C Jayashankar Prasad, director, Kerala State IT Mission (KSITM), in conversation with Shivangi Narayan, talks about cyber security in Kerala, the ways to make it better and the ultimate dream of the state to become a digital society. What is CERT-K and what kind of powers does it have to tackle cyber security? CER
MV Tanksale, CMD, Central Bank of India, tells Governance Now that today the villagers feel that it is not their own need but the government’s need that they should be given Aadhaar numbers, bank accounts and direct transfers. But things are changing and good things have happened in financial inclusion in the last one year, since we met him for our first ‘Bank India Bank’ spec
Union Bank of India believes that banks have to create the “need” for the rural poor to engage with banks. It is this belief that led to Ernakulam in Kerala—where UBI is the lead bank—to become the first “meanigful financial inclusion district” of the country, reveals D Sarkar, CMD. Edited excerpts of an email interview with Governance Now:
After working in the ministry of human resource and development (HRD) for nine years and more than 20 years of work in the education sector, Dhir Jhingran was appointed as the national coordinator of right to education (RTE) act at the national commission for protection of child rights (NCPCR). An IAS of 1986-batch Assam cadre, Jhingran resigned from the post within just six months of a
For the development economists, the randomised control trials (RCTs) are the latest fad. Imported from medical research into the field of economics, many economists including Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo have been heavily using RCTs into their work. Banerjee and Duflo’s book, ‘Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty’, highlighted the re
In conversation with Shivangi Narayan, Brian Moran, global managing director of Accenture’s Public Service Operations & Management Industry, talks about moving services to the digital domain thus improving the productivity and reducing cost of services. Could you elaborate more on your research which says that if we increase the efficiency of delivery
The Congress, as the leading party of the ruling coalition, is completing two terms in power. But 2014 is going to be the toughest task it has faced in recent decades. Reasons are many: a series of corruption scandals, popular middle-class movements against it, the rise of Narendra Modi and finally the apparent indecision over Rahul Gandhi’s role. Veteran leader Digvijay Singh, who is, am
India has no dearth of government schemes and programmes aimed at delivering development in general and welfare to the needy. But have they delivered development and made a difference in the life of a poor family? More importantly, do we raise these questions to begin with – questions of evaluating the impact of development/welfare initiatives? Howard White, an economist an
The Intellectual Property Appellate Board of India on March 4 rejected the German firm Bayer AG`s appeal of a ruling last year that allowed Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma to produce a cheaper generic version of Bayer’s kidney and liver cancer drug Nexavar. This would result in a treatment that more people would be able to afford. Our cover story for September 1-15, 2012 issue went behi
The Intellectual Property Appellate Board of India on March 4 rejected the German firm Bayer AG`s appeal of a ruling last year that allowed Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma to produce a cheaper generic version of Bayer’s kidney and liver cancer drug Nexavar. This would result in a treatment that more people would be able to afford. Our cover story for September 1-15, 2012 issue went behi
The Intellectual Property Appellate Board of India on March 4 rejected the German firm Bayer AG`s appeal of a ruling last year that allowed Hyderabad-based Natco Pharma to produce a cheaper generic version of Bayer’s kidney and liver cancer drug Nexavar. This would result in a treatment that more people would be able to afford. Our cover story for September 1-15, 2012 issue went behin
Last year, when Dinesh Trivedi as railway minister tried to take some pragmatic steps, his party boss Mamata Banerjee wanted him out, and the PM obliged her. As his successor presented an election-oriented budget today, here we revisit our interview with Trivedi last year. That summer of 1969 was memorable for Dinesh Trivedi, the former railway minister and member of pa
Career diplomat Arvind Gupta who is the director-general of Delhi-based think tank, Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), is man of ideas. He wants to take the institute, which is in its 49 years of existence, to the new heights of excellence. Parachuted from the ministry of external affairs (MEA) where he continues to serve as additional secretary to head IDSA, he is trying to bre
Aravind Sitaraman is the president for inclusive growth with Cisco, where he aims to provide inclusive growth by providing education, health and skill development in India through out-of-the-box technology solutions. The company has partnered with various state governments as technology and service providers for their tele-education and tele-health initiatives. In conversation with Shiv
A 1988 batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Muktesh Chander has served in Delhi Police for over 20 years and is known for deploying technology for better policing and traffic management. He is an electronics and telecommunication graduate from Delhi university and is currently pursuing his PhD in information security management from IIT-Delhi. As centre director of the national critical i
Gulshan Rai has over 25 years of experience in the area of cyber security, e-governance and legal framework on IT. He has drafted the IT Act, 2000 and IT (Amendment) Act, 2008. Currently, he is director general of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) under the department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) that is the only government agency tasked to respond to cy
On Lynas’ turnaround There is nothing new, content wise. It is a huge PR exercise emerging from the (GM) industry as though Lynas’ change of heart is a game changer. That is not true at all. He was never an active GM crusader or made substantive contribution to the anti-GM debate or activism. He was mostly working in the field of climate change. He doesn&rsqu
Utpal Sharma in his dual role as special secretary IT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Principal, Dr BR Ambedkar Institute of Technology is pushing for e-governance initiatives in the UT to make sure that people enjoy technology and its benefits. Edited excerpts from his interview with Shivangi Narayan How do you handle e-governance with such glaring connectiv
What do you think of environmentalist Mark Lynas’ sudden change of heart – from being an anti-GM crusader to a pro-GM crusader? It is a renewed propaganda push to create goodwill around GM crop. This is a product that very large corporations are trying to sell. India is a very particular target because of large scale rejections (of GM crop) in Europe, many pa
Dr Bhargava, what do you think of environmentalist Mark Lynas’ sudden change of heart – from being an anti-GM crusader to a pro-GM crusader? [Read more here] I think it doesn’t change the situation one bit. We have no credentials of him and one sw
