ITV

Tag: CSC

  • 9 million broadband connections by year-end

    9 million broadband connections by year-end

    NEW DELHI: The government has set a target of providing nine million broadband connections by this year end and 20 million connections by the end of 2010.

    Addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his ministry, Communications and Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran stated that more than a million broadband connections would be added per month before the end of 2007 thanks to the availability of new disruptive wireless broadband technologies such as Wi-MAX.

    He stressed the need for wire line and wireless broadband to co-exist and expand together and said new applications such as tele-aid medicines, IPTV, video conferencing, e-governance, e-commerce etc. will be available to citizens with broadband availability. Members complained about the poor mobile connectivity in the rural/remote areas and stressed the need for improving the complaint redressal mechanism in the backward and rural areas.

    There will be special emphasis for the North-Eastern States and Jammu & Kashmir, Maran added. He informed the members that the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) had declared Year 2007 as “Year of North East and Jammu Kashmir” with the objective of improving teleconnectivity in these states. Dr. Shakeel Ahmad, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology was also present.

     
    Through a presentation on the initiatives on Broadband, members were shown the targets to be achieved under the broadband initiatives, broad strategy and action plans prepared by the BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).

    It is envisaged under the action plan that broadband coverage of all secondary and higher secondary schools, public health care centers and Village Panchayats would be provided by the year 2008. Broadband connectivity would be provided to 100,000 Community Service Centers (CSC) covering 20000 CSCs by ADSL by September 2007; 1000 blocks by wireless broadband by December 2007 and the remaining 5000 blocks by wireless broadband with USO support by June 2008. BSNL, as part of their action plan, have envisaged adding an average of 500,000 broadband connections per month from January 2008.

    Eighty per cent of the exchanges would be broadband by the end of 2007 and roll out of IPTV will begin in major cities. In addition to this, BSNL will aggressively roll out high speed broadband (like Wi-MAX) services and allow integration of multiple access technology like ADSL 2 +, VDSL 2, fibre-home, Wi-Fi, Wi-MAX, 3G, CorDECT etc. The focus will be to provide multi-play instead of triple play.

     
    As a part of the strategy, MTNL has envisaged a target of providing one million broadband connections by the end of this year and addition of an average 100,000 connections per month from January 2008. It has also decided to strengthen its IPTV services which have been recently rolled out fully in Mumbai and in limited areas of Delhi.

    Maran informed the members about the recent amendment to the Indian Telegraph Act to provide support from USO fund for mobile and broadband services in remote/rural areas. He said restrictions of providing mobile services within 10 km. of international borders had been relaxed to 500 metres except along the Line of Control and Line of Actual Control in the areas of Akhnoor and Pathankot of J and K. Maran hoped that mobile connectivity to the rural area and border areas will improve significantly with these decisions.

  • Efforts on to make IT available to rural areas: economic survey

    Efforts on to make IT available to rural areas: economic survey

    NEW DELHI: The Government has formulated a proposal to establish 100,000 Common service Centres (CSCs) in rural areas, which will serve not only as the front-end for most government services but also as a means to connect the citizens of rural India to the World Wide Web.

    According to the Economic Survey 2006-07 tabled in Parliament today by Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the scheme will be implemented through Public Private Partnership (PPP). An outlay of Rs. 57.42 billion has been approved of which the share of the Central Government and the State Governments would be Rs 8.56 billion croe and Rs 7.93 billion, respectively. The balance would be invested by the private sector.

    Listing the Policy Initiatives For Electronics and IT Sector, the Survey says that In order to ensure that the benefits of IT reach the common man, the Government has initiated a move to make available tools and fonts in various Indian languages freely to the general public. Tamil, Hindi and Telugu software tools and fonts have already been released. All Indian languages are expected to be covered in the next one year.

    A proposal for Electronics and IT Hardware Manufacturing Policy is also under consideration which aims to rationalize tariff structure on capital goods and inputs, unify manufacturing for domestic market and exports, facilitate registration of international patents, transfer state-of-the-art technology (TOT) and enhance Research and Development.

    The Information Technology Amendment Bill has been introduced in the Parliament on 15 December, 2006 to put in place technology applications, security practices and procedures relating to such applications. Furthermore, it addresses the issue of technological neutrality in IT laws as recommended by UNCITRAL Model Law on Electronic Signature.

    The Survey noted that the Indian IT-enabled Services and Business Process Outsourcing (ITES-BPO) have demonstrated their superiority, sustained cost advantage and fundamentally-powered value proposition in the international market. The software and ITES exports from India grew from $12.9 billion (Rs 582.4 billion) in 2003-04 to $17.7 billion (Rs 782.3 billion) in 2004-05. Software and ITES exports from India estimated at $23.4 billion during 2005-06 was up 32 per cent from the previous year.

    This sector is growing with Indian companies expanding their service offerings, enabling customers to deepen their offshore engagements and shifting from low-end business processes to high-value ones.

    While there have been no spectacular achievements in the hardware segment as in the case of the software segment of the IT sector, there has been a steady progress in production and exports of hardware.

    Contrary to some popular misperceptions, the growth of the IT and ITES sector has had a salutary effect on the employment scenario with total number of professionals employed in this sector growing from an estimated 284,000 in 1999-2000 to
    1,287,000 in 2005-06. The increase in the number of employed person in the sector wasas high as 230,000 in 2005-06 itself. In addition, Indian IT-ITES is estimated to have helped create an additional 3 million job oppurtunities through indirect and induced employment in telecom, power, construction, facility management, IT transportation, catering and other services. Government has taken several steps to further enhance this industry.

    With strong demand over the past few years placing India among the fastest growing IT markets in the Asia-Pacific region, the industry’s contribution to GDP rose from 1.2 per cent in 1999-2000 to an estimated 4.8 per cent in 2005-06. Indian companies are enhancing their global services delivery capabilities through a combination of greenfield initiatives, cross-border mergers & acquisitions, partnerships and alliances with local players. This is enabling them to execute end-to-end delivery of new services. Global software giants such as Microsoft, Oracle and SAP, have established their captive development centres in India.

    A majority of the companies in India have already aligned their internal processes and practices to international standards such as ISO, CMM, and Six Sigma. This has helped establish India as a credible sourcing destination. As of December, 2006, over 400 Indian companies have acquired quality certifications with 82 companies certified at SEI CMM Level 5 – higher than any other country in the world.
     

  • Tour de France kicks off on Ten Sports on Sunday

    Tour de France kicks off on Ten Sports on Sunday

    MUMBAI: Ten Sports, the world’s number one sports channel for south Asians, will telecast live action from Tour de France, arguably the toughest sporting event of the world.

    This year’s Tour de France assumes special significance as it will be the first time after seven years that a new rider will have the honour of wearing the yellow jersey. After an emotional farewell last year, the legendary American cyclist Lance Armstrong will hand over the crown to a new rider following his retirement.

    The 93rd Tour de France starts on 2 July from Strasborg in neighbouring Germany, and will be made up of a prologue and 20 stages, covering a total distance of 3,600 kilometres. The Tour finishes at Champs-Elysees in Paris on Sunday 23 July. The cyclists will have only two days of rest in between – on Mondays 10 and 17 July.

    The break-up of the 20 stages are nine flat stages, four medium mountain stages, five mountain stages and two individual time-trial stages. Ten Sports will be there to bring action everyday from the scenic French urban and countryside as the riders are tested with extreme conditions.

    Except for the first three stages of the Tour that clash with the live coverage of India in the West Indies, the remaining 17 stages will be live on Ten Sports, with the coverage starting at 6 pm from 5 July onwards. Complete coverage of the first three stages will be telecast at 3:30 am and 11:30 am IST the following day.
    After its absence last year, the prologue (of seven kms) time trial returns to make the shorter time trial specialists happy. The prologue will be held at Strasborg today 1 July.

    Among the favourites to follow in the footsteps of Lance Armstrong are the 32-year-old German Jan Ullrich of Team T-Mobile, who won the race in 1997 and has already sounded a warning to his rivals by winning the Tour of Switzerland this year; Italian Ivan Basso of Team CSC, considered by none other than Armstrong as the rider most likely to take over his crown, and Alejandro Valverde of Spain, who has won two titles this year.