Information Society Watch

January 21, 2008, E-Gov

In its recommendations submitted to the minister, the Expert Committee on Information Technology for Local Government in India has highlighted the key role of ICTs in multi-mode training and capacity building. This has to be read in the context of India venturing into an ambitious e-Governance programme with around Rs. 5,400 crores is going to be spent over the next three years on the computerisation of 2,50,000 local government bodies alone.

February 4, 2008, Howard French, New York Times

This article describes the growing phenomenon of resentment and resistance against increased control of the Internet by Chinese censors. In the months leading to the Beijing Olympics, the authorities are cracking down on signs of dissent and also enforcing censorship by restricting sites with no discernible political content. Even those who were previously indifferent to Internet censorship are now becoming resentful and taking action by filing lawsuits against illegal blocking of sites or participating in a growing community of hackers who devise solutions to work around the blocks.

This article describes the growing phenomenon of resentment and resistance against increased control of the Internet by Chinese censors. In the months leading to the Beijing Olympics, the authorities are cracking down on signs of dissent and also enforcing censorship by restricting sites with no discernible political content. Even those who were previously indifferent to Internet censorship are now becoming resentful and taking action by filing lawsuits against illegal blocking of sites or participating in a growing community of hackers who devise solutions to work around the blocks.

2005, Rahul De, Indian Institute of Management- Bangalore

With the widespread deployment of e-government systems in developing countries, and also their high failure rates, it is important to understand the complex processes that underlie successful implementations of large-scale information systems. This paper develops a framework for stakeholder groups and uses this to analyse conflict and resistance in four case examples of implemented e-government systems in India.

December 26, 2007,Indiatimes Infotech

This news article reports that the DoT has decided to fund innovations in communication technologies developed by small companies, entrepreneurs, universities or NGOs. The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), where currently over Rs 10,000 crore lie unutilised, will be used for this purpose.

Decmber 26, 2007, The Hindu Business Line

Discussing 'spectrum wars' (the wireless spectrum required for connection from the user to the last network element viz., the radio base station), T. H. Chowdary, Director, Centre for Telecom Management & Studies, Hyderabad, notes that the mindset of the Indian telecommunications administrators is still ruled by the 'permit-license-quota' approach. An example given is the decision in the early nineties to allow licensees of mobile telephony to use only GSM and not any other technology.

January 4, 2008, Business Line

This bureau report is about the dismissal by the Supreme Court of India of the petition by Star, a major Indian broadcaster, challenging the amendment to the TRAI act that aims at regulating the broadcasting sector. The provision introduced in the act after the amendment says that the Centre can bring other services within the ambit of Telecom Act and the Government has issued the notification for regulating broadcasting services by TRAI.

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.

January 10, 2007, Economic Times

In an interview, Lin Lee, Sun's VP for global government strategy discusses how the government can play a key role in the growth of open source software. She notes that a lot of progress has been made in Asian countries, including India, in promoting open source.

13 Nov, 2007, Sunil Raman, BBC News

India, which is home to more than 500,000 villages has embarked on an ambitious programme to collect data about these villages. This exercise, when completed, will result in the social and economic data about this vast section of the population stored in a centralised database which will be easily accessible.