E-PROCUREMENT SYSTEM LAUNCHED
DNA (Bangalore edition)
The unified e-procurement system was launched by the BDA on Thursday to ensure transparency in public procurement of goods and services. BDA commissioner Siddhaiah said that by shifting from e-tendering to e-procurement, the BDA aims to ensure transparency and public participation in the tendering process. It will also help avoid delays in the processing of payments.
NEW LLP TAX RULES WILL APPLY FROM NEXT FISCAL
Vivek Seal,
DNA
The ministry of corporate affairs on Wednesday said the new taxation policy, being framed in consultation with the ministry of finance, for limited liability partnerships (LLPs) would be active from next fiscal.
The LLP Act has already been passed and the process for registrations has started with the corporate affairs ministry focusing on e-governance system to push the registry services.
"Well, it is becoming operational. It is basically the e-stamping, which will, I think, be a major impetus for registrations to become easy. There are tax issues, which for the present we have to go with, but we hope the next year onwards, a fresh look to tax regimes can be made for LLP," corporate affairs minister Salman Khursheed told DNA.
E-GOVERNANCE PROJECT BY ELCOT
Chennai
The Hindu Business Line Business Standard
With a view to prevent any malpractice in billing at Public Distribution System (PDS) shops and facilitate effective billing, the state-owned ELCOT has set up an e-governance project, a top official said.
The project, which has already covered 209 PDS shops, will cover nearly 28,000 PDS shops in the state soon, ELCOT Chairman Santhosh Babu told reporters here on Monday.
IT Minister Poongothai, who held a review meeting with the IT officials including IT Secretary PWC Davidar and Babu, said the IT parks coming up in Chennai,
She said the economic slowdown had not affected the occupancy in these parks since they were “export-oriented'' SEZs.
There was no stagnation in recruitment by IT companies in the state, but there was only a “drop'' compared to the previous years, he added.
Surpassing last year's profit of Rs 13.25 crore, ELCOT made a profit of Rs 17.7 crore this year, she said.
CYBER CRIME COPS GET CRACKING
Mumbai
The Indian Express
The Mumbai Police’ specialized Cyber Crime police station is finally up and running. Located on the first floor of the Bandra-Kurla Complex police station building, this new dedicated police station, the first-of-its-kind in the state, was launched on May 30.
“The Cyber Crime Police Station is now operational. It will be in a position to register First Information Reports on its own and investigate cases. It will cater to all offences taking place in cyber space and all cases related to the Information Technology Act. The police station will register all cyber crime cases taking place across the city, and will also deal with tracking the source of terror e-mails,” said Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Deven Bharti. The recruitments for the police station were finalized following polls in the city, and a specially trained team of over 50 policemen has been selected for the new venture.
“The police station will be headed by an Assistant Commissioner of Police, and we have assigned staff strength keeping in mind the frequency of cyber crimes. The city is divided into five police regions, and the new police station has a police inspector each for monitoring cases in all five regions. The staff at the new police station has been specially trained and their training will continue from time to time in collaboration with private agencies such as Nasscom,” Bharti added.
BANGALOREONE CENTRES WILL PROVIDE 30 MORE SERVICES
DNA (
BangaloreOne centres now have another feather in their cap. Apart from taking bills and issuing travel tickets, certificates pertaining to caste, income, birth and death – among others – can also be issued by the e-Governance department through a new decision.
The department, in association with the Revenue department, announced the launch of 30 services of the Revenue Department from BangaloreOne on Monday.
Elaborating on the process, an official said that anybody can approach the designated centres with necessary documents. The BangaloreOne centre will electronically generate the application for the service and forward the application and the documents to the Nemmadi back office in the Revenue taluk office. The application will then be processed and field-verified.
RS 9.23 CRORE PCMC E-GOVERNANCE PROJECT APPROVED
Pune, May 31, 2009
The Times of <>
The Union government on Friday gave approval for the Rs 9.23-crore e-governance project of the Pimpri-Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC). Speaking to TOI on Friday, Subhash Dumbre, additional commissioner, said the approval was given at a meeting held in
"Municipal commissioner Ashish Sharma has gone to
Giving details of the project, he added, "The PCMC has completed computerisation of its offices like the octroi department, zonal offices and others. However, all civic departments have not been interlinked. The corporation wants to develop an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution software that contains all information about all civic departments."
Dumbre added that the PCMC will receive assistance from the
SMS BOOST TO NREGS PROJECTS
Kolkata, May 31, 2009
The Times of <>
Muriganga Gram Panchayat employee Bishwapaty Gayne was used to travelling 17 km to the Sagar block office, delivering reports of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) projects under his jurisdiction. Since March this year, though, he has been filing his reports on his mobile phone and dispatching them via SMS.
Gayne is one amongst the numerous beneficiaries of a new state panchayat and rural development (PRD) department project that has introduced mobile telephony into the NREGS.
By enabling NREGS personnel at the panchayat level and above to register data on workers' daily assistance and wage disbursals via SMS, the PRD department is on the threshold of unleashing a possible revolution that could change the face of rural employment in Bengal.
"One of the biggest problems of NREGS was that critical information about the attendance of workers, progress of a project and wage payment weren't being relayed on time. By using mobile technology, we are enabling field supervisors and panchayat employees to send live data on a daily basis that is then uploaded on a publicly available website," Rajesh Kankaria, head of the projects' technology enabler SMSLive said.
The PRD department, along with the tech firm, had entered into a pilot project starting in February across five blocks of the state to test the feasibility of the concept. In addition to setting up a base server and other basic infrastructure at a cost of Rs 15 lakh, 11,000 mobile phones were distributed across the project area.
Consequently, the lives of NREGS personnel like Gayne have become substantially simpler. "Before I was given the mobile phone, travelling 17 km to the local block office was a regular affair. Now, I can file the reports from the actual site or from my office. Not only is the information instantly dispatched, it makes the payment process much simpler as the accounts are readily available to all parties," Gayne said.
Not only does this new technology allow for quicker transactions, it also ensures that NREGS workers many of whom have a hand-to-mouth existence can be paid on time.
"Despite the official guidelines, part-payment to workers is mostly untenable as precise measurements of a project need to be relayed before the wages are paid. In the past, the process could take up to a month. But now, with data moving quicker, workers can be paid in under 20 days. This is a big achievement," Shivshankar Maity of Dhablat village said.
Though the pilot project is yet to be implemented statewide, the PRD department is also looking at utilizing the mobile platform for other schemes.
