its nuclear plants arbitrarily.

An increase in energy use in India is inescapable, given the correlation between growth and energy consumption. On balance, we need all the energy we can get staying within reasonable risks and costs. Objectively, what can we expect from our government and related agencies such as the Department of Atomic Energy and the Atomic Energy Agency?

Remedial Action

One could be to expect action to reduce risks based on experience.

After the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, a 3.2-km wall was constructed at Kalpakkam, which was in the path of the tsunami, fortified with sandbags, rocks and embankments. (The plant is situated at over 9 metres above the sea, with the reactor floors at a height of nearly 10.7 metres.)
The backup generators are located some distance away from the plant, out of the reach of tsunamis.
Mangroves and casuarinas along the coast helped diffuse the impact of the waves in 2004. News reports indicate the Department of Atomic Energy plans to augment these after its recent review of coastal nuclear plants.
News reports also mention that portable generators will be acquired for backup and tsunami alarms will be installed at coastal sites.

Other remedial measures based on experience may have been incorporated at Indian plants, or if not, could be incorporated now. For instance, referring to Fukushima, Dr von Hippel describes a filtered vent system designed to reduce radioactivity before releasing pressure from the containment building in the event of a meltdown (see diagram). Though it was ignored in the US, Sweden adopted it and so did France and Germany. Presumably, a benefit of Areva’s partnership with the Nuclear Power Corporation of India for constructing India’s new reactors will be the inclusion of filtered vents, if appropriate and not already in our design.

Costs, Benefits and Risks

Another issue is educating people on the risks, costs and benefits of different fuels. Life-cycle emissions capture one aspect of these costs (see figure for Europe).

A similar study is available for the US: “Life-Cycle Assessment of Electricity Generation Systems and Applications for Climate Change Policy Analysis” by Paul J Meier, University of Wisconsin-Madison, August 2002 (http://fti.neep.wisc.edu/pdf/fdm1181.pdf) Besides, there are costs such as population displacement and environmental effects associated with hydroelectric plants, land requirements and the environmental impact of manufacturing for solar generation, noise levels for wind farms, or pollution and the higher risk of accidents associated with coal [3].

Open Information and Communication

A third issue is easy access to accurate and relevant information. After the tsunami in 2004, the information sharing with the public was exemplary, with open and transparent briefings at Kalpakkam. This approach needs to be instituted as a standard operating procedure for governance by all departments and agencies, displaying integrity in systems, thereby instilling confidence in the public.

Prompt and accurate information about safety features including design and remedial measures could be compiled for ready access on websites, with pointers during press briefings. Regular and effective communication of systems and procedures, and measures to mitigate risks, could reduce our unreasoning dread of nuclear energy. Such steps would help assess risks reasonably and provide a good framework for governance and crisis management.

Notes

[1]."Table 38.1 Incidence of Accidental Deaths", http://mospi.nic.in/...38%20ACCIDENT%20STATISTICS/Table-38.1.xls [2008: latest available data].

[2].“It Could Happen Here”, Frank N von Hippel, New York Times, March 23, 2011: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/24/opinion/24Von-Hippel.html.

[3].“Nuclear power is safest way to make electricity, according to study”, David Brown, Washington Post, April 2, 2011: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/nuclear-power-is-safest-way-to-make-electricity-according-to-2007-tudy/2011/03/22/AFQUbyQC_story.html.

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/telecom/blog/fukushima

Iraqi delegation in Bangalore to study e-governance projects

praskrishna — 2011-04-21T09:41:45Z

A 20-member delegation from Iraq, led by its Science and Technology Minister Abdul Kareem El-Samarai, is in this tech hub for a firsthand account of the e-governance projects used for community development and as an interface between the government and citizens. This news was published in the Economic Times, April 20, 2011.

The delegation, on a three-day study tour since Tuesday in partnership with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Centre for Internet & Society, visited multi-specialty hospital Narayana Hrudayalaya to learn about tele-medicine services, which provide healthcare in remote villages using information and communication technology (ICT).

"The e-governance projects and ICT practices employed for citizen services and community development in India could be a useful guide in developing a strategy for e-governance in our country," Deputy Iraqi Science and Technology Minister Samir Salim Raouf said in a statement late Wednesday.

The delegation, comprising officials and experts from various fields, also visited the Azim Premji Foundation , a not-for-prof IT organisation set up by IT bellwether Wipro's chairman Azim Premji. The delegation wanted to gain insight into the foundation's efforts to reform school education across the country through ICT and modern management practices.

"What is interesting is that the civil society and the private sector innovate and contribute to governance in India and everything is not left for the government to deal with," Raouf noted.

After interacting with officials and experts in-charge of the e-governance projects in Karnataka, the delegation went to mobile and wireless communications firm Geodisc Ltd to study its innovative product GeoAmida, an open source handheld device for e-governance and banking solutions.

"The mobile device, which can be used in diverse domains such as e-governance, banking, healthcare, transportation and retail, is a unique solution to address various societal problems faced by the Iraqi government, which is set to formulate a policy for e-governance and use ICT for social reform and development," the statement added.

The delegation, which is a part of the 'Building e- Iraq National e-Governance Strategy' of the Iraqi government, will go to New Delhi Friday for studying similar projects of the central government.

"Our objective is to increase transparency and accountability in Iraq through ICT and provide citizen services through e-governance initiatives," Raouf added.

Read the original in Economic Times here

For more details visit http://editors.cis-india.org/news/iraqi-delegation-in-bangalore