NOW, FILE RTI APPLICATION ONLINE
Kumar Anand, Ahmedabad
The Economic Times (Kolkata edition)
If Right To Information (RTI) is a public movement, the country’s best brains have just given it a mass push.
Students of Indian Institute of Management, Kozhikode (IIMK), and alumni of Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi and Kanpur (IIT-D, IIT-K), have come together to launch a web portal, rtination.com, that enables online filing of RTI application and get replies delivered to them.
The effort is the first of its kind in the country to boost the movement.
Online filing would encourage people from even far-flung areas to seek replies through RTI without wasting time and efforts in reaching government offices.
“RTI application filing is a frustrating experience as it easily takes more than five hours to just fill in the form. We worked towards creating a platform for the public where they can apply for RTI in a simple way without spending too much time over it. The response is immense as we have already got 5,000 registered users at the web portal. Applications have been received from places as far and diverse as
The website serves as a onestop shop for queries and applications related to RTI as it provides details of what one wants to request and even helps in filling the form, thereby reducing chances of rejection.
MAIL FOR ALL GOVT STAFF
Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu Business Line The Hindu
The Chief Minister, V.S. Achuthanandan, has inaugurated the ‘E-mail to All Employees’ project at a function here on Tuesday. The project aims to provide e-mail IDs to all the 4.75 lakh employees of the State Government in a phased manner. On Tuesday, over 4,000 employees received their official email IDs through a Web-based email service using an open source software package.
TN ANNOUNCES RS 204 CRORE SOCIAL SCHEME FOR UNSKILLED WORKERS
Chennai
Business Standard
As part of Aringar Anna 100th Year Anniversary Celebration, the Tamil Nadu government today announced various beneficial scheme, worth Rs 203.87 crore, for unskilled workers in the state.
The scheme would benefit 41.12 lakh workers, according to state government's release.
The scheme offers various social welfare measures including financial assistance to the workers families who have died in an accident or natural death, educational assistance, financial assistance for wedding, pension and others.
In order to take the scheme to those beneficiaries, the government has decided to computerise the department, which takes care of unskilled workers. The government is going to supply 303 computers along with broad band and application software to the offices across the state.
The state government agency Electronics Corporation of India (ELCOT) will build application software and main server through which these offices will be connected and monitored. The ELCOT will also give training to officials who are working in these offices, according to government’s release.
BARTRONICS READIES FUNDS FOR UID
K V Ramana,
DNA
Bartronics, one of the leading players in the RFID, smart card and biometric solutions market, is likely to raise equity to prepare for the unique identification (UID) cards project taken up by the Centre.
The quantum of funds to be raised would be decided in a month's time.
"We are slightly stretched on the debt front since we had to raise about Rs 600 crore recently to fund one of our major projects. We are evaluating raising further equity since we have significant headroom on that front," Bartronics managing director Sudhir Rao told DNA.
The company currently has an equity base of about Rs 29 crore and is evaluating options including a qualified institutional placement, private equity and infusion by promoters.
"Though we are also looking at a foreign currency convertible bonds, equity is the most preferred option," Rao said.
According to him, the UID processes are still being defined at this point and it would take another 6-8 months for the government to call for bids. "From our perspective, the project is about 12-14 months away. We are already well positioned to get a good portion of it. Since we were part of the multipurpose national identification card project which was considered to be a pilot for the UID project, we have several systems and processes already in place to handle the project," he said.
Bartronics is currently participating in five bids for government projects and the progress made in these orders would determine the equity quantum to be raised.
"We are strong in at least two projects which would offer us a market of about Rs 70 crore. But all the five projects together promise a market of Rs 200 crore," Rao said.
The company currently has an order book of about Rs 700 crore to be executed in the next one year.
Bartronics would set up kiosks for citizen assistance under Apke Dwar, a
The company is expecting a major breakthrough in the Asian market with its association with the Singapore-based Avitar, a mobile phone distribution company. Avitar would use Bartronics' RFID solution to track mobile phones distributed through its network. "We are starting with a pilot worth a couple of crores. But, once we take it to commercial level, it would fetch us about Rs 50-60 crore. Avitar is also planning to commercialise our solution for other mobile distribution companies. This would mean a major global opportunity for us," he said.
Though the company continues to see difficulty in progressing at the desired pace in recording revenues, it is not revising its guidance. "We are not changing the revenue guidance as yet. We are confident of scaling the Rs 1,000 crore mark," he said.
RTO TO ISSUE SMART CARDS FROM TODAY
Mangalore
The Times of
The Regional Transport Office (RTO) here will step into the smart-card age on Wednesday. The RTO is rolling out smart cards under its computerized services, according to J Purushottam, regional transport officer. The smart cards - one for driving license and the other for registration certificate - will each have a 16-kilobyte random access memory (RAM) chip embedded into them. These cards are made of plastic.
The benefit of these cards, each costing Rs 200, Purushottam stated is gathering of digital data, that is tamper free, easy retrieval, access to such information gathered and creation of a centralized database of driving license and registration certificate details. The bearer of the card will have an insurance cover of Rs 1 lakh in case of death for one year, and Rs 50,000 in case of permanent disability arising out of any accident.
As of now, 2.71 lakh vehicles have been registered with the Mangalore RTO, which in turn has issued 3.69-lakh driving licenses. Vehicle owners have two years time to get their driving licenses and registration certificates converted into digital format (smart cards), the RTO stated, adding that the cards will have the provision to record traffic violations committed by the DL holder, as well as punishment handed out for the same.
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