Teresa Carlson once helped Microsoft in devising strategy for the US government. Now at Amazon’s cloud computing subsidiary, she looks after state, local, central and regional governments, educational institutions and NGOs, and acts as an advisor to the firm on global policy issues. In an interaction with Pratap Vikram Singh, she talks about Amazon’s evolution and its In
Facing a loss pegged at Rs 12,488 crore by the CAG due to under-reporting of revenue by telecom service providers, the department of telecommunications (DoT) has initiated phase-wise process of recovery. The department has sent a demand notice of Rs 100 crore each to six telecom operators – Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone, Idea, Tata and Aircel – to reclaim the initi
For the past six months, the usual workflow in the gram panchayats of Fatehpur district, Uttar Pradesh, has been disrupted. After the December 2015 panchayat elections in Fatehpur, the gram panchayats are yet to begin work on karya yojana (work plan) as discussed in the gram sabha (village meeting). The pradhans are introduced to a new system this time, which is said to be disrupting thei
Chandigarh-based Surinder Verma carries two SIM cards, of Vodafone and Airtel, but that hasn’t helped as he continues to face connectivity problems from both the networks. When Verma called the Airtel complaint centre, he was told that Airtel shares mobile towers with Idea in his area, and that he needs to speak to the Idea authorities. When he called Vodafone, he got the same res
The union cabinet headed by prime minister Narendra Modi has approved the sale of all available spectrum. The move apart from adding lakhs of crores to the government’s coffers is also being regarded as a solution to the ever increasing problem of call drop. Over 2,000 MHz spectrum will be made available for auction across seven bands – 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MH
From the time of birth till the time of death, and even beyond, we all are being tracked. Even a harmless tweet or a ‘like’ on Facebook can give away crucial data such as location of home and workplace. Privacy has become the quintessential issue of our times, but it continues to be violated every day. Privacy is supreme human right inherently given by the nature, yet its status as
Five long years and several revisions later, the right to privacy bill is now wedged tightly between the department of personnel and training (DoPT) and the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY). The government does not seem to be in a mood to formulate a comprehensive law on privacy with provisions for data protection, physical and bodily privacy as well as safeguards ag
Have you ever wondered why the call metre on your mobile screen doesn’t stop even after you have lost the voice of the other person during a call? You may pointlessly repeat ‘Hello? Are you listening?’ several times, but the metre continues to run until you disconnect. In the last two years the call drop – sudden disconnect of a call over a mobile network primarily due t
The Indian education system is dogged by poor pupil-to-teacher ratio (PTR). Although the Right to Education (RTE) Act recommends one teacher per 35 students at the secondary level, states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh accommodate almost 60 students in a classroom. In higher education, it is around one teacher per 23 students as against one teacher per 15 students in undergraduate colleges and on
The mega spectrum auction plan, which was recommended by the department of telecommunications (DoT), was approved by the cabinet today. This is the biggest spectrum auction which is estimated to fetch about Rs 5.66 lakh crore. Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that the cabinet has also approved all suggestions made by the DoT and TRAI. The approved auction will have spectr
Think e-commerce and the first thing that comes to mind is convenience, discounts, and of course a number of websites. But what escapes the mind is the crucial service that this kind of platform is providing to the nation. It serves as a social bridge connecting rural India with urban India. Like a thread, it ties the digital divide in the country. Vineet Pandey
Vijay Aggarwal, a 32-year-old businessman from Uttar Pradesh’s Aligarh city, last year received a call from an unknown person who introduced himself as an agent from Birla Sun Life Insurance. Vijay was told that he had got a bonus of Rs 75,000 on his policy, and to redeem it, he was asked to deposit Rs 14,000 in a bank account. He deposited the money, but didn’t receive any bonus. I
Whenever The Economist, the international magazine, publishes a map of India or south Asia, showing parts of Kashmir as ‘disputed territory’, officials sit down and on each and every copy meant for distribution in India they put a stamp mark saying the map is incorrect. The exercise has been followed so religiously that in 2012 the magazine accused India of being more intolerant on
Most telecom service providers failed to meet the call drop rate threshold of less than two percent in Delhi and the national capital region (NCR). This was revealed in an independent test drive report released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released on June 01. Service providers like Reliance communication and Vodafone met the call drop rate threshold.
An issue for quite some time, the interoperability of set-top boxes (STBs) is one of the key areas that Telecom Authority of India (TRAI) is focusing on its new consultation papers. According to Sunil Gupta, principle advisor, TRAI, “The probability of interoperability within CAS is very high. We have done lab tests, not the field tests and the results have been quite posi
Five years after the government approved a single, unified project to modernise public health system, the project still remains on paper. Under the national e-governance plan (NeGP), the ministry of health and family welfare had to implement the health mission mode project (MMP). The National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), the consultant for the project since 2012, gave a cost estimate o
Imagine a scenario where a doctor knows all about the patient’s health even before being bombarded with a litany of health woes. In the not too distant future, this is going to happen in India when an electronic health record will be maintained for every Indian. The government is planning to make a digital repository of medical history of everyone as it wants to ensure an &
The telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has sought suggestions from stakeholders of the industry on offering free data while “avoiding the ingenuity that the differential tariff regulation is meant to prevent.” TRAI on Thursday has floated its
Net banking is becoming passé. Banks today are offering their services on mobile phones for the convenience of users. Around 59 percent of customers avail various banking services on phones, according to KPMG, a global financial and business advisor. However, the security of such banking applications is still a matter of concern. While banks use two-way authentication process to identi
Home ministry is planning to launch a portal where the state governments can float tenders for requirements and other security and police related requirement. The states can also place their specific technological requirement on it. This was stated by said TVSN Prasad, joint secretary, police modernization, MHA, at a conference on smart policing and public safety, organised
