Assam to hire McKinsey to boost economic growth

http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=3068

Guwahati: Assam hopes to tap the expertise of well-known consulting firm McKinsey to chart plans to boost the state’s economy.

“We have held one round of talks with McKinsey and we are very much interested to hire them to help us formulate plans for attaining a balanced economic growth in the state,” Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told journalists here Sunday.

“We are ready to spend money and hire the firm and our primary objective is to see how we can achieve all-round development of our state,” the chief minister said.

Gogoi said McKinsey could help chalk out plans to ease the growing unemployment problem.

“My immediate priority is to see how best we can develop sectors like agriculture and generate employment,” he said.

The chief minister said his government was not according the top priority to set in an IT revolution like other states.

“First I want to set in order village schools and generate employment. To set up an IT university or a college is my second or third priority,” he said. “I want to provide drinking water facilities, healthcare and other basic amenities first to my people.”

Gogoi, however, said during last six years his government was able to change the mindset of the people with development now being the catchword.

“Now you find people like (Infosys Technologies chief N.R. Narayana) Murthy coming to Assam to explore possibilities of setting up centres here,” the chief minister said.

The Infosys founder was in Guwahati over the weekend and said his firm was ready to set up a base in Assam if the state government provided basic infrastructures. “We told him we could provide what we want in a few years time. A five-star hotel is coming up in Assam very soon,” Gogoi said.

Public information campaign launched across northeast India

http://www.newkerala.com/news4.php?action=fullnews&id=3066

Agartala: To empower the poor and illiterate staying in remote corners of northeast India, the central government initiated Public Information Campaign (PIC) concluded here Sunday.

“Press Information Bureau (PIB) has been entrusted to carry out the task under eight important flagship programme of the centre including Bharat Nirman, Right to Information Act, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan besides prime minister’s 15-point programme for minorities,” PIB Information Officer Subhashish Chanda said here.

Apart from all media units of information and broadcasting ministry, banks, public sector units and state government departments involved in the implementation and execution of these flagship programmes, non-governmental organisations and youth associations participated in the PICs, Chanda added.

The other programmes of the unique campaign were enlightenment on the national rural employment guarantee act, national rural health mission, universalised mid-day meal programme and Jawaharlal Nehru national urban renewal mission.

“The overall objective of the campaign is empowering poor and illiterate living in rural areas and remote places by giving them access to information on proactive basis on various policies and programmes under the flagship schemes and to make people aware of the rights and responsibilities and ensure their participation in these schemes,” Chanda pointed out.

Similar campaigns would start in Guwahati Tuesday and in Aizwal from Aug 22 followed by other places in the northeast.

Invitation to “Owning the Future” symposium with IIT Delhi

From: “Venkatesh Hariharan” <venky@redhat.com>

To: “Venkatappa Kumaraswamy” <vmkumaraswamy@yahoo.com>
CC: “Rupal Juneja” <rjuneja@redhat.com>
Date: Sun, 06 Aug 2006 17:21:18 +0530

Dear Mr. Kumaraswamy,

I would like to invite you to a symposium titled, "Owning the Future:
Ideas and their role in the digital age." This symposium is jointly
organized by IIT Delhi and Red Hat and will be held at Delhi on 24th
and
25th August 2006. This event is supported by the Software Freedom Law
Center, Confederation of Indian Industry and Creative Commons India.

In this symposium, we will seek to examine the notion of intellectual
"property," the emerging philosophy of "copyleft," and "Free and Open
Source Software," -- issues that we believe will have a significant
impact on the 21st century. This is an *invitee only* symposium that
will bring together 150 technologists, policy makers, legal experts and
leaders from the open source community to examine whether our current
policies on copyrights, patents etc promote or hinder innovation. 

This is the second such symposium organized by Red Hat. The first was
held in Raleigh, along with the University of North Carolina, Raleigh.
The details of the NC event are at: 

http://portal.northcarolina.edu/ipcip/index.htm

Some of the confirmed speakers for this event are:

1) Shri. Prithviraj Chauhan, Minister of State in the Prime Minister's
Office
2) Dr. Sam Pitroda, Chairman of the National Knowledge Commission (via
videoconference)
3) Dr. Vijay Kumar, Academic Director of MIT
4) Dr. DB Phatak of IIT Bombay
5) Prof. Anil Gupta, IIM Ahmadabad
6) Eben Moglen, Software Freedom Law Center
7) James Boyle, Center for Public Domain
8) Jim Wales, founder of Wikipedia
9) Paul Jones, founder of ibiblio
10) Madhukar Sinha, Registrar of Copyrights, Ministry of Human
Resources
Development
11) Lawrence Liang, Alternative Law Forum
12) Parbir Purkayastha, CPIM
13) Justice Yatindra Singh, Allahabad High Court
14) Vandana Shiva, Navadanya
15) Subbaiah Arunachalam, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation
16) Danese Cooper, Intel
17) Nishith Desai, Nishith Desai and Associates
18) Michael Tiemann, President Open Source Initiative and VP, Red Hat
19) Dr. VK Gupta, Traditional Knowledge Digital Library, National
Institute of Science Communications & Information Resources 

As you can see, this is a world class line-up of speakers. The draft
agenda and session abstracts are attached. I hope that you can
join us for this symposium.

Regards,

Venky

Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan
Head-Open Source Affairs
Red Hat India Pvt. Ltd
1st Floor, C-Wing
Fortune 2000
Bandra Kurla Complex
Bandra (East)
Mumbai-400 051
Tel No. +91 22 39878888
Mobile. +91 93242-23263
Fax No. +91 22 39878899
E-mail: venky@redhat.com

http://www.gutenberg.net - Fine literature digitally re-published
http://www.plos.org - Public Library of Science
http://www.creativecommons.org - Flexible copyright for creative work

Owning_the_Future_Agenda_v2.1.pdf (233k)

Gram Sabhas at 55000 villages from Aug 12

By Our Staff ReporterBhopal, Aug 5: Gram Sabhas would be organised at 55 thousand villages of the state from August 12. Collectors of all the districts and chief executive officers of district Panchayats have been instructed for holding of the gram Sabhas in their respective areas. The Panchayats and Rural Development Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar has appealed to the villagers to take part in large number at the gram Sabhas.

The Minister, Tomar informed that at every village of the entire state gram Sabhas would be organised form August 12 to 19. An agenda for the discussion to be held at gram Sabhas has been fixed. The deliberation about the Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, Jalabhishek Abhiyan and tree plantation programme would be held on the occasion. Following it, the decisions for further strategy of implementing the schemes would be taken at gram Sabhas. Besides, a detailed information about the funds received by gram Sabhas for development, the works carried out with the amount and their income and expenditure would be presented at gram Sabhas. The report about the holding of gram Sabha would be forwarded to the Commissioner of Panchayats and Social Justice compulsorily by September 2006.

The Panchayat and Rural Development Minister, Narendra Singh Tomar has called upon the villagers to attend the gram Sabha of their respective areas. This way, their participation would be ensured and they get able to review the schemes executed in their villages, he added. Tomar said with the presence of the villagers at gram Sabha would ensure the benefits and information of the government schemes to them. The villagers would be apprised of the process of implementing the schemes so that they could monitor these. Tomar emphasised the need to strengthen the gram Sabhas for the development of villages and the people live there. He has instructed the officials to inform the villagers of the date of gram Sabha, its time at place and encourage to them also to attend it.

Govt revises deputation policy of bureaucrats to PSUs

New Delhi: The government has revised the policy of deputation to Central Public Sector Enterprises, banning bureaucrats from joining unless they are absorbed immediately by the public sector firms, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

“The Government officers are allowed to join posts in CPSEs only on immediate absorption basis. However, deputation is permitted in certain cases like Chief Executives and regional chiefs of CPSEs who require continuous liaison with state governments,” Minister for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises Sontosh Mohan Dev said in a written reply.

Dev said the posts of Chief Vigilance Officers and Chief Security Officers were also exempted from the rule of immediate absorption subject to certain conditions such as non-availability of suitable persons.

Replying to another question, he said the government has so far approved revival plans of 17 Central PSUs based on the recommendations of Board for Reconstruction of Public Sector Enterprises. These companies, which include Hindustan Salts, National Textile Corporation, HMT Bearings, Cement Corporation of India, Heavy Engineering Corporation and Central Inland Water Transport Corporation, have been given total assistance worth Rs 4,981.68 crore.

The BRPSE has also recommended financial and capital restructuring of Tyre Corporation of India Ltd through the joint venture route by locating a strategic partner who would bring new technology, he said while replying to a question.

Govt misleading people on RTI Act: Arvind Kejriwal

New Delhi: Government is misleading the people by claiming that the proposed amendments to the Right to Information law would strengthen it, says Magasaysay Award winner Arvind Kejriwal.

The RTI Act, in its original form, gave access to file notings on all issues except those of national security and the recent Cabinet decision to keep file notings away from the purview of the legislation was a retrograde step, he said.

“The government move will kill the law which has emerged as a powerful tool in curbing corruption,” he told PTI in an interview. Kejriwal, the founder of people’s movement ‘Parivartan’, said he himself had accessed and acquired several official documents, including file notings from various government departments.

The Prime Minister’s Office had last week said the Cabinet decision had for the first time made disclosure of file notings possible.

It had said that the amendments would allow access to “file notings of all plans, schemes and programmes of the government that relate to development and social issues”.

“The government is misleading the people by saying it is making available access to file notings for the first time,” he said showing photocopies of a bulk of such documents acquired from the Planning Commission earlier.

Several retired bureaucrats have written to President A P J Abdul Kalam saying that access to file notings under the RTI Act will strengthen the hands of the bureaucracy as it will help pin-point the person who had caused delay in taking a particular decision.

On winning this year’s Magasaysay Award, Kejriwal said “the honour was an international recognition of his work, but the Indian government was ignoring the RTI movement in the country by going ahead with the amendments to the RTI Act.” Noted social activist Anna Hazare had met the President to protest the move to block access to file notings and even threatened to return the Padma Bhushan awarded to him.

Kejriwal, who quit his Indian Revenue Service job in February this year to work for the RTI movement, said the Centre should wait for at least two to three years before bringing in any amendment to the RTI Act.

“The RTI Act was introduced about eight months back. The Centre should wait for at least two to three years to test the efficacy of the legislation before bringing in any amendments,” he said.

Changes in RTI Act has made it soulless: Hazare

Ahmednagar: Noted social worker Anna Hazare today said the changes to the Right to Information Act has rendered it “soulless” and announced that he will launch an agitation across Maharashtra from August 9.

“The recent changes have rendered the Act soulless with an intention to protect vested interests,” Hazare told PTI at Ralegan Siddhi in the district.

Hazare, who yesterday announced that he will begin a fast-unto-death unless the changes are taken back, said demonstrations have been planned infront of all the district collectorates in Maharashtra.

A decision on the venue of the hunger strike (whether Mumbai or New Delhi) would be taken after consulting workers, Hazare added.

Delhi to promote e-governance

New Delhi: The Delhi government has set up a study group to accelerate the process of computerising all its major departments and promote e-governance, Planning and Finance Minister A.K. Walia said Friday.

After a review meeting Friday, Walia instructed senior officers of the departments of trade and taxes, excise and entertainment to expedite computerisation to “utilise e-governance in the true spirit for increasing transparency and efficiency”.

He also ordered the constitution of a study group under the chairmanship of the commissioner trade and taxes to look into the manpower policy. The group will submit its report within a month.

State authorities said that efforts were being intensified to ensure online filing of monthly returns by 6,000 traders. Currently, only 700 key dealers are filing online returns.

Walia has further directed both excise and entertainment departments to conduct a work-study to simplify the issuance of import and transport permits.

CVC calls for transparency in procurement process

Hyderabad, Aug 4: Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC), P Shanker, today said strict adherence to procurement procedures and transparency in tendering process were key to prevent corruption in the goverment and PSU departments.

Delivering the inaugural address at a one-day seminar here on ‘onwards effective vigilance’, organised by Vigilance Study Circle of Hyderabad, Shanker said by diligently following the systems and strengthening procedures in procurement, India can improve its standing in the corruption perception index.

“We should strike a balance between achieving targets and taking care of public money by having sufficient checks and balances,” he said.

The seminar was attended by CEOs of PSUs, Chief Vigilance Officers and vigilance officals of various PSUs and government organisations.

DISCOMS have much to hide on privatisation: RWAs

New Delhi, Aug 4: Questioning the non-inclusion of DISCOMS in the Right to Information Act, Resident Welfare Associations of the capital today criticised the NCT government for “trying to shield” the DVB privatisation deal from public scrutiny.

“If the Chief Minister is really so concerned about the empowerment of consumers, why is there silence on the fact that discoms are fighting tooth and nail to be kept out of the ambit of RTI,” said Atul Goyal, an RWA representative.

Residents and RWAs see the RTI as a weapon to force DISCOMS to scrutiny various contentious issues but the attitude of the Delhi Government is not supporting transparency in the issue, he said.

“By seeking to keep itself outside the ambit of RTI, a clear signal has been sent that all is not above board in the privatisation deal and that there is much to hide,” said S P Gupta, general secretary of an RWA.