Full coverage: South Asia

30.11.2004 The Sarai initiative, based in New Delhi, provides a public space to intersect different intellectual and creative opinions in an open and dynamic manner.

30.11.2004 Member of Indian Parliament and film actor Dharmendra has suggested that parliamentarians set up community radio stations from their development funds. Parliamentarians in India get Rs 20 million annually to fund local development activities. In its recent meeting, the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of India's Information and Broadcasting ministry has
received the actor’s suggestion favourably.

29.11.2004 Mr. Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, the IT Minister of Pakistan has emphasized the need of massive investment and training of top quality human resources to reduce the digital divide in the country. "Without local language content on the internet, the vast majority of our population will be excluded from the benefits of the IT revolution”, said Mr. Leghari in the Global Information Communication Technology (ICT) Summit held in Baku, Azerbaijan recently.

26.11.2004 Non-resident Indians living particularly in Britain and the United States now can view the live webcast of their relative’s funerals, thanks to a new website to be operational by June next year. Through viewing the webcast and participating in chat, the relatives will be able share their griefs in the cyberspace.

26.11.2004 With a large part of the computer peripherals and other IT related parts coming from unbranded or assembled sectors in India, can manufacturers take responsibility of mounting e-waste.

25.11.2004 Microsoft has released the Kannada interface of its application software Office 2003 as part of its project Bhasa to make Office interface available in major Indian languages. In the next 12 months, Microsoft aims to release such interfaces in 12 other languages.

25.11.2004 Indian state West Bengal has signed a pact with Microsoft to implement the Project Shiksha initiative, a programme to be rolled out in 10 states to make teachers IT literate. Microsoft is planning to train 12,000 teachers and one million students in the state over the next five years.

24.11.2004 Wipro and Intel have jointly launched the i-shiksha, a low-cost solution and technology to meet the needs of education segment in India.

22.11.2004 President of the Commonwealth of Learning Sir John Daniel in the Millennium Lecture at MSSRF in Chennai talks about the importance of ICTs in distance learning.

22.11.2004 Though the ministry of science and technology has agreed to allow digital maps in the public domain, the ministry of defence wants certain errors to be introduced in the maps.

18.11.2004 India’s telecommunications department has asked a state-owned telephone company to monitor calls made from India to Nepal after complaints that international calls are being illegally bypassed by clandestine operators.

17.11.2004

17.11.2004 How can recent advances in science and technology be harnessed so that the poor of the world can overcome the problems of drought and desertification? ICRISAT is harnessing the ICTs to enhance food security.

17.11.2004 Andhra Pradesh is in the midst of an agrarian emergency. The tragic farmers’ suicides are, finally, an extreme symptom of a much deeper rural distress. The result of a decade-long onslaught on the livelihoods of millions. The crisis now goes way beyond the families ravaged by the suicides. And beyond the farming community itself. There is an urgent need to end the suicides. But doing so without addressing the larger distress is to try and mop the floor dry with the taps open.

17.11.2004 While there are many actors in the effort to use... resources for such important challenges as the Millennium Development Goals, conspicuous by their absence among these actors are universities... universities constitute an important force...

17.11.2004 In an interview with Rahul Kumar of OneWorld South Asia, Prabhu Pingali stresses on the need to encourage modern agricultural methods so that food production can be increased even as the environment is preserved.

17.11.2004 “So much information can reach villages through broadband, which cannot reach there through any other media. And the villages, which have no roads and other forms of communication, have a huge hunger for information...”, says Pradip Baijal in an interview to Manish Kumar of OneWorld South Asia.

17.11.2004 Increase in primary agricultural productivity through use of known science and technology in the poorest rural parts of the country can, in my opinion, make a substantial difference to the quality of life of people living near the poverty line.

17.11.2004 Agriculture’s centrality to dealing with India’s problems of food security and hunger is well recognised. The dissemination of these advisory services through ICTs will go a long way in making Indian agriculture sustainable....

17.11.2004 The success of ICT initiatives like info-kiosks offers an opportunity to improve our food security network. It is important to integrate fair price shops with the kiosks to ensure food security and transparency in food administration.