Tag Archive for ‘Indian government’ at LIRNEasia

Tag Archive for 'Indian government'

Call for Papers: Infrastructure Regulation: What works, Why, and How do we know?
Deadline: 05 December 2008.

Mumbai attacks and the role of media: Television to Twitter

on December 1, 2008

As usual, media is blamed for their role in Mumbai. Unconfirmed reports claimed the terrorists trapped in Taj Mahal Palace constantly watched TV for news and they might have got a feeling of excitement if not ideas from the live coverage. Stupid guys. They never knew what they missed. The best ball-by-ball coverage was hardly on TV but on Twitter, anybody could have accessed thru a mobile. (Twitter added hashtags to terms like ‘Mumbai’ and ‘Attack’) Indian government at one stage requested ‘Twitters’ not to tweet anything about police activity, but it was more because the mainstream media too started depending on them rather than their own paid correspondents.

However, unlike in case of 9/11 no mobile based interactions with the victims were heard – which was…

2 Comments
Tags: India, Indian government, Maharashtra, mainstream media, MUMBAI, Mumbai attacks, Taj Mahal Palace, terrorism, terrorist attacks.

India begins process to auction 3G airwaves

Chanuka Wattegama

on September 9, 2008

New Delhi: The Indian government is set to begin here Monday the process to e-auction radio frequencies for telecom operators to start third-generation (3G) mobile services across the country and fetch the exchequer over Rs 40000 crore ($10 billion).

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will hold a pre-bid conference here with all the potential consultants - one of whom would oversee the process to e-auction spectrum for next generation mobile applications, officials said.

Read the full story in ’sify.com’ here.

Comment
Tags: 3G, Department of Telecommunications, e-auction, Indian government, mobile applications, New Delhi, Rs, USD.

Second HazInfo Dissemination Workshop held in India

Natasha Udu-Gama

on November 25, 2007

On Monday, November 19th, Rohan Samarajiva, Nuwan Waidyanatha, and Natasha Udu-gama of LIRNEasia, along with Menake Wijesinghe of Sarvodaya’s Community Disaster Management Centre went to New Delhi, India for the second in a series of workshops on the “Evaluating Last-Mile Hazard Information Dissemination” (HazInfo) entitled “Sharing Knowledge on Disaster Warning: Community-Based Last-Mile Warning Systems” at the India Habitat Centre in conjunction with the All India Disaster Management Centre (AIDMI).

The workshop included a variety of stakeholders from Indian government, civil society, international organizations, private sector, and NGOs. Mr. Mihir Bhatt, Honorary Director of AIDMI, along with Mr. Mehul Pandya, Risk Reduction Transfer Initiative Coordinator and Ms. Vandana Chauhan, Urban Risk Reduction Coordinator were in attendance from AIDMI’s Ahmedabad, Gujarat headquarters.

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Tags: AIDMI, All India Disaster Management Centre, Community, community-based last-mile warning systems, Gujarat, Gujarat headquarters, Honorary, India, India Habitat Centre, Indian government, Mehul Pandya, Methodology, Mihir Bhatt, Mile Hazard, Natasha Udu-gama, New Delhi, Nuwan Waidyanatha, Preparedness, Rohan Samarajiva, Sarvodaya \'s Community Disaster Management Centre, Suresh Mariaselvam, Training & Community Organization, Vandana Chauhan, Vijay Pratap Singh Aditya.

Least cost subsidy auction indicates Indian rural areas commercially viable

Divakar Goswami

on March 28, 2007

The Indian government held least cost subsidy auction (lowest bid for subsidy is the winner) in two parts to disburse the world’s second largest Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for rolling out mobile services in rural areas across the country. For the purposes of the auction, India has been divided into 81 clusters. Part A of the auction disbursed funds for passive infrastructure like towers and Part B dealt with the actual deployment of mobile services.

The bidding has been intense for deployment of mobile services (Part B) and most of the bids were for zero subsidy fund and in some cases negative bids were made! This strongly indicates that mobile operators in India perceive deploying mobile services in India’s rural areas to be commercially viable.…

1 Comment
Tags: Dishnet Wireless, India, Indian government, passive infrastructure, Universal Service Obligation Fund, USD.

Disaster preparedness, not just relief: Indian PM talks the talk

Rohan Samarajiva

on November 30, 2006

Very good.

Now will the Indian government walk the walk?

Will the other countries take the lead?

Govt. committed to develop a robust disaster management system: PM

Addressing the First India Disaster Management Congress here, Dr. Singh called for a paradigm shift in disaster management from a “relief-centric” and “post-event” response.

Pointing to the draft National Policy on Disaster Management, he said that it placed greater emphasis on efficient management of disasters, rather than focusing only on immediate response to disasters.

“Such an approach should place emphasis on improving early warning systems, ensuring the reach and efficacy of dissemination, creating awareness and building capacities at all levels of public administration,” he said.

1 Comment
Tags: Congress, early warning systems, Indian government, Singh.

Mobile operators eligible for Indian USO Fund

Divakar Goswami

on November 25, 2006

The Study of India’s Universal Service Instruments by LIRNEasia researchers Payal Malik & Harsha De Silva, critiqued the Indian government’s policy that made only fixed line operators eligible for USO funds:
As of today, the government is giving USO fund support to only the fixed line operators offering services in the rural areas. The over defining terms in the law is a bad idea in a rapidly evolving technology environment, though this correction has been suggested it is quite possible that the previous auctions have left huge amounts of rents that have been appropriated by the incumbent. In an industry that manifests the potential for rapid technological change and innovation, such as telecom, an economic analysis of a problem should not focus too narrowly or exclusively on the…

1 Comment
Tags: Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, cellular telephone, Chingraliang, Department of Telecom, Harsha de Silva, Henry Island, India, Indian government, Indian USO Fund, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, mobile services, New Delhi, Orissa, passive infrastructure, phone services, technology environment, Thomas K Thomas, Universal Services Obligation fund, Uttar Pradesh.

GrameenPhone has pushed universal access in India

Abu Saeed Khan

on November 4, 2006

Dhaka, Nov 3 (bdnews24.com) - GrameenPhone’s coverage beyond Bangladesh’s boundary has forced the Indian government to deploy cellular mobile network in the neglected northeastern states, reports Kolkota-based The Telegraph Friday.

The Indians along the Bangladesh border in Meghalaya and other north-eastern states “are forced to use prepaid cards of GrameenPhone, the largest cell phone service provider of Bangladesh, paying ISD call rates.”

People without mobile phones cross the border and use Bangladeshi phone booths and they pay hefty amounts of international tariff to call own country, the report alleges.

Villagers have complained to the Telegraph correspondent that the Indian government does not provide them basic telecoms facilities on the pretext of security.

India’s state-owned telecoms major, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), has now decided to launch cell-phone services in…

2 Comments
Tags: Bangladesh, Bangladesh border, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, cell phone services, cellular mobile network, cellular telephone, Garo Hills, GrameenPhone, India, Indian government, Kolkota, Meghalaya, mobile phones, New Delhi.

Banning Cellphones in Conflict Zones Counterproductive

Divakar Goswami

on May 22, 2006

This article shows that government’s instinct to ban cellphones from conflict zones because of the belief that it will be used by militants/terrorists to further their cause, actually neutralizes one of the security agencies most potent weapons to track subversives. I doubt that the Sri Lankan government will allow cellular service to be available any time soon in the North. But at least it gives the security agencies some food for thought. The Indian government was similarly reluctant to have cellular service in Kashmir, but the Indian security agencies are their biggest proponents now.
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Troops in Kashmir master new weapon: cell phones
Reuters
By Sheikh MushtaqSun May 21, 1:53 AM ET

Minutes after a bomb exploded recently in Kashmir and wounded Indian soldiers, a senior member of an Islamist…

3 Comments
Tags: cell phone services, cell phones, cellular services, cellular telephone, Colombo, Daya Master, federal government, food, Gyanendra, India, Indian government, Indian intelligence, Islamist, K. Rajindra Kumar, Kashmir, mobile phone services, mobile phones, Nepal, New Delhi, Pakistan, Reuters, satellite phones, Simon Gardner, Sri Lanka, Sri Lankan government, V.K. Batra.

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