Tag: ECI

  • After Odisha, UP and Tamil Nadu declare journalists as frontline workers

    After Odisha, UP and Tamil Nadu declare journalists as frontline workers

    New Delhi: After Odisha, now Uttar Pradesh has declared journalists as frontline workers to be given priority in the ongoing vaccination drive and also directed authorities to allot separate centres for them where they can be inoculated.

    The new government formed in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal has also classified journalists as frontline workers, a day after emerging victorious in the Assembly elections. 

    “All journalists working in newspapers and the visual media risk their lives and their work will be considered as frontline workers in Tamil Nadu,” said Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin on Tuesday.

    The devastating second wave of Covid2019 has taken a severe toll on news mediapersons, many of whom have been reporting from the ground. According to the Delhi-based Institute of Perception Studies, more than 100 journalists have died since 1 April 2020. Over 52 scribes from various parts of the country lost their lives in April alone.

    The decision comes amid several appeals by the Editors Guild of India (EGI) to the central government to give journalists priority in vaccination along with frontline workers. While several states, including Uttrakhand, Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab have already declared journalists as frontline workers, the Centre has not yet made any provision in this regard.

    “Despite the support from various state governments and media organisations, the central government has not responded to this request. Now, even though vaccination has been technically opened for all above 18 years of age, there is an acute shortage of vaccines. Therefore, the Guild’s urgent demand that journalists be given priority along with other frontline workers,” said the Guild in a recent statement, while condoling the death of mediapersons.

    Welcoming the UP government’s decision on Tuesday, News Broadcasters Association president Rajat Sharma said UP chief minister Yogi Adityanath has directed his officials to open special vaccination centres exclusively for media personnel.

    Sharma had earlier written a letter to the UP CM to make the vaccines available to all media personnel and their family members on priority. “Noida has emerged as a big centre for national electronic media, and most of the TV journalists and camerapersons work and live here. In most of the cases, TV reporters and camera persons have to work in the midst of crowds, and meet Covid2019 patients, doctors and health care workers in hospitals. Hence, the need for vaccinating them and their family members on priority,” wrote the senior journalist.

  • Vaccinate journalists on priority, Editors Guild urges government as Covid death toll rises

    Vaccinate journalists on priority, Editors Guild urges government as Covid death toll rises

    New Delhi:  As the country battles the deadliest wave of Covid2019, with a record four lakh positive cases recorded in the last 24 hours, the challenges faced by journalists and media organizations continue to intensify. Over 52 journalists from various parts of the country lost their lives due to Covid2019 in April alone.

    As India opened the vaccination drive for all adults (18-45 years), here on Saturday, the Editors Guild of India (ECI) urged the government yet again to consider journalists as frontline workers and ensure they are vaccinated on priority.

    “The Guild is extremely distressed that the central government has not yet taken any steps to hasten the vaccination of journalists over the last few months. Many of them (who succumbed to Covid2019) were freelancers and hence, were not insured. Others who worked for media organizations did not enjoy the assurance and comfort of being insured by their companies,” it stated.

    The Guild condoled the death of journalists due to Covid2019 in the past year. According to the Delhi-based Institute of Perception Studies, more than 100 journalists have died since 1 April 2020. “Many of them were reporting on the worsening pandemic and bringing to fore stories of the great human tragedy that has been unfolding before us,” said ECI. “The Guild pays homage to the fortitude and commitment to work that these journalists have displayed over the past year.”

     

     

    ECI had earlier demanded that journalists be considered as frontline workers and vaccinated on priority.  “Despite the support of various state governments and media organizations, the central government has not responded to this request,” it asserted while highlighting that that issue of shortage of vaccines has now hit Phase-3 of vaccination drive. It also urged the media organizations to ensure the safety of their journalists.

     

     

     

     

    On Saturday, two more journalists, Assam Tribune’s Delhi correspondent, Kalyan Barooah and his wife and senior journalist Nilakshi Bhattacharyya succumbed to Covid19.

    Meanwhile, Mumbai Press Club also urged the government to consider journalists as frontline workers. “It’s urgent, all lives matter,” it appealed to the government on Saturday

  • Tata Communications, Comcast, others collectively win MEF Excellence Award for Third Network PoC Innovation

    Tata Communications, Comcast, others collectively win MEF Excellence Award for Third Network PoC Innovation

    MUMBAI: Comcast Business, ECI, Sparkle, Tata Communications and Viavi Solutions have collectively won one of two 2016 MEF Excellence Award for its Third Network Proof of Concept innovation. The companies collaborated on an orchestrated, multi-carrier, multi-platform demonstration as part of the Proof of Concept (PoC) Showcase at MEF16, in Baltimore, Maryland.

    Recognizing that enterprises today have diverse requirements; the Third Network combines the performance and security assurances together with the agility and ubiquity of the Internet and brings a new network experience to millions of new users.

    This award-winning collaboration was designed to showcase how a customer could gain access to flexible bandwidth and applications on-demand without human intervention – enabling unprecedented levels of network control for new and evolving types of cloud-centric applications, for network connectivity services within current network architectures as well as emerging SDN and NFV implementations. For service providers, additional upsides include the drastic reduction of service turn-up time.

    During the PoC, the joint innovation simulated the delivery of Ethernet services through the three different network service providers, via an orchestrated environment with flexible bandwidth deployed on demand and connectivity bursting to Amazon Web Services (AWS) when needed.

    “The Proof of Concept Showcase allowed MEF16 attendees to witness, first-hand, leading-edge implementations of agile/dynamic, assured, and orchestrated Third Network services powered by LSO, SDN, NFV, and CE 2.0,” said Nan Chen, president of MEF. “We congratulate Comcast Business, Sparkle, Tata Communications, ECI, and Viavi on winning a coveted Proof of Concept Award for demonstrating the ability to provision on-demand Carrier Ethernet services across multiple network operators and multiple technology platforms.”

    The PoC showcased how a CE 2.0 E-Line service with a bandwidth on-demand requirement can be provisioned and orchestrated across multiple service and cloud providers using the MEF LSO Reference Architecture. Comcast Business, Tata Communications and Sparkle provided the originating network, the intermediate network and the direct connection into the cloud, respectively. ECI’s EPIC platform with fulfillment functionality developed as part of the OpenLSO fulfillment project provided the means to seamlessly connect these disparate domains. Viavi’s VNF-based service acceptance and testing technology verified the newly created service meets previously defined SLA requirements. The EPIC open source platform works towards a “vendor-agnostic” vision to deliver real-time control and assure network performance across carriers.

    MEF is the driving force enabling Third Network services for the digital economy and the hyper-connected world. Comcast Business offers Ethernet, Internet, Wi-Fi, Voice, TV and Managed Enterprise Solutions to help organizations of all sizes transform their business. ECI is a global provider of ELASTIC network solutions to CSPs, critical infrastructures as well as data center operators. Sparkle is the wholly owned subsidiary of Telecom Italia Group (NYSE: TI) with the mission to develop and consolidate the Italian telco’s international services business.

    Tata Communications along with its subsidiaries is a leading global provider of A New World of Communications™. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.

    Viavi is a global provider of network test, monitoring and assurance solutions to communications service providers, enterprises and their ecosystems, supported by a worldwide channel community including Viavi Velocity Solution Partners.

  • Tata Communications, Comcast, others collectively win MEF Excellence Award for Third Network PoC Innovation

    Tata Communications, Comcast, others collectively win MEF Excellence Award for Third Network PoC Innovation

    MUMBAI: Comcast Business, ECI, Sparkle, Tata Communications and Viavi Solutions have collectively won one of two 2016 MEF Excellence Award for its Third Network Proof of Concept innovation. The companies collaborated on an orchestrated, multi-carrier, multi-platform demonstration as part of the Proof of Concept (PoC) Showcase at MEF16, in Baltimore, Maryland.

    Recognizing that enterprises today have diverse requirements; the Third Network combines the performance and security assurances together with the agility and ubiquity of the Internet and brings a new network experience to millions of new users.

    This award-winning collaboration was designed to showcase how a customer could gain access to flexible bandwidth and applications on-demand without human intervention – enabling unprecedented levels of network control for new and evolving types of cloud-centric applications, for network connectivity services within current network architectures as well as emerging SDN and NFV implementations. For service providers, additional upsides include the drastic reduction of service turn-up time.

    During the PoC, the joint innovation simulated the delivery of Ethernet services through the three different network service providers, via an orchestrated environment with flexible bandwidth deployed on demand and connectivity bursting to Amazon Web Services (AWS) when needed.

    “The Proof of Concept Showcase allowed MEF16 attendees to witness, first-hand, leading-edge implementations of agile/dynamic, assured, and orchestrated Third Network services powered by LSO, SDN, NFV, and CE 2.0,” said Nan Chen, president of MEF. “We congratulate Comcast Business, Sparkle, Tata Communications, ECI, and Viavi on winning a coveted Proof of Concept Award for demonstrating the ability to provision on-demand Carrier Ethernet services across multiple network operators and multiple technology platforms.”

    The PoC showcased how a CE 2.0 E-Line service with a bandwidth on-demand requirement can be provisioned and orchestrated across multiple service and cloud providers using the MEF LSO Reference Architecture. Comcast Business, Tata Communications and Sparkle provided the originating network, the intermediate network and the direct connection into the cloud, respectively. ECI’s EPIC platform with fulfillment functionality developed as part of the OpenLSO fulfillment project provided the means to seamlessly connect these disparate domains. Viavi’s VNF-based service acceptance and testing technology verified the newly created service meets previously defined SLA requirements. The EPIC open source platform works towards a “vendor-agnostic” vision to deliver real-time control and assure network performance across carriers.

    MEF is the driving force enabling Third Network services for the digital economy and the hyper-connected world. Comcast Business offers Ethernet, Internet, Wi-Fi, Voice, TV and Managed Enterprise Solutions to help organizations of all sizes transform their business. ECI is a global provider of ELASTIC network solutions to CSPs, critical infrastructures as well as data center operators. Sparkle is the wholly owned subsidiary of Telecom Italia Group (NYSE: TI) with the mission to develop and consolidate the Italian telco’s international services business.

    Tata Communications along with its subsidiaries is a leading global provider of A New World of Communications™. With a leadership position in emerging markets, Tata Communications leverages its advanced solutions capabilities and domain expertise across its global and pan-India network to deliver managed solutions to multi-national enterprises, service providers and Indian consumers.

    Viavi is a global provider of network test, monitoring and assurance solutions to communications service providers, enterprises and their ecosystems, supported by a worldwide channel community including Viavi Velocity Solution Partners.

  • Election commission launches media channel for voter awareness

    Election commission launches media channel for voter awareness

    MUMBAI:  In its bid to reach out to a large number of voters to exercise their valuable franchise, a ‘Voter Education Channel’ was launched by the election commission of India (ECI). The channel which can be viewed on YouTube, has video clips of many Indian icons urging citizens to cast their important vote.

     

    The first clip features a recorded speech by the chief election commissioner VS Sampath asking voters to ‘turn up at polling stations and exercise their right to vote in an informed and ethical manner’. This speech, uploaded yesterday has so far recorded 2028 hits. The other video links have sportspersons like boxer MC Mary Kom, cricketer MS Dhoni and badminton sensation Saina Nehwal, who are seen urging voters to exercise their vote. Channel viewers can also watch videos of ECI brand ambassadors like Aaamir Khan and former president of India Mr. A.P.J Abdul Kalam asking voters to do the same.

     

    The newly launched YouTube link also has a number of other messages recorded by various state election offices asking and motivating voters to cast their vote during this elections. The channel also provides details about the procedures deployed to use the electronic voting machines (EVMs) and their functioning while others mention about the none of the above (NOTA) option procedure. The link to this YouTube channel can also be found on the official website, www.eci.nic.in- under the section ‘Voter Education Channel’. A senior official from the ECI has said that many such video links will be posted soon on the YouTube channel.