The government till July 2011 has imposed a total of 30 penalties on officials of telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL to check corruption, Parliament was informed on past Wednesday. "To mitigate the corruption by the officials of BSNL and MTNL, the complaints received are promptly investigated and based on the report of such investigations and gravity of offences made by the accused
China`s most popular microblogging site has launched a crackdown on what it says is use of its service to spread false rumors after the Communist Party told Internet companies to tighten control over information. Sina Corp.`s Weibo service has sent notices to its 200 million users denying two reports, including one about the killing of a 19-year-old woman. It said accounts of use
An initiative of Shivraj Singh Chouhan government in Madhya Pradesh to maintain an `online diary` giving details of departmental works has met with a cold response from top babus. More than 250 officials, including senior IAS and IPS officers, have not updated the "diary" which was aimed at ensuring transparency and accountability in government departments.
In a move that could portend fresh trouble for former Indian Telecom Minister A Raja, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has registered a Preliminary Enquiry (PE) to probe the alleged bungling in the allocation of franchisees of WiMax services by state-run operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). CBI sources said the PE was registered against unknown officials of the
In the wake of depleting child sex ratio in Maharashtra, the Bombay High Court on past Friday upheld a scheme introduced by Maharashtra government which requires radiologists to install a device in the sonography machines that would help government officials to check female foeticide. According to the scheme, radiologists are required to install a `Silent Observer`on their sonogr
The government on past Friday said telecom companies have a total outstanding of Rs 587.24 crore as dues for licence fee and spectrum charges. The amount includes Rs 36.57 crore dues towards licence fee and Rs 550.67 crore for spectrum charges from the various telecom companies, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora informed the Rajya Sabha in a written
With companies racing to take advantage of new technologies facilitating payment services over mobile phones, most executives worldwide believe the use of cellphones for financial transactions will gain widespread acceptance within four years, according to a KPMG survey. According to the survey conducted among nearly 1,000 executives primarily in the financial services, technolog
The country`s premier agri-research body ICAR is working on a scheme to increase agricultural productivity by providing exact information to farmers on the type of crops they should grow, fertiliser and water requirements through the use of GPS technology. Under the project, ICAR has collected global positioning system (GPS)-based soil samples across the country on the nutrient s
The National Police Agency said on Friday that more than 90 per cent of cyber attacks on its website carried out overnight on July 10 originated from Internet Protocol addresses in China. The findings came after the NPA determined that similar attacks on its website last September were mostly attributable to Chinese IP addresses. Access to the NPA website was temporarily interrup
Anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare ruled Indian cyberspace during his 12-day fast demanding introduction of Jan Lokpal Bill in Parliament. Search engine Google produces 29 million results when a query is made by entering Anna Hazare`s name, while Sonia Gandhi`s name yields a little below 9 million results. A page created in the Facebook on Anna Hazare has been liked by 3.64 lak
Infosys BPO, a leading player in the outsourcing services sector, on past Friday announced a five year renewal of its contract with Alcoa Global Business Services, the world’s leading producer of aluminum and alumina with over USD 21 billion in revenues. Infosys BPO’s partnership with Alcoa started in 2004 and has grown to include services across finance and accountin
Wipro BPO on past Friday inaugurated its first rural centre at Manjakkudi village in Tamil Nadu to capitalise on literate talent pool available in the region. The Manjakkudi centre in Tamil Nadu has a capacity of 120 seats, and will open with a 50-seat pilot project for an international client in the retail sector. Wipro plans to expand its rural BPO operations to 500 seats by Ma
Home Minister P Chidambaram on Thursday chaired a meeting of senior government officials and top executives of telecom service providers in Jammu and Kashmir and discussed various security-related issues, including monitoring and subscriber data verification, with them. During the meeting, the Home Minister was briefed about the security concerns by various intelligence agencies and sta
Slowdown seems to be setting in the telecom sector as GSM operators have been able to add merely 7.64 million subscribers in July compared to 8.58 million in the previous month. With this, the GSM subscriber base stood at 606.41 million at the end of July 2011. For the third month in a row, subscriber addition continued to decline. In May this year, for the first time since October 2009
Tata Steel Europe has selected Microsoft and Capgemini to migrate its two existing email systems to a new Europe-wide standard platform based on the Microsoft Office 365 cloud computing productivity suite. The project marks the first significant deployment by Tata Steel of cloud computing and is one of the first large-scale enterprise implementations of MS Office 365 in Europe.
With notebooks and netbooks driving computer penetration in the country, the world`s second largest computer chip-maker AMD is betting big on the category and will focus on introducing innovative and affordable chipsets in India. "We started the year with the launch of the AMD C and E-Series APUs, which was met with resounding success. The recently launched AMD A-Series APU has alr
The Tamil Nadu government on Thursday charted out the schedule for distribution of laptops to school and college students. A policy note from the minister for Special Programme Implementation tabled in the assembly said in 2011-12, Class 12 students, first and third year arts and science college students, second and fourth year engineering students and first and third year polytechnic c
The Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing at Kancheepuram is all set to become an institution of national importance with Parliament on Thursday approving a bill in this regard. The bill, which will enable growth of the institute by granting more autonomy in academic and financial matters, was passed in the Lok Sabha after a brief debate. It has already be
The Tamil Nadu government will soon go the e-way in a bid to provide services more effectively to the people of the state. "Mere automation will not lead to efficiency in government processes. A focused public policy with a guided approach to output aimed at e-governance is necessary to improve productivity levels within government," a policy note tabled in the Assembly said.
The Chinese military`s naval wing on Thursday published its first digital international standard nautical chart covering the country`s maritime territory, including the Yellow, East China, South China and Bohai seas. The official nautical chart published by the People`s Liberation Army (PLA) Navy conforms with the International Hydrographic Organisation`s (IHO`s) S-57 standard.
