As part of its efforts to bridge the digital divide, TeX Users Group (TUG) has decided to tackle the geographical divide. For the first time, the annual meeting of the TUG is to be held at a venue outside Europe or North America. The 23rd annual conference of this free software users association will be held in Thiruvananthapuram Technopark this week, Mr Dominik Wujastyk, Director, Welcom Centre of Medicine, University College, London told a press conference, here. Mr Wujastyk, a Sanskrit scholar and a member of the programme committee of TUG-2000 said the three-day meet starting September 4 will be chaired by Mr Sebastian Rahtz, Information Manager, Oxford University Computing Services. The conference will have 32 delegates from Australia, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Hungary, Iran, the Netherlands, the UK and the USA. There will be 32 Indian delegates too. In India, TeX is widely used in institutions like the IITs, the Indian Institute of Science, Saha Institute of Theoretical Physics, and the Indian Statistical Institute. In Thiruvananthapuram, the Centre for Mathematical Sciences has long used TeX, as has Focal Image Pvt Ltd, an Indo-UK joint venture that has been using TeX for over a decade to run a profitable text processing venture. Mr Satheesh Babu, chairperson of the TUG-2002 organising committee said the meet would give a fillip to the wider utilisation of TeX in India. The organisers of the meet in India are Indian TeX Users Group, department of IT of the Kerala government and Thiruvananthapuram Technopark. The conference will be preceded by three days of tutorials, said Dr Srivatsan, Director, IIITM-K (Indian Insitute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala). Around 22 Indians have registered for the tutorials. Apart from the more specialized talks devoted to technical aspects of TeX, TUG 2002 will feature talks on typesetting traditions in India, an overview of TeX usage in India, an Indian perspective of new horizons in free software, fonts and packages to typeset Bengali script using TeX, and typesetting in Hindi, Sanskrit and Persian. TeX (derived from the Greek letters “tau”, “epsilon” and “chi” and pronounced “tech”, also alludes to “techne”, the Greek root meaning art as well as technology) is a computer program written and designed by famed computer scientist Donald Ervin Knuth of Stanford University for preparing publishable documents, especially those of a technical or mathematical nature. TUG, the TeX Users Group, is an international association of individual and institutional members who promote TeX, and discuss issues and problems related to TeX, principally through TUGboat, the quarterly publication of TUG.

THE Kerala Government proposes to start a pilot tele-medicine project in the State as part of its efforts to utilise the immense possibilities of information technology in healthcare and education areas.

Replying to a calling attention motion in the State Assembly on Wednesday, the Health Minister, Mr P. Sankaran, said that the project would be a collective venture of Thiruvananthapuram Medical College, Sri Chitra Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Regional Cancer Centre and Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management, Kerala (IIITM-K).

The Government would shortly submit a proposal in this regard to the Centre, the Minister said.

Under the project, the Medical College will function as a tele referral centre and a few public health centres in the district as remote tele consultation centres.

The project is expected to cost Rs 58 lakh.

The Minister said that the tele-medicine practice had already been implemented in States such as Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat and at Apollo Hospitals.

It is expected to be successfully introduced in Kerala considering its size and the progress it has achieved in the area of healthcare.

As a first step towards realising the goal, the healthcare and education areas need to be modernised by extensive application of information technology.

For this purpose, the Health Services Directorate would be converted into a Planning and Monitoring Cell.

Besides, for creating the necessary infrastructure, the Government has earmarked Rs 40 lakh in the current year, the Minister said.

The Electricity Minister, Mr Kadavoor Sivadasan, said that the Kerala State Electricity Board would reduce the power tariff of fishermen using Chinese net from Rs 7.25 to Rs 2.75 per unit.

In reply to a submission, the Minister said that such fishermen would be brought under Category Four from the current Seven-A category.

Replying to a question, the Minister for Welfare of Backward and Scheduled Communities, said that a centre of excellence for encouraging SC/ST students for higher studies and research would be established at the Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode.

He added that preliminary work of the centre had started and admission of students would commence soon.

Of the Rs 5 crore earmarked for the centre, Rs 75 lakh had already been allocated, he informed the House.

THE Kerala government to invest in R 30 crore this year, to develop export promotion Kinfra Park in Kochi as a major centre for IT-enabled services (ITES).

At this announcement during its chairman, address, as the inaugural function of two years, Kerala 2002 show in the Technology Park, Chief Minister AK Antony, said that in the first phase, 100 hectares of land, except for the development of the Establishment.

The planning and construction with the highest international standards.

A special “Fast-Track mechanism will be established to ensure timely completion of the project.

“As the technology park to continue to remain flagship of our initiative, we propose to develop, Kochi ITES as the first goal. Kochi today adopted a communication of the most modern infrastructures in the country and the efforts underway for more complement and consolidate this advantage, “said Antony.

The government will shortly present a comprehensive training and ITES Human Resource Development Programme, in collaboration with key stakeholders in the private sector.

“We hope that the 50000 jobs in ICT sectors in the next four years. We are open to the economy,” said the Chief Minister.

Kerala IT-2002, in the wings of the State seek a frontline to target information technology investors.

The government has an intense drive in pursuing that goal, according to the Chief Minister.

As in the case of Techno Park, the second phase of enlargement is also setting up a technology and founder of the Centre for developing a new and sustainable campus Indian Institute of Information Technology and Management-Kerala ( IIITM-K). The government is also considering the technical expertise of young professionals in the USA and other overseas destinations to create networks of remote monitoring to support start-up units here.

In his inaugural address, Karnataka Chief Minister, M. SM Krishna, was the chief guest, said he was proud of the provision, that the four southern states were the leaders of the revolution.

Together, they have the clock R 18000 crore in software exports during the last year - 50 percent of total revenue across the country.

It was true that Indian software engineers, the result would be much weaker dollar, the quality of work product remains one of the best in the world. This is justified by the percentage of Indian companies which have achieved certification CMM Level 5.

According to a study by McKinsey & Co., at least one million new jobs are created in Karnataka in the next 10 years.

One way, the state has been attracting 100 percent FDI in the sector every week during the last 104 days.

The ITES industry is ideal for making full use of potential graduates of Kerala.

The rate of employment generation potential in this sector over the next five years, it is expected that millions more than the mark, “said Krishna.

The Kerala government efforts to the state as a destination for higher education is obtained more than two non-resident Keralites coming before the establishment of an international agreement Business School (IBS) to the state of the commercial capital Kochi.

Sponsored by the doctor Doha, M. Mohan Thomas, and Dr. Jay Kandampully, professor of hospitality services and at Ohio State University, the school was inaugurated on 11 August.

The school begins with a temporary operation on the campus of MG Road in the heart of the port city of the next academic year with a 18-month International MBA program for 60 students. Education begins in June 2008.

The school, which are headquartered in partnership with the Management Center Innsbruck (MCI), Austria, to four modules to choose modules specialization or MCI at California State University, says Dr Thomas, the founder Director of the Institute.

Dr. Thomas, president, Public School, Doha, and director of more than a dozen other companies, including hospitals, said the Khaleej Times that the MBA program was designed to produce graduates are commercially wise, socially responsible international and Outlook.

IBS is closely linked prestigious Business Schools in Europe, the USA, Canada and Australia for academic support. The best professors in disciplines major business schools in these hard classes. The Institute is also two international scientific journals - Managing service quality and management history.

IBS, 10 centres of excellence to promote links between the efforts of academics and real world applications. It will work closely with experts from various universities across the world, “said Dr Kandampully.

The approval on the basis of scores of TOEFL and GMAT. IBS said Dr Kandampully would not be compatible with the selection procedure, the best of all international business schools to ensure that the excellence of Indian graduates.

The Institute has failed to finish the structure of fees. However, said Dr Kandampully, it should reach approximately RS1 million. IBS is agreements with financial institutions to secure funding to 100 per cent of students. The school has set a number of institutions of higher education in the state. While the process for the construction of an Indian Institute of Science Studies (ISS), Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is expected that the basis of its prestigious Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology in Ponmudi close by the third week of next month.

Kerala, the government has tried to develop the State as a destination for higher education, because the country is known for its highest reading and writing. Dr Thomas has made plans for the establishment of an education of the city in the state to continue the efforts of the government.

Andhra is all set to Photostat Kerala’s welfare text for the expatriate. Impressed by the activities of Non-Resident Keralites Association (NORKA), a four-member team of the NRI Study Group from Andhra Pradesh is in Kerala to understand and imbibe how NORKA reaches out to the NRKs.

Andhra Minister for Information and Public Relations Mohammed Ali Shabber, also chairman of the NRI Study Group, is all praise for NORKA and the Kerala Government.

“NORKA is the first in setting up a cell for the workers of its state and Andhra Pradesh is next to Kerala in workforce in the Gulf. We want to know more about NORKA and its functions, especially on the recruiting and welfare schemes,” said Shabber.

Besides making a model of NORKA in AP, “We’re also looking into areas where we can join hands,” said Mohammad Hazeebullah (liaison officer), himself an expatriate with 20-year experience as professor in various universities in the US.

The team will meet Chief Minister Oommen Chandy on Wednesday in Thiruvananthapuram.

The team comprising Shabber, N V Ramana Reddy, Additional Secretary to the AP Government, B Rasheed, private secretary to Shabber, and Hazeebullah, however, ruled out chances of signing any MoU with the NORKA.

Baramati, June 1: The age of the unsung hero is not over yet. Away from media glare, there are several inspired individuals, governments and NGO’s that are e-enabling the have-nots in the country with the tools of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to bridge digital divide was daunting.

Baramati has been the meeting ground for these social entrepreneurs for the last three years. Thus, the third Baramati Initiative on ICT and development calls for some optimism.

Mitra Technologies for example. Run by a group of enterprising MBA from the Institute of Rural Management and Administration (IRMA), Anand Mitra Tech has changed the lives of tribal artisans in Orissa. Though the State Government handicrafts corporation has been doing its bit to sell jewellery and intricate craft by local artisans, the lack of a bigger market-place limited their earnings. In stepped Mitra Tech to create a business-to-business (B2B) portal of craft works using ICT.

Says Mitra Behra of D Tech:”We basically sought to sell the craft work directly to big retailers and branded showrooms using the B2B portal, having already spent distributors who would tuck away all the profits.”Mitra Tech, understandably, wants to network with More than 10000 artists all over the country and open up their craft to the global market for higher gains.

Akshaya, a project started by the Kerala government’s IT department is equally rivetting. The Government has set-up 565 ICT centres, each with five computers, all over the Malappuram district in northern Kerala with the aim of familiarizing at least one person in every family with computers besides providing access to e-content in the relevant regional language.

Kiran GR, representing the IT department, said all the centres are networked together through the internet and will cater to an average of 1000 families. ”The key is to have a critical number of users as well as relevant content to supplement each other. If either element is missing, the whole revenue model will collapse,”he quips.

To this extent, the Government is trying to generate content tailor-made to the requirements of the average Keralite. Being developed by industry experts, content will cover the ground on every industry besides education, career development, agriculture, health, information technology, biotechnology and the law. ”The plan is to set up such centres 9000 all over Kerala. All of them will be created and run by social entrepreneurs,’’said Kiran R. G

Though there are many such stories, the fledgling attempts of 19-year old from Maitreya Doshi Pune to enlist the support of the young in social work using ICT is notable. The representative of Indian Taking IT Global, Canada, Maitreya is part of the international youth caucus is demanding that participation in the age group of 15 to 25 in e-governance. But”the main job is to encourage tech-savvy youths to involve themselves in bridging the digital divide,’’she said. She hopes to kickstart a national campaign in Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta and Pune since August.

Thiruvananthapuram: In a bid to promote use of administrative Malayalam work, the Kerala government will reward its employees handling files by using “lucid and simple” Malayalam entries with good service and special awards.
“This forms part of the process of introducing Malayalam language as the administrative departments in all within the next four years,” Information Minister Hassan told a press meet here.
“Promoting Administrative Malayalam language as is for people’s convenience. This involves no language fanaticism. English will continue to be used in matters where it is required like correspondence with the central government.”
Making the administrative Malayalam language would not be at odds with e-governance, thanks to the software developed by agencies like the Centre for development of Imaging Technology, he said.
Training programs for employees on use of office as Malayalam language, now solely conducted by the Institute of Management in Government in the state capital, would be held at regional levels in Kochi and Kozhikode.
This year’s Malayalam Week celebrations would be held from 1 to 7 November with seminars and cultural programmes here, he added.