With an aim at making the train operation system more efficient, Railways have undertaken a massive exercise of creating a database of its assets including track, station and signals through geographic information system (GIS) at an estimated cost of Rs 40 crore. "An inventory of the entire railway network including land will be created through GIS and the preparatory work for the
Federal Bank has tied up with Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) for providing merchant banking and card top-up services for 13 stations in Reach 2, likely to be commissioned by the year end. Federal Bank MD and CEO Shyam Srinivasan said the bank would provide top-up facility for smartcard users for `Namma Metro`. The bank would provide ethernet-based EDC machines
Tripura chief minister Manik Sarkar on Monday laid the foundation of a Software Technology Park (STP) at Indranagar here and appealed investors to invest in the state. "Today is an important day because future industrialisation of the state would not be possible without improvement of Information Technology", Sarkar said laying the foundation of the STP. He appealed th
Google has completed the acquisition of cellphone maker Motorola Mobility for USD 12.5 billion in an all-cash deal and appointed Dennis Woodside as the new CEO in place of Sanjay Jha, who has decided to step down. "I`m happy to announce today that our Motorola Mobility deal has closed...Sanjay Jha, who was responsible for building the company and placing that big bet on Android, ha
In a breather to telecom firms seeking to participate in spectrum auction, a DoT panel studying Trai`s proposals has said two slots of radio-waves can be put up for bidding irrespective of conditions attached by the regulator, according to sources. Telecom operators, mainly Norwegian firm Telenor, have approached senior leaders to increase the number of spectrum slots for auction as a s
The issue of cross media ownership will be again examined by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) at the instance of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry which has sought an examination of the issue. Sources said that I&B Secretary Uday Kumar Varma has written to new TRAI chairman Rahul Khullar on May 16 in this regard. "Major players are looking for ex
Tata Communications, which operates one of the largest submarine cable network on Tuesday posted a higher net loss of Rs 794.65 crore for the fiscal ended March, 2012 as compared to Rs 776.9 crore in the previous fiscal. The company however, hopes to maintain a good growth in FY 13. For FY 2012, income from operations was Rs 14,196.05 crore against Rs 11,931.99 crore in the preceding fi
The country`s second largest mobile operator Vodafone on Tuesday reported a 26.3 per cent rise in pretax profit at Rs 8,549 crore on the back of an improvement in average revenue per user and massive increase in revenue from data services. "We are happy to announce an overall healthy growth in our business, which makes India operations the sixth largest in terms of revenue for the
Telecom infra firm ATC Telecom Tower Corporation has approached the sectoral tribunal TDSAT to recover its dues from mobile operator Etisalat DB, which has closed operations after cancellation of its license. In its petition, the Kerala-based firm has requested the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal to direct Etisalat to pay Rs 70 lakh in dues. The TDSAT has list
A former Yahoo executive and an Indian-American hedge fund manager have pleaded guilty to insider trading charges that involved exchanging confidential information on a deal between Yahoo and Microsoft for personal gains. The case comes close on the heels of another high profile insider trading trial that began on Monday in a New York court involving another Indian-American Rajat Gupta,
Following industry leader Bharti Airtel move to cut tariff, Aditya Birla Group firm Idea Cellular on Tuesday announced slashing charges for 3G services by up to 70 per cent. Idea prepaid and postpaid customers will now have to pay 3 paise per 10 KB of data against the earlier rate of 10 paise per 10 KB. "The new tariff plan aims to make internet usage within the reach of ru
US-based Facebook Inc, accused of hosting allegedly objectionable content, on Tuesday told a court in New Delhi that the content on its website www.facebook.com is owned by its users while it is only an intermediary. "Facebook Inc is an intermediary that acts as a host and permits its users to post their messages, photos, content and other information on www.facebook.com. The conte
Punjab is all set to computerise records on new arms licenses within one year using a specialised software in its police commissionerate and all the districts. The Ministry of Home Affairs has made it mandatory for all state police departments to make records available online through the Arms Information Software while issuing new licenses, Under Secretary in the ministry Molay Sangal s
Emerging cities like Surat, Indore, Bhubaneswar and Visakhapatnam face increasing risk of online attacks as cyber criminals look to exploit the low adoption levels of security measures in these smaller cities, security software firm Symantec on Tuesday said. In its Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec said smaller and emerging cities like Cochin and Jaipur are increasingly facing t
As managing director of Accenture’s health and public service business in India, Krishna Giri is responsible for all of the firm’s work for the national and regional governments of India. He discusses the potential of mobile governance in an interview with Samir Sachdeva. How do you see the emergence of mobile governance as an extension of e-governance, globally and
Pardon me for my long-windedness. But we have to get this straight. When a smart young stalker got hold of Angelina Jolie’s mobile number and started bombarding her with text messages and obscene calls from random numbers, cyber experts from the Los Angeles police department (LAPD) had to step in. After around a month they caught him. A criminal case was filed in the Los Angeles superior
If Ghevarchand Nainaji Tawar had any hopes of justice for his daughter, a gang-rape victim, those were diminishing. A fast-track court in Gandhinagar had found the two accused guilty in 2006, two years after the crime. But they appealed in the high court which acquitted them. Tawar wanted the state government to challenge the verdict in the supreme court, but to no avail. As he pointed
The government’s decision to divide the work of biometrics capturing between the unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) and the registrar general of India (RGI) is an example of the division of labour that exists among different organs of the state. This division exists in many stakeholders in the area of e-governance too. Various government agencies often claim that a s
Meena Chaturvedi is an Indian Audit and Accounts Service official of 1987 cadre. After a 23-year career which included a number of key assignments in the central and state governments and in the comptroller and auditor general (CAG), she took voluntary retirement to join SREI Sahaj e-Village Limited as chief executive officer (public services and e-learning) in October 2010. SREI Sahaj i
The government on Monday launched an e-filing system for registration of new crop varieties to protect the rights of farmers, researchers and breeders from infringement. Unveiling the e-filing system, Minister of State for Agriculture Charan Das Mahant said, "The online system will help faster review of application and issue of registration of certificates to farmers, breeders and
