Quest for Innovations in June
3rd International Mobile & Telecom Congress 2012

Digital Empowerment Foundation & Vodafone India Foundation (VIF) announces mBillionth Award Gala Event as a part of 3rd International Mobile & Telecom congress on 21st July, 2012 at Hotel Intercontinental EROS in New Delhi, India.

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DEF & NIXI to commence a Knowledge portal on best ICT4D Innovations

Digital Empowerment Foundation has been working in the ICT4D from the past 10 years developing and creating a rich content on the ICT for social development. Digital Knowledge Centre (DKC) has a twofold vision of exploring the best initiatives in ICT4D & secondly to support the Social Entrepreneurs.

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Chairman's Column
Gaps and promises in govt's e-agenda
What is inspiring is that there are many plans and activities in the Plan that are bottom-up. There is a significant thrust on ITeS with the rural business process outsourcing trend in mind.
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DEF Engagements
mBillionth South Asia Award Grand Jury meet in Kathmandu
mBillionth South Asia Grand Jury held on 17–19, May 2012 at Kathmandu, Nepal. mBillionth Award Grand Jury is one of the most crucial milestone in entire mBillionth Award Process, which is one the most coveted award at South Asia level.

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DEF & APC participated at India UPR Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland
Association for Progressive Communications (APC) and Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) together participated at the 13th Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of India held on 24 May, 2012 at the United Nations, Geneva, Switzerland.

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Recent Activities
DEF’s Digital Panchayat Programme expanded to Haryana, HP & Kashmir
The Digital Panchayat programme of Digital Empowerment Foundation has expanded its reach in Harayana state. In the initial phase the project was covering 32 panchayats, and now it will cover 100 panchayats of the state.

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"Mobiles for Good" shortlisted 15 applications for INR 4 million grant
Vodafone Foundation in association with Digital Empowerment Foundation announces 15 applications shortlisted for the grant of INR 4 million under Mobiles for Good programme – 2012. Mobiles for Good Programme operates under the framework of mBillionth Award and its objective is to find the most promising mobile project implemented by an NGO anywhere in India and offer financial, mentoring and handholding support to scale up the mobile innovation deployed by the selected NGO.

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DEF & FORD Foundation partnered for providing Unlicensed Band & Wireless Connectivity to Guna tribals in Madhya Pradesh
DEF has entered into a partnership with Ford foundation for implementing Wireless mesh networking project called ‘Wireless in Unlicensed Band’ and the purpose is empowering communities through open media access. This partnership is about deployment of Wireless mesh network in a tribal area to find how open media access, open internet access, access of information and use of information infrastructure can empower local tribal communities in the long run.

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DEF participated and delivered lecture on Mobile Masses at "The South Asian Mobile Conference 2012" in Colombo, Sri Lanka
DEF & ICTA had started mBillionth Award South Asia together having its Jury been organized in Columbo, Sri Lanka three years back in 2010-11. On the occasion of Jury, it was conceived that there would be one day conference on mobile, mobile innovation, telecom and mobile apps involving the South Asian countries.

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VIF & DEF visited Barefoot College Tilonia to review the winning project
On Tuesday, 22nd May, 2012 Mr. Osama Manzar, Founder & Director, Digital Empowerment Foundation and Ms. Laura Turkington, Head, Vodafone India Foundation and team visited Barefoot College Tilonia at Ajmer Dist, Rajasthan and interacted with local people and experienced their everyday’s efforts integrating old methods with advanced technology and benefiting communities.

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PIR & DEF visited Barefoot College to Apprise of eNGO programme at grassroot level
Public Interest Registry (PIR), Administrator & Manager of DOT ORG TLD (top level domain) is one of the strongest partner of DEF (Digital Empowerment Foundation) and together they have been running the eNGO programme and have reached more than 1000 NGOs across South Asia in order to understand local realities of the grass root NGOs and to learn how local NGOs have been using ICT tools and could further be motivated to use modern communication gadgets and tools; PIR along with DEF made a visit to Barefoot college in Tilonia in Kishangadh block in Ajmer Dist in Rajasthan.

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Meet the technology Innovators
Smart card project helps the unbanked poor, reduces fraud
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh government conceived the smart card project as a means to extend mainstream banking and financial services to the poor by using technology-based solutions to ensure efficient and timely transfer of government benefits and minimize leakages.

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A plan to help shrink mobile phone bills
Chennai: When Delhi-based financial adviser Manish Sinha racked up a phone bill of Rs. 1.62 lakh in a month a year ago, he had not anticipated that 3G (third generation) data usage could put a serious hole in his pocket. It was Jigar Doshi's similar experience that spawned Planhound, an Android application that tracks voice calls and messages from a phone to provide the best available plan in the market.

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Helping new developers find their footing
It’s hard to imagine a mobile phone user who has not downloaded free or paid mobile applications, or apps, from an online store. The numbers are only set to increase. Research firm Gartner Inc. predicts that by the end of 2014, over 185 billion apps would have been downloaded from mobile app stores, since the launch of the first in July 2008.

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From inspiration to innovation
Bangalore: Since 2005, the year Apple Inc.’s iPhone debuted, interfaces that employ the human hand as the tool of interaction have become ubiquitous. The iPhone’s latest version, released in October, goes a step ahead and features the use of man’s most natural tool of communication—the human voice.

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DEF's new collaboration
DEF partners with IGNOU IVET

DEF has partnered with IGNOU Institute of Vocational Education & Training to introduce Front office management & Tourism (Guides & Operators) course programme in its field centres. The first batch of the course has been rolled out in Tura in West Garo Hills in Meghalaya with 30 trainees. The course is of 90 days duration with both theory and practical sessions. Prior to this, DEF has partnered with IVET to launch citizen journalism course. The second batch is being rolled out in July 2012.
DEF partners with KKHSOU in Assam

DEF has entered into partnership with Krishna Kanta Handique State Open University (KKHSOU) in Assam to introduce Bachelors Preparatory Programme (BPP) and BA courses in its Sonapur Centre in Kamrup District Metro in Assam. KKHSOU is the first Open University in the entire North East India. The first batch of BPP course with 36 candidates is undergoing currently.
DEF Publications
DEF’s contributed 10 case study in IAMAI & DIT newly released report “India: The impact of internet”

Digital Empowerment Foundation contributed 10 ground case studies for "India: The impact of internet", a book released by IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) and DIT (Dept. of Information & Technology.) Govt. of India.

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News to know
Connecting India, Pakistan, Afghanistan through social media
I start my travels with a tweet. Most of my meetings, talks and visits are logged on Twitter. Each journey ends with a brief travelogue and photos uploaded on Facebook. There are many tools such as Posterous that can integrate all these activities simply through an email. Easily and swiftly, my message directly reaches to a few thousand relevant people who further propagate the message to many more with their Facebook likes, Twitter retweets and many other share tools. Read more
Can internet be a human right?
There cannot be a better environment than in today’s India to discuss, advocate and realize key entitlements to its billion-plus people. We already have rights to information and education and the right to food security is expected to follow soon. At a time like this, a desire to step fully into a knowledge society and economy by making Internet access a basic right seems to be no less substantive. Read more
A letter to Kapil Sibal
Dear minister, You are in a unique position which, in some way or the other, is responsible for connecting almost the entire country through the information highway. You are working on how all the 245,500 panchayats could be connected through broadband in the next few years; being the minister for human resources development, you also have the responsibility of seeing how you could introduce information and communications technology (ICT) in 1.4 million schools, more than 90% of which have no inkling about ICT. Read more
Open Letter from Anonymous to the Government of India
Dear Government of India, We are Anonymous. It has come to our attention that you have blocked filesharing websites in India. We also know you are in the process of making a Great Indian Firewall, to censor the internet in India. Anonymous believes, however, that pursuing this direction is a sad mistake on your behalf. Read more
A classroom on the phone
Globalisation, as defined by the rich, is a very nice thing, the former U.S. President Jimmy Carter once reflected. "You're talking about the internet, you're talking about cell phones, you're talking about computers," said Carter. Read more
Mobile phones in developing world boost e-learning
Globalisation, as defined by the rich, is a very nice thing, the former US president Jimmy Carter once reflected. "You're talking about the internet, you're talking about cell phones, you're talking about computers," said Mr. Carter. "This doesn't affect two-thirds of the people in the world." Read more
350 to join ‘Anonymous’ protest against internet censorship
About 350 students and professionals from the city will join a protest called by the ‘Anonymous’, a group that reportedly hacked websites of several political parties, government and private institutions like the Supreme Court of India, All India Congress Committee, Trinamool Congress, Reliance Big Entertainment to bat for internet freedom and prevent internet censorship. Read more
Ebooks: Is digital opening up a new chapter for publishing?
Next week some of the biggest names in publishing will gather at the Hilton in London's Park Lane for The Bookseller Industry Awards. This year sees the introduction of a new category - the Digital Strategy Award - which recognises how the introduction of new technology is opening up the market. Read more
TeachHer: educate a girl — change the world
TeachHer is a project showcasing the current situation with reference to education for young girls in rural India. It is the story of a girl going back to her country to remedy the lack of education and support the current forms of education. Read more
What is HamariBoli?
It comes as a surprise to almost everyone that what is known as Hindi in India and Urdu in Pakistan is actually one and the same language, The Hindustani! Linguistically speaking, modern standard Hindi and Urdu (official languages of India & Pakistan respectively) are two Standardized Registers of the single language Hindustani, which was the lingua franca of the Mughal empire and later adopted by the British as the official language of British India (modern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh). Read more
Huawei hails India’s new telecom policy
"Huawei welcomes National Telecom Policy 2012 as another path breaking development aimed to fuel the broadband growth in India. The policy is far sighted and would revolutionize the telecom industry by transforming the mobile device from a mere communication instrument to an instrument of empowerment", said Cai Liqun, CEO, Huawei India. Read more
A spectrum story
Here is a spectrum story that does not make the headlines. No fancy lawyers arguing on behalf of top-drawer clients, no Rs. 1,000 crore sums to bandy about, no industry associations seeking meetings with cabinet ministers, or a 2G or 3G label to guarantee page 1 when a story lands on the desk. And completely without the drawing power of Aamir Khan on Star TV to compete for media mind space. Read more
Twitter, an awe-inspiring story for SMEs
BANGALORE, INDIA: Small and medium businesses (SMBs/SMEs) are no longer social media-averse. Given the current growth rate, SMEs cannot discard social sites, especially if they want their products to go global and reach millions of people in no time. Among all the social sites currently available on Earth, Twitter enjoys a special spot. One of the best means to promote businesses, Twitter can spread the popularity of a product or service to every nook and corner of the world. Read more
Google updates Gmail with automatic message translation feature
New Delhi: Here is good news for Gmail users. Now, users will be able to conveniently comprehend emails they receive in other languages as Google has announced to roll out the automatic translation feature for all Gmail users over the next few days. Read more
Tikona Introduces ‘Buy Internet On The Internet’ Services
Have you ever wondered buying internet on the internet? Tikona Digital Networks offers such a service, perhaps first of its kind in India. How it works? All you need to do is click on “check service availability” button and enter your details and the PIN (postal index number) of the area where you stay. The website then checks if the customer area is under Tikona coverage. Read more
Contact Us
Digital Empowerment Foundation
House No. 44, 3rd Floor Kalu Sarai, (Near IIT Flyover) New Delhi – 110016
Tel: +91-11-26532786 / Fax: +91-11-26532787
info@defindia.net, www.defindia.net

 
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