Full coverage: South Asia

30.09.2004 Grameen Foundation USA has merged with Digital Partners, a US-based non-profit organisation, to strengthen the use of ICTs in reducing poverty. The project is expected to expand Grameen Foundation’s Village Computing Project that seeks to connect India’s rural poor through internet kiosks.

29.09.2004 “Community Radio is one platform where each and every member can participate in some form or the other,” says Kavita Bisht, member of a radio listeners’ club in India’s Uttaranchal state. Till the Indian government allows licences for independent community radio stations, five groups in Uttaranchal are narrowcasting local stories through a cable network.

29.09.2004 Microsoft India is planning to expand its IT education project, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, to enable access to technology for students at an early age.

29.09.2004 Microsoft India is planning to expand its IT education project, in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, to provide access to technology to students at an early age.

28.09.2004 Indian filmmakers are using digital technology to outwit censor boards and find space for free speech. Inexpensive and good quality equipment has ensured that a different point of view also reaches the people.

28.09.2004 The Azim Premji Foundation, an Indian NGO, has come forward to help the west Indian state of Gujarat improve its quality of school education by providing free-of-cost, specially designed pictorial software.

27.09.2004 The Global Knowledge Partnership is organising a South-South Exchange
Travelling Workshop from 15-22 October 2004. It will allow sharing of ICT-enabled development perspectives between village communities in Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry and civil societies from developing countries. The workshop will be hosted by M S Swaminathan Research Foundation.

27.09.2004 India’s Kerala state will invest $2.18 billion on e-governance by building network, buying hardware and setting up consultancy. The state’s IT officials have suggested a collaboration with private players to work out a viable revenue model for the projects.

24.09.2004 The Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare in India, has announced an Integrated Disease Surveillance Project to be implemented in nine states which would use data to detect impending epidemics.

23.09.2004 With an idea to create job opportunities for educated rural youth, ruralnaukri.com has recently launched a programme with the acronym - REAP (Rural Employment Action Programme).

22.09.2004 A UNIFEM report has suggested that radio and multimedia are the appropriate ICT technologies for the empowerment of disadvantaged women in South Asia. The report also calls for private sector support in technology and funding, and gender-sensitive policies.

22.09.2004 UNESCO as part of its ethnographic research initiative - ICTs in the Hands of the Poor - has published some findings, which say that there is a positive correlation between ICTs and poverty reduction.

22.09.2004 The International Development Association, an arm of the World Bank has provided a US$53 million credit to the Government of Sri Lanka with 40 years maturity and a ten-year grace period for an ambitious ICT project.

21.09.2004 A UNESCO publication has documented the use of ICTs for poverty-reduction in South Asia. The publication, “Research on ICT Innovations for Poverty Reduction", presents insights into the relevance of ICT-based interventions in the empowerment of communities in varied socio-economic contexts.

21.09.2004 The successful launch of India's EDUSAT - the world's first exclusive satellite for programmes in education - will usher in an education revolution for people in remote corners in the country.

20.09.2004 Ruralnaukri, a platform for unemployed youth in Indian villages, has launched a website that promises to put graduates in touch with NGOs that may have jobs for them. www.ruralnaukri.com will not only help unemployed graduates break the trap of “no experience-no job” but will also provide manpower to NGOs who can’t afford high-salaried workers.

20.09.2004 An SMS-based service started by the government is changing how the people of Andhra Pradesh, India, pay their utility bills. Customers are sent message alerts on their dues by the state government’s G2B service provider. They can message back the details of payments made.

20.09.2004 A group of NGOs, universities and community media organisations, including OneWorld South Asia, are lobbying with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for a liberal licensing environment for community radio.

20.09.2004 Senior citizens set up a virtual co-operative, MitraMandal, to open up more oppourtunities for the underprivileged sections of the society in the Indian Capital-New Delhi.
Krishna V. Sane from SITA (Studies in Information Technology Applications) tells us more…

17.09.2004 A group of civil society organisations in India have sent out a strong message to the country’s telecommunications regulatory body, asking for liberal licensing norms for community radio. In a joint representation coordinated by OneWorld South Asia’s ICT Advocacy team, 38 NGOs, universities and community media organisations told the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that the scope of community radio be expanded beyond educational institutions and universities.