Dawn of Digital India: PM Modi To Inaugurate Digital India Week Today; Rs 2 Lakh Crore Investments

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Communications & Information Technology

06-July, 2015 17:43 IST
Ravi Shankar Prasad Launches Four World-Class Broadband Products Developed by C-DOT

Exhorts C-DOT to Bring out more Innovative Savvy Products to be used by more People Including Private Sector

Directs C-DOT to Ensure Digital Literacy in Respective Local Languages
India today launched four world class Broadband products by C-DOT. With this India has become at par with all other developed countries in the world in respect of quality telecommunication services and effective penetration of advanced broadband based services. Union Minister for Communication and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad while launching the new products indigenously developed by C-DOT today stated that the NDA Government is committed to bring all 2.5 lakh villages under broadband services and enhance internet penetration from 300 million to 500 million within 2 and half years.

Shri Prasad launched the products in the presence of his Kenyan counterpart, Cabinet Secretary, ICT in a function organized at C-DOT Campus, New Delhi. Shri Prasad further stated that the new products have been launched with an aim to provide an advanced digital infrastructure for digital India Initiative launched by the PM Shri Narendra Modi earlier this week. He further stated that Digital India initiative is bound to bring governance available in the palm of every Indian. It is more for the poor, underprivileged and the marginal people like masons and carpenters etc. In fact, Digital India is a transformational programme and a dream to bring a positive change. The initiative would also go a long way in digital empowerment of the people of India. The initiative launched by the Prime Minister would make India developed, globally credible, affluent and would further synch with Make in India and Skill India programme. Shri Prasad while elaborating the importance of skill development stated that there are ample opportunities of earning in mobile maintenance profession as the number of mobile sets are surging day by day.

Shri Prasad appreciated the role of C-DOT in transforming the telecommunication scenario in the country, especially in the rural India. C-DOT has to render significant contribution in providing broadband coverage across the nation. He also appreciated the products developed by the C-DOT and stated that the long distance Wi Fi is going to solve the problem of distance, whereas Solar powered Wi Fi would do away the dependence on the power availability. Shri Prasad stated that the Next Generation Network technology is quite important for the service providers for converging landline/ mobile/ data network. The MTNL and the BSNL are going to be benefitted as they would be able to transform their landline network into the most advanced network. He called upon C-DOT to come out with more advanced innovative products in order to ensure foolproof telecom services apart from lending a hand in ensuring digital literacy across the country in respective local languages. The Union Minister further stated that digital connectivity leads to good governance. Shri Prasad also stated that the C-DOT products are great innovative and dependable but I would be happier if the products are savvy and are used by more people. He exhorted the private sector to go for C-DOT products on large scale as these have been developed after a sustained research and analysis for which the Government invested a substantial amount keeping in view the need to match with the fast changing world.

Kenyan Cabinet Secretary, ICT, Dr.Fred Marang’I Okengo stated that his country has been following Digital India very closely. The launch of the new C-DOT products has testified the audacity of the ongoing innovative programs. He stressed the need of focus on the IT jointly by both the countries. The visiting dignitary stated that our country is keen to pursue the capacity building and is committed to expand the innovative programs with constructive cooperation. He described the ICT initiatives as game changers in making the lives of the people purposeful and comfortable. While appreciating the broadband network developed by the C-DOT he stated that it would go a long way in unlocking the potentials of our people in transforming the country. He also stressed upon the M Money and M Paisa programs which enable transparent and fast transfers. He described his country as an ICT hub and a gateway to Africa. The visiting dignitary assured a broader, detailed, effective collaboration in the field of communication and IT. He expressed his keenness in transfer of new C-DOT products to his country and sought assistance of India to find out feasible ways so that these could be launched in Kenya.

On this occasion, the Telecom secretary Shri Rakesh Garg, in his key note address expressed hope that the private sector would pick the C Dot products. He added that the new products have been tested prior to their launch. He called upon the C Dot to design the products that suits Indian requirements and conditions. The next generation land line network would not only revolutionize the basic telephony but would upgrade the entire landline services. He added that presently all gram panchayats are connected with broadband, the government is committed to connect all gram panchayats in the country with broadband.

Our efforts are in the way of taking dream of Digital India further, said Shri Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director, C-DOT while delivering his welcome address. He also stated that the C-DOT has been innovating with an aim to empower the weaker strata of the society and developing indigenous products to facilitate continuous telecom up-gradation. He said that technology is big enabler and broadband is big leveler. Roti, Kapda, Makan and Broadband are the basic needs of the human being.

Two Wi-Fi products launched by C-DOT viz. Long Distance Wi-Fi and Solar powered Wi-Fi address the connectivity problem of rural areas, hilly terrain, highways, dense vegetation, tunnels etc. They are also suited for greenfield projects like smart cities, areas where there is little/no grid supply, emergency situations, Disaster Management Networks etc. C-DOT has also developed a light weight Green Power Source to make the solution self-sustainable. Using this solution, reach of BharatNet can be increased beyond Panchayats to the remotest part of country.

100 Gbps OFC link system called “Suteevra” addresses the telco’s requirement of optimizing communication transport backbone in smart cities, IT parks, Industrial Complexes, Inter City Traffic, Data Centres etc. It offers ease of deployment, lesser shell space & lower power consumption, and saves on the high cost of laying fiber for each individual user. Further, SUTEEVRA is capable of serving multiple applications and protocols ranging from the Data, Storage, TDM and Video networks.

C-DOT NGN in MTNL network is advanced IP based network which is designed to replace existing TDM network due to ease in introduction of newer services. NGN provides a centralized remote control to the operators to manage the exchanges thereby providing better services to the end subscribers. Besides, there are considerable savings in the power consumptions with the introduction of the much smaller and low power consuming equipment. All interfaces and various types of gateways have been indigenously developed by C-DOT. The solution has been deployed in the MTNL network at Delhi and Mumbai for supporting migration to IP for 1000 subscribers at each location. The IMS compliant NGN Core has been installed at Minto Road (New Delhi) and Prabhadevi Building (Mumbai). The subscribers are distributed at the Hauz Khas and Worli exchanges in Delhi and Mumbai respectively. With this successful trial, MTNL can think of launching various services (voice, video and data) through various access modes based on IP. Also, it is now possible to shift existing 3.5 million landline subscribers of MTNL to IP based network.

The Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad lighting the lamp at the launch of the Products for providing Digital India Infrastructure, in New Delhi on July 06, 2015. The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications & Technology of Kenya, Dr. Fred Okeng'o Matiang'i is also seen.

The Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad launching the Products for providing Digital India Infrastructure, in New Delhi on July 06, 2015. The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications & Technology of Kenya, Dr. Fred Okeng'o Matiang'i and other dignitaries are also seen.

The Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad launching the Products for providing Digital India Infrastructure, in New Delhi on July 06, 2015. The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications & Technology of Kenya, Dr. Fred Okeng'o Matiang'i and other dignitaries are also seen.

The Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad addressing at the launch of the Products for providing Digital India Infrastructure, in New Delhi on July 06, 2015. The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications & Technology of Kenya, Dr. Fred Okeng'o Matiang'i and other dignitaries are also seen.

 

[Hindustani78]

The Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad along with the Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications & Technology of Kenya, Dr. Fred Okeng'o Matiang'i lighting the lamp to launch the Indo-Africa ICT Expo 2015 (scheduled on 28-29th September 2015, at Nairobi Kenya), in New Delhi on July 07, 2015.

The Union Minister for Communications & Information Technology, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad addressing at the launch of the Indo-Africa ICT Expo 2015 (scheduled on 28-29th September 2015, at Nairobi Kenya), in New Delhi on July 07, 2015. The Cabinet Secretary, Ministry of Information, Communications & Technology of Kenya, Dr. Fred Okeng'o Matiang'I is also seen.

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Communications & Information Technology
10-July, 2015 16:56 IST
Digital India Week Observed all over the Country

To Inform, Educate & Engage citizens across the country, Digital India Week, from 1st July to 7th July, 2015 has been observed all over India. In this week, multiple and varied events and activities took place at all the levels. Starting from the National level event, launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister, events were conducted at State and District levels, villages and Panchayats, Industry, Schools, Colleges and Universities, Common Service Centres, NIELIT centres, STPI centres, Post Offices, BSNL/MTNL Centers and CDAC centres. Many events, after the national launch, were also undertaken by Central Ministries and agencies under it.

During the Digital India Week, a number of services relating to Health, Education, Public Distribution System, Police, Agriculture, Trade and Employment etc. have been launched by various State Governments. Activities such as workshops, competitions, digital literacy activities, display of Digital India Films and Videos, rallies etc. have been organized by various stakeholders.

A gist of activities and events undertaken during the Digital India Week are as follows:

1. National Level Event – Digital India Week, launched by Hon’ble Prime Minister at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium on 1st of July, 2015, was attended by more than 15,000 persons including Ministers of Union Council, State Ministers, Ambassadors, young CEO’s & IT professionals and other dignitaries. The evet witnessed launch of 15 initiatives by Hon’ble Prime Minister. Some of the key highlights of this event are:

· Leading industry captains shared their ideas and vision of Digital India and committed investments of about Rs 4.5 lakh Crore, for the programme.

· Millions of viewers watched the live telecast of the event on Doordarshan, Webcast ( webcast.gov.in) and Youtube.

· Simultaneous telecast of the event was organised in Post Offices, CSCs, STPI Centres, NIELIT Centres, BSNL Centres, State Headquarters and Missions abroad.

· The event witnessed more than 1 billion impressions on officials social media handles (Facebook, Youtube, Twitter and Instagram).


2. Week Long Event – To maintain the momentum and enthusiasm of the National Programme, Week-long events were organised from State to the Gram Panchayat level. All State Governments, Industry and a number of Central Government Departments and Organizations have conducted the events. Some of the key highlights are as follows:


a. State Level Events – Have been conducted at all State headquarters. ~ 150 such events have been organized with a participation more than 98,000 people. About 25 such events were graced by Chief Ministers, LGs and Administrators. The events were also attended by State Ministers, Industry representatives and other dignitaries.

The key activities undertaken at the State level events are launch of new services by States, discussions on technology and e-Governance and awareness through publications and social media.

More than 250 services were launched in areas of Health information, utility services, smart PDS card, land record services, mobile app for civic amenities, services for farmers, social welfare and pension services, electoral services, online court services, police services, and employment exchange services


b. District Level Events –Events and activities have been organized at most of the District headquarters in the country. Reports have been received from 438 districts wherein in 1238 events, more than 1.36 lakh government officials and citizens have been informed on Digital India Programme and its services. A large number of events have been attended by Member of Parliaments, District Collectors, Members of the Legislative Assembly and other dignitaries.

Some of the key activities undertaken are workshops and seminars, digital literacy activities, registration for Digital Locker and other e-Services, promotion through rallies and publications and contests and competitions.


c. Common Service Centres (CSCs) Events – Events were organised at more than 57,000 CSCs, wherein more than 34.2 lakh people (rural citizens, youth, e-Service users) participated.

During these events citizens have been informed on Digital India, Financial Literacy, Digital Literacy, e-Health, e-Commerce etc. Activities like educating villagers about pension account opening, Bank account opening, Registration of youth for national skill development agency, career counselling and registration for jobs were also undertaken.


d. Post Office Events – Events have been organized at more than 1,500 post offices across the country and more than 1.75 lakh citizens have been informed about Digital India and e-Services.

Some of the key activities conducted during the week are, Jan Chetna Divas, Financial Inclusion Day, Education Day, e-Duniya Day, e Commerce Day and Public Grievance Day.


e. Digital Wellness Online Challenge – NeGD in partnership with Intel has organized the Digital Wellness Challenge in a large number of schools. This initiative has empowered the students for providing them with information and sensible application of the principles of cyber safety, cyber security and cyber ethics.

More than 6.23 lakh students, from class 6th to 12th participated in the event.


f. School, Colleges/ Universities Events - These events have been organized in association with State Education Departments. More than 1.35 lakh students in 1,500 School, Colleges/ Universities have been made aware about Digital India Programme and its services.

Activities like competitions for students and teachers, webinar on Digital India, showcasing on Digital India Film and Education Portals etc. have been organized, during the week.


g. STPI Events - Events and activities have been organized at more than 70 STPI Centres and associated IT units across the country and more than 17,000 IT professionals have been informed about Digital India and e-Services.

Activities like awareness through audio visuals and discussions, re-cycling the e-Waste by placing e-waste bins at various locations and campaign on Swacch Digital Bharat, Cyber Security and hygiene and IT Industry and Trade were undertaken.


h. NIELIT Events - Events and activities have been organized at more than 120 NIELIT Centres across the country and more than 1.25 lakh citizens have been informed about Digital India and e-Services.

Activities like live broadcast of PM’s event at NIELIT centres, classroom sessions on Digital India Pillars and services, top shows, launch of smart classrooms, cycle rally etc. have been undertaken.


i. Industry Events – Industry and industry associations organized more than 75 events on Digital India in which ~ 25,000 IT professional and employees and school students participated.

Awareness activities through workshops and seminars have been conducted in areas like Future classrooms, Digital Literacy Programmes, e- Waste Management, Telemedicine and Tele-consulting, Internet safety, Putting Indian heritage Online and enabling educators to support education system of future.


j. Gram Panchayat Events – These events have been organized in partnership with Ministry of panchayati raj, Government of India. Till date, reports have been received of events at more than 1,600 gram panchayats and participation of ~ 58,000 people. The actual number would be much larger as the states, during the Video Conference held on 9th July informed activities in almost all the GPs were carried out.

Some of the key activities undertaken are Awareness creation on Digital India & e-Panchayat services, Updation of details on Panchayat websites and other information portals of Panchayats, Mobile based mapping of Panchayat assets (mAsset), Digital Literacy Enrolment drive, Competitions among public with incentives and prizes.


k. CDAC Events - Events and activities have been organized at 16 CDACCentres and more than 10,000 students and IT professionals have been informed about Digital India and e-Services.



3. Initiatives/Launches by Central Ministries/ Departments

a. Department of Telecom - Pan India Full Mobile Number Portability (MNP) implemented from July 3rd onwards- helping in Mobile Identity and realising the goal of JAM Trinity ( Jandhan - Aadhar - Mobile ).


b. CEO Roundtable by FICCI with the theme ‘Investment in NexGen Digital Infrastructure’ was held on 3rd July 2015 which was graced by Hon’ble Minister of Communications and IT, Government of India as chief guest. Hon’ble Minister said that the government is working towards Digital Inclusion and that the private sector has a pivotal role to play in driving the Digital India programme.


c.Bharatnet (NOFN) events– During Digital India Week, Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) organised events around Bharatnet (NOFN) at various locations in 13 states. The activities relating to e-Governance, e-Education, e-Health, e-Commerce and e-Agriculture were organised where large number of students and citizens participated.


d. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited – launched a number of initiatives such as BSNL Buzz and Speed Pay under Digital India program during the week. These initiatives have been launched by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications and IT. Events and activities were also organized at BSNL Centres across the country and where BSNL officers, stakeholders and citizens were informed about Digital India and e-Services.


e.Centre for Development of Telematics ( CDOT) – Hon’ble Minister of Communications and IT, launched the following products as part of Digital India programme.

· Solar powered Wi Fi hot spots

· Long Distance Wi Fi System

· Next Generation Network in MTNL network

· 100 Gbps Optical Fibre Link System


f. Ministry of Rural Development – Under the Digital India Initiatives Ministry of Rural Development has launched a number of IT services, namely

· Launch of mobile monitoring system (MMS) and distribution of 35,000 tablets in identifying gram panchayats (2,500 blocks)

· Launch of online learning portal (OLP) for MNREGA

· Launch of MNREGA village view


g. Ministry of Agriculture –NDDB has developed an application called “Pashu Poshan” under Digital India. This application is to enable dairy farmers balance the ration for their animals taking into account nutritional requirements and locally available feed material to optimize the cost of feeding.

· Newly developed application of INAPH will be available on web as well as android platform

· Framer can access application by registration on INAPH Portal (http://inaph.nddb.coop)

· INAPH currently covered over 40.87 lakh animals of over 20.23 lakh farmers across more than 21690 villages


h. Ministry of Labour and Employment –EPFO has launched following initiatives under Digital India programme.

· Universal Account Number (UAN) : 4.64 Crores UAN allocated

· Online Inoperative Accounts Helpdesk

· Online Transfer Claim Portal

· Electronic Challan cum Return

· Helpdesk for UAN to assist employers and employees with toll free number 18001 18005

· Short code SMS service for members who have activated their UAN number whereby members can send an SMS from their registered mobile number to 7738299899 to receive PF information in 10 different Indian languages


i. Ministry of Commerce & Industries – Ministry has launched the following initiatives under Digital India program

· Information on prices of Jhinga by using missed call/sms services

· M-agriculture – launch of mobile app for water resource management for Jhinga cultivation

· Portal for online MPED registration for exporters


j. Ministry of Panchayati Raj – Many panchayat departments, across States/UTs initiated their Social Media pages.


4. Social Media – An extensive Digital and Social Media campaign was conducted during the Digital India Week so that netizens, in India and abroad can be made aware of these programme. Hon’ble Prime Minister also initiated the Digital Dialogue ([HASHTAG]#DigitalDialogue[/HASHTAG]) on Twitter, which received very encouraging response from technocrats and IT professionals. Some of the key highlights are

· [HASHTAG]#DigitalDialogue[/HASHTAG] received 391 million impressions during period of 3 days (4th – 6th July, 2015)

· 1 Billion impressions on the day of National Event

· On Facebook, 1 person joined every second with a total reach of 2.6 Million during the week.

· On Twitter 1 follower added every 4 seconds with 3.6 Million impressions during the week.

 

[Hindustani78]

Experts believe tech addiction is on the rise and something needs to be done about it sooner rather than later. — FILE PHOTO

http://www.thehindu.com/news/nation...smartphone-security-drill/article19504122.ece

Concern over security features and embedded programmes of handsets; motivated by data leakage to other countries
Concerned about instances of Indian mobile phone users’ contact lists, details and text messages being leaked to other countries, including China, the government has asked all firms selling smartphone handsets in the country to share details of the processes they follow to ensure there is no possibility of data thefts or leakages from their devices.

The government is concerned not just about the security features of the handsets being sold, but also of the embedded programmes that are a part of the user experience, such as the operating system, browser and pre-loaded applications.

“Since a mobile handset is central to the government’s Digital India programme, we are trying to make them more secure. The government is concerned about protecting users since there have been reports that some phones leak data,” a senior government official said.

“If data is the most important resource today, like raw materials used to be in the past, then we cannot ignore any prospects of such data going to a third country, be it China or any other country. This is not in our interests,” the official asserted.

The move comes in the wake of a review meeting on cyber security concerns held by Electronics and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday, where specific instructions were given to officials to see to it that data leakages from handsets are prevented.

‘Inform us’
“As a first step in this direction, we have asked all smartphone sellers in the country to inform us of the security procedures they follow to ensure data security of the users of those devices. They have to report to the Electronics and IT Ministry on this issue by August 26,” the official said.

While he refused to name specific companies whose phones have been compromising user data, the official said that the government will take steps to independently verify the claims made by mobile phone sellers about their security systems, and this could include independent third party audits, if need be.

Section 43A of the Information Technology Act puts the onus on corporates to secure the data in their possession, and the compensation they may be liable to pay for a breach of data or the loss caused by data theft could be unlimited, the official said.

 

[Tshering22]

The challenge is to provide cyber security indigenously.

There are many Indian companies that can actually make a fortune just developing the security apparatus for Indian IT.

Digital market is said to take a quantum leap in the coming years.

Where we are weak is cyber security.

 

[Hindustani78]

The challenge is to provide cyber security indigenously.

There are many Indian companies that can actually make a fortune just developing the security apparatus for Indian IT.

Digital market is said to take a quantum leap in the coming years.

Where we are weak is cyber security.

Actually Indian Establishment is first spreading awareness about the Cyber threat problem and ISRO do have the solution as Indian Establishment is having secure servers and in Republic of India we produce our own processors , chips etc.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam have noticed this problem nearly a decade ago and on that numerous times satellite phones and Satellite equipment have been confisticated by the Indian Intelligence Agencies. Private operators basically from aboard have been problematic . 26/11 have been an eye opener for the Indian Establishment.

Indian Establishment has already started the Cyber security cell which keeps round the clock eye on the activities of the Tourists , Around 150,000 Cyber Security cells are already working 24/7 under the command of Indian Military Intelligence Agencies.

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Commerce & Industry
25-August, 2017 17:08 IST
Commerce and Industry Minister Sets up Task Force on Artificial Intelligence for Economic Transformation

Commerce and Industry Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman has constituted a Task Force on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for India’s Economic Transformation. The Minister said with rapid development in the fields of information technology and hardware, the world is about to witness a fourth industrial revolution. She said driven by the power of big data, high computing capacity, artificial intelligence and analytics, Industry 4.0 aims to digitise the manufacturing sector. Smt. Sitharaman said the panel will comprise of experts, academics, researchers and industry leaders and will explore possibilities to leverage AI for development across various fields.

The task force will submit concrete and implementable recommendations for government, industry and research institutions .

The task force will have the following members

1.

Dr. V. Kamakoti, IIT Madras


Chairperson

2.

Mr. Anuj Kapuria, High Tech RoboticSystemz Ltd.


Member

3.

Dr. Anurag Agarwal, Institute of Genomics & Integrative Biology, CSIR


Member

4.

Dr. Ashish Dutta, IIT Kanpur


Member

5.

Ms. Ashwini Asokan, Mad Street Den, Chennai


Member

6.

Mr. Gautam Shroff, Vice President & Chief Scientist, TCS Innovation Labs, Tata Consultancy Services, Gurgaon


Member

7.

Mr. G. H. Rao, HCL Technology


Member

8.

Mr. G. Madhusudan, IIT Madras


Member

9.

Mr. G. V. N. Apparao, Ex-Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Cognizant


Member

10.

Ms. Komal Sharma Talwar, Founder, XLPAT


Member

11.

Mr. Kunal Nandwani, Founder & CEO, uTrade Solutions


Member

12.

Dr. Shantanu Chaudhary, IIT Delhi, Department of Electrical Engineering


Member

13.

Mr. Vijay Kumar Sankarapu, Founder & CEO, Arya.in


Member

14.

Mr. Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & IT


Member

15.

Mr. Amandeep Gill, Ambassador/PR to CD, Geneva


Member

16.

Mr. K. Nagaraj Naidu, Joint Secretary (ITPO), Department of Economic Affairs, Ministry of Finance


Member

17.

Dr. Aloke Mukherjee, DRDO


Member

18.

Mr. Ravinder, Joint Secretary, DIPP, Ministry of Commerce & Industry


Convenor


In addition to regular members, official participation from the following organizations shall also be requested:

1. NITI Aayog,

2. Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology

3. Department of Science & Technology

4. UIDAI

5. DRDO.

The CEO, NITI Aayog, Shri Amitabh Kant releasing a magazine at the round table conference for “India Housing Technology Challenge”, in New Delhi on August 25, 2017. The Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Shri Durga Shanker Mishra and other dignitaries are also seen.

The CEO, NITI Aayog, Shri Amitabh Kant addressing the round table conference for “India Housing Technology Challenge”, in New Delhi on August 25, 2017. The Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Shri Durga Shanker Mishra and other dignitaries are also seen.

The Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development, Shri Durga Shanker Mishra addressing the round table conference for “India Housing Technology Challenge”, in New Delhi on August 25, 2017. The CEO, NITI Aayog, Shri Amitabh Kant is also seen.

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Electronics & IT
28-August, 2017 16:36 IST
Secure Email Service to Government of India

As part of the mandate under the Digital India program, Government will provide a secure eMail service to all its officials for secure communication. As of now the service will be offered to 5 million users. Currently the user base is 1.6 million


In accordance with the eMail policy of the Government an email id will be assigned to all Government officials at the Centre and State through National Informatics Centre.



The primary trigger behind the policy was Government data which resides on servers outside India and on servers beyond the control of the Government of India.


Service offering:

1. Largest service of its kind for the Government with a user base of 5 million

2. Rich user experience with a streamlined browser interface that provides natural conversation; enables rich compose, drag and drop; sophisticated and easy-to customize filters, management and search of large inboxes of email and voicemail messages, multiple calendars, contacts and task lists.

3. Enhanced security authentication mechanisms for users with geo-fencing and device mapping.

· Centralized email architecture across the Government would make the process of ensuring a robust security mechanism for Government data.

· Primary domain as “@gov.in” and a Roadmap to include local languages and सरकार.भारत domain


This service will increase the productivity and become a step towards the “Green Government” as all official communication will be done using eMail. A pilot of the service has already been deployed and running for a select user base which includes senior officials.



This Service will be a National resource that will help Government of India employees to be better informed, productive, and more responsive in their interactions with others.

 

[Hindustani78]

New Delhi , August 29, 2017 23:50 IST
Updated: August 29, 2017 23:50 IST
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/only-indian-phones-for-defence-officials/article19583072.ece

Officials will also get a secure email service.

Plan to secure communication systems
The Centre is considering the creation of a secure communications ecosystem for its officials, especially those working in the defence sector.

One of the proposals is mandating the use of mobile phones manufactured by Indian companies for official communication. The government will also be providing a secure email service to its officials.

“The view is that communications for vital departments of the government need to be secured… a lot of the companies store user data on a server in a foreign country, including China,” a senior official, who requested anonymity, told The Hindu.

Data protection law

The suggestion on mobiles came up at a meeting called by Minister for Electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad with senior officials in the department, including representatives of Cert-In, earlier this month. The Army now uses secure landline phones to communicate.

“We are already working on a data protection law. The Minister wants us to also look at ways to secure communication between the vital government departments, such as defence,” the official said.

The official said the recent move to seek details of security and safety processes followed by various handset manufacturers selling smartphones in the country is the first step in this exercise.

While further details are to be worked out, there is a possibility that the firm supplying mobile phones to government departments will be asked to customise certain features and adhere to certain specifications.

On the email policy of the government, the official said, “It will the largest service of its kind for the government with a user base of 5 million… an email id will be assigned to all officials at the Centre and State level through National Informatics Centre.”

A pilot of this service has already been done and is running for a select user base, including some senior officials. “The primary trigger behind the policy is control of data which resides on servers outside India and on servers beyond the control of the Government of India,” the official said.

The email will offer enhanced security authentication mechanisms such as geo-fencing and device mapping. “A centralised email architecture across the government will help in securing Government data,” the official explained.

While currently the primary domain name used is ‘@gov.in’, the government plans to introduce local languages and sarkar.bharat domain.

 

[ashok321]

RBI highlights 3 fiscal challenges that can derail Modi's growth push

Hehehehehehehe

https://twitter.com/x/status/902899055696760832

And the biggest irony?
Modi follows this account.
Lol

One more sarcastic slap:

https://twitter.com/x/status/902884176201793536

 

[Hindustani78]

New Delhi, September 24, 2017 19:21 IST
Updated: September 24, 2017 19:48 IST
http://www.thehindu.com/business/In...it-minister/article19747185.ece?homepage=true
Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that 95 mobile manufacturing companies have set up their plants under the new government.

“Today 95 mobile manufacturing factories have come in India and India is becoming a big hub of electronics and mobile manufacturing. 32 have come in Noida and Greater Noida,” Mr. Prasad said at Capital Foundation Annual Lecture.

He was speaking on ‘Emerging Digital World In India’.

“In Silicon Valley 51% of new inventions are IT based and 14% of those are created by Indian minds there. That is how India is emerging,” Mr. Prasad said.

He said that young entrepreneurs are growing their businesses and raising hundreds of millions from investors.

“Every day we are adding 3-4 start-ups. They are IITians, they left their jobs in America and come back to India,” Mr. Prasad said.

The minister complimented the Supreme Court for leveraging digital technology in expediting judicial processes.

“We have created digital data grid. Today we have got about six crore orders of judgements on the digital data grid and about 4 crore of pending cases are also there. At a click of button you can monitor it, how many of them have been disposed,” Mr. Prasad said.

The minister said that the system can be used to check adjournments being given by district courts.

Mr. Prasad said that the government has started facilitating legal advise to people in rural with help of common service centres (CSCs) across country from June onwards.

“About 3,000 requests came and 2,100 have been given legal advice,” he said.

The CSCs connect person seeking legal advice with lawyer empanelled with National Legal Services Authority.

The minister said that the government has announced plan to make 6 crore families in the country digital literate as part of the Digital India plan.

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Communications
26-September, 2017 13:50 IST
India Joins Race in 5G Ecosystem, Constitutes High Level Forum on 5G India 2020

India is at the cusp of a next generation of wireless technology 5G. 5G has been conceived as a foundation for expanding the potential of the Networked Society. A digital transformation brought about through the power of connectivity is taking place in almost every industry. The landscape is expanding to include massive scale of “smart things” to be interconnected. Therefore, the manner in which future networks will cope with massively varied demands and a business landscape will be significantly different from today.

The economic benefits from the 5G technology are also quite immense. As per the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Committee on Digital Economic Policy, it has been stated that 5G technologies rollout will help in,

a) Increasing GDP

b) Creating Employment

c) Digitizing the economy.

For India, 5G provides an opportunity for industry to reach out to global markets, and consumers to gain with the economies of scale. Worldwide countries have launched similar Forums and thus, India has joined the race in 5G technologies. We are open for collaboration with them.

Government has constituted High Level 5G India 2020 Forum with three Secretaries of key Ministries/Departments Telecom, Meity and DST, and also comprising of renowned experts like Dr. A. Paulraj, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University, USA, Mr Gururaj Deshpande - Chairman of Sycamore Networks, Sandstone, USA, Indian industry led by CEOs of ICT industry, Telecom Standard Development Organisation of India (TSDSI), Professors from IIT Madras, IIT Mumbai, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IISc Bengaluru, IT industry and stakeholders from industry associations.



The Term of Reference of the High Level Forum for 5G India 2020 shall be: -

a) Vision Mission and Goals for the 5G India 2020, and

b) Evaluate, approve roadmaps & action plans for 5G India 2020.


The primary goals of the forum are to achieve:

· early deployment of 5G in India

· a globally competitive product development and manufacturing ecosystem targeting 50% of India market and 10% of global market over next 5 to 7 years.

The forum will complement the eco-system by focused actions in the following areas:

· Research Ecosystem – for IPR development, standards development and proof of concepts through research projects, PPP projects, testbeds and pilot roll-outs.

· Regulatory Framework – including spectrum assignments and a start-up friendly regulatory environment to enable leap-frog and embracing of innovative technologies.

· Inclusive Business environment – with special focus on investment incentives favourable to start-ups and innovators and enablement of Venture capitalists.

Forum will constitute a number of Steering Committees in different domains.

A vibrant eco-system of research built around 5G that encompasses Industry, Government and Academia will further strengthen the MAKE (& DESIGN) in INDIA initiatives to enable:

· Design and manufacture of 5G technologies, products and solutions in India;

· 5G start-ups that enable this design and manufacturing capabilities;

· Generation of IPR backing the above designs;

· India based companies should have some essential IPR in the 5G standard;

· Manufacture of 5G chipsets, this may require massive investments;

· Appropriate testbeds and technology platforms to enable and help Indian technical ecosystem to have an edge in 5G;

· Accelerated deployment of next generation ubiquitous ultra-high broadband infrastructure with 100% coverage of 10 Gbps across urban India and 1 Gbps across Rural India.

<><><><>

 

[Hindustani78]

The Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney and other dignitaries at the inauguration of the Workshop on Big Data Analytics in Government, in New Delhi on October 06, 2017.

The Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney addressing at the inauguration of the Workshop on Big Data Analytics in Government, in New Delhi on October 06, 2017.

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Electronics & IT
27-September, 2018 15:31 IST
Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad to launch Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics and DigiVaarta

National Informatics Centre (NIC) and National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI) have jointly set up a Centre of Excellence for data analytics to support Government departments to unlock the hidden potential of the data that they are generating as part of the governance processes and use it to improve the overall governance. Launch of Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics (CEDA) is being held on 28th September, 2018 (Friday) by the Hon’ble Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology, Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad in the presence of Hon’ble Minister of State, Electronics & Information Technology, as part of Workshop on Data Analytics in Government. The event will be attended by several dignitaries from the Central Government.

NIC as a premier technology advisor and ICT solution provider to Government at all levels, has always taken the first step to introduce the latest technologies and services in government, be it the introduction of ICT in Government, establishment of NICNET or National Knowledge Network (NKN), development of critical e-Governance solutions and a host of other services required by the Government. NICSI is a trusted partner of NIC and has been instrumental in supporting all NIC’s initiatives through provisioning of resources and establishing & managing ICT infrastructure such as National Data Center at Shastri Park, Development Center, Cloud infrastructure etc. Recognizing the emerging digital ecosystem, challenges and opportunities, CEDA is envisaged to kick-start and fast track the adoption of advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities and make it the locus of expertise for the Government department in this avant garde field.

Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics (CEDA) is being set up with the sole vision of kick-starting and fast-tracking the adoption of advanced analytic and machine learning capabilities by making the Centre the locus of expertise and excellence in the field of Data Analytics. The centre shall provide quality data analytic services to government departments at all levels by identifying appropriate tools and technologies and deploying people with right expertise.

Through its focused efforts, the centre aims to provide data analytics services to the government and help in solving complex policy issues through data-driven decision making so as to ensure effective formulation and implementation of various development initiatives that will ultimately benefit the citizens.

CEDA proposes to establish strong partnerships with academia and industry to ensure that the cutting edge technologies and quality expertise are brought in to help the Government take advantage of the booming analytic wave. The centre also proposes to build tools and technologies, in collaboration with academia and industry, which will provide quality tools at a much lower cost to the government.

As part of its service offerings, it will help the departments

a. Understand their business requirements and define their analytic needs

b. Identify the data sets that are required to meet the analytic needs

c. Determine access to the relevant data sources (both within as well as outside the government)

d. Build the required data analytic solutions

e. In integrating departmental data silos and deliver an integrated whole-of government analytics for an integrated policy formulation.



NNK/MD

 

[Hindustani78]

Ministry of Electronics & IT
28-September, 2018 15:28 IST
IT Minister inaugurates Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics

DigiVaarta to popularize Digital Payments

India has emerged as a big centre of Data Analytics; today the world is looking at India: IT Minister

Today inaugurated Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics (CEDA) in New Delhi. The technology backbone of the government – the National Informatics Centre (NIC), in a joint initiative with National Informatics Centre Services Incorporated (NICSI) has set up CEDA.

Today is the age of Data, and Data is power and information highway is equally important as national highways. “India has emerged as a big centre of data analytics and today the whole world is looking at us”. Unveiling the potential that data analytics has in transforming the way the government schemes are run and also released a white paper on ‘Data Analytics in Government’ which brings to the fore the need for a data driven decision making and policy formulation in Government across the entire spectrum of its activities.

At the launch said that data analysis has been traditionally done since the time of Kautaliya for effective decision making, but today with great capabilities achieved in Information and communication technologies Data analysis can help in effective and efficient governance.

Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics (CEDA) will aid in fast-tracking the adoption of advanced analytics in government. In the era of rapid digitization of various government functions and services under Government of India’s flagship Digital India program, the centre aims to strengthen citizen service delivery through data-driven governance. The Centre of Excellence for Data Analytics (CEDA) has been created to support government departments to unlock the hidden potential of the data that they are generating as a part of the governance processes, and use it to improve the overall governance. It will provide world class data analytics services to the Government. Through its service offerings, CEDA aims to:

• Be a focal point and centre of expertise in data analytics for government and public sector
• Help ministries in assessing impact from the analytics solutions and help in understanding changes to organizational roles and responsibilities
• Facilitate faster and cost effective technology adoption
• Promote capacity building and enable the departments to self-service analytics with minimum technical support
• Implement knowledge repository to collect learnings from across projects and share best practices across initiatives to ensure adoption of best practices
• It aims at providing following services to Government:-

1. Data Quality Assurance Services –. The centre will provide data profiling tools and techniques and necessary expertise to analyse the data for quality issues. While data cleaning shall be done for making the data ready for analytical use, recommendations shall also be given in order to help the department take necessary actions to further improve their data collection process.
2. Custom-built Data Analytics Solutions – Build analytic solutions that are specific to a particular problem which may relate to a single or a combination of departments.
3. Develop reusable assets - This will be one of the many USPs of the centre. CEDA will build Data Analytic solutions that address a generic data analytics problem that is prevalent across departments or States. Such a solution will then be made available to other departments/states as a pre-built analytic solution that can be operationalized for the new States at a cost effective and a much faster rate.
4. Knowledge Management – CEDA will implement knowledge repository to collect learnings from across projects and share best practices across initiatives and will ensure usage of best practices in across the government.
5. Capacity Building and Self Service Analytics – Besides creating the analytics solutions for the government departments, the centre’s focus would also be to train and enable the departments to do self-service analytics by simplifying the data in a manner in which an administrator can use it with minimum technical support.
6. Change Management - CEDA will help ministries in assessing impact from the analytics solutions and help in understanding changes to organizational roles and responsibilities

The shift towards the digital age, propelled by Digital India Program, has led to tremendous growth in data related to various aspects of Government functions and services. As the next logical step, government departments are now looking to exploit this mount of gold mine by investing in analytical solutions that can turn this data into insights.

CEDA proposes to establish strong partnerships with academia and industry to ensure that the cutting edge technologies and quality expertise are brought in to help the Government take advantage of the booming analytic wave. Through its focused efforts, the centre aims to provide data analytics services to the government and help in solving complex policy issues through data-driven decision making to ensure effective formulation and implementation of various development initiatives that will ultimately benefit the citizens.

DIGIVAARTA LAUNCHED

DigiVaarta was launched in Delhi with the express intention of spreading awareness on DigiDhan, and also to spread popularity of BHIM’s barcode-based merchant payment mode with merchants and traders at large. This launch has two components –

1. An SMS application which operates from NIC’s SMS Gateway on a special Short-code service allotted for this purpose by DoT with the number “14444”. Citizens will receive SMS messages which are pre-approved by experts and the response messages will be made available for further action, analysis and research. The Government proposes initially to pay for the citizen’s response so as to promote citizen’s engagement and make the awareness program completely free for the citizen.
2. A Mobile application version of DigiVaarta, which can be accessed and used by smart phone users. This app can perform many more function beyond chat, offers audio-video tutorials etc.

The initiative aims to enable citizen government dialogue and engage citizens in educational and outreach programmes. With the mobile phone as its interface, DigiVaarta’s content and communication style is interactive and adaptive. The same message can be used to interact with both smart phone and feature phone users. It can engage the user over multiple channels in a 2-way interaction, using different content styles (stories, images, videos, discussions and polls) in different languages. DigiVaarta has been launched to spread awareness amongst the common public on digital payment topics such as BHIM, Aadhar Enabled Payment Systems (AePS), Bharat QR, and Security Do’s and Don’ts to begin with.