Full coverage: South Asia

29.12.2004 The Mission 2007 Task Force report, published by OneWorld South Asia, looks at the feasibility of creating knowledge centers in all Indian villages - 600,000 - by 2007 to bring out development and make a difference to the lives of the poor.

28.12.2004 Internet governance and financing of ICT for development initiatives will be discussed in the upcoming South and South-West Asian regional consultation to be held in Kathmandu, Nepal from 12 to 14 January, 2005. The sub-regional meeting to be hosted by the United Nations will propose region specific plan of action towards information society.

27.12.2004 The government of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu has launched a project 'TN-Agrisnet' to link all agricultural offices in the state within two years to help farmers use technology for improving production and get better prices. The project will be implemented in two phases during 2005-06 and 2006-07.

23.12.2004 IT training firm NIIT and computer chip-maker Intel has signed an agreement to enhance the use of technology-assisted learning in Indian schools. This initiative plans to double the number of schools providing IT education in India taking the total to 80,000 by 2010.

21.12.2004 The Lumbini Community Multimedia Centre, Nepal, organised a photo competition to popularise the use of digital technologies in preserving world heritage. Forty-six participants used a digital camera to take pictures of the Lumbini cultural heritage site, where Lord Buddha was born over 2,500 years ago. These will be used to create a portal about the site.

21.12.2004 The government of India has consented to a proposal made by the ministry of Human Resources to initiate e-learning classes in secondary schools.

17.12.2004 India has unveiled a massive plan to e-connect 53 nations of the African continent via satellite and fibre optic network to support tele-education, tele-medicine, e-governance, e-commerce, infotainment and meteorological services in an effort to fight poverty and disease, haunting Africa and India.

16.12.2004 The Lumbini Community Multimedia Centre (CMC) in Nepal recently organized a photo competition in which 46 participants took pictures using a digital camera. This is part of an initiative that UNESCO has taken to popularise digital technologies and create a web portal on the famous Lumbini Cultural Heritage Site.

16.12.2004 The Sarvodaya Information Technology programme initiated in 1997, in a small room as a pilot project using a single computer intended to serve villages of Rathnapura District has been extended to other Sri Lankan districts as well, making it a national level telecentre project.

13.12.2004 India's Silicon Valley is set to choke under a heap of e-waste generated by obsolete computers and electronic components containing harmful toxic substances, according to industry estimates.

13.12.2004 India's Silicon Valley is set to choke under a heap of e-waste generated by obsolete computers and electronic components containing harmful toxic substances, according to industry estimates.

10.12.2004 RailTel is authorised to plan cyber café, integrated with telecom facilities such as Internet, email, audio/video chatting and Internet telephony on franchisee basis at important stations only, in a phased manner. As part of this project, cyber cafe has already been set up in New Delhi station.

10.12.2004 Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said that it may approach the government or the Supreme Court for more power as the Authority has been accused of not acting tough on inter-connection disputes between public sector undertakings and private telecom operators.

10.12.2004 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has proposed relaxed licensing conditions by recommending the government to allow news and current affairs on community radio stations.

08.12.2004 A New Delhi-based Indian NGO has introduced computer learning programmes including film-making, animation and web designing for kids living in slums in association with another voluntary organisation.

03.12.2004 This paper focuses on scalability, sustainability and collaboration aspects in building infokiosk or knowledge center, summarising viewpoints from an e-discussions, Video Conference and the Task Force Reports emerged out of the National Policy Makers’ Workshop held in July 2004 in New Delhi. This Workshop envisaged the launch of Mission 2007, a nation-wide movement facilitating the setting up of knowledge centers/ info kiosks in each of India’s 600,000 villages by the year 2007.

03.12.2004 The ICT Agency of Sri Lanka is partnering with OneWorld South Asia to bridge the digital divide for developing local content, building capacity for local content generation and exchange and provision of a problem-based Question and Answer Service for e-Sri Lanka programme.

02.12.2004 Remote sensing satellites in India have helped map the breeding areas of a malaria-carrying mosquito that could not be detected during ground surveys. Such use of space technology for development is part of a growing industry made possible by the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore.