Monthly Archives: October, 2007
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Indonesia disaster preparedness a work in progress
Indonesia has learnt lessons from dealing with a string of earthquakes, but still can do more to reduce the impact of such disasters by quake proofing buildings and deploying more tsunami buoys, officials said on Wednesday.
An official at Indonesia’s National Coordinating Agency for Disaster Management said there had been progress in educating people since the [...]
Friedman on rural outsourcing
If I.T. Merged With E.T. – New York Times
To appreciate that potential, look at how much is being done with just car batteries, backup diesel generators and India’s creaky rural electricity grid. I traveled to a cluster of villages with a team from the Byrraju Foundation — a truly impressive nonprofit set up [...]
“Green” tax to be imposed on mobiles?
The Lakbima newspaper (30 October 2007) reports that Central Environmental Authority Chairman and Jatika Hela Urumaya politician Udaya Gammanpila is advocating a “green tax” on mobile phones, tyres, electronic equipment and asbestos.
It appears that the JHU has a vendetta against the 6 million plus mobile users in Sri Lanka. They originated the idea of taxing [...]
“Facebook” technology to fight poverty
In internal discussions, I had expressed skepticism about Facebook/Linked In type services for anything other than social interactions. But it looks like I am being slowly proven wrong!
In India, Poverty Inspires Technology Workers to Altruism – New York Times
Manohar Lakshmipathi does not own a computer. In fact, in India workmen like Mr. Manohar, [...]
Joseph Wilson nominated for CCP
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LIRNEasia Research Fellow and Associate Professor of Law at Lahore University of Management Sciences (LUMS) , Joseph Wilson, Ph.D., has been nominated to be a member of the Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP).
For more information, see news item in Daily Times, Pakistan
Dhaka HazInfo Dissemination Workshop | October 25, 2007 at BUET
On October 25, 2007, LIRNEasia’s Rohan Samarajiva, Nuwan Waidyanatha and Natasha Udu-gama traveled to Dhaka, Bangladesh to present findings from the “Evaluating Last-Mile Hazard Information Dissemination” (HazInfo) pilot project in the first international dissemination workshop for HazInfo entitled “Sharing Knowledge on Disaster Warning: Community-Based Last-Mile Warning Systems” at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology [...]
India’s Mobile Phone Market Fastest Growing in World?
India’s mobile phone market has become the fastest growing in the world, with Indians adding nearly six million new connections every month. As Anjana Pasricha of VoA reports from New Delhi, much of the growth is among low-income consumers.
Telecom companies are going all out to woo such customers, offering them deals that make cell phones [...]
The Chinese are coming
The stunning impact of the Chinese telecom equipment manufacturers observed in South Asia in as early as 2005 is now being observed in the balance sheets of the old established equipment suppliers.
Telecoms-equipment makers | Toughing it out | Economist.com
First, the market for wireless networks is beginning to mature. After years of bumper [...]
Cellular operators urge Indian Govt. to go slow on Mobile TV
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New Delhi, (PTI): Cellular operators in the country have asked the Government to go slow on devising regulations on Mobile TV, saying that the technology is “nascent” and the customer behaviour still uncertain.
“This is a nascent business and therefore, no decision should be taken which [...]
Mobiles for humanitarian action?
Our friend and colleague from TVEAP, Nalaka Gunawardene, writes from Geneva:
Message to aid workers: Go mobile — or get lost! « Moving Images, Moving People!
It might be that aid workers are all frustrated computer geeks…because all their talk was about collaborative and networking software, Geographic Information Systems (GIS), the use of really high [...]
Foreign investors may join Indian GSM firms against ‘pro-dual-technology’ policy
Foreign telecom investors, who hold significant stake in India telecom companies, are exploring the possibility of joining hands and initiating an arbitration proceeding against the government of India and department of telecom (DoT) in foreign courts against the new telecom policy.
The move comes as some of the foreign investors say the that the new policy [...]
Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) announces tariff cut
The Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board (BTTB) Thursday announced cut in call tariffs, line rent, and transfer fees for the board’s land phones effective from November 1, said a telephone board release on Thursday. The nationwide dialling charge has been halved to Tk 1.5 a minute on 30-second pulses; peak and off-peak hour billing has been [...]
Are early warning systems gender biased?
The article below (issued to mark International Day for Natural Disaster Reduction, 11 days late) says that the manner in which warning are communicated “typically disadvantage women.” The “evidence” or illustration used to support this broad claim is strained, to say the least. Our experience with the HazInfo project in Sri Lanka [...]
Rural BPOs: Corporate responsibility or business?
Rural BPO at Mahavilachchiya received wide publicity yesterday, with several local newspapers prominently highlighting the to-be-success story like Sunday Times did below in a first page half page article, and a finance editorial.
BPO in the Anuradhapura backwoods
IT rumble in the jungle
What puzzles us is why some of these articles (Not the Sunday Times story) referred [...]
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