Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday asked the Centre to consider linking the Right to Public Service Act (RTPS) with e-Governance under Centrally-sponsored schemes, and grant assistance to the states to provide basic services to the people under this provision. Launching the `Common Service Centres` run by the Vasudha centres, he said the Centre should provide financial assistan
Looks like the UPA government’s ambitious scheme to provide a low-cost technical tool to students will bear fruit, after all. Having faced much flak over quality and manufacturing standards, the upgraded version of the Aakash tablet, Aakash 2, was launched by President Pranab Mukherjee on November 11. The tablet is now faster and quicker, and easy to operate by anyone who has a b
Exhorting the need to have a robust cyber security system in place, DRDO chief V K Saraswat today said the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) alongwith other premier institutes is developing India`s own operating system (OS), which is likely to be ready in next three years. "One of the major elements of cyber security is having our own operating system because tod
The Reserve Bank on Thursday asked all payment system operators to take necessary actions for migrating to the latest version of Internet Protocol IPv6 as per the directives of DoT. "The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has undertaken the initiative of migration from IPv4 to IPv6... They have expressed that the migration of all payment gateways, banks, financial institutions,
Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday inaugurated free Internet and basic computer course at Saraswati Vidyalaya in Delhi. "India can only progress with the empowerment of women. In addition, equity to women is a must for the development of the society. Through computer learning and Internet literacy, both the daughters and their mothers will feel empowered and in turn, t
The West Bengal government will roll out e-district project early next year, state Commerce and Industry Minister Partha Chatterjee said on Monday. "Following the rolling of the e-district project all government services will be made available online," he said at a Ficci programme in Kolkata. Claiming that West Bengal was one of the best states in e-governance, he said
Internet services and devices industry has potential to increase its contribution to up to USD 100 billion (about Rs 5.5 lakh crore) to India`s GDP and generate about 2.2 crore jobs by 2015, a report by McKinsey & Company said on Wednesday. Internet related technology industry includes personal computers and smartphone sales, e-commerce, broadband subscription, and investment in tec
Delhi government has planned to computerise records of all the land under it as part of efforts to ensure transparency in functioning of land and revenue department. The government is implementing a pilot project based on a software developed by the National Informatics Centre in Najafgarh sub-division under South-West Revenue district. Chief minister Sheila Dikshit hoped that w
Set to roll out its flagship Direct Cash Transfer programme from January one, the government of India has made it clear that money will be transfered to beneficiaries only when they provide Aadhar card and bank account number by the cut-off date in respective districts. This was one of the issues discussed at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tonight to review preparedn
The cyber security threat to national security has set the government in action mode. The government has formulated a five year plan for mapping and covering every single critical information infrastructure (CII) across the country. To start with, it has CII under 17 sub sectors- including nuclear power plants, security organisations and space. National critical information infrastruct
Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday asked his ministry officials to lay a road map by 2014 for creation of a "Google" type of comprehensive website that will enable citizens to access service of all government departments with a click of a mouse. "My dream will only come true when we will provide people of India with that (Google) kind of platform and I hope bef
With only a fortnight left for rollout of the ambitious Direct Cash Transfer programme, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will hold a meeting with ministers concerned on Monday to review its preparations. The meeting of the National Committee on Direct Cash Transfer, chaired by Singh, will be briefed about the state of preparations by Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Planning Commi
The Education Department of Punjab government will explore the option of sourcing low-cost tablet `Aakash` for distributing among class XI and XII students, which was promised by ruling party SAD in its poll manifesto. "We will certainly explore (sourcing) `Aakash` tablet for giving them to students as announced in the state budget. Moreover, Aakash tablet is also being propagated
To strengthen the cyber security of the country, the government will soon be notifying a central agency which will be looking after the cyber security of national strategic assets like nuclear plants, space stations and security establishment. The notification for national critical information infrastructure protection centre (NCIIPC), a body proposed to be set up under national
Over 2,500 businesses in the capital`s iconic Chandni Chowk market are now online with their own websites as part of an initiative by Google, owner of the world`s most popular search engine. Google, as part of its `India Get Your Business Online` initiative launched in November 2011, offers free websites and domains to small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the country. "Wit
Over 14,000 websites have been hacked by cyber criminals till October this year, an increase of nearly 57 per cent from 2009. While the number of websites hacked in 2009 stood at 9,180, it grew to 14,232 in 2011 and in the first 10 months of this year itself it has already crossed the 14,300-mark. About 16,126 websites were hacked in 2010, while 14,392 websites were hacked in th
Delhi Metro will honour top 200 users of its Smart Card in the past one year as it celebrates 10 years of its operations. The DMRC has come out with a list of the top 200 Smart Cards numbers that have been used the maximum for the above period. "These cards have utilised the maximum electronic value during this period. In simple words, the commuters in possession of these S
Think before you click on links appearing on mobile devices on online buying of Christmas and New Year gifts as social networks and malicious mobile apps, among others, are the most common ways of attack by cyber criminals, says security software maker McAfee. "Scammers use channels like Facebook and Twitter just like email and websites to scam consumers during the holidays,"
Take this: tech is the future, that future is hovering close to the present, it is wow, and India is closing in on it. Now, take that as the assurance by the government. Discussing the way forward, J Satyanarayana, secretary, department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) said the government is planning to create new
A revised draft of cyber security policy and cyber security architecture will be presented to the cabinet for its approval in next two months, according to highly placed sources in the Indian computer emergency response team (CERT-IN), a body functional under the department of electronic and information technology (DEITY). Under this new institutional arrangement, the government plans
