Full coverage: Asia and the Pacific

31.03.2008

28.03.2008 Bunkar Vikas Sanstha in Chanderi town in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh has changed the lives of weavers by helping them earn better incomes. Once bound by poverty and exploited by traders, the community now aspires to use media tools to create more livelihood opportunities.

25.03.2008 Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, was in Mumbai, India to launch his new commercial venture ‘Wikia’. Here he shared his desire to increase local Indian language contributions on the site and the need to challenge spam content.

24.03.2008 Science fiction writer and visionary Sir Arthur C. Clarke died on March 19, 2008 in Colombo, Sri Lanka, at the age of 90. The global telecommunication community will remember him for his farsighted prediction of artificial satellite stations for earth-based communications.

24.03.2008 Tata Consultancy Services has designed a special software to prevent the misuse of funds meant for rural poor under the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS). Over Rs 10 million have been recovered from local politicians and government officials in a village in southern India through the online system.

24.03.2008 Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) invites nominations from South Asian countries for the Manthan Award 2008 to recognize the best e-content for development. The Manthan Award, after its four years of interventions in India, has now decided to cover Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

24.03.2008 Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) invites nominations from South Asian countries for the Manthan Award 2008 to recognise the best e-content for development. The Manthan Award, after its four years of interventions in India, has now decided to cover Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

21.03.2008 Five states in India now want to start their own radio stations. AIR, the national broadcaster, does not highlight region-specific issues, they feel. Critics are however concerned that this move by the states is an invasion of the community radio space.

19.03.2008 Punarbhava, a new interactive website for the disabled, is a one-stop cyber shop for information, aids, appliances, research and employment. The portal was recently launched at the Indian capital, along with the release of a new screen reader software for the blind.

18.03.2008 Kalpakkam in southern India, famous for its atomic power station, will soon have its own community radio station. Once established, thousands of professionals, including scientists, engineers and technicians will have the space to interact and strengthen mutual relationships.

18.03.2008 Jaipur, capital of western Indian state of Rajasthan, is soon going to be a wi-fi-enabled city. Data Infosys Ltd, which is among the top seven Internet Service Providers in the country, has signed an MoU with the state government in this respect.

15.03.2008 Punarbhava, a new interactive website for the disabled, is a one-stop cyber shop for information, aids, appliances, research and employment. The portal was recently launched at the Indian capital, along with the release of a new screen reader software for the blind.

12.03.2008 New software by India’s National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Jharkhand offers individual search for pregnant women and newborns at the Anganwadi level. The programme will help the state government track the nutrition status of both mother and child and the immunisation of infants.

07.03.2008 Indian IT company Infosys Technologies is improving the efficiency of the country's agro supply chain, by enabling farmers' access to technical data and images, region-specific weather updates and market information, such as daily sales volumes and average prices.

07.03.2008 Indian IT company Infosys Technologies, in collaboration with an international development organisation, is improving the efficiency of the country's agro supply chain. The ICT-enabled application enables farmers to access technical information like data and images, access to region-specific weather updates and market information such as daily sales volumes and average prices.

05.03.2008 Teachers working in remote villages of West Bengal will soon be provided with critical academic aid through a first-of-its-kind phone based service in India. Using an innovative mix of telephony and internet, LifeLines Education seeks to answer queries on pedagogy, classroom management and administration, while linking teachers with a network of educational experts.

04.03.2008 Given its tremendous creative potential, the community radio movement in India will create an international impact, says Steve Buckley, president of the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters. During an interview, he recalls his 25 years of broadcasting experience and suggests how to make this communication more effective and democratic.