In depth

OneWorld South Asia (OWSA) , has published reports and tool kits on an four-country action research that establish the role of ICTs in enabling people, to have better access to pro-poor government services. http://propoorict.ekduniya.net.

International organizations, governments, academia, industry, and the media have all begun to grapple with the information society as a global policy issue.

This report presents an inventory of global data sources which can be used to provide consistent geospatial baselines for core framework data layers in the support of generalized base mapping, emergency preparedness and response, food security and poverty mapping.

Today, the demand for wireless access outside the corporate office is satisfied by an unwieldy patchwork of technologies—GPRS, CDMA and Wi-Fi hotspots. There's no easy way to access your corporate network or even the Internet on the move.

The concept of e-governance is now a reality for Indian citizens. We are graduating from pilot e-governance projects to bigger Mission Mode projects. In this, the core strategy is to move ahead in a systematic manner, and the approach is to achieve success step by step.

What can ICT bring for the inhabitants of 600,000 Indian villages? How India is empowering the poor and marginalised citizens to participate in the emerging knowledge society? How will India provide voice to her millions of citizens? ‘Taking ICT to every Indian village: Opportunities and challenges”, attempts at answering such questions and exploring the complex interactions between ICT and society. more...

From the Internet to Al Qaeda, the teetering electricity grid to old school ties, we live in a world of networks. A profoundly disruptive shift has occurred in our societies, making networks the most important organisational form of our time and reshaping the activities of families, governments and businesses. The collection of essays is edited by Helen McCarthy,Paul Miller and Paul Skidmore.

In the ICT arena women they still remain inside that outer circle of ICT users where a male-dominated society assigns specific limits beyond which women are not able to tread. Women, like other subordinate groups in the society are thought to be “muted”.

That technological breakthrough and advancements would continue to impact positively on humanity and their activities is not in doubt, what one can not boast about is how prepared society is, due to the limitations of cultural, religious, social, political and economic circumstances, to imbibe such innovations.

Anonymous surfing programs let users route their data through private networks of proxy machines. These machines have addresses that can't be linked to any supposedly subversive Web sites, so government agencies won't block them.

Managing risks with the aid of information technology will help organisations deliver on corporate governance, says Sunil R Chandiramani, Partner-National Director Risk & Business Solutions Ernst & Young India.

This work sets out to explore the Brazilian information society and sustainable development programs, in an effort to locate intersection points and to identify how information society polices can collaborate in the reduction of regional inequalities in Brazil.

Where communication facilities are available, the poor rapidly embrace them. Where schools offer courses in ICT or use ICT to make educational content more interesting, parents are often supportive since they see it as a source of upward mobility and recognise its potential to ensure more effective learning.

Since 1994, Cambodia Mine/UXO Victim Information System (CMVIS) is intended to contribute to the protection of mine affected communities and provide the support to mine victim through the maintenance of a system for the collection, storage and dissemination of information relating to mine/UXO casualties in Cambodia.

This report, published by the Inter-American Development Bank, discusses the relationship between trust, ICT and government and outlines the directions along which they bear upon one another.

Thanks to the sustained grassroots campaign and political will on the part of the Government, the long awaited Right to Information Act, 2005 that got the ratification of both the Houses of Parliament on May 12, has become effective from October 12 this year.

E-government is expected to improve the function of public administration and its relationship to the public. The good news is that information and communication technology (ICT) offers an array of tools to meet the promise of e-government.

The outbreak of the Minamata disease in 1956 started a process of transformation in the Japanese chlor-alkali industry. Since then the industry has undergone two significant technological transformations. The first was from the mercury-based process to the diaphragm process while the second was from the diaphragm process to the ion membrane process.

Throughout the ages, people and their governments have struggled to find an easy, cheap, and effective way to govern the country. eGovernment, however, is changing the nature of government interaction with citizens. ICTs have the potential to drastically change this interaction by making systems more integrated, transparent, and efficient.

Low-cost connectivity and wide spread existence of basic telephony is transforming how India’s billion people go about their daily chores. It is comparatively easier to access or disseminate important information be it disaster, social or health related to a large rural hinterland which was earlier cut off from the mainstream. The boundaries between the two Indian realities, rural and urban are fast dissolving.