Phone Numbers to have 11 digits from Jan 2010

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), GoI plans to increase the digits for both fixed-line and mobile phone numbers to 11. The implementation for mobile phones would be as early as January, 2010.

Rural Kiosks by BSNL Rolls-Out

With the inauguration of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL

Planning the Future India : Subas Pani, Planning Commission, India

In the next one year, we would like to have high speed connectivity in 6,000 blocks and 4,000 tehsils across India”

“In the next one year, we would like to have high speed connectivity in 6,000 blocks and 4,000 tehsils across India”

Planning Commission has played a pivotal role in creating a conducive environment for e-Developmentof India as a whole. What is the road ahead?

Planning Commission has an important role in the e-Governance initiatives of the country. One of the major initiatives is to monitor the release of funds and progress of expenditure. We are trying to work out a comprehensive scheme from the Controller General of Accounts, so that there is the minimum time lag between the release of funds for various ministries and actual unit where the funds are utilised. This will be monitored constantly. This is an ambitious plan and the piloting is going on for the same. We hope that it will be rolled out in the next financial year. A separate dedicated team is being created for it.

The other is that for the overall programme, we are making a major initiative by assisting the state in making the overall planning and monitoring systems for all the plan and progarmmes of both the Government of India as well as the State Governments. For this we will provide number of professionals who have a background in project management in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), evaluation and Geographical Information System (GIS). Through this programme we expect that we will be able to put a GIS unit in each district which will act as a support to the planning team. There are various other programmes for which we are releasing funds, and we are looking into the fact that how they can be converged and be complementary to one another.

Thirdly, there are various flagship programmes such as National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), Pradhan Mantri Gram Sarak Yojna. For example in the  Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojna, the implementation agency is an executive engineer, in NREGA, it is the programme officer in the block level. The implementing agency should be enabled to use ICT in an effective manner, so that the primary data which is originating is captured directly and fed into the computer system and the data base is updated. This will compress the time and enable the planners to plan in a better way.

We have initiated ‘reality checks’ of all the 6000 blocks in the Rural Development Department. Reality checks mean the checking what are the computer systems available, whether there are trained personnels available, whether there is data connectivity, which type of data connectivity is available

India

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh will launch the country’s first 3G services on the occasion of inaugurating the India Telecom 2008 today in New Delhi. The service will enable transfer of high speed data, video streaming etc. on mobile phones. The public sector MTNL is rolling out the 3G service…

Tenders Invited For MNP

The Department of Telecommunications, Government of India proposes to issue License for providing MNP Services in the country. MNP is to be implemented in each intra Licensed Service Area (LSA)…

Mobile Tariff Reduction

Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia speaking in Rajya Sabha yesterday, informed…to undertake a review of mobile termination charges…

WiMAX : Answer for Last Mile Solution : C S Rao, WiMAX Forum India, India

It is advisable that the government speeds up the auction process for the spectrum and completes the process

5000 Rural Blocks in India to get Wireless Broadband soon

India will connect 5000 blocks in the country with wireless broadband, once the spectrum is allocated later this year, announced Department of Telecommunications (DOT) , Government of India. The project will be undertaken along with the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). The plan aims to provide connectivity to villages coming within a radius of 10 Kms of the Taluka/Block headquarters.

Enabling Last Mile Connectivity : Ajay Bhattacharya, Administrator-Department of Telecommunications, India

“There are six lakh villages in India and a vast number of them were uncovered with telecom services. USO Fund provides support for setting up rural telephony in these uncovered villages”, says Ajay Bhattacharya, Administrator, Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Government of India to egov magazine

Connecting the Next 500 Million: Challenges-Opportunities

[This article was published in the January 2008 issue of the eGov Magazine (http://www.egovonline.net) ]

According to the 11th five year plan, the target of connecting people has been set as 500 million of the government of India in 2010 and 650 million by 2012.