WiMAX Connecting the Last Mile: March 2007 Issue

The Promise of Connected Communities WiMAX

PURA and the National Identity Programme Common Security Framework

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Cover Features

The Promise of Connected Communities

WiMAX

Upasna Kakroo

PURA and the National Identity Programme

Common Security Framework Rakesh Radhakrishnan

industry perspective

Interoperability through customer-focused approach 25 Interview: Chris Levanes, Platform Strategy Manager, Asia Pacific Region, Microsoft

Special focus

Combating online child abuse in India

Interview: Guillermo Galarza Abizaid, Senior Program Manager, ICMEC, along with Lt. Richard W. Brown of New Jersey State Police

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EVENT DIARY

Leveraging ICT for improved government services

egov Asia 2007

Addressing recent trends and emerging issues in the mobile sector 35 mServe Asia 2007

‘e-Governance awareness must for corruption-free, efficient administration’ 37 10th National Conference on e-Governance

Inter-School ODF Competition in Delhi

Moving Towards de-facto Standard

NEWS REVIE W

india

•

business

REGULAR F EATURES

Facts

Data

•

Numbers

•

What’s

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March 2007

Editorial Guidelines eGov is a monthly magazine providing a much needed platform to the voices of various stakeholders in the arena of e-Government, apart from being a repository of valuable information and meaningful discussion on issues of e-governance in general, and e-Government in particular -- both to the specialist and the generalist. Contributions to egov magazine should be in the form of articles, case studies, book reviews, event report and news related to eGovernment project and initiatives, which are of immense value for practitioners, professionals, corporate and academicians. We would like the contributors to follow these guidelines, while submitting their material for publication.

Articles / Case studies should not exceed

2500 words. For book reviews and event report, the word limit is 800. An abstract of the article/case study not exceeding 200 words should be submitted along with the article/case study. All articles / case studies should provide proper references. Authors should give in writing stating that the work is new and has not been published in any form so far. Book reviews should include details of the book like the title, name of the author(s), publisher, year of publication, price and number of pages and also send the cover photograph of the book in JPEG/TIFF (resolution 300 dpi). Book reviews of books on e-Governance related themes, published from

year 2002 onwards, are preferable. In case of website, provide the URL. The manuscripts should be typed in a standard printable font (Times New Roman 12 font size, titles in bold) and submitted either through mail or post. Relevant figures of adequate quality (300 dpi) should be submitted in JPEG/ TIFF format. A brief bio-data and passport size photograph(s) of the author(s) must be enclosed. All contributions are subject to approval by the publisher.

Please send in your papers/articles/comments to: The Editor, eGov, G-4, Sector 39, NOIDA (UP) 201 301, India. tel: +91 120 2502180-87, fax: +91 120 2500060, email: info@egovonline.net

Editorial Calendar 2007 Month

solution focus

application focus

APRIL

meta data and data standards

e-procurement

MAY

network and information security

national id

JUNE rfid & smart card passport & visa JULY localisation and language technology land records AUGUST

e-forms income tax/commercial taxes

SEPTEMBER interoperability and open standards

central excise

OCTOBER

wireless

municipalities

NOVEMBER

e-governance architecture

courts

DECEMBER

mobility police

In Box

Facts regarding LESA consumers and e-Suvidha

is is regarding the news item on ‘LESA consumers finding e-Suvidha inconvienent’ (http://www.egovonline.net/articles/article-details.asp?arti cleid=976&typ=News )in egov January 2007 issue. For your record, here are the facts on the project. There is no e-Suvidha server as such. We are asked to maintain LESA servers only. LESA has got very old application developed by CMC in Versata running on very old Sun servers (Sun e 10 series - just imagine they are 10+ yrs). If we have to provide LESA services through e-Suvidha, then LESA had put a link saying that e-Suvidha has to maintain their backend application/database for which we had agreed with certain conditions. The conditions being that LESA should provide the source code of the application along with manuals. After a lot of persuasion of about 3 months by another government department LESA had given the source code containing 1000s of code but no designs, no documents, nothing to understand ABCs of it. As this is in Versata, which became outdated almost 4 years ago. LESA agreed to buy the new software which we developed in Net, but not so far given a go ahead either for software or hardware. CMC had left LESA on sour terms without providing any backup as hefty

amounts are outstanding to them by LESA as I understand. We are left with no choice but to run as is basis. There is a heavy in-house repentance to go for any new changes because their billing system, revenue adjustments, bill revisions etc. All are going to lead to better automation. No doubt, there were lot of disturbances in the routine issues due to server crash, which we can’t help (We mean e-Suvidha). As of now there is no system of disconnection to the consumer in case he/she does not pay in the next month with arrears. So their system all works on likes of consumer paying or not paying in particular month. I do agree that there was overall reduction in their total collection amounts but that does not mean that e-Suvidha is responsible for that. The pending proposals, which are more than year old to upgrade their application, upgrade their hardware which are not being looked into, then obviously these problems do come. K. Jagannath National Business Manager, e-Governance Services, CMS Computers Limited, Bangalore (India) jagannath_k@cms.com

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volume 3 | issue 3 | march 2007

EDITORIAL

president

Dr. M P Narayanan editor-in-chief

Need for out of the box thinking

Ravi Gupta sr. editor

G Kalyan Kumar SR. sub editor

Prachi Shirur

manager, strategic alliances

Dipanjan Banerjee mob: +91 9968251626 email: dipanjan@csdms.in Marketing

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Yashi Media Works Pvt Ltd New Delhi, India egov does not neccesarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in the magazine are those of the contributors. egov is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred, directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided.

governance, when shorn of all technological jargon, boils

down to the simple paradigm as a comparatively fair mode of governance in a knowledge era. This was further reinforced by the outcome of eAsia 2007 and the track egov Asia 2007, organized by CSDMS in the Malaysian city Putrajaya in February. The event, while successfully connecting a galaxy of leading practitioners, policy makers, captains of industry, academia and civil society organizations, innovators and implementers to the cause e-Governance, identified the new trends and challenges in the domain, both from a global and regional perspective. In a sense, egov Asia 2007 succeeded in capturing the essence of global standards in egovernance, by showcasing the best practices in Malaysia, India, Korea, Nepal, France, Sri Lanka, UAE, Singapore, Philippines, Australia, USA, UK and Japan that are ripe for replication in any part of the world. Nearly 1000 delegates from 55 countries converged, and shared their repertoire of knowledge and experience, in the globally noticed event. Of course, technology will play a critical role in advancing e-Governance practices, as technology provides the opportunity to transform policies towards better outcomes. However, the challenge cannot be missed- the need to seize the opportunity offered by technology and linking it with various perspectives emerging from events like eGov2007 and converting them into remarkable policy developments and processes. The whole gamut of issues pertaining to governance will again come in for a serious brainstorming at the upcoming eIndia conference, to be held in New Delhi by the end of July (www.eindia.net.in). Incidentally, the 10th national conference on egovernance held in Bhopal also needs a mention. It stated that India is graduating from pilot projects to mission mode projects but seamless connectivity remained a serious problem and called for “out of the box” thinking from all sides. In the matter of connectivity and reaching the last mile, perhaps WiMAX technology is the existing answer. WiMAX as a hot wireless technology is spearheading connectivity to far-flung areas curbing the disastrous digital divide. Needless to say, it is facilitating the reach of e-Governance in a big scale. WiMAX with its high-speed wireless connectivity and infrastructure can be extended to provide portable and mobile devices. The current issue tries to demystify the mystery of WiMAX. So, read on…

egov is published in collaboration with Elets Technomedia Pvt. Ltd. (www.elets.in) © Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies 2007 www.csdms.in

March 2007

Ravi Gupta ravi.gupta@csdms.in

CO V E R F EA T U R E

tance from terminals from the transmitter and the amount of interference in the frequency band, on the physical side, while in the market side, competition makes the operators increase the quality of service. Quality of service of WiMAX certified products is used by network operators to give a differentiated level of services. With respect to WiMAX, theoretical estimates on performance show the following results vis-à-vis other technologies: In analyzing the cost incurred for fixed wireless access it is informative to breakout the end to end network and consider three major CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) components:

The Promise of Connected Communities WiMAX The promise of ICTs cannot be realized if people are not connected on physical networks on a world-wide scale. Broadband wireless technologies can help connect isolated communities and bring affordable as well as ubiquitous in high-speed Internet access. In countries which have lacked a traditional backbone network, these communication technologies represent an opportunity of leapfrogging. Several cities and countries have been successful in addressing the digital divide issues with inexpensive and pervasive wireless technologies.

TimelineSource: Maurie Dobbin, An Independent view comparing new wireless technologies, APEC Telecommunications and working group, Telesources Engineering (Aust) Pty Ltd., April 2005

Upasna Kakroo Technology Update

Communication networks are comprised of desktops, laptops, PDAs (Personal Digital Assistant) etc, a group of them forming a LAN (local area network), MAN (metropolitan area network) or WAN (wide area network). Wireless technology used in these networks gave rise to WLANs (Wireless LANs). Initial responses to wireless technology were mixed. Some industry experts claimed that it would be the future of communication, while others touted it as being too unreliable, thus futile. Wireless communication however has survived and is growing at an enormous rate. The following graph shows the various wireless technologies in the market presently. Wireless broadband is on the verge of a shift towards usage of wireless technologies which were initially too costly due to expensive equipments but now with the availability of Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access- WiMAX a low-cost solution is envisioned. Technologies related to WiMAX provide greater mobility and higher bandwidth.

Source: Maurie Dobbin, An Independent view comparing new wireless technologies, APEC Telecommunications and working group, Telesources Engineering (Aust) Pty Ltd., April 2005

}

WiMAX in itself is not technologies but certification marks given to equipments which meet a certain conformity and interoperability tests for the standards used. WiMAX is an advanced technology solution, based on an open standard designed to meet the need, and to do so in a low-cost flexible way. WiMAX networks are optimised for high-speed data communication and it is expected to spur innovation in services, content and new mobile devices. The technology behind WiMAX is IEEE 802.16 which is a group working on development of broadband wireless systems. The first standard being worked upon was for Wireless MANs in 2000, and the first standard was published in early 2002. Initial research was in the 10-66 Ghz band and line of sight connectivity and large towers were required for these frequencies. These are thus suitable for backhaul networks. The current standards being worked upon are• 802.16a - uses lower frequencies in the range of 2-11 Ghz and allows for non-line of sight communication also. • 802.16d - deals with connectivity between fixed devices. • 802.16e - deals with a ccess via portable devices like laptops, PDAs and mobile phones. • 802.16f - deals with incorporation of mesh networking capabilities for the standard. The technologies used make WiMAX better suited for long distance wireless connectivity as compared to Wi-Fi. There were service lab trials in the third quarter of 2005 by member companies of the WiMAX forum, followed by commercial trials in the fourth quarter of 2005. WiMAX forum certified products were deployed in the market in the first quarter of 2006. The ranges and speeds for WiMAX however are estimates- theoretical and out of the lab trials in 2005. The range and data speeds are given as followsIt is claimed by the WiMAX forum that a service area of three to ten kilometers would be serviced by a base station without needing line of sight communication. The data rate available in this scenario would be 40Mbps per channel for www.egovonline.net

fixed and portable access applications. One cell could allow hundreds of connections at 1.5Mbps and thousands of residential connections at 256Kbps. The actual throughput would however depend on the geography, the radio channel size, spectral density etc. It is also claimed that WiMAX may provide about 15Mbps of capacity in a cell radius of about 30Kms with the capacity being shared by all users. The throughput for mobile users would be low. Access will be available for moving vehicles also. Korea’s new technology WiBro may be able to give about 1Mbps downloads for vehicles with speeds of 60Kmph.There

Source: http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/32/7/36218739.pdf, Page 28

Customer Premise Equipment (CPE), Base Station Infrastructure and Edge, Core, and central office equipment. For an incumbent wire-line operator extending the reach of an existing network with wireless access; most of the edge, core and central office equipment would be in place already, but, for a new operator this will be a sizeable up-front investment. However, since the investment will be spread over tens of thousands of customers it will (generally) have a minor long-term impact. To bear such costs, the operators might: • Bear the full cost of terminals and installation while requiring a 1 or 2 year service commitment.

Source: http://www.qoscom.de/documentation/51_WiMAX%20Summit %20paris%20-%20may04.pdf

are researchers who think the claims given for WiMAX are too optimistic. Quality of Service and Costs of WiMAX products

Network quality of service is determined by physical and market characteristics. Connection quality is related to disov

March 2007

Source: WiMax Forum, WiMax: The Business case for fixed wireless access in emerging markets, June 2005

cover feature

the promise of connected communities

•

Offset terminal costs by charging a one-time activation fee and/or an equipment rental fee. • May offer incentives to encourage customers to purchase their own terminals. • May partner a state/ municipality in a public-private partnership. The WiMAX forum is keen on keeping the costs low, as the long-distance wireless equipment has been costly in the past. This lowering of prices is being implemented through standardization. Current projections indicate that 100 USD can be achieved for self-installable indoor terminals by the end of 2007 and for outdoor terminals by the end of 2010. Spectrum prices may play an important role in determining the network cost. Operators are likely to move towards usage of equipment in license-exempt bands especially in rural and remote areas. Flexibility in the spectrum policies in various countries may play an important role in determining costs. Market Scenarios for WiMAX

Source: TIA’s 2005 telecommunication market review and forecast http:// www.tiaonline.org/media/press_releases/index.cfm?parelease=05-24

In the Asia Pacific (APAC) market, equipment vendors, including chip set makers, CPE (Cost Per Equipment) makers and system solution providers, have to act very quickly to adopt the latest technical specifications and optimize their equipment performance in real environments. As per current statistics: • Trial network deployments are in progress in at least 13 APAC countries. • Many service providers are developing solutions in developing markets such as India, Thailand, • Philippines and Indonesia have shown great interest in setting up WiMAX networks and extending telecommunication services coverage to under-served places. WiMAX may be partially substitutable for Wi-Fi for longer distances, but Wi-Fi supports faster data rates for customers within 100 metres. Fixed version of WiMAX maybe a good candidate for Wi-Fi backhaul. WiMAX could thus play a complimentary role in Wi-Fi due to differences in range. This could play a role connecting Wi-Fi hotspots in a mesh network, which would increase coverage and capacity quickly. WiMAX in Emerging Markets

Source: Maurie Dobbin, An Independent view comparing new wireless technologies, APEC Telecommunications and working group, Telesources Engineering (Aust) Pty Ltd., April 2005

The WiMAX role in the wireless market is still debatable though, since the commercial deployment of WiMAX devices is very recent and most of the analysis done internationally as well as the industry claims made so far have been either theoretical or as a result of lab tests. Some supporters of the technology are being optimistic about its role while as some others say that it is not justified. Following is a graph showing estimated of WiMAX infrastructure as per a forecast in US.

Wireless access networks based on WiMAX-compliant solutions provide an opportunity for operators to participate in the high growth opportunities in emerging markets which have very low current gross domestic product per capita (GDP) with an above-average economic growth potential. Traditional wire-line infrastructure in these countries is either non-existent or only accessible to a small segment of the population. Though, having said that, these markets present a lot of challenges. In terms of broadband services the low flexible income per household results in: • Lower revenues (Average Revenue Per User i.e. ARPU) for broadband services. • Fewer customers can afford to purchase their own customer premise equipment. • Higher churn and higher percentage of bad debts can result in higher operating expense • Lower percentage of households own personal comput-

www.egovonline.net

Characteristics of Emerging Markets

impact on wimax operator

Supports of government telecom regulators

• •

Spectrum available at low or no cost Facilitated licensing process

Very high household (HH) density in metro areas

•

Lower infrastructure CAPEX per HH passed

Limited write-line competition

•

Gain higher penetration of addressable market

High pent-up demand

•

Rapid market adoption rate (1 to 2 years instead of 3 to 5 years)

Lower labor rates

•

Lower costs for labor-intensive deployment activities such as civil works and equipment installation

High percentage of high density multitenant buildings (MTUs)

•

Multiple customers sharing CPE/IAD CAPEX can improve the business case

Source: WiMax Forum, WiMax: The Business case for fixed wireless access in emerging markets, June 2005

ers thus reducing the size of the addressable market for broadband services. Rural areas in emerging markets are typically the most underserved. There have been several reasons as to why broadband ICT access has been mostly deployed in urban areas. Economically this is as service providers are inclined to first serve the most populated areas, i.e. dense, rich cities and suburbs where most of the potential customers are located where the ARPU is much higher. Rural areas in developing countries are still at first favouring only voice communication instead of value added services representing a slow evolution towards ICTs. Developing areas still lack basic infrastructures like legacy telecommunication infrastructures, electricity supply, roads, etc. WiMAX could reduce the need of wire-line communications, especially in these remote and rural areas, and this could make the regulators cut down on wire-line subsidies and the Universal Subsidies Obligation Fund may have to be looked into with this perspective again. Rural areas in developing countries like China, India and some parts of South America are considered as prospective markets for the usage of WiMAX certified technology options. The Telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI), has given recommendations

Source: WiMax Forum, WiMax: An efficient tool to bridge the digital divide, November 2005

March 2007

(October 2005) on growth of telecom services in rural India and has recognized Wi-Fi and WiMAX as a possible technologies for extending rural coverage. According to TRAI, WiMAX systems are ideally suited for providing broadband access in remote or rural areas in conjunction with Wi-Fi. WiMAX based access networks, compared with other wired solution such as ADSL, or any other wireless or satellite system, will enable operators and service providers to cost-effectively reach millions of new potential customers providing them with broadband ICTs access. This is true even for developing rural areas for which the cost/profitability and the demand factors are essential. This also includes adequate coverage, reliability, performances, capacity and applications. The WiMAX forum is fully committed in cooperation with the private and public sector, to make available the benefits of new technologies, especially ICTs with the goal that: every one can create, access, utilise and share the information and knowledge, to achieve their full potential and improve their quality of life in a sustainable manner. WiMAX would help: • Connect villages with ICTs and establish Community Access Points, as it is estimated that 1.5 million villages in developing nations remain unconnected to telephone networks. • Ensure that more than half the world’s inhabitants have access to ICTs within their reach. The main advantages of using a WiMAX based network are: • Ease of installation- which is particularly useful in rural areas where lack of basic infrastructure and long distances are not uncommon. • High range- WiMAX can provide for non line-of-sight (NLOS) communication also with a coverage (up to 15 Km around the base station) and long range transmission up to 50Km in LOS conditions. • Flexibility- WiMAX solutions can be deployed point, multipoint as well as backhaul networks. • Multiple applications- WiMAX uses the Internet protocol and thus supports all multimedia services from Voice

the promise of connected communities

cover feature

• • • • • • Source: TRAI-June 2006

•

type of market, competitive landscape, operator characteristics, service mix and technology requirements. Critical factors that will define the success of WiMAX in different situations? Financial return can be expected, more so as models for WiMAX showing attractive returns may be a tad optimistic. Success of new entrant network operators and service providers Opportunities and threats to incumbent fixed and mobile operators A possible slow take-up and low ARPU which could not bring in expected returns especially in developing markets. Low PC penetration rates, low disposable incomes in developing areas which could hamper growth. Competition from mobile and DSL growth in developing areas. Experts have claimed that the WiMAX spectrum is currently undervalued effectively meaning that WiMAX spectrum may get a lot more expensive as more regulators release lower frequencies to be used for mobile

over IP (VoIP) to high speed internet and video transmission. WiMAX has a high throughput and does has the capacity to deliver services for SMEs, SOHOs (Small-Office-Home-Office), Cybercafes, Multimedia telecentres, schools and hospitals. The same network can support private and public services and thus favour financial partnerships. The WiMAX networks will be able to support fixed, nomadic, portable and mobile wireless broadband connectivity on the same network. • Cost effective- WiMAX is cost effective for a few or for a million subscribers, it is easy to deploy and allows for dynamic competition, which further bring down prices. (The WiMAX forum which is an industry-led, non-profit corporation formed to promote and certify the compatibility and interoperability of Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) products using the IEEE 802.16 and ETSI HiperMAN wireless MAN specifications, is fully committed in cooperation with the private and public sector to make available the benefits of new technologies to achieve their full potential and improve their quality of life in a sustainable manner.)

•

Challenges and Way Ahead

WiMAX. The WiMAX spectrum costs are already higher in developing markets. The cost of WiMAX per MHz per person has been higher in markets with low broadband penetration. Perhaps counter-intuitively, WiMAX spectrum is also more expensive in lower income countries, an indication of the higher perceived opportunity for WiMAX in such markets. Wireless networks have had a definite impact on the communication sector so far, and this is likely to continue on the same lines. WiMAX seems to be the saviour for the developing world. Though with policy and other issues involved, it remains to be seen whether the WiMAX technologies will prove to be as successful as claimed.

Even though the picture looks good, there are several challenges which may act as barriers to mass adaptation of the technology. These are mainly issues regarding security, lack of awareness, lack of a single bill roaming agreement and lack of uniform authentication procedures. The lack of education and support leads to difficulty of establishing a wireless connection. There is also a lack of awareness among consumers that publicly accessible links are available. The WiMAX growth would depend on the availability of spectrum and its success could be hindered by mobility restrictions in certain specific spectrum bands. Though, the growing availability of WiMAX equipment and the early announcement of a number of deployment plans have led to a surge of interest in WiMAX in developing markets its progress may be hindered by limited discretionary income. There are several key questions regarding: • A viable business model for WiMAX with regards to the 10

Source: WiMax Forum, WiMax: An efficient tool to bridge the digital divide, November 2005

Upasna Kakroo [upasna@csdms.in] is an Electronics and Communication engineer (from College of Engineering, Pune) and has a master’s in Communication Technology and Policy (from University of Strathclyde, UK). She has researched extensively on Indian Telecom sector and on the state of Wi-Fi and WiMax in India. Currently she works in the CSDMS, India as a Senior Research Associate.

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INDIA

2007 30 July - 3 August, Pragati Maidan, New Delhi

Call for Papers Introduction The egov India 2007 Conference Series being organised as part of eIndia event intends to assess the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) implementation. The plan launched by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology is a comprehensive programme designed to leverage the capabilities of ICT to promote good governance across the country. egov India 2007 aims to discuss in detail about the progress on NeGP, success stories, failures, statewise progress and learning from the states which are far ahead in implementing the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs). The annual conference will bring together policymakers, practitioners, industry leaders and academicians from India, South Asia and beyond, to forge the path to good governance for citizens and businesses in India, ensuring exchange of information & knowledge.

Structure of the Conference & Key Topics e-Government Implementation in key sectors in MMPs will be discussed and deliberated upon from 3 different angles: G2G, G2B and G2C.These sectors include: • • • • • •

Citizen Centric Services Income tax/Commercial tax Municipal e-Government Police departments Transport National ID Card

• • • • •

Land Records Passport department Postal department Registration services Treasuries automation

The implementation process, successes, failures, key issues and future plans will be discussed through panel discussions, workshops and presentations of case studies and best practices. Besides this, the conference will also cover wide range of topics, such as: • • • • •

e-Democracy and Citizen Participation e-Government Design and Architecture Framework e-Procurement e-Administration Interoperability and Standards, Semantic and Technical Interoperability • International and Regional Projects Case Studies and Best Practices

• Trust and Security: Provisions and Instruments • Emerging Technologies in e-Government - Mobile and Wireless Technologies, RFID and Smart Cards • Cyber Law and Intellectual Property • Polices for IT Enabled Public Administration (e-Policy) Individuals working in central/state government departments, national/international government agencies, bi-lateral/multilateral organisations, research and academic institutes, development organisations and NGOs and IT/Telecom companies involved with e-Government and/or public sector ICT projects, technology development, policy research, implementation etc. are encouraged to submit abstracts of original papers for presentation in the conference. The abstract should summarise and indicate the key research/points to be further presented and discussed in the session. After evaluation of abstracts, selected authors would be asked to send full paper.

Submit your papers at papers@eIndia.net.in Important Dates: Abstract Submission: 25 - 05 - 2007 Abstract Acceptance: 06 - 06 - 2007 Full Paper Submission: 30 June 2007 Contact Details eIndia 2007 Secretariat Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) G-4, Sector 39, Noida, India - 201301 Tel. : +91-120-2502181- 87, Fax: +91-120-2500060

www.eIndia.net.in/egovindia2007

news review

INDIA e-Tendering by Gail

Cheers for budget on e-Governance

Chidambaram, Union Finance Minister, Government of India, has allocated Rs. 5 billion during the 2007-08 budget to bring about increased efficiency, convenience and transparency of e-Governance. Stating that the government intends to launch more ambitious e-Governance programmes to provide increased services to the masses, Chidambaram also announced the increased previously allocated Rs. 3 billion to Rs. 5 billion to state governments in fiscal 2007-08. The increased allocation for e-Governance has been widely welcomed by major IT players. A website Channeltimes.com quoted Nandu Kumar Pradhan, President & MD, Red Hat India, as saying that this would help drive the growth of the domestic IT industry due to Government’s commitment with an increase in allocation for e-Governance projects both at the Centre and State. Echoing Pradhan’s view, R. Sivakumar, Managing Director, Intel - South Asia, said that the announced budget is consistent with the Government’s policy to expand IT infrastructure. The additional allocation of investment and focus on e-Governance would prove to be positive for both the economy and the people. According to Raju Vegesna, Chairman and CEO, Sify, the focus on Central and State e-Governance programmes would benefit everyone with better governance that is transparent, efficient and citizen friendly. Vegesna, however, regretted that cyber cafes and Internet access services have not been made exempt from service tax. The exemption would have ensured that more citizens had access to the Internet to participate in e-Governance, he said.

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India to have 13 million wimax subscribers by 2012 Maravedis Research and Tonse Telecom, leaders in broadband wireless research and analysis, have forecasted in their report “India Broadband Wireless and WiMAX Market Analysis and Forecasts 2006-2012,” that there will be 13 million WiMAX subscribers in India by 2012. The report is the third of a series that includes reports on Brazil and Russia, provides an in-depth review of the broadband wireless and WiMAX markets as well as regulatory activity taking place in India. As per the report, the Indian telecom sector operates in a volume-driven market. If WiMAX is to succeed it will only be on the premise of huge volumes not, small deployments. “There is huge potential for broadband wireless Internet and voice-over-IP services in India because there are still more than 600,000 villages with no basic communications services,” explained ” says Sridhar T. Pai, co-author of the report and CEO of Tonse Telecom. ‘India is adding more mobiles per year than the total number of fixed line phones added in the first five decades of becoming an Independent nation (1947). This massive revolution has changed lives, improved GDP, increased productivity and made vital contribution to India’s progress. The broadband scenario is on the verge of a similar upheaval. From a mere 1.5 million connections currently, Indian broadband market will grow manifold in the next six years to become potentially one of the top broadband wireless markets on the planet. The resulting eco-system and opportunities are a vendor / investors dream destination’ added Sridhar. The challenge however is shortage of spectrum, which is a serious obstacle for massive adoption of broadband wireless and WiMAX in India.

12 }

hering to the India’s Finance Ministry directives that all go vernment departments launch e-Tendering from July 1, the state-owned Gas Authority of India Limited (GAIL) recently launched e-Tendering. According to U. D. Choubey, Chairman and Managing Director, GAIL, e-Tendering would enhance the company’s operational efficiency. Choubey said, “e-Tendering meets the objectives of public procurement process to be transparent, fair and equitable. With e-Tendering tool our efficiency would increase as it aids faster decision making and reduces the cost of transaction. The e-Tendering platform provides for digitally signed tender and bid documents for user authentication and has facility for vendors to upload queries.”

Indian Railways on IT track

loo Prasad Yadav, Union Railways Minister, Government of India, recently presented the widely acclaimed Railway Budget 2007-08, which prominently focussed on use of IT. Yadav announced several initiatives concerning e-Ticketing and smart cards for citizens. The Ministry announced that PRS (Passenger Reservation System) counters would be opened at the premises of Post offices and defence organisations and operated by them; e-Ticketing services through State Government’s e-Services, petrol pumps, Bank’s ATMs etc.; 6000 Automatic Ticket Vending Machines to be installed and linked to UTS (Unreserved Ticketing System) in metropolitan cities in the next 2 years; and, pilot project on Central railway for issuing suburban tickets through multipurpose smart cards. Presenting his fourth consecutive Rail Budget, Yadav said, “The scheme of booking tickets on the Internet has gained immense popularity. e-Tickets would be issued through state government e-Seva centres, post offices, petrol pumps and ATMs in order to expand the reach of reserved railway ticketing to all parts of India. To encourage e-Ticketing, the e-Ticket charges of sleeper class and air-conditioned classes have been

reduced from Rs. 25 to Rs. 15 and Rs. 40 to Rs. 20 respectively,” and added, “Railway call centres would be also set up for providing information regarding arrival and departure of trains and seat availability.” Currently, any customer can book tickets through the Internet by making online payments, which is done through either direct Debit through the Internet and Prepaid cash cards in addition to credit cards. Ticket bookings could also be done through mobile phones. Integrated Train Enquiry System has also been launched for knowing Train Running Status, PNR Status, and availability of accommodation through Interactive Voice Record-

ing System. In order to provide updated position to the passengers, National Train Enquiry System [www.trainenquiry.com] has been established, whose centres would have the capacity to handle one lakh calls a day.

www.egovonline.net

Localisation of e-Governance Applications: Issues & Standards Brainstorming at MAIT workshop

two-day workshop on ‘Localisation of e-Governance Applications: Issues and Standards’ was organised from 21-22 February at New Delhi by the Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT), and supported by the Technology Development of Indian Languages (TDIL), Ministry of Communications and Information Technology. The effective use of IT services in government administration can greatly enhance existing efficiencies, drive down communication costs and increase transparency in the functioning of various departments. However, not all e-Governance applications follow the worldwide acceptable standards viz. Unicode, W3C, Font Encoding, Keyboard Layouts, et al. It is in this background and to apprise the e-Governance Developers’ community of the world-

wide acceptable standards, this workshop was organised. It was attended by several language computing experts, academicians and developers. The workshop was inaugurated by R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, Department of IT, Government of India. Vinnie Mehta, Executive Director, MAIT, welcomed the participants and eminent panelists. Lauding the role of the C-DAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing) and Ministry of IT for their pioneering work in language technology, Chandrashekhar stressed the need for a huge eco system for localisation of e-Governance applications, which involves bigger group of companies. “It is heartening that hardware companies’ response has been positive. The MNCs like Microsoft have supported the government in its e-Governance endea-

March 2007

vour,” Chandrashekhar said and added, “For successful e-Governance implementation, deployment of applications in local languages is quite important so that every citizen of the country can access it without any problem. It is with this objective that the Common Service Centres (CSCs) has been envisaged by the Government of India.” According to him, it is a huge challenge to do this in 22 languages and expressed the hope that the workshop will inspire more participation from the private sector to accomplish this daunting task. Dr. B. K. Gairola, Director-General, National Informatics Centre, highlighted the importance of backend systems, and stated that an effective G2C services could not be provided without a robust backend. Besides, an effective rollout of such systems cannot be done unless there is localisation. In her address, Neelam Dhawan, Managing Director, Microsoft, emphasised the need for an effective partnership between government, private sector and citizens in order to make eGovernance initiatives successful. “The task of interfacing Internet in local languages is a challenge. There are also issues of insufficient content and standards. Organisations like C-DAC and Microsoft are working in local languages, and Windows is available in 14 languages. However, the issue remains that of the challenge of availability of databases,” Dhawan said. S. Ramakrishnan, Director-General, C-DAC, pointed out that government drives the Indian language computing. He felt that the pressure is now on for Indian language computing from government departments responsible for e-Governance. Earlier, localisation was an issue of locals but now applications need to be fed into first, Ramakrishnan said. Dr. Daniel M. Dias, Director, IBM India Research Lab, laid the stress on standards as the key to e-Government transformation and reaching out to the citizens. He informed about the IBM project in the State of Madhya Pradesh on Hindi Speech

Recognition, working successfully. The workshop sessions included speakers such as R.K.V.S. Raman, C-DAC, Bangalore; Aparna Ramamurthy, C-DAC, Mumbai; M.D. Kulkarni, Group Coordinator-GIST, C-DAC, Pune; Vijay Kumar Gugnani/Karunesh Arora, C-DAC, Noida; Kewal Krishnan, Technical Director, National Informatics Centre; Jaijit Bhattacharya, Country Director, Sun Microsystems; U.B. Pavanaja, Chief Executive, Vishwa Kannada; Ramakrishna Reddy, Red Hat; Abhijit Dutta, Globalisation Specialist, IBM; Prof. Girish Nath Jha, JNU; and, Gora Mohanty, C-DAC, Bangalore. The session topics included localisation and internalisation basics, localisation standards, localisation of web applications, and internalisation of applications. The workshop concluded with key points and recommendations, which are as follows: Localisation is the actual adaptation of those sites to meet the language, cultural and other requirements of a specific target market; only 20% of Asia’s population speak English, so there is the need for localisation, particularly user-friendly interfaces targeted towards rural environment; e-Government is about text data, therefore universal character coding (Unicode) is needed so that every character gets its unique number; there exist challenges in migrating from legacy systems; pre-translation testing helps in user interface, localisability and site stability even before localisation; standards are needed for interoperability between different operating systems and interoperability between language tools supplied by vendors. Government must enforce standards; there should be adoption of W3C standards for developing websites in Indian languages; there is a need to adopt open document format for G2C interactions; workshops need to be organised to arrive at standards. Ability to have standards for machine translations will smoothen interactions between regions within India; and, there is a need to have a recommended glossary for every language, and the government must create and own the glossary.

Conference Website: http://www.mait.com/events/ events75-egov%20workshop.htm – Prachi Shirur 13

news review

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BUSINESS

Virtual NetComm mulls e-Governance foray

rtual NetComm Pvt. Ltd. [www.vnpl. com] has decided to venture into eGovernance. Virtual NetComm is based in Ahmedabad, and is the sole distributor in India for Blue Coat Systems of California, which is engaged in securing web communications, WAN optimisation and video streaming. Rajendra Shah, Director, Virtual NetComm, disclosed, “The company is on the verge of clinching a deal with two state governments and various other state and central-backed organisations under which proxy appliances in web communications would be provided in order to protect against risks and inefficiencies from spyware, web viruses, inappropriate web surfing, instant messaging, video streaming and peer-to-peer file sharing to the state government departments and organisations. The deals are expected to be worth Rs. 70 crore, and solution implementation to be completed by the end of 2007.” Currently, the market for security solutions in e-Governance in India is estimated to be around Rs. 400 crore and is on the ascendancy.

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hyperwave solidifies presence in e-gov sector

Alcatel-Lucent Invests in WiMAX Chipset Vendor Alcatel-Lucent announced it has invested in SEQUANS Communications, a leading supplier and developer of fixed and mobile WiMAX semiconductor solutions. The investment is an extension of Sequans’ recent round of funding announced in July 2006. Terms of the investment agreement were not disclosed. “Our investment in Sequans shows our commitment to WiMAX and our interest in supporting the development of the leading WiMAX technologies,” said Karim El Naggar, Vice president of Alcatel-Lucent WiMAX Business Unit.

Collaboration for Mobile Wimax Technology Beceem Communications, a leading provider of chipsets for Mobile WiMAX technology, recently announced that Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd., a leading provider of mobile phones and telecom systems, selected Beceem as one of its major Mobile WiMAX chipset vendors. Beceem expects that the company’s chipset would be in various Samsung WiMAX-enabled devices. Shahin Hedayat, CEO & Co-founder of Beceem, reported, “Samsung’s selection of our chipset is a result of our close collaboration with Samsung’s Mobile WiMAX development team. This collaboration has resulted in our Mobile WiMAX product leadership and has facilitated Samsung’s product development, market trials and deployments”.

Greek Digital City e-Trikala to be set up with Ericsson support

e-Ticketing services for Indian’s domestic sector by Galileo

The fiber optic Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) would extend to about 15 km throughout the city linking a range of public utility and government buildings. The MAN would also be linked to both the National Network of Public Administration (Syzefxis) and the Internet. The services to be developed, deployed and supported by the MAN includes an electronic marketplace for local enterprises, Geographical Information Systems (GIS) for environmental and emergency data, intelligent transport network and health care programme, a metropolitan-wide emergency response system, urban telework centres and distance learning courses for the unemployed.

ing revolution in India. The facility would now enable Galileo users to issue e-Tickets for Indian’s domestic flights departing from 11 cities such as Chennai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Nagpur, Pune, Goa and Bhubaneshwar, to the six Indian metros such as Chennai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai. Dr. Vishwapati Trivedi, CMD, Indian, expressed happiness at the development and hoped that this would not only simplify the business but also provide more convenience to the passengers. “The e-Ticketing initiative would help travel agents enhance efficiency and productivity, as it would cut down ticketing requirements and consequently printing of flight coupons. Travel agents can focus on their core competency – travel consultancy and research, rather than issuing and delivering tickets,” said Bruce Hanna, COO, Galileo India.

Trikala, the first Digital City of Greece, would be set up with the support of Ericsson, which would provide FTTx backbone telecommunications infrastructure in order to bring broadband services to the city’s population. Until 2008, Ericsson would be supplying switching, WiFi systems and a metropolitan area fiber optic network, as well as related telecom services such as consulting, deployment, systems integration and customer support.

rmany’s Collaborative Information Management (CIM) solutions provider Hyperwave has strengthened its market presence in the international e-Government sector. According to the company communiqué, Hyperwave, along with BULL Information Systems Ltd., recently implemented an infrastructure for Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council (BMBC) in Yorkshire, Eng-

land. The setting of the infrastructure would enable the council’s entire information base becoming accessible in a structured format, efficiently managing web content and complying with data and information management regulations. Among other Hyperwave customers includes the Federal Employment Agency, the City of Edinburgh, the American Department of Defence, Audi, Fujitsu-Siemens, Toshiba, Telekom Austria, EADS and Deutsche Bahn AG (German Railways).

14 }

dia’s state-owned flag carrier Indian has selected Galileo as its major GDS partner to provide e-Ticketing services to its domestic sector. Galileo India pioneered e-Ticket-

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COVER F EATURE

Pura and the National Identity Programme How it works- Access Manager

Common Security Framework The PURA “Providing Urban-amenities to Rural Areas” initiative in India, as part of the 2020 Vision and the Next Generation National Identity Solutions (aka., Identity enabled National Networks) that are emerging today to fulfill the IT and Communications needs within the PURA context, is a strategic initiative that has the potential to empower Rural India and can ensure that India, in its entirety, can participate in economic and social progress in the next 10 to 15 years. The idea is to connect all of rural India with 5000 such projects at a cost of 50 to 150 crores for each project Rakesh Radhakrishnan Introduction and Overview

•

Physical Connectivity (ring road connecting to National Highways) • Electronic Connectivity (interconnected Wireless networks) • Knowledge Connectivity (e-Learning, internet based educational programs, etc.) • Social Connectivity, and, • Economic Connectivity Along the lines of providing the physical connectivity, there are also plans to provide electronic (Network) connectivity to this Cluster of Villages within a 30 to 60km range. India already boasts fiber networks in all major cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore and more. Therefore the ideal cost effective implementation of small metro sized networks (50 to 80km range) that would cover these cluster of villages wireless, will involve Next Generation Wireless Networking technologies, such as WiMAX 802.16 and 802.20

This paper explores the different perspectives from which Architectural Integration and Functional Alignment can take place, between the PURA “Providing Urban-amenities to Rural Areas” Initiative in India, as part of the 2020 Vision and the Next Generation National Identity Solutions (aka., Identity enabled National Networks) that are emerging today to fulfill the IT and Communications needs within the PURA context. PURA is a strategic initiative that has the potential to empower Rural India and can ensure that India, in its entirety, can participate in economic and social progress in the next 10 to 15 years. One key characteristic of PURA is the 30-60 km of ring road connecting a cluster of villages along with a link to a nearby city. For example there are more than 100 villages near a place called Dhamal in Kancheepuram, Tamil Nadu a town that is about 100km from Chennai a Major City in South India. The proposed PURA initiative will essentially connect these villages around the town of Kancheepuram with a circular ring road (2 lanes in each direction) and will connect to a link road (or a National Highway) that connects Dhamal to Chennai. The idea is to connect all of rural India with 5000 such projects at a cost of INR 50 to 150 crores for each project. Dr. Abdul Kalam in his speech at the VISION 2020: PURA As Growth Centers, Workshop held at New Delhi, IIT, in November 2005, articulates and elaboHow it works- Access Manager rates on 5 types of CONNECTIVITY: 16 }

www.egovonline.net

An Identity system consists of four parts: An Access Management (that includes Federation Management) • Identity Management (that includes key and certificates Management) • Identity Auditing (that includes Security event Modeling) • Identity Repositories (that is typically distributable and holds data about users and policies) The Access Manager primarily handles Authentication, Authenticated Sessions, executes Access Control policies, federated access control to Services and Web sites, Federated/policy driven profile sharing, etc. The Identity Manager handles the user provisioning, password management, id synchronization, workflow, rules engine, etc. The Identity Manager is more Resource Facing whereas the Access Manager is more Network facing. The Identity Auditing tool collects the audit logs from access manager, federation manager, identity manager, identity agents, adaptors, etc., in centralised and consolidated manner and performs functions such as automated policy and control scans, violation notifications, attestation reviews and approvals and reporting. The Security event modeling capability of this tool running on an near real-time •

(high throughput, high speed 40MBps and low cost) that also leverages existing Internet Connecting wire-line implementations such as Cable and Fiber Optic networks. Along with a potential National Interconnected Network deployment, one amongst the first Infrastructure Services that needs to be thought out for multiple reasons including Security, delivery of user centric eGov Services, Context and Profile sharing, etc., is a National Identity System that covers India’s Billion Plus Identities. This type of Identity enabled Network is viewed as the Glue between Services and Access Networks. There are many approaches to a National Identity program, including a Federated model, which is well suited in a distributed network, for; AAA (Authentication, Authorisation, Accounting) Services, Federated access control to Services, OSS/ OAM (Operations Support Systems/Operations Administration and Maintenance) Services, NG IN (Next -Gen Intellegent Networks) Services, IMS (Information Management System) How it works- Identity Manager/Sensory Network Services, Programmable Event based Services and more. This paper discusses the relevance of such a National Identity Infrastructure for electronic connectivity, from a PURA context. • National Interconnected Wireless Networks (in conjunction with the PURA Initiative) • National Identity Initiative (in conjunction How it works- Identity Audit with the PURA initiative) • National Converged Architecture -Telecom/ IT (in conjunction with the PURA initiative) application server, offers observeability of whats going on in a • National e-Services Platform -SOA based SDP (in Network at a given point in time. Custom policies can be conjunction with the PURA initiative) created to check for examples on anomalies and physical to • Network Driven eServices (in conjunction with the PURA logical security event correlation, etc. initiative) Last but not the least is the Identity Repository, which generally is a combination of a Large RDBMS (Relational Database Management System) solution and a Network How Does Identity Systems work? Directory Solution, where a Central repository is used by Identity Manger and Identity Auditor to perform its An Identity System is considered the glue between functions, a distributed repository is used by access manager Networks, Services, Resources, Devices and Users. It ensures that and federation manger Secure Access to Services and Information Resources are made The overall System is deployed in a Federated manner, possible transcending boundaries, including Enterprises/ wherein, each Identity Service Provider creates a Circle of Business Entities, Networks, Domains, etc., for Users from Trust of Domains offering Services and federating between Multiple Devices. multiple Identity providers. ov

March 2007

cover feature

Pura and a national identity programme

An Identity System is critical for various functions today in an Enterprise and Government, that are offering eServices, that includes; Compliance with Auditing Regulations (pertaining to Health Care, Finance, Govt., regulations, etc.) • Access to Services Transcending Business and/or State boundaries • Delivery of Converged Services (Voice. Video and Data) • Delivery of Web Services (Federated Orchestration) • Reach outs to Access Networks and Access Devices • Securely managing and delivering Consumer Profiles (health, voting rights, etc.) • Securely delivering context • Identity based Payment, Location, Presence, etc. • Identity based Devices, ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), ILM (Info Lifecycle Managementt), DRM (Digital Rights Management) and other infrastructure services and is expected to Support standards coming from Project Liberty and OASIS, within the Identity Space -such

• • • • •

• •

Open Source Software platform that supports open standards. Assessment of hardware and software costs and requirements based on the 5 Pilots (web servers, application servers, security requirements, and more). Assessment of networking requirements and costs between W-MAN and NAP’s (Network Access Protection) located in cities (T1, T3, fiber link, etc.) Assessment of administrative staff requirements and cost of such human resources to augment network deployments per location, based on Pilots. Vendor participation and funding for trials (in terms of network equipment, hardware and software tools) with assistance from the Indian Government and Educational institutions (approximately USD 2.5 million for 5 trials) Defined set of implementable Security functions and Policies Services that require Federated Access

High Level Conceptual Architecture

as SAML (Security Assertion Markup Language), SPML (Service Provision Markup Language), XACML (Extensible Access Control Markup Language), etc. Requirements for the Deployment of a National Identity Program (& a Identity enabled Network) • Cooperation between IT, Telecom and Government organisations for multiple pilots – between 4 or 5 in potential locations in the North, South, West, East and Central India, closer to major cities. In conjunction with the deployment of Wireless Networks and e-Services (Identity is the Core Infrastructure Service Building Block that Glues Service to be delivered via a Network to Users). • Common Infrastructure SW Services (open source) per PURA cluster of villages or multiple PURA– customised with location specific information, entertainment, education, news, etc. (based on requirements captured from local regions)., for example, one region might have a heavy concentration of cotton production and clothing manufacturing, and there specific needs have to be met in terms of information services. • Potential Identity Service Providers per Indian State – that acts as the IDP for the few 100 PURA’s (creating a Circle of Trust between the PURA’s) per State- interconnecting these State IDP’s in a federation Model. • Requirements around Identity enabled WiMAX Networks, similar to; http://www.prontonetworks.com/ SunProntoWiFiPaper.pdf 18

India has a total of 3.3 million square kilometers of land area that requires network coverage. Roughly 5000 square kilometer can be covered with one WiMAX deployment at rough cost of 0.5 million dollars. This would require about 750 to 1000 deployments (of WiMAX MAN’s) to cover all of India’s rural areas. If these wireless networks are augmented with at the least one Identity Service Provider (IDSP) per State (about 20 to 25) in conjunction with a data center that is also a network access point, all such wireless networks can essentially be an Identity enabled Network, allowing for context/ profile driven user centric service delivery. Therefore in terms of numbers if we had 5,000 PURA village clusters and approximately 1 WiMAX base station for 5 such village cluster’s we will need about a thousand base station deployments. Certain states would have a larger number of base station deployments based on size (square kilo meters, number of PURA and population distribution) and others might deploy a few. Based on the WiMAX 802.16 technology, multiple deployments can connect with each other using a line of sight microwave link, and therefore negates the need for direct internet connectivity for each of the base stations. One datacenter as a network access point can potentially support 20 Wimax station deployments (approximately), with basic services such as Identity Services that offers

AAA (authentication, authorisation and access control -plus auditing) for the user population that accesses the network from an entire state for example. That would call for 30 such datacenter distributed across India that offer Network Access Points and foundations services for the WiMAX deployments, such as Identity Services. All WiMAX base station deployments around the nation, can be identity enabled so that connectivity is only provided after successful Authentication and then an Authenticated Session can be established for the Authorisation to Access Specific Services, for Single Sign on within a Circle of Trust (such as a cluster of neighboring PURA’s) and federated between States within India and Government entities offering Services (such as online provident and pension fund tools). However majority of this deployment architecture can be determined based on what is being learnt from the 5 pilots. There are 28 states and seven union territories in India that needs to be have an Identity enabled Wireless Network. States with huge populations (above 50 million) Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat. Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Mahrashtra, Rajastan, Tamil Nadu , Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal may potentially have 2 or more datacenter as an Identity Service Provider (IDP) and Network Access Point (NAP), to supports its population, in multiple cities within the state. If Disaster Recovery is taken into account, all the States would have at the least 2 redundant datacenter to protect against natural disasters. Smaller union territories could potentially share the data centers offered by a neighboring state. This ratio of 5 PURA’s to 1 WiMAX base station and 20 base stations to 1 data center with a Network Access Point will also be influenced by the density of the population. For example West Bengal, with its 80+ million in population and 90,000 square km, will need approximately 20 Wimax base station, but may still need more than one datacenter, from a Capacity, Scalability, Performance, Workload and Throughput standpoint. Same is true with Uttar Pradesh, 50 WiMAX base stations 250,000 plus square km, yet it

might need 4 plus datacenter to support the 170+ million people. A careful analysis of the throughput requirements of each base station deployments will be needed to support and sustain millions of concurrent connections. Even if we assume that 1 percent of the population attempt to connect online and access services at the same point in time. Identity Systems and Access Mangers have been integrated with Wifi base stations (Access Controller) and the same approach has been taken successfully to integrate with WiMAX base stations, as well. A high level physical architecture of the Integrated solution, as well as a logical architecture is described below. In the high level physical architecture, it is clear that components of an Identity System, such as access manager policy agents, access manager, federation manager, identity manager, replication services, directory servers, etc., are all mostly horizontally scalable, making it the right candidates for a COTS (Commercially-off-the-Shelf) hardware solutions. In the high level logical architecture we see for example a DHCP client and a DHCP server, one can add other such clients and server protocol stack as well; such as the a SIP/ IMS client and SIP/IMS Server if there are requirements to go the IMS (IP multi media system route), WiMAX compact SIP client and server, and more. The architecture is extensible with this approach to integration and is scalable as well. A high level physical architecture of the Identity System that can support 20 plus WiMAX base station deployments from One Data Center that offers the network access point, is depicted below. Since each Identity System deployment would support multi-million subscribers and identities it is imperative that the deployment architecture is scalable and highly available as well. Long term Strategic Benefit

• • • • • www.egovonline.net

March 2007

Secure access to the Network (including Bio-Metric support) Common Security Framework for multiple Network types and Network Services, including; Sensory Networks Programmable Networks IP based Core Network (IMS) 19

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Pura and a national identity programme

• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •

WiMAX and WiFi Networks (access networks) Multi-media Services NG IN Services OAM&P Services Web Services, Entertainment/Video Services and more, Integrated and enhanced access to government services via an Identity enable eGov Portal. Secure access to individualized documents and forms (land records, tax & insurance docs, employment advertisements and employment application forms, etc.). Identity Systems offers the foundation for Open DRM Solutions (user centric) and Content delivery (IPTV, VOD, Digitized education content, etc,). Identity Systems based ESB Services (orchestration and choreography of services) within and between circles of trust established in the Center and State. Identity Centric eGOV initiatives -such as ePassports, eVoting, Health profile, Social Security, etc. Profile/Preference based Service Delivery Participation with Business Circles of Trusts established in other countries (such as USA) Single Sign On and Single Sign Out Near Real time Auditing and Compliance User Privacy User Centric workflow and interventions Secure access to Services Glue between the Network layer and the Services Layer (& Control Layer) Secure collaboration and participation between States and Programs (through Federation)

Government Initiatives for WiMAX in India Several India state governments and city municipalities have announced state/city-wide wireless networks in an alliance between the government bodies and a private partner. Some of them are:

•

Conclusion

A National Identity Initiative forms the foundation for multiple community creation (farmers within a PURA cluster, students belonging to a PURA cluster, dentists within a PURA region, etc), allowing for secure multimedia • communication which in turn enhances the mode of collaboration improving commerce and secure delivery of digital content. It acts as the common security framework not just validating identity of users, but also, documents/ • forms, services, web sites, devices network elements and sensory equipment. Majority of the Countries of the world have embarked on a National Identity initiative for these very same reasons. Identity Initiative lays the foundation for • Communication, • • Collaboration, • Commerce, • Content and • Communities. Rakesh Radhakrishnan [rakesh.radhakrishnan@sun.com] is a Lead IT Architect in the Communications Market Area of Sun Client Solutions. He has covered Telecom Companies, Network Equipment Providers (NEP) and Service Provider accounts in Europe, Canada, USA and Latin America. He has over 15 years of experience and has an MBA (MIS) and MS (MIT).

The Pune Municipal Corporation PMC has announced the “Unwire Pune” project, with Intel Technologies Ltd. as the chief technology and program management consultant. This project is aimed at making 400 sqKms of the city alongwith adjacent areas of Pimpri and Chinchwad wireless. Intel would be deploying the Wi-Fi and WiMax technologies for making the city wire-free. (Reference: http://www.egovpmc.com/ about/about.asp ) The Uttaranchal government has reportedly had an alliance with Intel and a WiMax pilot project, as a backhaul connectivity model for the state is being worked upon. (Reference: http://www.efytimes.com/fullnewsp.asp?edid=7098 ) Rajasthan has gone ahead and signed a MoU with Motorola in February 2006 making it first statewide deployment of wireless broadband infrastructure. The MOTOWi4 canopy network will provide for a wireless backbone grid system. (Reference: http://www.connectwithcanopy.com/index.cfm? canopy=spotlight.story&aid=393 ) The Madhya Pradesh state government has signed the MoU in November 2006 with Motorola and Teledata Informatics as private partners for a wireless network. This project will provide broadband connectivity to rural areas. The villages will be connected to district headquarters and Bhopal. The revenue from the contract is expected to fetch INR 600million annually. The initial contract is set for a period of five years. (Reference: http://www.wirelessiq.com/content/newsfeed/8804.html )

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Industry perspective

Interoperability through customerfocused approach â&#x20AC;&#x153;Microsoft takes a customer-focused approach to enabling interoperability, and delivering innovative interoperable solutions that connect people, data and diverse systems. The Microsoft-Novell collaboration agreement would forge a new model to enhance interoperability between Windows and Linux. By working together, Novell and Microsoft enable customers to choose the operating system that best fits their applications and business needs,â&#x20AC;? reveals Chris Levanes, Platform Strategy Manager, Asia Pacific Region, Microsoft, in an interview to Prachi Shirur of egov

chris levanes, Platform strategic manager, Microsoft

What is the impact of the recent collaboration between Microsoft and Novell on Windows and Linux Interoperability and support on the open source movement?

Microsoft takes a customer-focused approach to enabling interoperability and is committed to meeting customer and market needs by designing interoperable products and services. Whether it is sharing data between applications written in different programming languages or trying to log on across multiple systems, Microsoft is focused on delivering innovative interoperable solutions that connect

March 2007

people, data and diverse systems. The Microsoft-Novell collaboration agreement improves interoperability and enables choice. This agreement forges a new model to enhance interoperability between Windows and Linux. This agreement also provides each companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customers with patent coverage for their respective products. As a result of this broad collaboration, customers would realise increased efficiencies, greater choice and flexibility. The industry, including the open source community, would also benefit through increased intellectual property (IP), peace of mind and innovative and competitive products. By work-

ing together, Novell and Microsoft enable customers to choose the operating system that best fits their applications and business needs. How will this collaboration impact the government, especially in Asian countries, who find deploying open source and propriety software/ interoperability a huge challenge? Today, businesses and governments are increasingly meeting their IT needs by selecting the best software from multiple vendors, including proprietary and open source vendors. Improved interoperability continues to 25

industry perspective

interoperability through customer-focused approach

be a desired feature because they are operating mixed computing environments. Similarly, customers are increasingly concerned about the IP issues associated with the software they deploy, especially open source software. Microsoft and Novell are focused on aligning our interests with those customers, and we have come together to address these two areas of concern. We believe this would create new and exciting technology and business opportunities for our companies, customers, and the software industry. At the same time, how will this effort to bridge the gap between Windows and Linux help in smoother and faster citizen to government and business to government transactions? This collaboration is a testament to Microsoft and Novell’s realistic understanding of businesses and government’s IT environment and challenges in which they may be deploying both open source and proprietary software. We believe our joint approach would allow governments to more efficiently meet the needs of their citizens by lowering costs and simplifying operations. We understand that interoperability is almost as important a feature as security and reliability when governments and other customers make purchasing decisions. With this collaboration, we are excited about being able to help governments work towards improving business to government as well as citizen to government exchanges and transactions. Microsoft and Novell have also made an agreement to provide each other’s customers with patent coverage for their respective products. What all does this agreement entail, please tell us briefly. The patent agreement demonstrates that Microsoft is willing to enter into agreements that extend its patent protection to open source customers. This is an important foundation in building the bridge between proprietary and open source software. One of the biggest perceived differences between open and closed source software revolves around 26

Today, businesses and governments are increasingly meeting their IT needs by selecting the best software from multiple vendors, including proprietary and open source vendors. Improved interoperability continues to be a desired feature because they are operating mixed computing environments. Similarly, customers are increasingly concerned about the IP issues associated with the software they deploy, especially open source software. Microsoft and Novell are focused on aligning our interests with those customers, and we have come together to address these two areas of concern intellectual property. However, some have expressed concern that intellectual property protections could be compromised more easily in open source because open source software is developed in a cooperative environment. This agreement provides confidence on intellectual property for Novell and Microsoft customers. By mutually agreeing not to assert their patent rights against one another’s customers, the two companies give customers greater peace of mind regarding the patents in the solutions they are deploying. Novell and Microsoft believe that this arrangement makes it possible to offer customers the highest level of interoperability with the assurance that both companies stand behind these solutions. Please tell us briefly some of the future plans of Microsoft and Novell towards helping governments to meet the needs of their citizens more efficiently. Microsoft believes that interoperability between vendors promotes a vibrant and thriving economy and ICT ecosystem. Microsoft works very hard at fostering interoperability in a variety of ways. The primary focus is on designing products that interoperate out of the box, so that customers do not need consultants to make them work and interoperate. The creation of tools is also done, which enable others to create interoperable products. Microsoft provides license and cross-license IP to enable interoperability in its products and third-party products. In fact, licensing IP has become a routine part of doing business, and enable vendors to be more efficient in their designs by leveraging the innovations of others

and building on top of that. Microsoft participates in, contributes to, and implements hundreds of standards to enable interoperability. More recently, Ecma ratified our Open XML file formats used in Office as a standard. We created the Open XML Formats Developer Group, and helped form the Interop Vendor Alliance (http:// interopvendoralliance.org). This is a great example of Microsoft responding to customer needs and standardising technology when it makes sense. Finally, we focus a lot of our energy in working with the industry, including governments, competitors, and open source companies to meet customer interoperability needs. To put the overall collaboration in context, this announcement is one in a series of numerous technology collaboration agreements Microsoft has done over the past several years with partners and competitors such as Unisys, Sun, Yahoo!, Nokia, SAP and EMC, as well as open source companies such as JBoss, SugarCRM, XenSource, and Zend. It is also one in a series of numerous efforts where Microsoft is providing access to its technologies to enable interoperability and meet customer needs, including the open source project for the development of Microsoft Office OpenXML and OpenDocument file format translators, the availability of 35 Web Services Specifications, SenderID, the Virtual Hard Disk Specifications, and the OpenXML Specification under the Open Specification Promise (OSP), and the submission and approval of OpenXML as an Ecma International standard. Microsoft would be continuing these types of industry-leading efforts in the future to ensure our products are meeting the interests of Governments and their citizens. www.egovonline.net

special focus

Combating online child abuse in India Q

With the world going hi-tech and peoples’ lives becoming increasingly Internet-dependent, several online scams and swindling have been reported. How does one actually help oneself protect from various online crimes?

The Internet is a great resource, but just like anything

Aelse, one should be on the lookout for anything to ex-

traordinary such as unknown e-mails, online solicitations and other similar requests asking for personal data. These types of scams have been on the rise. As a result, several financial and government institutions have taken a proactive approach to ensure that their costumers are safe. For instance, some institutions use secure web browsers and encrypted sites. In addition, one should take a proactive approach by educating yourself on the risks online. For instance, never give your personal information online i.e. name, address, identity card or credit card information. Never respond to online offers that request personal information. Report anything to your financial institutions or law enforcing agencies that you feel doubtful.

The ICMEC (International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children), Microsoft and the Interpol (International police force) have joined hands to help fight online child abuse in India. This could be done only by strengthening the law enforcement agencies. “Law enforcement agencies in many parts of the world lack expertise, knowledge and resources to investigate and prosecute cases relating to cyber crime. We must understand that it’s a funding issue. We believe that training law enforcement agencies should be the first step to combat cyber crime,” concurs Guillermo Galarza Abizaid, Senior Program Manager, ICMEC (International Centre for Missing and Exploited Children), in an interview to egov. Lt. Richard W. Brown of New Jersey State Police also expressed his views

March 2007

Quite understandably, law enforcement agencies are currently ill-prepared to handle the onslaught of cyber crimes. The situation is that most state and local police departments either don’t have the expertise or equipment to prosecute cyber crimes or suffer from fear psychosis when it comes to handling computers. What steps need to be taken to sensitise the law enforcement agencies? What role is ICMEC in partnership with Microsoft going to play in this regard? You are correct. Law enforcement agencies in many parts of the world lack expertise, knowledge and resources to investigate and prosecute cyber crimes cases. We must understand that it’s a funding issue. We believe that training for law enforcement agencies should be the first step to combat cyber crime. In 2003, Microsoft, ICMEC and Interpol developed a 4-day basic investigative course to provide law enforcement agencies all over the world with the basic tools and techniques 27

special focus

combating online child abuse in india

to investigate online cyber crimes. This training focuses on computer facilitated crimes against children. Both investigators and prosecutors should be trained. Just last year we incorporated a one day segment to the training where we bring prosecutors from different parts of the world to share their expertise in areas of common defences, hurdles and issues in court, besides recent trends. We are looking into the possibility of adding a portable computer lab. This way officers are actually working with the computers hands-on. Since 2003, over 1900 law enforcement officers from 96 countries have participated in 23 trainings. We are already committed to 8 additional trainings this year. The difficulties of fighting cyber crime are quite obvious. Computer forensic experts are either unavailable or too few in numbers. Besides, there is always a possibility of fouling up of computer evidence due to lack of proper training. The fear of altering the hard drives is always there in the process of extracting the pictures of child porn or fragments of email related to identity theft thereby making evidence inadmissible in a court of law. What are the possible safeguards? Advances in technology have afforded law enforcement agencies the opportunity to ensure that proper forensically trained specialists will be able to handle computer evidence in a manner that is defendable in courts of law. The technology and the opportunities exist to form teams that are competent in computer evidence seizure and examination. The term “expert” is synonymous with proper certification training and experience and should not be confused with the simply obtaining the tools of the trade. The challenge for law enforcement is in the allocation of budget resources and the management of same to effectively balance the new needs of the department. In order to properly address the computer forensic needs of the department it may be necessary to reallocate existing resources. Tools such as workload assessments and allocation studies within the department should point to the new need to focus new resources in the area of computer evidence examination seizure and examination. The department’s safeguards are within reach and directly proportionate to the dedication of resources they have allocated to the identified need. Trafficking in children remains unabated the worldover because of the fact that children are vulnerable to physical attack. The recent serial killings in Noida, Chennai and Hyderabad amply highlight this gruesome reality. Online pornography has become an industry and paedophile stalking becoming rampant. Internet is being blatantly misused for the exploitation of children. What kind of integrated approach is being evolved to address the tackling of the victimisation of children and their being lured into crimes? In what manner is the Internet going to be guarded from being used to harm children in this manner? By joining efforts with companies like Microsoft, AOL and others we are creating PA (Public Awareness) safety cam28

paigns containing public announcements with prevention information such as 8 rules for safety and other similar guides. There are several approaches to prevent child victimization. However, the best approach is by talking and educating our children on the dangers and risk of the Internet. Prevention and Awareness is the key. In my opinion, nothing is more impactful than educating children. According to reports, Indian corporate and government websites have been attacked or defaced more than 780 times between February 2000 and December 2002. Besides, in India we do not have IT-savvy lawyers and judges. Although cyber crime cells have been set up in major cities. Doesn’t this seem contradictory vis-à-vis setting up of cyber crime cells and inadequate IT-savvy lawyers and judges? How is this issue going to be addressed? What would be the nature of training being jointly organised by ICMEC, Interpol and Microsoft? The bottom line is that it is not just the Indian and government websites that are being attacked. It’s a worldwide issue and we need to address this at every single level of government, including judges, law enforcement and policy makers. You don’t need to be and IT-savy to understand the nature of the crime. Computers are just the tools, criminals are the same. Law enforcement training is the first step to combat these types of crimes. These trainings are not only about learning investigative techniques. The networking that takes place among officers is crucial especially when the investigator has a case with multiple jurisdictions and countries. egov: India currently has the largest pool of techies in the world. Unemployment factor is another area of major concern. Today, the number of job seekers stands at 27 million. 74% are in rural areas and 60% are educated. The problem of unemployment is quite understandably linked to cyber crime. How is this root cause going to be addressed? Has ICMEC devised any programme pertaining this? No, we don’t have any programs to address this issue. This needs to be addressed by other world organisations. www.egovonline.net

South Asia

Connecting the Nations 30 July - 03 August, 2007 Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India

e-SouthAsia2007 aims to provide a platform for knowledge connectivity for the South Asian countries which are growing economies and nascent markets. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka come together in one platform to discuss and debate issues related to e-Governance, e-Education,e-Agriculture, e-Health, telecentres, community radio, mobile services etc. for development. Come and join the sharpest minds, the most powerful figures in development along with the key decision and policy makers.

Get involved in the change! www.e-SouthAsia.org

event diary

leveraging ict for improved government services ASiA 2007 O pportunities for

D igital A sia

From left to right: Walter fust, Director, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC); Barry Ridway,Director, Government Industry, Microsoft Asia Pacific; Dr Chang Hak Choi, Director General,e-Government Presidential Committee, Republic of Korea; R Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India

at, UK; Commission on ICT, Philippines; Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), Malaysia; Telecentre.org (IDRC), Canada; USAID, India; South East Asian Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO), Thailand; The Asia Foundation, USA; Bellanet, Canada; National University of Singapore (NUS); ICT Agency, Sri Lanka; and many other institutions of repute. Symantec and Polycom participated as premium sponsors. The conference saw the participation of more than 300 delegates, representing various key policy makers from government departments, multilateral and bilateral agencies, academic institutions, NGOs and the IT industry. The conference brought together different stakeholders on one platform through keynotes, papers, special workshops and exhibition, and provided an opportunity to interface with private sector players, practitioners, government executives, decision makers and experts.

Sessions & Exhibition The conference was structured into plenary sessions and main sessions. The two-day egov conference had presentations from across Asia and beyond, including countries

Dato’ Sri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, Minister of Energy Water and Communications, Malaysia inaugurates the e-ASiA conference by beating the gong

The

Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS) organised egov Asia 2007 from 6-8 February 2007 at Putrajaya in Malaysia. The conference was fourth in the series of e-Government conferences, following those in India in 2005, Thailand in 2006, and again in India in 2006. A part of the 3-day Asian ICT conference and exhibition eASiA 2007, the conference was hosted by the Ministry of Water, Energy and Commu-

30 }

nications (MEWC) along with the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC). The event, which was inaugurated by Dato’ Sri Dr. Lim Keng Yaik, Malaysia’s Minister of Energy, Water and Communications, comprised of five thematic ICT conferences egov Asia, Digital Learning Asia, e-Health Asia, mServe Asia, and Asian Telecentre Forum. The e-Government track of the event ‘egov Asia 2007’ offered a high-level cooperation platform

for delegates from various countries to conduct and initiate consultative dialogue, strategic planning, knowledge networking and business partnering, along with seminal discussions on opportunities and challenges in leveraging ICT for improving government services. The event received endorsement of several international organisations such as Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Switzerland; Commonwealth Secretari-

www.egovonline.net

Participants attending the session

March 2007

like Malaysia, India, Korea, Nepal, France, Sri Lanka, UAE, Singapore, Philippines, Australia, USA, UK and Japan. There were some special sessions on individual countries and their eGovernment success stories and initiatives such as session on Malaysia, Korea and Philippines. Some sessions also highlighted the role of technology in e-Government process and administration. The first plenary session was titled ‘e-Governance: Vision for Asia’. The session was organised against the background that in the field of digital government, citizens’ needs and government goals move in a constant cycle of re-evaluation and self-adjustment. The speakers in the session included Dr. Noor Aliah Mohd. Zahri, Deputy Director General (ICT); Malaysian Administrative Modernisation and Management Planning Unit, Malaysia; R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, Minstry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India; Barry Ridgway, Director, Microsoft Government Industry, Microsoft Asia Pacific; and, Devindra Ramnarine, Adviser (Public Sector Informatics), Commonwealth Secretariat, UK. Dr. Zahri informed that e-Government in Malaysia is well advanced and should now

be an integral component of a much broader service delivery agenda for the public sector. “Successfully transforming the Government delivery system would require continuous leveraging of ICT and changing the way the civil service operates,” she said. R. Chandrashekhar emphasised on the role of ICT for good governance efforts in India, which aims to bring about transparency, accountability and responsibility in governance. He described the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP) as a massive programme for transformation of public service delivery. Barry Ridgway provided a perspective to the e-Government, especially in the Asian region. One of the key areas often overlooked is the perspective of the citizens that must interact with Government. “Today, many e-Government projects simply layer technology over top of bureaucracy, and offer little advantage to citizens. Governments must transform their processes to be truly successful in e-Government,” Ridgway said. He also provided the perspectives of IT from political leadership, business management and IT management points of view. Devindra Ramnarine made a presentation on the Commonwealth Connects programme. He gave an overview of ICTs and the digital divide. According to him, ICTs create opportunities for better governance, foster social and economic development, support entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation, enables broader development goals. However, ICTs cannot be exploited equitably by all, and therefore creates the ‘digital divide’, which is a growing problem in Commonwealth. The second session of the day was a special session on the Ubiquitous Korea (U-Korea), which was chaired by Dr. Chang-Hak Choi, Director General, e-Government Presidential Committee, Republic of Korea. The speakers included Dr. Choi, Seok-Sang Rhu, Director, National Information Agency, Ministry of Information and Communication, Republic of Korea, and Young-Sik Kim, e-Government Advisor, NITC, Government of Nepal (Republic of Korea). They spoke on e-Government as a driving force for Government innovation in 31

leveraging ict for improved government services

event diary

Networking lunch

Korea, u-Korea Government and the e-Government Korea-Nepal International Cooperation case study. Dr. Choi provided details about the evolution of e-Government and ICT policy in Korea, as also the direction, strategy and the organisation that facilitate Korea’s global competitiveness in e-Government. Both Dr. Choi and SeokSang Rhu brought to light the efforts which led to Korea succeeding in commercialising CDMA for the first time in the world, and creating an ICT environment where anyone can enjoy new ICT services such as WiBro and DMB anytime, anywhere. Y.S. Kim made a presentation on Korea e-Government collaboration case in Nepal. As part of the Government-to-Government collaboration model with Nepal, Korea has established eGMP (eGov Master Plan) project, which is a nationwide masterplan establishment for e-Government in Korea that has the scope of G2B, G2C and G2G infrastructure. The first day also had a session titled Emerging Technologies in e-Government, organised to highlight emerging technologies which the governments could use to extend and expand its ability to provide information and services to citizens, businesses, civic groups etc.. The speakers of this session included Adi Tedjasaputra, Founder RFID Asia; Hiroshi Mizuta, Chair, Virtual Enterprise Center, Japan; James Whittred, Public Sector Solution Architect, Microsoft Asia Pacific; Ashish Srivastava, Business Development Manager, Symantec Consulting, Singapore; Danister De Almeida, Senior Solutions Marketing Manager, Strategy & Solutions Marketing Group, Polycom; and, Ashot Hovanesian, CEO, Synergy International Systems, USA. Danister De Almeida made a presentation through teleconferencing. Adi Tedjasaputra presented the benefits, challenges and implications of electronic ID applications for e-Government in Asia Pacific. A presentation on effective IT compliance and 32

good governance was made by Ashok Srivastava. He pointed out that the e-Government applications must ensure that vulnerabilities are patched, customer data is protected and security needs urgently responded. Ashot Hovanesian pointed out that during Tsunami, the existing ICT tools could not manage the international assistance rendered. In March 2005 representatives of tsunami-affected countries and partners proposed that national tracking system be established to monitor the tsunami reconstruction process. Hiroshi Mizuta talked about the Template, which is an organising tool for virtual enterprise. According to him, Template assesses the electronic collaboration, strengths and weaknesses of an organisation using four capabilities – Process, Information, Organization and Technology. James Whittred informed that governments need to take advantages of the emerging technologies. The last session of first day was e-Government in Philippines, where the participants

showcased the e-Government initiatives taken by the Philippines government. The session was chaired by Angelo Timoteo M. Diaz de Rivera, Commissioner for e-Government Development & Director General, National Computer Centre, Commission of ICT, Philippines. Other speakers included Josefina De La Cruz, Governor, Province of Bulacan and Teresa Maria Camba, Director For Field Operations, National Computer Centre, Philippines. The second and the final day of egov track had sessions on Asia and a special session on Malaysia. The speakers included San Ng, Program Officer of Information and Communications Technology (ICT), The Asia Foundation, USA; Prof. V.K. Samarnayke, Chairman, ICT Agency (ICTA), Sri Lanka; Dr. Rauf Abdul Ambali, Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia; Michael Mudd, Director of Public Policy, Asia-Pacific, Computing Technology Industry Association - CompTIA, Hong Kong, China; James Whittred, Public Sector Solution Architect, Microsoft Asia Pacific; Andreas Mossberg, International Organisation for Knowledge Economy and Enterprise Development (IKED), Sweden; Dr. SL Sarnot, Director General, STQC, Department of IT, Government of India; Bindhumadhava, B.S., Group Coordinator, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, India; Barry Ridgway, Director, Government Industry, Microsoft Asia Pacific; Rouchouze Bruno, Chairman of Eurosmart ID Working Group, Gemalto, France; Harsha Wijayawardhana, Consultant, University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka; Ahmad Darian, Research Scholar, University of Tehran, Iran; Bimal Pratap Shah, National Information Technology Centre,

exhibition

www.egovonline.net

delegates’ feedback Thank you for a successful event with great value added. - Andreas Mossberg Programme Officer, IKED, Sweden

Panelists of session Emerging Technologies in e-Government

Ministry of Environment, Science and Technology, Nepal; Dr. Mihyar Hesson, Professor, Al Ain University of Science and Technology, UAE, Gayah Gulam Haider, Multimedia Development Corporation, Malaysia; S Ratha Krishnan, Principal Assistant Director, eProcurement Unit, Ministry of Finance, Malaysia; Hazman Shah Abdullah, Professor, Faculty of Administrative Science & Policy Studies, UiTM, Malaysia; Hajah Rugaya Hj. Guy, Associate Professor, Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia; Mustafa Man, Lecturer, Department of Computer Science, College of Science and Technology, Malaysia; Marhaini Mohd Noor, Lecturer, Universiti Teknologi Mara, Malaysia; Dr. Dhrupad Mathur, Fellow & Alumni, Diplo Foundation, Geneva; Devaka Punchihewa, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka; Raymond Teo, Technical Sales Director, Asia-Pacific, Scytl Secure Electronic Voting, Singapore; Chola Pratapa Singh Chhetri, IT-Professional, NTNCACAP, Nepal; M. Prabhakara, Director of Treasuries, Government of Karnataka, India; Ananthalaxmi, Joint Director, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, India; Ajay Adala, Joint CEO, Chhattisgarh infotech & biotech Promotion Society, India; Senthil Kumar, Project Leader, Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, India; and, Rajinder Kumar Vij, Inspector General of Police, Government of Chattisgarh, India. The speakers presented case studies and perspectives in various sessions such as ‘e-Government implementation in Asia – Challenges and Opportunities’, ‘Technology Framework for e-Government’, ‘International Perspectives in e-Government’, ‘e-Government in Malaysia’, ‘Initiatives in e-Government Asian Experience’ and ‘e-Services for Citizens’. Through the exhibition, the conference provided an opportunity for updating on new advancements, solutions and services in the field of e-Governance. The event had different

March 2007

exhibitors from the government and industry, who showcased a wide range of products, services and initiatives in the domain of e-Government. These included Polycom, Symantec, HP-Scytl, Scan Associates, Rentwise, Beskom, among others.

Recommendations The conference concluded with a presentation of summary of conference recommendations by Ravi Gupta, Director, CSDMS. The recommendations are as follows: Role of ICTs in creating opportunities for better governance, foster social and economic development, support entrepreneurship and poverty alleviation; Technology presents opportunities to transform policy, but by itself it is not necessarily going to lead to better outcomes for citizens; e-Government should move in the direction of beyond computer-based electronic ID, towards mobile electronic ID; There is a need to link varied perspectives – policy development, execution of policy and the role of technology; Harnessing the impact of IT requires national vision and leadership; Policies should promote innovation, competition and non-preferential procurement practices; Leadership should help measure and evaluate outcomes of policy and should support efficient administration and decision making; IT departments in government should champion innovation and help educate the business on the art of possible; Government should focus on citizens/employee value as well as agency value and work with vendors to build the e-Government scenarios; Government should adopt bottoms-up approach to increase e-Participation; and, Government should reduce the accessibility cost related to hardware, software and infrastructure.

- Prachi Shirur

I must congratulate you on having put together such a wonderful event. It was a great experience & was very knowledge intensive. - Dr. Dhrupad Mathur Fellow & Alumni, DiploFoundation, Geneva

I enjoyed the conference and my KL tour immensely. Congratulations to the whole team. - Maria Teresa Camba Director For Field Operations, National Computer Center, Philippines

It was very nice conference for me. - Dr. Chang-Hak Choi Director General (Bureau of e-Gov.) Presidential Committee on Government Innovation & Decentralization, Republic of Korea

I really appreciate the team’s effort to have organized such a memorable Conference that brought almost the whole world to that gathering at PICC. - Dr. Abdul Rauf Ambali Faculty of Administrative Science and Policy Studies, University Technology Mara (UiTM), Malaysia

Thanks for inviting me to participate. I really enjoyed the event. - Devindra Ramnarine Adviser (Public Sector Informatics), Governance & Institutional Development Division, Commonwealth Secretariat, United Kingdom

event diary

Addressing recent trends and emerging issues in the mobile sector ASiA 2007

he Internet and mobile boom sharpened global awareness that technology can drive a wedge between those with access and those without. But technologies and connectivity are meaningless if people in underserved communities do not value technology as a way of meeting their needs. Partnerships and supporting infrastructures plant the seeds that sprout confidence and empowerment in people at the grassroots level. The technology is undeniably important but the factors associated with its use are of equal or greater importance. From the “human” angle, we are missing today information details on the exact needs and usage of ICT in developing countries that would enable local communities to develop their own applications for addressing their specific needs. Keeping this in view, Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), India, organised 3-day eASiA 2007 Conference at Putrajaya, Malaysia, from February 6-8. mServe ASiA 2007 was one of the five main tracks of the eASiA 2007 event, aimed at providing a platform to discuss the recent trends and emerging issues in the mobile sector. The first session of the mServe track, which began from February 7, was on “Building a Col-

March 2007

lective Policy Vision for Mobile-based Services”, where the vision of bringing in a development focus to mobile-communication technologies by various mServe initiatives was deliberated upon. This session was chaired by Dr. Ananya Raihan, Executive Director, D-Net, Bangladesh. The panel comprised Badlisham Ghazali, CEO, MDec, Malaysia; Zamani Zakariah, Head of Technology and Standards Division, MCMC, Malaysia; and Ashis Sanyal, Senior Director, Department of IT, India. Ghazali reflected on communication technology and policy perspectives, innovation, emerging markets, and major national and industry initiatives of MDec and Malaysia in general. Zakariah spoke on ‘Trends and Opportunities in Mobile Services - from a Malaysian perspective’. Sanyal presented a critique on ‘m-Services - Future Trends’, and discussed on possible m-Governance and m-Commerce applications and the challenges as well as the benefits of these services and applications. The second session was the ‘Mobile Monday’ session on “Mobile Content - The Way Forward”. Dr Arun Kumar, Chairman of Mobile Monday, Malaysia, chaired the session. Kamil Ahmad Mohd. Othman, VP Content, MDec, Malaysia, reflected on the current landscape

on Mobile Content and the need for it which is generated through the need for ubiquitous mobility. Sandy Monteiro, MD, Universal Music, Malaysia, spoke on digital content and mobile music in the recording industry and how it has changed over the years and what would be the future trends. Lester Neil Francis, CEO AKN Messaging, Malaysia, dwelt upon the Content Provision and business in Malaysia. Roslan, Head of Content, MCMC, Malaysia, highlighted the policies and regulations. Ali Khattam, National IPv6 centre, Malaysia, chaired the third session on “Last Mile Connectivity - Convergence of Internet and Mobility”. Starting the proceedings, Toh Swee Hoe deliberated on some key statistics for Internet and Mobility followed by consumer behaviour on both Internet and mobility. He also spoke about the promises and the challenges of WiMax. Azizi Hadi, Telekom Malaysia, highlighted the telecom technology evolution and the Mobile and Internet boom, and also emphasised on the changing business models of the service providers. Taking the discussion forward onto a developmental perspective, Rwakyera James, RICNET, Uganda, stressed the need for adopting technologies and policies to resolve last mile connectivity issues particu-

event diary

addressing recent trends and emerging issues in the mobile sector

larly in the areas still untouched by technology. Shadid Uddin Akbar, Katalyst, Bangladesh, spoke about the convergence of Internet and Mobility to serve the rural communities and emerging m-Services. The experiences of Grameen Phone in bringing connectivity to rural and remote areas in Bangladesh were highlighted upon by A. H. M. Sultanur Reza, Grameen Phone, Bangladesh. The special note was delivered by A. M. M. Yahya, who collated the points of discussion in the session. The track recommended the showcasing up of case studies from more countries. The final session of the day was on “Next Generation 3G Network for Mobiles”. Salman Malik, Ministry of IT, Pakistan, chaired this session. An overview on a 3G-based mobile multimedia application, which uses a streaming Java Multimedia Conferencing System, was given by Ali Khattam, National IPv6 Centre, Malaysia. Dr Jussi Puhakainen from Turku School of Economics spoke about the dynamics of the Finnish mobile services market. Jari Haggren from Nokia discussed about the key areas in which WCDMA and 3G would be used and the future market trends in these technologies. On day 3, the first session on “Emerging Mobile Applications”, was chaired by Dr. Pasi Malinen, Turku School of Economics, Finland. The Context reactive user experience and enhanced mobile experience through the use of various products and applications was discussed by Jason Tham, Sybase, Singapore. Details about an application being developed for preserving EU-Asia cultural heritage by a Mobile Digital Library was provided by Eunice Sari, University of Art and Design, Finland. Pradeep Joseph from Intel informed about development of rural healthcare application for rural areas in India. Anil Chet Karamsingh, Intelligent Edge Technologies Berhad, spoke of

the changing landscape of the mobile market along with rich mobile media experiences of users, demand for better content, key drivers, benefits and market trends. The second session on “m-Learning” was chaired by Dr Ananya Raihan, DNet Bangladesh. Pointing out m-Learning as a booming evolution, Wemel Cumavoo, LTT Global, Malaysia, elaborated upon the content, credibility and marketing issues of m-Learning solutions. The pedagogical considerations of m-Learning was deliberated upon by Dr Abtar Kaur, Open University, Malaysia, in which a comparison of various teaching-learning orientations and the pedagogical value of m-Learning were highlighted. Mustafa Man, UMT, Malaysia, provided details about ‘Smart Checker’, which is a real time monitoring and students’ attendance tracking system using a wireless PDA. Eunice Sari, University of Art and Design, Finland, spoke about m-Learning in southeast Asia. The third session was on “m-Services: Emerging Markets”. Jussi Siltanen from Nokia chaired the session. Sayalee Joshi, CKS India, presented a report on the impact of the mobile phone on people in rural India. She presented

a case study and a socio economic effect of the mobile devices on people before and after usage. A report on Mobile Phone-based pregnancy support system was presented by Jayanthi Maniam, Sunway University College, Malaysia. A case study based on morphological identification and conjoint analysis for a systematic approach for new mobile service creation was presented by Suhwan Choe, Seoul National University, Korea. In the ensuing discussions, specific questions to applications in healthcare and rural connectivity were pondered upon. The final session was a students’ forum, which was chaired by Alok Tiwari, Infosys Technologies. An analysis of a Voice over IP and a GPRS system was presented by Afsa Tariq, NUST, Pakistan. A report on the factors affecting customer satisfaction in Korean mobile commerce was provided by Hyunmyung Cho, Seoul National University, Korea. He presented a case study on the critical factors driving the current e-Commerce and m-Commerce in Korea also presented a comparison. Kandeepan, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, described a text based Tamil SMS application developed for Mobile devices. Hassaan Owais, NUST, Pakistan, presented a case study of customising database capabilities of SMS gateway for m-Services, and talked about the benefits of such a gateway for the user as well as the service provider. Beenish Anwar and Junaid Akram described an indoor propagation tool using Ray-Tracing techniques. A common recommendation for all the sessions was to start a journal (web-based/ print). Dr Jussi Puhakainen suggested a journal devoted to mobile issues, with three sections – full academic papers, practical studies, and the bold and the young. He also suggested that the review process would be a major magnet in drawing the US and Europeans, and other nations to the conference. - Upasna Kakroo

www.egovonline.net

event diary

‘E-GOVERNANCE AWARENESS MUST FOR CORRUPTION-FREE, EFFICIENT ADMINISTRATION’ 10th National e-Governance Conference

“G

reater public awareness about e-Governance is necessary for providing corruption-free and more efficient administration. Besides adequately training and equipping government officials with the knowledge of computers, it is also essential to enhance awareness among people about this,” said Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, India while inaugurating the 10th National e-Governance Conference at Vidhan Sabha Bhawan premises in the capital city of Bhopal. The 2-day conference, which began from February 2, provided knowledgesharing platform for policy makers, practitioners, industry leaders and academicians to deliberate, interact and develop an actionable strategy for bringing in transparency and good governance. The conference showcased various e-Governance initiatives from all over the country, and also familiarised the Government sector with the latest technologies and techniques being adopted by different Governments. The conference, which had the theme ‘Enabling Government to Accelerate Transformation’, was organised by the Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances, Government of India (GoI); Department of Information Technology, GoI; and, Department of Information Technology, Government of Madhya Pradesh. Among the dignitaries who attended the conference included Suresh Pachouri, Union Minister of State for Administration reforms and Personnel; Kailash Vijayvargiya, Minister of IT & PWD (Public Works Department), Madhya Pradesh; Rakesh Sahni, Chief Secretary, Government of Madhya Pradesh; R. Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology, Government of India (GoI); Rahul Sarin, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Personnel; and, Padamveer Singh, Principal Secretary, IT & PWD, Government of Madhya Pradesh. The conference saw the impressive participation of some 1350 delegates. In his inaugural address, the Chief Minister stressed that e-Democracy is necessary for eGovernance. “e-Governance needs not only

March 2007

computers but also necessary infrastructure including power. Language is a critical issue involved in e-Democracy, and English continues to remain a hurdle in rural areas. Earlier, most of the government websites were in English. Directives have now been issued to make them bilingual. The deliberations of the 10th National e-Governance Conference would go a long way in resolving the various issues concerning e-Governance,” Chouhan said.

The E-readiness Assessment Report on the status of e-Governance was released by the Union Minister of State Suresh Pachouri. Speaking on the occasion, Pachouri said that the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi should be credited with ushering in the computer era in India. The challenge now is to ensure that maximum benefit should reach the rural masses in remote corners of the country. Raising concerns, Pachouri asked, “Are we applying e-Governance to the areas and sectors where conventional systems still cause a considerable amount of inconvenience to the citizens? Are we addressing the services that

are most relevant to the common man, such as agriculture, healthcare and education services as well as the full spectrum of services provided by gram panchayats and municipalities? How long will it take for us to tap the potential that ICT has shown in transforming police and judicial services elsewhere in the world?” Pachouri exhorted the gathering to realise the potential benefits of ICT that extend far beyond just improvement in the delivery of government services. He said, “If these technologies become widely available and affordable by the vast majority of our citizens, their impact would not remain limited to the

event diary

E - G O VERNAN C E A W ARENE S S M U S T F O R C O RR U P TI O N - F REE E F F I C IENT AD M INI S TRATI O N

services that are provided by the Government. These technologies can help people engaged in every sector to handle their current work in a better manner, bring them new jobs and business opportunities, improve their ability to reach larger markets, forge better linkages, provide them more effective mechanisms of commerce and lead to higher incomes and prosperity.” On the occasion, Pachouri also presented 14 awards for outstanding contribution in five sectors of Information Technology. In his speech R. Chandra Shekhar disclosed that along with the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP) the Government of India has sanctioned 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) to provide services and facilites to the people with the cooperation of State Governments and local bodies. The people would start benefiting from these by March 2008. “The departments of Central and State Governments are being linked to block level through broadband service of Internet. Under this, IT centres would be set up in rural areas and every centre would cover three villages to provide different

e-Governance needs not only computers but also necessary infrastructure including power. Language is a critical issue involved in eDemocracy, and English continues to remain a hurdle in rural areas. Earlier, most of the government websites were in English. Directives have now been issued to make them bilingual. services and information to the people,” Chandra Shekhar said. Five Plenary sessions were organised during the 2-day conference. During the Plenary Session 1 on ‘e-Readiness & Rollout’, e-readiness report for 2005 with key data was presented. The session also deliberated on the emphasis on standardisation of process and data, need for adoption of shared services model by States, need for adoption of packaged solutions for rapid and stable implementation of e-Governance projects, importance of PPP model in e-Governance, replication of successful e-Governance projects and adoption of best practices, stability and reusability of the solution, need for change management, need for adoption of open standards etc. Other Plenary sessions included ‘People and Process’, ‘Resource Mobilisation’, ‘Community Participation’ and ‘Integrated Rural Service Delivery’. - Danish A. Khan

10th National e-Governance Awards

Excellence in Government Process Re-Engineering • Golden Icon - Online Student Management System: Government of NCT of Delhi • Silver Icon - eKhazana: Science & Technology Department, Finance Department & NIC Bihar, Government of Bihar • Bronze Icon - Double Entry Accounting Information System: Himachal Pradesh Institute of Public Administration Exemplary Horizontal Transfer of ICT based Best Practice • Golden Icon - Integrated Treasuries Computerisation Project (ITCP): Directorate of Treasuries & Accounts, Government of Madhya Pradesh • Silver Icon - SAARTHI & VAHAN: Department of IT & Department of Transport, Government of Punjab Outstanding Performance in Citizen-centric Service Delivery • Golden Icon - Citizen Facilitation Centres: Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation • Silver Icon - Computer Aided Learning: Government of NCT of Delhi • Bronze Icon - e Mitra: Government of Rajasthan Exemplary Usage of ICT by PSUs • Golden Icon - File Monitoring System (FMS) & Barcode Solutions: Delhi State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Limited • Silver Icon - Medical Cards & Referral Slips Software: National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) • Bronze Icon - Delivery of Customer Services through Single Window Falcom: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Karnataka Best Government Website • Golden Icon - Incredible India: Ministry of Tourism, Government of India [www.icredibleindia.org] • Silver Icon - National Portal of India: National Informatics Centre, Headquarters [http://india.gov.in] • Bronze Icon - Orissa Primary education Programme Authority [www.opepa.in] Special Mention Innovative Technology Usage in e-Governance • Litigation Information Tracking and Evaluation System (LITES): Department of Information Technology & Communication, Government of Rajasthan

www.egovonline.net

event diary

inter-school odf competition in delhi Moving Towards de-facto Standard

Inter-School ODF (Open Document Format) competition was held by the ODF Alliance, as part of the ICEG-2006 held during 15-17 December 2006, New Delhi. The conference aimed to provide a forum for discussing research findings, strategies, policies, and technologies in the field of e-Governance. ODF Alliance is a broad cross-section of associations, academia and industry. The massive participation in the Inter-School ODF Competition in Delhi showed the tremendous ODF adoption that has occurred in the society. ODF is surely moving from a de-jure standard to a de-facto standard. The Inter-School ODF Competition had participation from over 50 government and public schools from Class III to Class XII. The topics were “Why should I learn Computers?” for students from class II to class V, “Benefits of Open Source Software to my school” for students in class VI to class VIII, “Open Standards: Freedom from digital Divide” for students in class IX and X and “Why is Open Document Format Important for India” for students of class XI and XII. The children used Open Source software to create exceptional presentations. The depth of the knowledge of the subjects and the acute understanding of the technology exploitation that is happnening in the society because of non-ODF adoption, astounded the panel of judges and the delegates at the 4th International Conference on Electronic Governance. The Inter-School ODF competition was held by the ODF Alliance. ODFAllaince is

dedicated to improving access to electronic government documents, along with India’s leading technical institutions, global IT majors and government agencies. ODF, is helping to revolutionise the way we document, store, retrieve and share our data across the globe. The governments and industry across the world understands the importance of adopting ODF for competitive advantage as well as for reducing the massive digital divide that is threatening to further sub-divide our society.

The winners of the competition were presented with the prizes by the IT Secretary of Delhi, Narendra Kumar, during the International Conference on e-Governance which was held in IIT Delhi. The winning schools were presented with ODF Silver Shields. The winning schools were Mother’s International School, Tagore International School, and Rukmini Devi Public School. The details of the competition are available at www.ODFAlliance.in/school.

Winners of the Inter-school ODF competition receiving their prizes during the 4th International Conference on e-Governance. The prizes were presented by Narendra Kumar, the IT secretary of Delhi. Please see egov January 2007 issue, which published a report on 4th International Conference on e-Governance (ICEG 2006) titled ‘Standardisation of government processes and services must before embarking upon e-Gov journey’.

March 2007

facts & Data

Broadband Penteration Growth for G7 Countries The

UK passed Japan and the US in broadband penetration in the first quarter of 2006. Among G7 countries, only Canada had a higher broadband penetration rate, according to a recent broadband survey by OECD. The UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s faster growth rate, over twice that of Japan, propelled it past Japan around March of 2006. Meanwhile in the US, broadband growth slowed in October, growing only 0.27% percentage points to 76.6% among active Internet users over the past month. Over the past year, the UK added a net increase of 6.1 subscribers per 100 inhabitants. The US added 4.7 subscribers, while Japan added 2.6. As predicted the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s superior growth rate propelled it past the US and Japan to become second only to Canada among G7 countries surveyed in broadband penetration. Among the top 5 countries in broadband penetration per 100 inhabitants, Denmark, the

Netherlands, and Switzerland all show faster growth rates, while Iceland and Korea are leveling off. At these growth rates Switzerland passed Korea to become fourth overall

in broadband penetration worldwide in the third quarter of 2006. Source: http://www.websiteoptimization.com/ bw/0611/

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www.egovonline.net

numbers

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beginning will see WiMAX chipsets embedded into laptops into handheld 2008 year devices in the beginning of 2009, and into consumer electronics in the beginning of 2010. This is a key assumption, as multimode devices will expand dramatically the

potential markets for WiMAX, especially when WiMAX chipsets are embedded into cellular handsets and base stations. Source: http://www.wimaxforum.org/news/reports/4th_Edition_WiMAX_and_Broadband_Wireless_Brochure.pdf

will be the WiMAX equipment market in 2012 and will have 6 billion usd generated accumulated revenues of US$15 billion by 2012. If additional incumbent and mobile carriers adopt an operating model that includes multi-mode WiMAX plus EV-DO/DV GSM and IMT2000, then expected volumes of WiMAX will be subject to stepwise revision upward. Source: http://www.wimaxforum.org/news/reports/4th_Edition_WiMAX_and_Broadband_Wireless_Brochure.pdf

percent will be the WiMAX subscribers base by 2012, of whom 75% will be using 802.16-2005 technology. WiMAX subscribers will reach 100 million in 2012. Source: http://www.wimaxforum.org/news/reports/4th_Edition_

percent rise of the global market for Wi-Fi phones in 2005, according to a report by Infonetics Research. The number of units shipped rose 112 percent last year ($102.5 million), and will increase by 158 percent this year, the report adds, and will reach $1.9 billion in 2009.

WiMAX_and_Broadband_Wireless_Brochure.pdf Source:http://www.voip-magazine.com/index.php?option=com_content

51,000

are the number of His-B users i.e., there are three lucky persons in every 10,000 Pakistanis, according to the recent statistics of Pakistan Telecom Authority. In terms of percentage of total Internet users of the country estimated between 3 to 5 million, only 1.6% are currently using broadband, a disappointing figure even if compared to the standards of least developing countries.

&task=view&id=1725

1.4

million new subscribers were added by the Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA)-based telecom operators in India have added 1.4 million new subscribers in January 2006. Out of this 1.4 million, 2.24 lakh subscribers are in the fixed wireless and the rest through wire line. The total user base of CDMA has now increased to 24.6 million.

Source: http://www.thenews.com.pk/daily_detail.asp?id=45010 Source: http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/02/08/sto-

300 kbs

speed of free service will be offered for a limited time to users as part of the Wi-Fi mesh network in the New Orleans city of US. The Wi-Fi mesh network will provide affordable, high-speed Internet access for residents, businesses and visitors in New Orleans. Source: http://www.govtech.net/news/news.php?id=99631

council is some UK cities to fit wi-fi antenna in streets to create broad zones where people can have access to the Internet. This British Telecom (BT) project aims to give some UK cities widespread wi-fi coverage. People will be able to access the service using pay-asyou-go vouchers or subscribe for longer-term use.

ries/2006020802330400.htm

14.7

million USD loss has been suffered by Wireless broadband provider for the second half of last year but remains confident the emerging WiMAX technology will be its saviour.The companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s customer base across its Sydney and fledgling Melbourne networks rose 19 per cent in the period to just under 64,000, while revenue was up 40 per cent to 16.1 million USD compared to the same period in 2005. Source: http://www.theage.com.au/news/wireless--broadband/unwiredkeeps-faith-inwimax/

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4993038.stm

March 2007

whats on 15 - 21 March 2007 CeBIT 2007 - The leading business event for the digital world Hannover, Germany

9 - 12 May 2007

www.cebit.de/homepage_e?x=1

ICINCO 2007 - 4th International Conference on Informatics in Control, Automation and Robotics Angers, France

21 - 23 March 2007 Marketing Online Government Services Sydney, Australia www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-search.htm

www.icinco.org/

2 - 4 April 2007

27 March 2007 Transforming Front Line Service Delivery London, United Kingdom www.kablenet.com/ke.nsf/EventsSummaryView/ 457F4EBE4700A6DB8025725D0040E659?OpenDocument

Data Quality: Capturing and maintaining accurate information Sydney, Australia www.arkgroupaustralia.com.au/events-search.htm

3 - 4 April 2007

27 - 28 March 2007 12th Dubtech Government ICT Summit Dubai, UAE www.datamatixgroup.com/conferences/agenda. asp?id=297

2nd UAE eGovernment Projects Summit Abu Dhabi, UAE www.datamatixgroup.com/conferences/agenda. asp?id=303

The African E-Gov Forum 2007 Accra, Ghana http://cto.int/index.php?dir=02&sd=12&id=164&back=inde x.php%3Fdir%3D02%26sd%3D10

28 - 29 March 2007 EITIA-07 - National Conference on Electronics and Information Technology with Industrial Applications Chennai, India http://sathyabamauniv.ac.in/Msc/conference1.html

28 - 30 March 2007 I-ESA ‘07 - Interoperability for Enterprise Software and Applications Madeira, Portugal

CITRA 2007 - Conference on IT Research and Applications Subang, Malaysia http://fit.unitar.edu.my/citra2007/index. php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

10 - 13 April 2007 ARES 2007 - The Second International Conference on Availability, Reliability and Security Vienna, Austria www.bundesarchiv.de/instada/en/index.html?lang=en

11 - 13 April 2007 5th Eastern European e|Gov Days 2007 Prague, Czech Republic http://egov.ocg.at/

www.aidima.es/iesa2007/web/index.htm

16 - 18 April 2007 EISCO 2007 - European Information Society Conference Hämeenlinna, Finland

some wimex events

http://www.hameenliitto.fi/eisco2007/

16 - 17 april 2007 WiMAX Megna JW Marriott, Dubai, UAE

24 - 26 April 2007

http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/wimaxvision/ megna

15-17 May 2007

International Standards for Digital Archives - 3rd European Conference on EAD, EAC and METS Berlin, Germany www.bundesarchiv.de/instada/en/index.html? lang=en

2nd Annual WiMAX Asia Shangri-la Hotel, Singapore http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/wimaxvision/asia

25 - 27 April 2007 TED Conference on eGovernment Olten, Switzerland

27-29 November 2007 WIMAX Eastern Europe Eastern Europe

2 May 2007 e-Government Forum Sydney, Australia

India's Premier ICT4D event

www.agimo.gov.au/resources/events/2006/cebit_2007

www.eIndia.net.in

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25 - 28 June 2007 EEE ‘07 - The 2007 International Conference on e-Learning, e-Business, Enterprise Information Systems, and e-Government Nevada, USA www.world-academy-of-science.org/worldcomp07/ws/ EEE07

8 - 11 July 2007 WMSCI 2007 - 11th World Multi-Conference on Systemics, Cybernetics and Informatics Florida, USA www.mait.com/newsletters/news183-MAIT%20Events%2 0Guide%2023.pdf

16 - 20 July 2007 ICWE 2007 – 7th International Conference on Web Engineering Como, Italy http://icwe.como.polimi.it/index.php?option=com_ frontpage&Itemid=1

22 - 25 July 2007 ICSOFT 2007 -- 2nd International Conference on Software and Data Technologies Barcelona, Spain www.icsoft.org/index.htm

23 - 25 July 2007 ENASE 2007 - 2nd International Working Conference on Evaluation of Novel Approaches to Software Engineering Barcelona, Spain

3 - 5 August 2007 ICEMC2 2007 - 2nd International Conference on Embedded Systems, Mobile Communication and Computing Bangalore, India

Global Biometrics Summit 2007 Brussels, Belgium www.biometricssummit.com

8 - 10 May 2007

Pragati Maidan, New Delhi , India

ECEG 2007: 7th European Conference on eGovernment The Hague, The Netherlands

18 - 19 September 2007

CeBIT Australia 2007 Sydney, Australia

30 July- 03 august 2007

21 - 22 June 2007

www.pes.edu/mcnc/icemc2/index.html

1 - 3 May 2007 ommun ty Rad o

http://cto.int/index.php?dir=02&sd=12&id=165&back=in dex.php%3Fdir%3D02%26sd%3D10

www.enase.org/index.htm

http://international.fhso.ch/ted/ted

http://www.wimax-vision.com/newt/l/wimaxvision/

The Asia Pacific E-Gov Forum 2007 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

www.academic.conferences.org/eceg/eceg2007/eceg07home.htm

4 - 5 April 2007

27 - 29 March 2007

29 - 31 May 2007

SIN 2007 - International Conference on Security of Information and Networks North Cyprus, Turkey www.sinconf.org/

19 September 2007 World e-ID 2007 Sophia Antipolis, France www.strategiestm.com/conferences/we-id/07/index.htm