Think India Foundation

AOF to upgrade computer unit

BHUBANESWAR : Amway Opportunity Foundation (AOF) has announced plans for upgrading  the computer centre of the Palli Unnayan Seva Samiti, an institution working with education and development of children belonging to underprivileged sections, into a Centre for Excellence in Information Technology.

 The CSR arm of Amway India will provide all infrastructure and equipment for the purpose. The AOF also presented educational aid to the organisation at a function attended by additional DCP S K Das, secretary PUSS Swati Suchismita Patra and area manager Amway India Sridipta Sinha. Read more

Source : newindianexpress.com

Google India To Train Engineering Students In Andhra Pradesh On Cloud & Mobile Computing

Google India has taken an important steps to educate engineering students in Andhra Pradesh on latest technologies in the cloud and mobile domain. The company has signed MoU with the Government of AP to train students of the Jawahar Knowledge Centres (JKC) which is run in select engineering colleges across AP. As a part of the agreement, Google will train the trainers & mentors at the AP Society For Knowledge Networks (APSFKNW) and also offer required Google services & software absolutely free of cost to the students. Office of Minister for Information Technology, Ponnala Lakshmaiah, has confirmed the development.

The MoU was signed between IT minister & Nelson Mattos, VP (Europe & Emerging Markets) Google. The state government has allotted 20 acres of land to Google India to setup their campus. The company, in return, has committed to employ 6000 software engineers. Read more

Source : www.crazyengineers.com

Get approval from IGP, then arrest under Section 66A: SC

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Supreme Court Thursday said no person would be arrested under Section 66A of the Information Technology Act (IT Act) for posting objectionable comments on social networking websites, in case there is no prior approval from an officer of the Inspector General of Police-rank.

A SC bench passed the order after hearing a plea the arrest of an activist under Section 66A

The apex court's vacation bench of Justice B.S. Chauhan and Justice Dipak Misra passed the order after hearing a plea by one Shreya Singhal, who had petitioned the court against the arrest of an activist, Jaya Vindhyalaya - who has since been released - under provisions of the IT Act on a complaint filed by an Andhra Pradesh MLA. Read more

Source : www.ciol.com

Indian IT infrastructure spending to hit $2.1b

NEW DELHI The market for information technology (IT) infrastructure, including servers, storage and networking equipment to grow 9.7 per cent, to reach $2.1 billion (Rs115.29 billion) in 2013, according to research firm Gartner.

The business will grow steadily to reach $2.3 billion (Rs126.27b) in 2014, and will hit a high $2.9 billion (Rs159.21b) in 2017. “Despite global economic challenges, India provides strong growth opportunities across infrastructure. Big data, cloud, social and mobility are finding real-time business driven use cases,” said  Naveen Mishra, research director at Gartner. Read more

Source : www.omantribune.com

Nasscom targets $10 billion from software products by 2020

BANGALORE: India's information technology industry body Nasscom has created a separate unit to drive its newfound enthusiasm for software products, and has set a target of increasing by nearly five-fold revenues from products by 2020.

India’s information technology industry body Nasscom has set a target of increasing by nearly five-fold revenues from products by 2020.

The product council of the National Association of Software and Services Companies will be chaired by Ravi Gururaj, a serial entrepreneur who is the cofounder of a seed-stage angel fund Frictionless Ventures. The formation of a product council is one of the measures proposed by a committee headed by NR Narayana Murthy, the chief mentor of Infosys. The panel was established to bring Nasscom up to date with the current needs of the industry. Read more

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com

Centre plans to set up Information Technology Investment Region in Visakhapatnam

VISAKHAPATNAM: The central government plans to set up an Information Technology Investment Region (ITIR) in Visakhapatnam, which already has one of the largest ports in the country, said Union minister of state for communications and information technology Dr Killi Kruparani.

The government also plans to set up two electronic manufacturing clusters, one each in Vizag and Srikakulam, the minister said at a day-long workshop on 'Growth of IT-Vizag Region' organised by Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) here on Monday. The government would offer 50% subsidy for setting up the manufacturing clusters, she said. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India seeks US collaboration in education sector

Washington : India has sought academic collaboration with various US institutions to leverage the full potential of the education sector to meet the increasing needs of both the countries, particularly in the fields of information and technology.

The digital world is challenging the traditional lecture-driven teaching in universities. (Reuters) 

"Our academic institutions have been slow to leverage the potential of technology for education. Knowledge networks that link research in the grand challenges of the world have also been slow to develop," Minister of India for human resources development, M Pallam Raju said yesterday. Read more

Source : www.indianexpress.com

Bengal focus on e-waste management

Calcutta : The Bengal IT department has initiated the process of setting up an e-waste management and processing unit in an adjoining district of Calcutta.

It is scouting for a suitable plot of land in North and South 24-Parganas and Howrah. Read more

Source : www.telegraphindia.com

GST panel says no to placing mobiles in declared goods list

Mussoorie : State finance ministers today turned down the Centre's request to place mobile phones and tablets in the list of declared goods in the goods and service tax (GST) regime, saying the idea is untenable.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram (right) and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar during a press conference in Patna on Saturday. PTI 

The Ministry for Communication and Information Technology's request for placing mobile phones and tablets in the declared goods list came up for discussions at the meeting and was rejected, Sushil Kumar Modi, chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers on GST, told reporters after the conclusion of a two-day meeting of the committee. Read more

Source : www.indianexpress.com

Andhra Pradesh Government aspires to transform the State into a Knowledge Society

Hyderabad: The Vision of the Government of Andhra Pradesh is to ensure that people living at the last mile of the State have enhanced standard of living and are able to uniformly avail the benefits of the schemes and programs implemented by Government and this should happen transparently, seamlessly, instantly without any hassles. 

The state Government aspires to transform the State into a Knowledge Society and make available the benefits of Information Technology to all citizens, especially those in rural areas, with state of the art infrastructure, Quality human resources and Investors friendly policies IT sector in A.P. is making steady strides for rapid socio-economic development of the State. For the year 2011-2012, while All India growth rate is at 15.7%, the AP Growth rate is recorded at 16%.The State of Andhra Pradesh contribute to 12.4% of national IT exports and ranks 4th in IT performance in the Country. Read more

Source : indiaeducationdiary.in

Government approves National Cyber Security Policy

NEW DELHI: The government approved the National Cyber Security Policy that aims to create a secure computing environment in the country and build capacities to strengthen the current set up with focus on manpower training.

The government has approved the National Cyber Security Policy.

The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) approved the policy which stresses on augmenting India's indigenous capabilities in terms of developing the cyber security set up. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Aadhar will help eradicate poverty in India by 2030: World Bank

The World Bank has described India's Aadhaar card, meant to provide a unique identity number to every citizen, as one of the best example of integration of technology for social welfare use.

Jim Yong Kim, president of the global soft lender, said at a recent function that he believes this massive effort by the Indian government would help in achieving his goal of poverty eradication by 2030. Read more

Source : www.domain-b.com

Karnataka poll results: Leaders may lose face but will still be on Facebook

BANGALORE: It was no coincidence that political parties used social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook widely in the assembly elections held for the first time in India's Silicon Valley after these sites gained worldwide prominence. 

Politicians agree that social media gave them the best platform to connect with a generation that is glued to their smartphones and tablets.

Whether anyone could turn the virtual campaign to one's advantage would be known only in the coming days but with thousands joining social networking sites daily and with campaigning on the web costing next to nothing, one can definitely say that online campaigning is here to stay. Read more

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com

Piling e-waste turning Hyderabad city toxic

HYDERABAD: Throwing out your old computer in a garbage dump may lead to mercury poisoning and a possible brain stroke. Confused? Experts on e-waste (electronic waste) management warned Hyderabadis against the hazards of not disposing e-waste properly and going by their claims, the city could have its very own Erin Brockovich story if immediate steps are not taken. 

In fact, some say the city is at the top spot when it comes to illegally converting PC monitors into television sets especially during lucrative periods like the ongoing IPL season, and later dumping them in water bodies. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Raise your start-ups in a class

A global training company that offers classes in technology entrepreneurship is coming to India. It is setting up its first chapter in Bangalore

 Naveen Lakkur believes Bangalore has a large number of aspiring tech entrepreneurs. Photo: Aniruddha Chowdhury/Mint

Technology entrepreneurship that has taken India’s information technology (IT) giants years of planning and persistence can now be nurtured in a classroom. The Founder Institute (FI), a for-profit global training company that focuses on technology-related start-ups and helps entrepreneurs (existing and prospective) create meaningful technology companies through a four-month programme, is coming to India in June.

Whether it is Eren Bali, 28, CEO and co-founder of Udemy, an online learning company in the US that has raised $12 million (around Rs.65 crore), or Quang (who uses only his first name), chief operating officer of Appota Corp., a mobile content provider, in Hanoi, Vietnam, the FI has not only helped develop successful revenue models for technology start-ups but has also put its participants through the rigours of building a company from scratch. Maren Kate Donovan, founder of San Francisco-based Zirtual, a company that provides virtual assistants to handle the personal and official tasks of busy corporate executives, calls the FI a “boot camp for a tech start-up”. “They gave me basic building blocks of starting a company, especially in the very competitive Silicon Valley,” says Donovan, who attended the programme in 2010. Read more

Source : www.livemint.com

Rising ‘share’ of employee rewards

Share-based payments are a well-established mechanism for rewarding and retaining employees. With the advent of the information technology sector in India in the 1990s, almost all the major companies such as Wipro and Infosys began issuing Employee Stock Option Plans (ESOPs).

An ESOP grants an employee the right (but not the obligation) to purchase a stipulated quantity of the company’s shares at a stated price for a set period of time. Initially the grants contained service conditions such as a minimum period of continued employment before the options were vested. Later, as the markets evolved, performance-based conditions such as achieving specified year-on-year revenue growth were frequently introduced. Read more

Source : www.thehindubusinessline.com

2.97 mn professionals employed in IT-ITeS sector in FY13: Govt

New Delhi: The total number of professionals working in India's USD 100 billion IT-Information Technology Enabled Services (IT-ITeS) sector grew by 7 percent to 2.97 million in the last fiscal, Parliament was informed Friday.

The IT-ITeS sector, which contributes about 8 percent to the country's economy, provided employment to 2.77 million professionals in 2011-12 fiscal, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha. Read more

Source : zeenews.india.com

Indian techies not stealing jobs in US: study

Washington : Indian IT firms operating in the US have long maintained that H-1B visas do not lead to outsourcing of jobs or shrink the job market for Americans. But few were willing to listen.

A new study by an independent US think-tank has now made the same argument. And Indian IT firms are hoping they would fare much better now. Read more

Source : www.hindustantimes.com

Miffed India writes to US

Calls proposed amendment discriminatory against Indian IT companies

New Delhi : In a fresh row over the US' H-1B and L-1 visas for Indian professionals, the government has slammed that country, terming its newly-proposed immigration reform plan "discriminatory" against Indian information technology (IT) firms.

In a strongly-worded letter to new US Trade Representative Michael Froman, Commerce Secretary S R Rao has voiced the concerns of India, which feels the proposed law is protectionist in nature and against healthy competition. The letter also alleges the new Bill, called the H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2013 and put forward by a bipartisan group of Senators to overhaul the US immigration system, is "entirely targeted against Indian IT firms" and this "does not serve any purpose for the US". Read more

Source : www.business-standard.com

India needs to indigenously build software, hardware and infrastructure - Union Minister Kapil Sibal

 New Delhi: “India is on the cusp of a new revolution in the space of internet. We need to create an ecosystem for smooth transition from IPv4 to IPv6 and build software and hardware indigenously rather than relying on imports to harness the full potential of IPv6”, said Mr. Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India, here today.

While addressing a conference on ‘Critical Internet Resources: Enabler for Socio-Economic Growth’ organized by FICCI in association with the Department of Telecommunications, he pointed out that creating content is one of the biggest challenges in adopting IPv6. India needs to build its own infrastructure, manufacture its own products and encourage FDIs, only then we will be able to empower ourselves. Read more

Source : www.indiaeducationdiary.in

Venue for ADB board meet: Greater Noida scores over Delhi

The four-day event will conclude on Sunday at the sprawling IECM complex, where wi-fi internet connection has been enabled for the occasion

New Delhi : About seven years ago, India had hosted the 39th annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) in Hyderabad. The feedback the government had received then was that there were not enough Mercedes cars to be hired in the city for use by the 65 finance ministers who came to attend the event.

Eventually, Mercedes cars had to be brought for the delegates from Bangalore, recalls an official involved in organising ADB's annual jamboree in 2006. Read more

Source : www.business-standard.com

Drug regulator without updated list of drugs sold in India

NEW DELHI: Copying the western drug regulators that provide accurate information on drugs marketed in their countries, the Central Drug Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO) proudly told the department-related parliamentary standing committee on health and family welfare that similar actions had been taken in India. However the list was so full of inaccuracies that the parliamentary committee directed Drug Controller General of India (DCGI) to remove it from its website immediately. 

In May 2012, the parliamentary committee looking into the functioning of the CDSCO recommended that with the information technology resources currently available, a centralized databank (e.g. licenses issued, cancelled, list of sub-standard drugs, prosecutions etc.) may be created to which all the State Drug Authorities should be linked. In its Action Taken Report (ATR) the health ministry informed the committee that data regarding 85,000 brands of drug formulations approved by the various state licensing authorities as obtained from the State Food & Drug Control Administration (FDCA), Gujarat had been uploaded on the CDSCO website. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Spices Board goes paperless

KOCHI : Spices Board has become the first Union Government office in South India to go paperless with the implementation of e-office at its headquarters here.

J. Satyanarayana, Secretary to the Government of India, Ministry of Information Technology, inaugurated the ‘E-Office’ today at a function presided over by A. Jayathilak, Chairman, Spices Board. Read more

Source : www.thehindubusinessline.com

All departments to be linked with IT system in Bhopal

BHOPAL: A workshop on state portal and state service delivery gateway project under National e-Governance Scheme for using information technology to provide services to people promptly, transparently and conveniently was held here on Tuesday. Secretary IT Hari Ranjan Rao, deputy secretary Sudhir Kumar Kochar, a number of heads and nodal IT officers of departments attended the meeting. 

It was informed at the workshop that citizens will be provided information and public services at their nearest public facilitation centre. Citizens will have to visit government offices sparingly for delivery of public service. This portal also encompasses information regarding various sectors in Madhya Pradesh where government departments are delivering services. Through it, citizens can use public service both online and offline. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

J&K opens new data centre

The State of Jammu and Kashmir in India inaugurated a new data centre to support state e-governance initiatives.

The data centre was set up by the IT Department of the state government, as part of the National e-Governance Plan of India (NeGP). It was inaugurated by Feroz Ahmed Khan, Minister of State for Information Technology. Read more

Source : www.futuregov.asia

5 lakh jobs by 2015 in cyber security

BANGALORE: India will require five lakh cyber security professionals by 2015 to support its fast growing internet economy as per an estimate by the Union ministry of information technology. These jobs will come up across industries. The financial sector alone is expected to hire over 2 lakh people while telcos, utility sectors, power, oil & gas, airlines, government (law & order and egovernance ) will hire the rest. 

A large number of these jobs will be around cyber policing and ethical hacking, to check for network vulnerabilities . The need for cyber experts has grown exponentially as the country is heading towards an internet explosion mostly fuelled by e-commerce, e-banking , egovernance and the social media. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Indian tech start-ups filing patents to get government funding

BANGALORE: The Centre has announced a scheme through which it will provide financial support to young technology companies filing international patents, a move that underscores the growing support for emerging ventures in the country. 

 

The Centre has announced a scheme through which it will provide financial support to young technology companies filing international patents

The five-year scheme that comes into force from this fiscal year will provide half the amount incurred in filing a patent and reimburse fees paid to an attorney, according to an official in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. "We will bear all costs up to a limit of Rs15 lakh for each patent application," said the person who did not wish to be identified. Technology ventures that have an annual budget below Rs10 crore for research and development will qualify for this scheme. The move is being welcomed by entrepreneurs who say the high cost of filing patents has been a major deterrent for young companies. Read more 

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Gram Swaraj Abhiyan launched in Sikkim

GANGTOK : A ‘Sikkim Gram Swaraj Abhiyan’ has been launched by the State government seeking to enable Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) here to function as a mother organization, strengthening egovernance and  diversifying avenues for revenue generation.

The ‘Sikkim Gram Swaraj Abhiyan’ is one of the three missions announced the Budget 2013-14 passed on April 27 by the Assembly. Read more

Source : isikkim.com

Supreme Court agrees to examine validity of Information Technology rules

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court today agreed to to examine the validity of Information Technology Rules making it mandatory for a website owner to screen content and exercise online censorship of the contents posted on the portal. 

A bench of justices T S Thakur and S J Mukhopadhaya issued the notice to the Centre and all the states on a PIL filed by a company Mouthshut.com(India) Pvt, which runs a portal mouthshut.com, challenging Information Technology (Intermediaries Guidelines) Rules, 2011. Read more

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com

Bangalore’s reality lags behind image

BANGALORE, India — Two decades ago, this bustling melting pot was an advertisement for a new, confident India. Bangalore’s young, unapologetically cosmopolitan, English-speaking workforce drove India’s economic rise and put the city on the global map, making it synonymous with the country’s information technology revolution.

Sanjit Das/Bloomberg - Pedestrians and traffic move along Brigade Road in Bangalore, India.

But these days, Bangalore’s reputation is taking a beating. Read more

Source : www.washingtonpost.com

Digital signature: Next step on indirect tax

Most VAT and CENVAT authorities have no training facilities for dealing with digital signatures

The Information Technology Act (IT Act) was enacted in India in the year 2000. Its primary objective was to provide legal recognition and an enabling framework for transactions carried by electronic means, referred to as 'e-commerce'.

The IT Act gives legal recognition to electronic means of record keeping, execution and transmission of financial and legal documents and also confers legal recognition to a document authenticated by means of digital signatures. The IT Act also emphasised the usage and acceptance of electronic records and digital signatures as legal medium of corporate governance by the government and its agencies. Read more

Source : www.business-standard.com

Creating a breed of cyber warriors

EC Council and IANT to train over 10,000 students across India in information security domain.

The EC Council is joining hands with the Institute of Advance Network Technology (IANT) to train over 10,000 students and professionals across India in information security domain, with an aim to create cyber warriors to fight global cyber war. EC Council is an international provider of certifications and training in the information security domain.

The students will be trained in EC-Council’s certified ethical hacker and secure coding programs as part of IANT’s academic curricula. Students at IANT’s 100+ institutes across India including Pune will go through an intensive course in Certified ethical hacker (CEH) and EC-Council certified secure programmer (ECSP). Read more

Source : www.dnaindia.com

VMC to introduce Intelligent Traffic Management System

VIJAYAWADA : ‘Smart city’ concept is catching up, says Municipal Commissioner

VMC Municipal Commissioner S. Panda Das. Photo: Ch. Vijaya Bhaskar

The Vijayawada Municipal Corporation is working on an Intelligent Traffic Management System to be introduced on the BRTS Road. “We need smart technologies to manage traffic efficiently,” said Municipal Commissioner S. Panda Das on Friday. Pointing to the fact ‘smart city’ concept was catching up, he said that all stakeholders such as street vendors and others would have to be involved in the traffic management drive. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

Indian IT majors pitch for renewable energy

Chennai: While most Indian states have failed to achieve their renewable energy targets, Indian IT firms are stepping up their efforts in advocating for a higher share of renewable energy in the country. 

Indian IT brands Wipro and HCL along with global majors Cisco, Google Ericcson and Fujitsu have emerged the winners amo­ng companies in technology sector that provide energy solutions to help address climate change in the global IT-sector climate leadership assessment by Greenpeace International While Wipro secured a 5th position, HCL was ranked 13th in the sixth Cool IT Leaderboard  that pitched 21 technology leaders against each other to find who comes out top in the fight to stop climate change. Read more

Source : www.deccanchronicle.com

Delhi HC seeks explanation from Centre over under-18s on Facebook, Google

The petition says it's against the Indian laws for people below 18 years to open Facebook accounts.

Delhi High Court has issued a notice to the Union government seeking an explanation on how the children below 18 years were having accounts on social networking websites such as Facebook and Google.

A division bench of Justice B.D. Ahmed and Vibhu Bakhru sought response from the Centre within 10 days. The high court also sought response from Facebook and Google. The court was hearing a plea filed by the former BJP leader, K.N. Govindacharya, who accused the social networking sites of not verifying details of its subscribers. Read more

Source : www.thinkdigit.com

India’s IT exports to reach $75 billion

India’s export of computer software and services is estimated to jump by more than 10 per cent to $75 billion in fiscal year 2012-13 compared to $68 billion in 2011-13. 

This was disclosed by Kamal Vachani, honourary regional director of the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council, or ESC, for the Middle East. Read more

Source : www.khaleejtimes.com

Maharashtra govt bets on cloud computing to speed up services

MUMBAI -- The Maharashtra government is in the process of implementing cloud computing solutions in a bid to strengthen e-governance in the state while providing citizens services speedily and instantly, wherever feasible.

Dubbed MahaGov Cloud, the state government will provide cloud-based services to state departments and corporations in partnership with companies such as VMware Inc. and Microsoft India Pvt. Ltd. Critics pointed to the need for safeguards on security and privacy issues and also said that the government should have chosen open-source cloud technologies rather than proprietary ones. Read more

Source : investing.businessweek.com

Saradha Group’s 63 boxes, Boston servers kept Sebi at bay for 3 years

New Delhi : The collapse of West Bengal’s Saradha Realty may have come as a big surprise to investors, but the state’s authorities and the capital market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India have been pursuing the case for over three years while failing to make any headway. During this time, Saradha ran circles around Sebi, giving it 63 cartons of meaningless records, promising another 170 more boxes, and even saying the records were located in servers in Boston, the codes of which were with staffers.

In other such collective investment schemes that Sebi is pursuing, the markets regulator has admitted that companies have found it easy to get stays from various courts. According to a Sebi official, Sebi also took up the matter at the level of the Financial Stability and Development Council — the highest authority in India dealing with the financial sector — and asked for the Sebi Act to be amended to give it full powers to monitor such schemes. Read more

Source : www.financialexpress.com

J-K gets State Data Centre for e-governance

Jammu : Jammu and Kashmir today got a State Data Centre (SDC) for supporting e-Governance initiatives in the state. 

Inaugurating the SDC today, minister of state for Information Technology Feroz Ahmed Khan said, "we have setup a SDC for supporting e-Governance initiatives in Jammu and Kashmir. The centre has been setup by the IT department under the National e-Governance plan (NeGP)." Read more

Source : www.business-standard.com

Biometric data of 300,000 Aadhaar applicants lost in Maharashtra

Confirming the worst fear of those already untrusting of national biometric systems, the Maharashtra government has lost the biometric data of about 300,000 Aadhaar applicants in India.

Reported by the Times of India, the data was being uploaded by the state information technology department from Mumbai to the central Bangalore server of the UIDAI when it was lost. Read more

Source : www.biometricupdate.com

Delhi Gains Ground as Startup Hothouse

New Delhi is encroaching on Bangalore’s long-held mantle as the hothouse for India’s startups.

A cyclist stood in front of a glass building in Gurgaon, Nov. 21, 2012.  Brent Lewin/Bloomberg News

New Delhi and its satellite cities are becoming hothouses for startups by some measures, encroaching on a title long-held by Bangalore.

While data on the exact number of startups launched per city in India isn’t available, venture capital activity in the National Capital Region, which includes Gurgaon and Noida, has been rising steadily in recent years. Read more

Source : stream.wsj.com

Vacant IT buildings in Chennai may soon turn into malls, offices

CHENNAI : Buildings constructed in and around the city for the Information Technology sector by availing special benefits could now be converted for other purposes.

Chennai Metropolitan Development Authority has given the green light to the proposal by Confederation of Real Estate Developers’ Associations of India (CREDAI) to convert such buildings, sources told Express. The authority had recently held a detailed discussion on the request from CREDAI. Read more

Source : newindianexpress.com

Internet users in India to triple by 2016

Digital hold on buying seen rising as 40% of net users rely go online for product research and price comparison before buying

The number of Internet users in India is expected to nearly triple from 125 million in 2011 to 330 million by 2016, says a report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG). This rise in Internet penetration will lead an increase in digital influence on people's purchase decisions.

According to the report titled “From Buzz to Bucks:  Capitalizing on India’s “Digitally Influenced” Consumers,”, 40 per cent of India's 90 million urban Internet users say that online activities such as product research and price comparison influence what they buy. The digital influence, currently affecting $30 billion of urban consumer spending is expected to greatly accelerate over the next four years. Read more

Source : www.business-standard.com

K'taka polls: Cong promises rice at Re 1 a kg, interest-free farm loan

The party is seeking to return to power after a gap of seven years

The Congress on Wednesday unveiled a series of promises to the citizens of Karnataka, including 1 kg rice at Re 1 with a maximum of 30 kg for below poverty line card holders, interest-free loans to farmers and free laptops to pre-university students, if it returns to power. Assembly elections are being held on May 5.

The party, which is seeking to return to power after a gap of seven years, has also promised to develop an 8-lane expressway between Bidar in the North to Chamarajanagar in the South to promote industrial development. Connectivity with major ports and airports, industrial townships, promotion of garments, textiles, engineering, automobile industries and creation of 5 million jobs are some of the other promises included in the party's pre-poll manifesto. Read more

Source : www.business-standard.com

Mobile Services in India to Reach Rs 1.2 Trillion in 2013, Mobile Connections to Attain 770 Million

According to Gartner, India's mobile services market will reach Rs.1.2 trillion, in 2013, which is a 8 % hike from the Rs. 1.1 trillion in revenues of 2012. Also, the leading information technology research and advisory company, predicts that mobile connections will grow to 770 million in 2013, an 11 percent increase from 712 million connections in 2012.

"The mobile market in India will continue to face challenges if average revenue per unit (ARPU) does not grow significantly," said Shalini Verma, principal research analyst at Gartner. "If the prevailing conditions do not change in the Indian telecom market, India will account for 12 percent worldwide mobile connections, but just 2 percent of worldwide mobile services revenue (in constant USD) in 2013." Read more

Source : www.gizbot.com

NIELIT partners Wheebox to develop web portal for students

BANGALORE, INDIA: National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (under the Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY)) and Wheebox.Com, International Talent Assessment Company, have launched the NIELIT Web Portal that will provide an online assessment test on English and Cognitive abilities for all candidates pursuing O, A and B Level Courses from NIELIT.

The portal will provide an online assessment test on English and Cognitive abilities for all candidates pursuing O, A and B Level Courses from NIELIT

The portal was launched by Kapil Sibal, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology. Sibal said, "the sustainable efforts of NIELIT would help in eliminating digital illiteracy." Read more

Source : www.ciol.com

Govt needs to sort out more issues in electronics manufacturing, says industry

NEW DELHI :  While Communications and Information Technology Minister Kapil Sibal is hard selling electronics manufacturing in India through various schemes and incentives, the industry is not confident of meeting targets.

The Government is aiming to achieve a turnover of around $400 billion by 2020 involving investment of about $100 billion and employment to around 28 million by 2020. Read more

Source : www.thehindubusinessline.com

Online RTI facility to be extended to all central ministries within a month

NEW DELHI: Indian citizens will now be able to seek information from all central ministries by filing their RTI applications Online.

The government has launched an exclusive portal - https://rtionline.gov.in- for this purpose, initiating this facility currently only for the questions asked from the ministry of personnel. All other central ministries will be covered under it within a month. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India’s Biometric IDs Put Its Poorest on the Map

People who grew up in Britain in the 1960s will remember a television program that built a cult following: “The Prisoner.” It was about an oddly luxurious detention camp -- a kind of Guantanamo Bay by Four Seasons, spa services and brainwashing included. Even if you wanted to, trying to escape was pointless. A big balloon would chase you and bring you back. The residents didn’t have names, just numbers. The show’s tagline was: “I am not a number. I am a free man.”

The phrase came to mind while I listened this week to Nandan Nilekani, co-founder of Infosys Ltd. (INFY) and one of the world’s most successful information-technology entrepreneurs. Speaking at the Center for Global Development in Washington, he was describing India’s remarkable Unique Identification (UID) project, also called Aadhaar, which he is leading. Read more

Source : www.bloomberg.com

Clean E-INDIA: A new hope

An estimated 40 mn tons of e-waste is produced every year; growing at the rate of 40% every year

The estimated market value of e-waste management was $11.8 bn last year and is expected to grow to $44.3 bn by 2020 globally. e-Waste is one of the fastest growing waste products in the world and currently accounts for 2-5% of total solid waste; however, it accounts for 70% of toxic waste. An estimated 40 mn tons of e-waste is produced every year; growing at the rate of 40% every year. Read more

Source : www.waste-management-world.com