The April-June issue of the telecentre magazine focuses on continuum after change, which was the predominant theme of the previous issue. Following this natural rhythm, the magazine brings forth new stories from the telecentre world to enlighten its readers. The major highlights of this issue are the two Face2Face, one with Shankar Aggarwal, who is leading the CSC project initiated ...

Despite some successes in the past few years, economic sustainability continues to be a major challenge for the telecentre community in Latin America. Since early 2009, a capacity-building project called 360 Latam has been seeking to address economic and organisational sustainability in the telecentre movement while simultaneously augmenting the offerings that telecentres provide in their communities. 360 Latam was launched ...

AISECT: Leading ICT Training and Services Network of India The All India Society for Electronics and Computer Technology (AISECT) is India's leading education, training and services network, with a spread of over 8,000 Multipurpose Information Technology (IT) centres in 27 states and three Union Territories. This network includes about 4000 Common Services Centres (CSCs). These centres are essentially engaged in ...

The Regional Workshop on the Consolidation and Expansion of the ESCWA Knowledge Network was organised by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) and hosted by the Ministry of Communication and Technology, Syria. Other workshop collaborators included the Syrian Computer Society (SCS) and the Syria Trust for Development. The four-day workshop took place from 24th to ...

Get Online Philippines, the nationwide digital inclusion campaign highlighting the National ICT Month celebration spearheaded by the Commission on ICT (CICT) and its partners, the Philippine CeC Network (PhilCeCNet) and Netopia, is off to a good start.Launched on June 18 at the CICT Seminar Room in Diliman, Quezon City, the campaign marked several milestones and firsts - the celebration of ...

BackgroundThe National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), as approved by the Government of India, envisions Common Service Centre (CSC) scheme as a platform that can enable Government, private and social sector organisations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of the rural population in the remotest corners of the country through a combination of IT-based as well as non-IT-based ...

Yara lost her sight when she was only five years old. The world was nothing to her but complete darkness. Her parents had gloomy look in their eyes when they first came to Salamieh Telecentre. The telecentre people offered Yara unlimited backing. "I have found things that make me happy," says Yara.She was trained on ICT and programmes for blind ...

With over 20 years of experience in the education sphere, Ashutosh Chadha has been managing programmes around ICT enabled education and building effective business models at international level. Currently, he is leading Intel Education Initiative as part of the Corporate Affairs Group across 14 countries in the Asia Pacific region. In this role, Ashutosh drives Intel's relationship with Governments and ...

Overview of ICT development in RwandaRwanda is a country that has come remarkably far in terms of development in a relatively short period of time. Despite a very recent history of war and genocide that aggravated the already rising levels of poverty and inequality, the country manifests considerable macro-economic and political stability. However, development challenges remain. The economy remains a ...

After adapting the Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM), it was identified that the Philippine CeCs lack training suited for the rural women. It was further identified that having appropriate training will encourage women to visit and use the CeCs.This project seeks to promote access and use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and multi-purpose telecentres particularly for women in rural areas ...

For a region isolated in an information vacuum for decades, the Internet Access and Training programme (IATP) offered citizens of the former Soviet Union something unique, yet basic, free access to information. Administered by the International Research and Exchanges Board (IREX) from 1995 to 2009 and funded by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) ...

Shankar Aggarwal, a 1980 batch Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, is leading the Common Services Centre (CSC) project of the Government of India (GoI), which happens to be the world's largest telecentre network. At present, he holds the position of Joint Secretary in the Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, GoI, where ...

The MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) organised the 6th Convention of the Grameen Gyan Abhiyan (GGA), previously known as Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre, on December 20-21, 2009 at the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Pusa Road, New Delhi. This year, the focal theme of the convention was: 'Rural Knowledge Revolution for Agrarian Prosperity and Sustainable Livelihood ...

"The success of ICT projects in rural and disadvantaged communities depends on sustainability and the deployment of suitable infrastructure. ICT-related project should consider local needs and local skilled staff, or the adequate training and development of the local people. If such projects still depend on foreign staff and skills, then it is not a case of the transfer of technology, ...

Background Since the liberalisation of the telecommunication sector in 1994, Zambia witnessed significant growth in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, specially in mobile telecommunications and currently, most of the rural districts have coverage. Despite this growth, access to ICT services, such as Internet and related technologies is more biased towards urban population, leaving out the rural areas that ...

OverviewAsian region is currently home to thousands of telecentres, which provide many rural and disadvantaged communities with their first chance to go online, learn computer basics and away online services. In order to foster the development of the Asian telecentre movement, 'Telecentre Forum has always been an integral part of eAsia, which is an international ICT for development event with ...

Asia Pacific Telecentre Network (APTN) is a United Nations' Economic and Social Commission for the Asia-Pacific (UN-ESCAP) initiative, which is working towards creating a platform of telecentre networks to share experiences on issues of their interest (content, sustainability, connectivity, etc.). It also engages the national networks to cooperate on the development of solutions for their common problems in order to ...

Common Service Centre (CSC) Project is an important arm of the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) aimed at providing common access point to the citizens to modern technology, and through that to various government, business and social services and products. Deepening access and improved governance in rural India is at the crux of the project imperatives. The Sahaj model takes this ...

Basheerhamad Shadrach, popularly known as Shaddy, is the Executive Director of the recently launched telecentre.org Foundation. Before accepting this position, he was the Lead, telecentre.org Academy, one of the crucial pillars of the telecentre.org programme, focusing on the capacity building of grassroots knowledge workers. He has been instrumental in establishing the telecentre.org Academy and its regional/national branches by bringing together ...

PreludeOn March 3, 2010, during a glittering launch ceremony at the Grand Ballroom of New World Hotel, Makati City near Manila, Philippines, telecentre.org formally became telecentre.org Foundation, a not for profit organisation housed at the Philippines government's Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT). The transition was symbolically ushered in by banging the gong and handing over the beautiful glass ...

A delegation consisting of key officials from some Latin American countries visited India as part of a study tour from 2nd to 17th December 2009 to learn about MS Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF)'s various ICT-enabled development initiatives and their experimentations and innovations in the field of agriculture. The group consisted of Gustavo Alejandro Chacon Cruz from Instituto de Investigacion Agropecuaria ...

Telecentre-Europe organised the Get Online Day on 4th March 2010, a pan-European event that was part of the eSkills Week 2010, coordinated by Digital Europe and European SchoolNet, and funded by the European Commission's DG Enterprise and Industry. Get Online Day was supported by national partners, NGOs, telecentres, libraries, schools, information access points and aimed to bring people online, targeting ...

telecentre.org has metamorphosed into telecentre.org Foundation and shifted from Ottawa, Canada to Manila, Philippines. From a social investment programme, conceived and implemented by International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Microsoft Corporation and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), it has now become an independent, not for profit organisation hosted by Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT) in the Philippines. ...

Online database to check fake drug useJohnlee Abraham13 January 2009 BANGALORE: Ever gone home thinking that the medicine you bought at the local pharmacy may be of dubious make? Worry not, help may soon be available at the click of a mouse.In a first-of-its kind initiative in the country, Karnataka is setting up a database of counterfeit and sub-standard drugs, ...

Uganda: MPs Block E-Governance Project Over Shoddiness Tabu Butagira 11 January 2010 Kampala - A government plan to wire all district local governments on a virtual platform to popularise e-governance and minimise burgeoning administrative spending has been blocked by Parliament, Daily Monitor can reveal. The House committee on Information, Communication and Technology says it will authorise implementation of the $60 ...