Ministry of Railways has constituted an expert committee for modernisation of Indian Railways under the chairmanship of Sam Pitroda, the advisor to prime minister on public information infrastructure and innovations, which has been given time of two months to submit its interim report and up to March 31, 2012 to submit a final report. The information was provided by Bharatsinh Solanki, minister
The government will offer electronic delivery of services under 275 service categories spanning across central, state and local government levels, under the various mission mode projects (MMPs) of the national e-governance plan (NeGP). Informing the Rajya Sabha on the same, Sachin Pilot, minister of state for communications and information technology on Friday said that NeGP pre
UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani on Thursday urged the healthcare sector to make use of Aadhaar ID numbers to create a database of patients with a view to improving services and expediting settlement of insurance claims. "The medical industry can also build up a database using `Aadhaar` as base for seamless use by various health chains. That could also be used for insurance claim
Former President A P J Abdul Kalam on Thursday said factors like lack of transparency are coming in the way of development reaching villages and cited as a model a programme being implemented by Gujarat government to ensure that the rural sector reaps the benefits of growth. Under the programme implemented by the Narendra Modi administration, approximately 1 lakh government offic
The Centre for Advanced Financial Research and Learning (Cafral), an organisation set up by the central bank, on Thursday asked banks to use technology not only to scale up their operations but also to offer better services. "To be able to ensure that the challenges of banking the unbanked are met effectively and converted into a growing and sustainable business model, there
Global chip major Intel on Thursday said smartphones with variants of its Atom processors will debut in the domestic market next year. "Google TV, which uses Intel processors has already debuted. So are Ultrabooks and tablets with Intel processors. Next year, you will see smartphones with Atom cores make their debut," Intel Technology India and South Asia
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange launched the website`s new project on Thursday, the publication of hundreds of files it claims show a global industry that gives governments tools to spy on their citizens. The files reveal the activities of about 160 companies in 25 countries which develop technologies to allow the tracking and monitoring of individuals by their mobile phones, em
Google India on Thursday announced to offer free websites for one year to all small and medium businesses in Rajasthan. The company held a seminar for businesses in the state to help them understand the benefits of the internet medium and how it can help them to scale their business. The business owners were also showcased Google`s new free online tool `Google Glob
Aiming to tackle corruption and bringing transparency in public procurement, the government has asked ministries to publish all tenders and details of bid awards on a central portal from January 1. "It will be mandatory for all ministries departments...to publish their tender enquiries, corrigenda thereon and details of bid awards on the Central Public Procurement portal ...
An "Accessiblility Initiative" to employ over 2000 people with disabilities in IT-BPO industry was launched here today as part of helping the IT sector take forward the thrust on inclusion and diversity. Collaborating for the two year advocacy and job placement campaign with a grant of Rs 48 lakh, the Washwani Foundation and NASSCOM Foundation aim at enabling IT-BPO com
Given the global economic scenario and the drop in India`s GDP growth, the Indian IT industry needs to observe the situation carefully and reflect upon the kind of work it is doing, Nasscom President Som Mittal said here on Thursday. "I think the world is getting tougher and it is a matter of concern. We are seeing economic situations and GDPs going down and more importantl
A K Garg, Director (Human Resources) of BSNL, has been appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of telecom PSU MTNL, company sources said today. Garg replaces acting CMD Kuldip Singh. Singh, the company`s Technical Director, was given the additional charge of CMD following resignation of CMD R S P Sinha in January this year. MTNL, which provides t
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Thursday said it had pushed for laying optic fibre in major cities first before it being taken up in rural areas. "Our recommendations on National Broadband Plan was to include cities (first) and towns (second). We said that there should be Fibre to Cities, Fibre to Towns and Fibre to Villages. Now, only village portion is
Days after voicing concern over the data collection process of Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Home Minister P Chidambaram on Wednesday said a decision on who would capture biometrics information of all Indians will be taken by a Cabinet Committee. "What is being referred to the Cabinet Committee on UIDAI is who should do the capture of the biometrics. Shou
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has been selected as the finalist in the fifth annual Masahable Awards for the category of the "Must-Follow Politician on Social Media". He is, in fact, the only Indian who is nominated in the 28 categories of the Awards. The category honors the reader`s choice for the politician who is most active on social media and best uses Twit
The government on Wednesday said regulator Trai has issued show cause notices to telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone, for violating mobile number portability guidelines. "Trai has received a number of complaints regarding rejection of mobile number portability (MNP) requests by mobile companies," Minister of State for Communications an
With increasing penetration of technology, cyber crime is on the rise with 966 cases reported in 2010 under the IT Act, 2000, Communications and IT Minister Kapil Sibal today said. "With the increase in the increasing proliferation of IT and related services, there is a rise in the number of cyber crimes and cyber security incidents," Sibal said in a written reply to th
Facebook, the world`s No.1 Internet social networking firm, has admitted to making a "bunch of mistakes" over privacy issues and vowed to better protect the data of its 800 million users after being pulled up by the US` top consumer protection agency. "Facebook has agreed to settle Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that it deceived consumers by telling them th
The difference between a mail and an email may be well known but that has not prevented two Opposition members in Lok Sabha from asking the Prime Minister`s Office (PMO) about it. A written question in this regard was asked by Purnmasi Ram, a JD(U) MP from Gopalganj in Bihar and C R Patil, a BJP MP from Navsari in Gujarat, who sought to know from the Prime Minister the difference
