E-Governance News: 3/12/09

SANJIV MITAL TO BE CEO OF E-GOV CONSULTANCY BODY
New Delhi
The Hindu Business Line

The National Institute of Smart Government (NISG), a consultancy body that provides strategic and operation level management expertise to the Government on e-Governance projects, has announced the appointment of Sanjiv Mital as CEO-Designate.

Mital was CEO and then Vice-Chairman of Comviva (formerly Bharti Telesoft). He has also worked in senior positions in Tally, Wipro and IBM. More recently, he has been mentoring emerging companies as part of Nasscom's mentorship programme.

Mital comes with nearly three decades of experience in technology and telecom sectors, a Nasscom release said.

NISG has been set up to become a Centre of Excellence in e-Governance. A not-for-profit organisation, it has been promoted jointly by Nasscom, ILFS and the Department of Information Technology, and the Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, with Governments of Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Meghalaya as stakeholders.

E-KRISHI COULD BECOME MODEL FOR COUNTRY
Thiruvananthapuram
The Hindu Business Line

The e-Krishi network being implemented by the State could become a model for the rest of the country, according to Dr Pawan K. Dhar, senior scientist at the RIKEN Advanced Sciences Institute, Japan, and Editor-in-Chief, Systems and Synthetic Biology journal.

e-Krishi is a market-driven agricultural initiative through IT-enabled Agri Business Centres in the State piloted by the Kerala State IT Mission and the Departments of Agriculture and Local Self Government.

The State should think of utilising the potential of computational biology to help farmers, Dr Dhar said after inaugurating the State Inter-University Centre of Excellence in Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the University of Kerala.

The Inter-University Centre of Excellence has been set up with an assistance of Rs 3 crore from the State government.

It will facilitate advanced research and education in computational biology and bioinformatics

PANEL LIKELY TO GIVE GREEN SIGNAL FOR E-PARLIAMENT SHORTLY
Vineeta Pandey, New Delhi
DNA

As world leaders brainstorm on how to tackle climate change in Copenhagen, closer home, parliamentarians are contemplating more eco-friendly measures in their way of working.

In one such move, a committee is working on modalities to make the parliamentary process paper-free by switching to the e-mode.

As a first step, the practice of having printed replies to questions posed to ministers may be scrapped. Rajya Sabha deputy chairman K Rahman Khan said the tradition of having printed copies of parliamentary questions may be replaced with them being posted online, along with replies. This, according to him, will not only mean a faster process but also prevent thousands of trees from being cut to make paper. "Our effort may be like a drop in the ocean, but it is a positive step in saving the environment," Rahman said.