Inclusion | Briefs
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| Broadband access to half the world's
population by 2015
The International Telecommunication Union’s World Telecommunication/ICT Development Report 2010, focusing on monitoring the targets of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), has recommended that the efforts should be made to ensure that half the world’s population has access to broadband by 2015. The report was presented on May 25 at the 5th World Telecommunication Development Conference (WTDC-10), in Hyderabad. The report stresses that while major achievements have been made over the past five years - mainly in the field of mobile cellular technology -- substantial efforts are required in developing countries to achieve the goals and targets by 2015. To achieve the targets, the report also recommends building an ICT-literate society globally and developing online content and applications. To this end, governments can take a number of concrete steps, such as licensing mobile broadband operators and ensuring that broadband infrastructure is accessible to all citizens. According to the report, the development of online content and applications in local languages should be promoted. All panchayats to be linked with broadband by 2012: Pilot All panchayats in the country will be connected with broadband facility in next two years, Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Sachin Pilot has said. He said though the internet penetration at present stands at just 8 per cent, efforts are on to provide the facility to maximum number of people, specially in rural areas. Pilot said that the ministry was developing software in 22 official languages of the country so that nobody was deprived of the fruits of IT development because of language problem. Communication network for CWG Terrestrial Trunked Radio, or TETRA, used in Beijing Olympics, will provide communication network for authorities during the Commonwealth Games in October in Delhi. TETRA is the digital avatar of the radio communications technology for a closed user group. The network will enable real-time, secure verbal communications between Delhi Police, fire department, hospitals, Delhi Transport Corporation and the Public Works Department. These services will be coordinating information over TETRA to prevent any emergencies from escalating. TETRA operates on a wireless frequency that is much lower than GSM networks and thus has a longer range. The network - Government Radio Network (GRN) - will have 46 base stations and will cover the entire metropolitan area of the city, including Delhi Metro tunnels and the airport’s Terminal II. The HCL and Motorola jointly won the Rs.1 billion contract for TETRA in December last year. Single entry test for higher education proposed The education ministry is proposing a single national entrance test for universities and professional institutions. The aim is to reduce student stress and also to introduce greater flexibility in the education system that currently makes it difficult for students to switch between science, humanities and commerce once they have made a choice in high school. The ministry’s proposal to establish a national testing service (NTS), which universities will have to use in place of their own entrance examination, is seen as a significant reform of the system of entry to higher education in the country. Even the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), who take students through the hugely competitive Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), will have to use the national test, along with private institutions, although institutions would be free to decide the weighting they wish to give the NTS score compared to Class 12 results. The national test is likely to come into effect from 2013. |
