Gurgaon in Cyberspace

जिले की वेबसाइट को अपडेट करने के लिए सभी अधिकारियों को मंगलवार को उपायुक्त राजेंद्र कटारिया द्वारा अपने-अपने विभागों से संबंधित समस्त सूचना नैशनल इंफोरमेटिक्स सेंटर के जिला सूचना अधिकारी (डीआईओ) एस.के. रस्तोगी को मुहैया कराने के निर्देश दिए हैं।

नगर निगम क्षेत्र व प्रापर्टी सर्वे करने वाली मैप वे इंडिया कंपनी ने शहर के नक्शे सहित अन्य जानकारी साइट पर डाउन लोड कर इसका ब्लू प्रिंट तैयार कर लिया है। इसके बाद आपको जिस भी क्षेत्र, कालोनी, पोस्ट आफिस, पिन नंबर, अनधिकृत या वैध कालोनी, नगर निगम की सीमा, पुलिस थाने सहित अन्य जानकारी के लिए किसी विभाग के चक्कर नहीं लगाना पड़ेंगे।

मालूम हो इसी कंपनी ने जहां नगर निगम सीमा की जनसंख्या का सर्वे किया वहीं प्रापर्टी सर्वे का भी। कंपनी ने सर्वे व पोस्ट आफिस विभाग की मदद से शहर का खाका तैयार कर एक नक्शा तैयार कर लिया है। साइट तैयार होते ही सारी जानकारी डाउन लोड कर दी जाएंगी और इसके बाद लोग निगम की वेबसाइट में जाते ही शहर से जुड़ी हर जानकारी प्राप्त कर सकेंगे।

निगमायुक्त आरके खुल्लर ने बताया कि कंपनी को इस काम के लिए उन्होंने ही दिशा-निर्देश दिए थे और आने वाले समय में कंपनी की इस साइट को निगम की वेबसाइट में डाल दिया जाएगा। कंपनी के असिस्टेंट वाइस प्रेसिडेंट जय कुमार का कहना है कि यह काम एक चुनौती थी और यह काम पूरा हो गया है। इसकी टेस्टिंग चल रही है।

मकानों के नंबर डालने का काम जारी : साइबर सिटी में कौन सी कालोनी में कौन से नंबर का मकान किस गली या सड़क के पास स्थित है यह जानने के लिए लोगों को अभी कुछ इंतजार करना होगा। कंपनी शहर के नक्शे में संबंधित क्षेत्रों में संबंधित मकानों की संख्या डालने का काम कर रही है। यह काम पूरा होते ही लोग कंप्यूटर पर किसी भी क्षेत्र के मकान के बारे में जानकारी के साथ यह भी पता कर पाएंगे कि किस मकान में किराएदार रहते हैं और कहां मकान मालिक।

कंपनी की ओर से सभी आरडब्ल्यूए के लिए वेबसाइट नि:शुल्क तैयार की जाएगी। कुछ के लिए वेबसाइट तैयार भी हो चुकी है। वेबसाइट पर संबंधित आरडब्ल्यूए की पूरी जानकारी होगी। लोगों के नाम, पता व टेलीफोन नंबर सहित कई प्रकार की जानकारी उपलब्ध होगी। वेबसाइट की मुख्य कमान आरडब्ल्यूए के पास होगी। संबंधित सेक्टर के लोगों के पास यदि समस्याएं हैं, वे वेबसाइट पर समस्याएं डाल देंगे। समस्याओं को संबंधित आरडब्ल्यूए प्रशासन को फॉरवार्ड कर देगी। वेबसाइट पर टैक्सी संचालक, फूल विक्रेता से सभी आवश्यक संचालकों की जानकारी होगी। यदि किसी को फूल चाहिए, तो वह ऑनलाइन एसएमएस करेगा और उसके पास होम डिलवरी की तर्ज पर फूल पहुंच जाएंगे। हालांकि आवश्यक सुविधाएं हासिल करने के लिए लोगों को कुछ पैसे खर्च करने होंगे। यह पैसा वेबसाइट तैयार करने वाली कंपनी के पास जाएगा।

जस्ट इंफो ऑनलाइन सर्विसेज प्राइवेट लिमिटेड की एमडी जेसिका सिंह व आपरेशन हेड प्रीति धारीवाल ने दैनिक जागरण को बताया कि यह कार्य हैदराबाद, बंगलूर व चेन्नई में सफलतापूर्वक चल रहा है। अब नोएडा व गुड़गांव में इसकी शुरुआत की गई है। दोनों जगह लोगों का सहयोग प्राप्त हो रहा है, क्योंकि आज घर बैठे ही लोग आवश्यक सुविधाएं हासिल करना चाहते हैं। कंपनी की ओर से केवल सुविधाएं ही नहीं, बल्कि समय-समय पर विभिन्न ऐतिहासिक व पर्यटन स्थलों पर घुमाने का भी कार्यक्रम तैयार किया जाएगा। इसके लिए लोगों को कुछ रुपये देने होंगे। सूरजकुंड मेला शुरू होने वाला है। इसमें लोगों को ले जाने के लिए भी योजना बनाई जाएगी। जेसिका सिंह कहती हैं कि कंपनी की योजना पूरे देश में कार्य करने की है। जल्द ही अन्य जगहों के लिए भी योजना बनाई जाएगी। कहीं कंपनी स्वयं कार्य करेगी तो कहीं फ्रेंचाइजी को देगी। सेक्टर 17 आरडब्ल्यूए के प्रेसिडेंट कर्नल आरसी चढ्डा कहते हैं कि आज के समय में किसी के पास समय नहीं है। ऐसे समय में यह वेबसाइट एक क्रांतिकारी कदम है। इसके माध्यम से जहां लोग आवश्यक सुविधाएं घर बैठे ही हासिल कर पाएंगे वहीं अपनी समस्याओं से प्रशासन को भी अवगत करा पाएंगे।

Yes, the market is definitely looking up, with new launches leading the rising curve in the residential realty segment.

About 33 per cent of projects in this category have recorded a price increase at the panIndia level, suggests data by real estate research firm PropEquity. Talking about Delhi-NCR, the report says the city that showed the maximum price increase between March and October 2009 at 11.1 per cent, was Gurgaon (see table). Faridabad came next at 8.5 per cent, Noida and Greater Noida at 6.5 per cent and Ghaziabad at 5.1 per cent.

Source: PropEquity New Lauches: Projects Launched during Oct 2008-March-2009   Old Lauched: Projects Lauched up to Sep 2008    Time Frame: Projects prices are compared between two points in time. March 2009 as base and Oct 2009 as Final price

According to Samir Jasuja, CEO of PropEquity, Gurgaon and Noida prices had reacted to the slowdown and fallen much lower than established base prices (in the market) when compared to other NCR hubs. Also, out of the four markets, Gurgaon had the maximum number of new launches and since the price correction is led by this category, it has logged the highest price increase too.

The gap between the launch price of new offerings post-slowdown and the established base price in the market was also the widest in Gurgaon. As a result of this influx of supply at lower prices, the established base price underwent downward revision. With markets picking up, the base price in the city is headed towards earlier established levels. And that is why one can see Gurgaon logging the maximum price rise, explains Jasuja.

There was hardly any difference between new launch prices and the established base price in Ghaziabad, and thus there wasn't a significant increase in prices.

Also, in terms of price decline in existing projects due to the downturn, Noida recorded a sharper fall as compared to other NCR hubs, leading to higher prices of old projects there. These were seen as leading the overall increase in Noida instead of the new launches.

But is the increase sustainable? For the new launches it is, because these were launched at corrected price levels post-slowdown, with thin margins for developers.

Source: Hindustan Times The Rising Curve: Residential Prices In Delhi NCR Are Showing An Upward Swing, Thanks To New Launches

Something important/interesting has come up for me and I would not be having much free time now onwards. So I have decided to cut down on a few non-productive activities.

It is the collective effort of citizens which gives a city its character and makes a nation great. Keep raising issues and awareness about what is wrong around you.

Wish all of you the best of luck.

- Fubar

To strengthen the security net and increase the safety of students the Delhi Public School Sector-45 has decided to integrate GSM, GPS and GPRS technology in student I-cards. Talking on the same Asheesh Prasad, administrator of the school said, " This is a small component of hardware which will be attached in the student's identity card and through RFID (Radio Frequency Identification), the student can be tracked in the school campus or school bus. Parents will immediately get the information about their kid. If the student is outside the vicinity of the school or the bus, an alarm will ring in the control room and parents will immediately get an SMS."

What prompted the school to take recourse to such measures? Aditi Mishra, principal of the school informs, "Living in troubled times, we are constantly thinking how to improve the safety and security of the students. Nothing would be better than keeping the parents in direct contact with their children even while they are in the school or travelling in the bus. Besides, we are always open to using any new and innovative measures which could have a positive effect on our students."

   
• Bhuvan, ISRO's free imaging service, can have commercial spinoffs
     
• ISRO hopes to boost its share in the satellite image market
     
• The size of this market in India is estimated to be over Rs 340 crore
     
• These images are used by urban planners and telecom firms

With a resolution of 10 metres offered by Bhuvan, one can clearly see a vehicle the size of a mini van. Google Earth's 200 metres resolution, on the other hand, is just about enough to make out big apartment blocks. Besides that, ISRO also plans to update the images each year. Google Earth does not offer such a service, making its images outdated for a rapidly changing country like India. Bhuvan will focus on the Indian subcontinent and, if all goes well, spread its operations elsewhere. The images will be sourced from ISRO's wide network of satellites that include the Cartosat series and the Indian Mini Satellite.

Bhuvan, says director of National Remote Sensing Centre V. Jayaraman, will be a visualisation tool that will organise available satellite images and overlay them with geographical details in GIS format from the government's database, like those about natural resources. Besides urban areas, the project will also map rural areas. He adds that Bhuvan will respect all rules put down by the Remote Sensing Data Policy. That may mean lowering the resolution of "sensitive locations".

Interestingly, the name Bhuvan was thought of as an effort to bring back attention to the earth after ISRO's recent successful moon mission. "Ultimately, we hope to allow users to mark locations on Bhuvan," states Jayaraman.

R. Siva Kumar, CEO of the government-backed National Spatial Database Infrastructure, says Bhuvan will make geospatial data more accessible and affordable. "With a bird's eye view it will certainly help an individual relate better spatially with his environment, like find out if he or she lives in close proximity to a sewer." The launch of Bhuvan will also benefit experts who would like to make use of free high-resolution images for urban planning and traffic management, besides several other applications.

But will Bhuvan be a worthy competitor for Google? P.K. Roy, editor, Cybermedia Group of publications, doubts so. "It will be difficult to replicate Google's success, for it is not just about providing the images. They need to be translated into a usable context and meaningful form, something that Google Maps and Google Earth have done extremely well," he says. The combined use of the two, allowing maps to be superimposed on satellite images, is becoming popular in India with the increasing use of internet-enabled phones. Google Map Maker was also launched in India in August 2008 and encourages users to identify locations they know on the map.

"We are living in times where mass participation is inevitable. Open mapping is here to stay," says T.P. Venu, senior assistant editor of Geospatial Today, a niche magazine published from Hyderabad. Whether Bhuvan becomes as popular as Google Earth will therefore largely depend on ISRO's capability to convince the growing internet community in India to use it.

At another level, Bhuvan is an attempt to rekindle interest in planned development using satellite images, where ISRO has a 90 per cent domestic market share.

In an attempt to expedite and streamline the work of road repair and reconstruction, the local HUDA authorities have fixed a time frame and put the names and contact numbers of the officials responsible for these works on the official HUDA website.

"The time schedule, along with cost of the special repair work on various roads under our jurisdiction and the names and contact numbers of the JEs and SDOs concerned, is now available on the HUDA website so that everybody can have access to the information about repair of roads in their area," said HUDA administrator G. Anupama in a statement issued here.

It means that any aware resident can now get the latest and relevant information regarding the repair and reconstruction work of roads in his/her area and effectively pursue the matter with the official(s) concerned in the event of any lapse or laxity.

The local administrative authorities were recently under fire from various quarters, including residents' bodies and the media, over the slackness in repair and construction of roads and the execution of other infrastructure developmental activities.

The website will also contain Delhi government's notifications relating to subjects under the Centre's jurisdiction.

 The system, to be maintained by the department of printing and publication of the ministry, will ensure date-wise, month-wise and subject-wise availability of all notifications which contain government policy and directives.

A senior ministry official said the online system was devised to reduce the time lag as well as to facilitate easy accessibility for users all over the country. "It will also ensure transparency," he added.

Presently, gazette notifications are available to the public only after 10-15 days of the date of publication and people across the country have to travel to the state capital to get a copy of the document.

The e-gazette process will also help users for other purposes like research, court cases and settlement of legal documents. A ministry official said that the printed version would continue to remain in vogue while the e-gazette would have its own usefulness.

"We have been trying to provide added amenities to railway passengers for the past few years. It is in this regard that we introduced e-ticketing and ATM kiosks at various stations. The latest was to offer the unified 139 inquiry service through which passengers could get the latest updates on reservation and even book hotels. This project is a continuation of this dedicated Rail Sampark Call Centre services," said a senior IRCTC official.

According to initial plans, the Railways has applied for a dedicated three digit number from the department of Telecommunication. "This number can be used all through the country and will not need a STD code. Once the passenger calls this number, our call centre executives will book an available ticket for him and also arrange for its delivery," added the official. Incidentally, the Rail Sampark Call Centre is one of the biggest call centre facility which can handle up to 2 million calls a day.

The official maintained that the biggest stumbling block in the project remains the mode of payment. "We may initially ask the passengers to pay for the ticket through the railway cash card launched in association with a nationalised bank a few years ago. However, we plan to extend the service to all credit cards once the project kicks off," he said.

Senior Railway officials said such a step will be a major boost for decongesting ticket counters. "Ticket counters of major stations like New Delhi are always crowded. Such a step, thus, will help from the security angle too," said a senior northern Railway official.

Passengers too welcomed the move, but remained sceptical whether railways can deliver the tickets on time. "This will certainly help common passengers as they simply need a telephone instead of a computer to book a ticket. But, we will have to wait and see whether they can deliver the tickets on time," said Prashant Bhatia, a PR executive.

But free legal information for consumers who want to do some research before they visit a lawyer is far less broadly available on the Web. Now services are appearing that may make it easier for consumers to do their own preliminary homework on legal issues in advance of seeking help from a professional.

JDSupra.com, a new site, is stocking a free, virtual law library by persuading lawyers to do something highly unusual: to post examples of their legal work online for use by one and all, no strings attached. Many of the documents are articles and newsletters that can be understood by ordinary mortals who want more background on a legal issue, or who would like to find lawyers with expertise in a particular area.

It works like this: Lawyers who contribute to JD Supra dip into their hard drives for articles, court papers, legal briefs and other tidbits of their craft. They upload the documents, as well as a profile of themselves that is linked to each document. Site visitors who have a legal problem and are thinking about finding a lawyer can use an easily searchable database to look up, say, "trademark infringement," find related documents and, if they like the author's experience and approach, perhaps click on his or her profile.

Contributing lawyers get publicity and credit for the socially useful act of adding to a public database, and visitors get free information, said Aviva Cuyler, a former litigator in Marshall, Calif., who founded the business. "People will still need attorneys," Ms. Cuyler said. "We are not encouraging people to do it themselves, but to find the right people to help them."

The site opened at the end of February and has attracted about 200 contributors, including small, midsize and large firms, as well as academics and groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the Cato Institute. The basic service of posting documents and linked profiles is free to these contributors; the site charges $240 a year if contributors want to add links in their profiles to their e-mail addresses, Web sites and blogs. The site will also carry advertisements.

JD Supra is typical of a group of fledgling online legal research services that promise to open a field that was once closed, said David Curle, an analyst at Outsell Inc., a market research firm in Burlingame, Calif., for the professional publishing industry. "There's a real opportunity here in these latent markets as services go beyond lawyer-finding tools" like online lists of attorneys, he said, "particularly in the consumer market, which is wide open."

This was disclosed by Deepak Bansal, technical director, National Informatics Centre (NIC), Haryana, here today. He said after the implementation of the centralised file system, the files would be online and it would help in checking delays. At present, about 2,000 files were being put up in the Haryana civil secretariat daily by officials. While under the present system, it takes about a week to clear the files, the new online system would make their disposal quick.

The move, which comes days after the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act was extended to all districts, is aimed at maintaining transparency.

Ministers can now view the progress reports of their states online, monitor implementation of the scheme and address grievances.

The page, a click away from the rural job scheme website www.nrega.nic.in, provides information on the number of employment cards issued in a state, the number of women employed, the progress made and how funds have been used. It also provides a district-wise monthly progress report.

"This detailed information will give ministers a chance to review the work that has been under way in their states. It will also be a step towards eradicating corruption at the district level," a source said.

"Ministers are supposed to meet district-level leaders every quarter and discuss the scheme's progress but unfortunately, that rarely happens."

While announcing the extension of the scheme, rural development minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh had confessed that his ministry had received over 165 complaints about its non-implementation.

Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Karnataka are among the best performing states while Bengal and Bihar are at the other end of the spectrum.

E-ticketing kiosks are provided by banks to their customers at railway stations to book tickets through debit card.

The Indian Railways had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with State Bank of India, Punjab National Bank, Bank of Baroda, Indian Bank, Canara Bank, Union Bank of India and Dena Bank to set up 1,392 automated teller machines at railway stations across the country.

Of these, 856 will be e-ticketing kiosks.

Mr M.S. Sundara Rajan, chairman and managing director of Indian Bank, said, "Commuters can now get printed tickets without having to stand in queues at reservation counters. This will help the banks to expand their network into smaller cities and give them a competitive advantage over others."

Indian Bank was the first bank to install an e-ticketing kiosk in December, 2007. It has already set up 10 e-ticketing kiosks and has plans to set up 24 more within a year.

The Union Bank of India too set up its first e-ticketing kiosk at Delhi in December and is gearing up to set up similar facilities.

As a gesture from the MCF showing its intent of public participation in the develoment process, the civic body got the website launched by five elderly residents.

The progressive work done by by MCF in getting the website lauched was however marred by incorrect data as much information was outdated. They mainly concerned with the posting of the officials.

For example, Sunita Verma, who is now a city magistrate of Faridabad, continues with her old posting as joint commissioner, Faridabad.

Anil Sharma, who is no more as joint commissioner of Ballabgarh Zone, continues to be posted at the seat. The latest fact is that Pushpidner Singh Chauhan is the joint commissioner, Ballabgarh. Inder Kumar Bishnoi who is no more joint commissioner of NIT zone continues to be so as per the website. The fact is that B.S Kali Raman is the present incumbent.

Also, Sujan Singh Yadav continues to be the MCF's secretary while the post is presently vacant.

Another howler is with regard to the name of N.K.Katara. Although he is now the chief engineer of the civic body, he is presented with his old designation of superintending engnieer in the website. There are several cases in which personnel have been projected with their old designation though they have been promoted. Rajeev Goyal continues to be assistant engineer even though he has left the civic body on retirement.

With the beginning of the new system, residents will not have to go to police stations time and again to get their complaints registered as they will have access to every service of the department just by clicking a button of the cellphone.

Gurgaon police commissioner Mohinder Lal said the department was making arrangements to provide all emergency services to the residents on a call to the control room. After the introduction of this facility, a person could lodge his complaint, know about the status of his case, or even the status of his passport and licence, just by sending an SMS to the control room.

Lal said the internal set-up of the police was also being modified. CCTVs would be installed at various important places to trap traffic rule violators. The GPS would be installed in all police vehicles to monitor their movement.

People like steel baron Lakshmi Mittal, Britain's Lord Swaraj Paul and Lord Meghnad Desai have always been in the news. Government initiatives like Pravasi Bharatiya meets have also emerged as perfect platforms for upper class billionaire NRI's from Europe and US who want to reconnect with their roots and give something back to the society in which they were born.

For the small and medium income NRIs residing in Arab and African nations, a new portal called the Tasveer-e-Hind was recently launched by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi.

The chairman of the Tasveer-e Hind Foundation, S M Asif, said: "The portal will address the grievances of the lower and the middle class NRI's and forward their problems to the government through the Internet".

The website is intended to tap the working class in the Middle East and the African countries. Ironically, this neglected lot has played a very crucial role in bailing India out of the fuel crisis in the late seventies. In fact, the Indian Government has tried to woo this segment much before the European and US NRIs' which were roped in only after the Indian economy opened up in the 90's.

The Tasveer-e-Hind website will be the one stop info shop which will be hyperlinked to all the crucial Indian ministries, missions, leadership and various government departments. Whether the initiative will really be able to overcome the Lacunae between the government and the NRI's, but is hailed as a good move by the movers and shakers in the government. By Naveen Kapoor (ANI)

An effort of the Rehabilitation Council of India (RCI) and Media Lab Asia, a part of the communications and information technology ministry, the web portal and the software are aimed at enabling the disabled to get more connected to the rest of the world.

Employment opportunities, contact numbers of hospitals and health care centres, online courses, catalogued knowledge repository of audio-video and Braille files in Indian languages and books related to disability are some of the resources featured on the portal.

Punarbhava.in will also have a National Disability Register that will give statistical information about the disabled population in India.

The screen reading software, called Screen Access For All (SAFA), will help the visually impaired use the computer with ease.

'The software will work in such a way that a voice will read out the text on the computer screen in any Indian language that the user is comfortable in. One can also take dictation and write using this software,' said Dipender Mauja, a civil society member who works on various issues of physical disability.

Gauri, a visually challenged girl, gave a demonstration by taking down dictation in Hindi from the software's voice and typing with ease.

'In order to actually benefit the masses, it is important that the software is available in all Indian languages. That's why SAFA can be accessed through 12 Indian languages, besides English,' said Meira Kumar, minister of social justice and empowerment, who was present at the launch.

'Tamil, Bengali, Sanskrit, Hindi...one can use the software in whichever language he or she wants,' she said.

The software can be installed at a price between Rs.500 and Rs.2,000.

'This software will enable visually handicapped students, who used to otherwise answer their exams with the help of a reader and writer, write their own paper,' Mauja said.

Kumar said her ministry was now working towards offering financial aid for NGOs working on issues of disability to get free access to Navshikhar, a channel for the disabled that was launched in October 2007.

A report on the disabled population in India, their employment and education ratio was also launched on the occasion.

"Farad" and "jamabandi", the two official documents regarding the ownership and possession of landholdings, will now be delivered on the doorstep on a phone call.

Deputy commissioner V. Umashankar will inaugurate the new facility at Mandi Dabwali in Sirsa district on March 12, where it is being started as a pilot project. Later, the facility will be started in other tehsils of the district.

The revenue department has been in news for rampant corruption and this is manifested from the fact that patwaris outnumber any other cadre of employees having been nabbed red handed accepting bribes during the recent times. The facility will ensure transparency, besides saving farmers from exploitation.

The new scheme ensures that the farmers do not have to remain at the mercy of the patwaris and once a call is made at telephone number 01668-229035, it will become the duty of the kanoongo and halqa patwari to ensure that computerised copies of these documents reached farmer's house within 72 hours of his request.

The nominal fees for issuing copies of the documents will be collected from the farmers while delivering the documents and that too against a valid receipt.

Besides this, the farmers will have to pay Rs 100 for the home delivery of the documents.

Those not interested in the service can get the computerised copies of these documents from the office of tehsildar on any working day.

The idea is to provide convenience to thousands of litigants so that they can get to know of their case status while sitting at home.

In keeping with the principle of `administration of justice on the doorstep', this service will also ensure that the litigants are not misguided by the lawyers.

With Punjab and Haryana having one of the highest tele-density in the country, the SMS-based query system will prove to be a boon for the litigants.

As of now, the litigants can know of their case status through the official website of the high court.

However, a vast majority of litigants is from rural areas of Punjab and Haryana, they are unable to use the Internet.

Official sources told The Tribune that the high court had already floated tenders in this regard.

The scope of work includes installation of hardware, system software, application software, setup and customisation and configuration of services, while the court will provide data contents and query to access the contents.

"Data security will remain the prime concern, though we are also open to any model for SMS-based solution," said the sources.

The system will so work that the litigant will send an SMS query in a predefined format to a predefined mobile number.

The message will then be received by the software and processed to generate a reply based on information to be extracted from a database server and then send