Information Society Watch

January 15, 2008, The Hindu

This opinion piece highlights the fact that despite the existence of several technology initiatives which attempt to the bridge the digital divide, none of these initiatives have managed to reach out to the audiences they claim to serve. While the latest addition to this list is the XO computer by the One Laptop Per Child Project (OLPC), Indian initiatives which have faced similar fates include the Simputer and Mobilus. The author says that its one thing to create a perfect machine like the XO in a research laboratory, making the same initiative succeed in the field is a totally different proposition.

December 2, 2007, Deccan Herald

The article focusses on the use of space technology for development in the rural sector. Along with geographical information services (GIS), such technologies can be effectively utilised to substantially improve the quality of services delivered by local bodies. The government commission appointed by the Prime Minister has studied the impact of these technologies both in the rural context in Jhabua in Madhya Pradesh as well as in Qatar in the Gulf.

December 1, 2007, Neelakshi Rana & Harsimran Singh, Times News Network

Though India is a global IT superpower, it ranks among the lowest in the world on the world Wi-Fi index, says this article that reports on this Wi-FI index and examines the developments of Wi-Fi in India. The article finds Wi-Fi especially important to consider because the top Wi-Fi countries also rank among the top 30 in the 2007 UN Human Development Index.

November 6, 2007, Rahul Gupta, I-Government.in

The article focusses on the current disparity in tele-density between urban and rural India with regard to mobile penetration and how low cost handsets can contribute to bridging this gap. The author notes that the primary barrier in the spreading of mobile services to the rural population is the prohibitive price of the handset. However, the scenario is now changing with the service providers as well as the handset vendors keen to tap this market.

October 25, 2007, Associated Press (CNN.com International)

This article explores a possible turnaround in the Indian government's initial negative response to the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) programme, which India's education minister allegedly called "pedagogically suspect" for requiring children to take the machines home for maximum exploration. Despite India's refusal to participate, OLPC persisted in talks with government officials, businesses and NGOs and convinced them to launch a pilot test involving 22 rural schoolchildren in Maharashtra.

August 05, 2007, I4d Online

This is an interview with the Joint Secretary of West Bengal State Rural Development Agency. He talks about challenges and implementation plans, while highlighting that the village panchayat is in charge of implementing the Common Service Centres (CSC) scheme in the state and not the IT department. This is significant, since implementation of e-governance projects by the IT department is seen to be the primary reason of failure of these projects.

September 21, 2007, The Hindu

The state government of Karnataka has launched an e-governance initiative called E-Halli, for disseminating important information in rural areas. The E-Halli centres will be located in the village Panchayat premises and around 5628 centres in all will be established.

May 4, 2007, Times of India

The Indian government is making efforts to develop a laptop which it hopes will cost $10 when it finally hits the market. The project is currently taking shape with two designs already in and a Public Sector Undertaking evincing interest to be a part of the project.

May 2, 2007, UNESCO

The state government of Kerala through it's state wide ICT project Akshaya with support from UNESCO is going to create community portals in the local language (Malayalam). The portal will comprise vital information such as government schemes,information regarding agriculture, business ventures,products,local job vacancies, educational details,health information, legal rights and so on.

Kunal Talgeri, CIO India

This is an interview with Aruna Sundararajan, the Chief Executive Officer of the Common Service Centers (CSC) scheme on details on the scheme.