India’s
“Mission 2007” accepted as part of
“Connect the World” programme of “The
International Telecommunication Union”,
at the World Summit
at Tunis (Tunisia) |
| |
| An innovative
Indian initiative to harness information technology
to empower every village has won wide appreciation
for bringing together government, people and corporates
in partnership. |
| |
| At the World Summit
on the Information Society, which opened here
on Wednesday, the International Telecommunication
Union, an arm of the United Nations, formally
accepted India's "Mission 2007'' programme
as part of its `Connect the World' initiative.
|
| |
|
| 'One World'
social workers Tara Karki from Nepal (left), Kasthuri
Bhupathi from Pondicherry and Latha Gauri from
Hyderabad at the World Summit in Tunis on Wednesday |
| |
| In a concurrent
development, the U.N. Development Programme and
the Swiss Development Agency joined the international
support group for the programme, promising financial
support and help in technology deployment. |
| |
| Roberto Blois,
ITU's Deputy Secretary-General, formally signalled
the global telecom body's sponsorship of the programme.
|
| |
| Speaking at the
launch function, M.S. Swaminathan, who has been
one of the prime movers of Mission 2007, said
that with the programme India sought to "include
the hitherto excluded and reach the hitherto unreachable
— by providing access to technology.'' |
| |
| Conduits |
| |
| B. Shadrach, Delhi-based
Director of the ``One World South Asia Organisation''
— the operational secretariat of Mission
2007, told The Hindu that the challenge before
the consortium of over 100 volunteer agencies,
22 government departments, 34 private sector players
and 18 academic institutions, was to network 1.2
million Indians — one man and one woman
in every village and then to use them as conduits
for IT-driven services and knowledge sharing.
The programme had motivated neighbouring countries:
Nepal had launched its own `Swabhiman' programme
to create over 1,000 tele-centres and Bhutan was
also about to launch a Mission-2007 style initiative
of its own. |
| |
| At the Summit,
grassroots volunteers from One World and other
non-governmental agencies explained the South
Asia development initiatives to dozens of interested
delegates from Africa and the West Asia. Tara
Karki from Okhaldhunga village in Nepal explained
how she helped create local self-help groups.
|
| |
| Kasthuri Bhupathi,
based in Pondicherry, shared experiences with
her newly-formed contacts on providing legal aid
and micro finance through a 50-strong mahila network.
And for Latha Gauri from Hyderabad, Thursday would
be a day to remember. She is the only representative
from a grassroots agency who will address the
General Assembly of the Summit: all other speakers
are heads of Government, Ministers and CEOs of
large corporates. |
| |
| Ms. Latha, who
coordinates a 500-strong self-help group called
`Sneha' in Ranga Reddy District of Andhra Pradesh,
will speak in Telegu for 3 minutes (with simultaneous
translation) to explain the stake of civil society
in the deliberations on the Information Society.
|
| |
| On Tuesday, Information
Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran, who is here
to address the Assembly, launched ``Open Enrich,''
a local language community software solution created
by One World, the National Informatics Centre
and UNESCO, to help knowledge gathering and dissemination
in 15 South Asian languages. |
| |
| Source : The Hindu,
17 November, 2005 |
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