2nd Digital Literacy & Panchayat Summit

Manthan Award 2012 witnessed the 2nd Digital Literacy & Panchayat Summit,’ organized by DEF & Intel Corporation to focus on ‘Empowering Rural Panchayat through Digital literacy Programme’. The session witnessed participants fromPanchayats across the nation and various other dignitaries. The primary objective of the session was to share the experience of people from village councilors, panchayat members, villages, corporate houses and government. Read more

Wireless for communities & Open Spectrum Summit Organized by Ford Foundation & DEF

Among 5 Parallel Summits, Wireless for communities & Open Spectrum Summit focusing on ‘Empowering Communities through Open Media Access’ was one of the major Summits organized by DEF & Ford Foundation on the occasion of Manthan Award South Asia & Asia Pacific 2012 at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. The session focused on arriving at better understanding of unlicensed band, free spectrum and its importance to serve last mile connectivity in India and other developing countries. Read more

30 Digital NGOs Showcased Digital Stories at PIR & DEF’s 2nd eNGO Summit

The 2nd eNGO Summit, organized on the occasion of Manthan Award Digital Festival, witnessed the participation of more than 100 NGOs participation. The Summit focused on showcasing the best of NGOs from across Asia and highlighting how ICT has empowered them to be efficient, transparent and beneficial to their communities. Read more

DEF & APC Organized Round Table Discussion on Internet Governance at Manthan Award annual Digital Festival

On the occasion of Manthan Award 2012, Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) organized the Round Table Discussion on Internet Governance, focusing on ‘Emerging Internet Governance; Issues & Challenges in South Asia’ along with Association for Progressive Communications (APC). This round-table was an effort to understand the scope of internet governance issues in the context of South Asian countries. Read more

e-North East Award 2012 Honored 13 North East ICT Practitioners

Seventeen (17) ICT practitioners from North East region honored and recognized at the e-North East Award, held on 22-23 November, 2012 at Gangtok, Sikkim. The Award is an effort to scout, review, select, felicitate, award and nurture best practices in information communication technology for development and governance in North East India. The Award concept seeks to bring into focus practices in as many as 12 categories that have impacted development and governance processes for good. This year, 54 nominations received, 27 were able to make it in finals, out of which 13 were honored as winners. Read more

e-NGO Challenge Award 2012 Grand Jury Held on November 2012

The eNGO Challenge Award 2012 Grand Jury was successfully held on 5th November, 2012 at India International Centre, New Delhi, India. The Jury marked the second and final stage of selection of best practices for the eNGO Challenge Award. The Jury marked a fine amalgam of great minds from vastly different walks of life in sync with diversity in 5 award categories. Read more

eNGO Workshop (Africa Chapter) held in Kenya

Report of eNGO workshop Africa chapter held on 24th October 2012 at Kisumu Kenya in a hero pastoral center main hall. The workshop was organized by the local partner Brains and Vision in collaboration with the Digital Empowerment Foundation India. The workshop was attended by one hundred and twenty three organizations. Each organization was represented by two individuals. The total number of people who attended the launch was two hundred and seventy four including the members of Brains and Vision. Read more

Technology for common (wo)man by Debajani Ghosh, MD, Intel

For India to rise ahead of the pack, digital infrastructure has to become a key component of national growth with concerted efforts in four main areas. The first is the building of information superhighways or broadband networks, second, the availability of a broad spectrum of devices, third; is a content and services that can maximize the potential of increased ICT penetration and connectivity and last but not the least is wide spread digital literacy and empowerment of the citizens to enable them to be skilled enough to use this infrastructure and access for their betterment.

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India local content has global reference by Prof. Dr. Peter A. Bruck, Chiarman, WSA

Today we know that access to infrastructure is one critical issue and the provision of high speed backbones based on optical cable will influence greatly the opportunities of people in terms of education and culture, business, commerce, health and participation in government. Yet inequalities in terms of costs persist while Internet and PCs have become pervasive for people around the globe. With six billion mobile connections worldwide, the mobile revolution has taken place. Its centres are not New York or Paris but Mumbai and Manila. The Manthan Award has a lighthouse function in this environment. South East Asian content developers turn available technical devices into powerful knowledge tools for the masses: They create content that has a direct impact on the daily lives of millions of people.

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ICT & Entrepreneurship : Enabling change by Jayashri Ramamurti, Head of People Operations, Engg and Product, Google India

Today, the world of Internet has thrown open unprecedented opportunities for us as a country and region to empower and transform our communities and the world. There are 120 million internet users in the country. India is the third largest internet user market in the world. By 2015, the number of internet users is estimated to scale to 300 million. Imagine the power of 300 million users leveraging technology and the internet every minute to connect and build their hopes, aspirations and ultimately their surroundings. Information & Communication Technology is ushering in a new era and we at Google, recognize the need to support and help grow this ecosystem. ICT innovations are the need of the hour. Google is committed to bridging the digital divide that exists in this country and across the APAC region. ICT is a key driver to usher in a new era of inclusion and connectivity and empower the people of the region.

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A golden time for social techno-preneurs in India by Dr. Madanmohan Rao, Research Director, mobile monday

Business and social entrepreneurship can be accelerated in India via more involvement of educational institutes, ICT companies, social investors, and corporate social responsibility initiatives. Some of the academic institutes such as IIM-B have been nurturing startups in their entrepreneurship centres, but the cases are few and far between and more educational institutes need to address entrepreneurship, according to V. Sridhar, author of "The Telecom Revolution in India." Niche areas such as e-education and e-healthcare are areas with lots of potential. "It is time for unleashing the power of mobile broadband to the masses including low-cost Internet Telephony – an operators’ nightmare as voice will become almost free," Sridhar cautions. Telecom is becoming more and more software centric. In today’s era, content and applications are the important drivers for adoption.

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DEF Launched NDLM Centres at Arian & Panisagar

Where is South Asian participation @IGF2012?

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