Major concerns for information security in indian firms

Global Continuity reports that "Only half of organizations in India employ the basics such as user passwords, compared with 73 per cent in the rest of the world, according to "Global State of Information Security 2006", a worldwide study by CIO magazine, CSO magazine and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The study says 50 percent admit more than half their users are not in compliance with their information."

GAID Meeting to be charied by Kofi Annan

UN Alliance on Closing Digital Divide Meets Next Week

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan will open the first-ever meeting at the United Nations of the newly formed Global Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies and Development (GAID) on September 27. Chairing discussion of Alliance strategic goals will be Intel board chairman Craig Barrett.

ICT4D Update

India does well in bridging digital divide.According to LIRNEasia, India was ranked 119 among 180 countries in the global digital opportunity index (DOI). The DOI - which was decided upon by stakeholders participating in the 2nd World Summit on Information Society held in Tunisia last year - identified 11 indicators across three broad categories such as opportunity, infrastructure and utilisation as yardsticks for the ranking exercise. However, based on historical data gathered for 2001-2005, India ranked first in terms of being able to bridge the domestic digital divide. While India did well on this score, the country performed poorly as the lack of competition in the fixed telephony sector impacted the rollout of basic infrastructure and Internet access.

 

New Zealand's State Services Commission wants to procure new hardware and software for its e-government initiative. The system to replace is just 3 years old.

UNESCO Observatory on Information Society and the Development Gateway Portals

The UNESCO Observatory is a great source for people wishing to find out about the Knowledge/Information Society initiatives of the UN and for links to initiatives around the world. Its discussion forum is not used by very many people it seems. Development Gateway which has a portal on Knowledge Economy is a even better and more widely read forum I think. Development Gateway also has an ICT4D focused portal which is a good resource for latest news about reports, research and initiatives on information society related matters. I hope both these organisations add more material focused solely on "knowledge society" especially in the focus areas of research, policies and measurement.

Now Digital Cameras promise a slimmer you

Slimming photos with HP digital cameras

"With the slimming feature, anyone can appear more slender—instantly."

Hewlett Packard advertises on its site for cameras that flatter. No need to diet, just aim and shoot with the slim filter on.

Indicators as governmentality

World Bank launches Governance indicators: As we know the World Bank is more than a bank. It is an powerful instituion which generates a lot of "knowledge" which forms the basis of policy - not only its loan policy but also the policy of the receipients. Indicators are currently in vogue at the Bank. A variety of indices with loft sounding names such as Knowledge Economy Index etc. are being promoted. They are polite stick with which policy visions, ideas and ideologies are imposed on governments in the third world. Indicators from the bank rarely give a correct picture of actual situation. They are only as good as the methodology which informs them.World bank has launched governance indicators for 213 countires covering 1996-2005. This data will be used for forecasting studies, planning and policymaking. The six dimensions are: for six dimensions of governance included are: Voice and Accountability; Political Stability and Absence of Violence; Government Effectiveness; Regulatory Quality; Rule of Law; Control of Corruption.

Infrastructure Yes. Labour Reforms later

India needs reform, infrastructure for growth - OECD

"India needs to invest more to improve its infrastructure, reform rigid labour laws and ease business regulations to secure faster economic growth in the coming years, a senior OECD official said on Monday."

 

Any visitor to India will tell you that it desparately needs infrastructure. More importantly it needs a good administration of the infrastructure that is already there and that is being developed. Reform of labour laws and business regulations is a can of worms which should be left for later on. The country should not keep economic growth as an imperative to be achieved at all costs - the whole reform business needs to be balanced and gradually paced.

Optimism & Lies: Excerpts from two punjabi poems

Najam Hussain Syed
(translated from Punjabi by Irfan Malik and Jennifer Barber)

Khial

There have always been
sparrows, and will always be.
After the eagles' and hawks'
threatening bodies have taken
their assigned corners in museums
and the peacock's magic
is a handful of feathers
in an empty tomb,
the sparrows will remain.
They'll descend from the trees
branch by branch, gathering
like the girls of simple ways
who, with their laughter,
say whatever they please.

From a Poem by MIAN IJAZ UL HASSAN

Silken lies howso'ver uncouth
Are always more endearing than truth
to speak one's mind is like from the hind
You would let out in company an audible sound,
Truth is like a wart on a painted face
A fly in the ointment
Lipstick on the collar
A dog without a leash.

Arab op-ed: Pope’s remarks may lead to war

Muslim world newspapers filled with articles slamming pope’s remarks; ‘it is clear that such remarks only contribute to the fueling of the fire raging between Islam and the West,’ op-ed published in al-Sharq al-Awsat says

The politics of knowledge post 9/11 in US

9/11: Knowledge is Power by Brian F. Sullivan

"After the wave of remembrances that marked the fifth anniversary of 9/11, many Americans are quite rightly still asking this question: “What can we do, as individuals, to help prevent another attack?”My answer is this: Demand that our government arm us with the most powerful weapon against terrorism — knowledge."

The rhetoric of knowledge can be used to argue on either side of a debate. It also has a seductive quality as it makes us believe that solutions to our problems are in our hands. As social science wisdom informs us power and knowledge are the two sides of the same coin. Knowledge can be twisted to suit powerful aims. "Knowledge is power" also means "speaking truth to power" but speaking truth to power based on knowledge is not always easy.

Hole in the Rock near Paihia

What a pity. This was the only picture I could take before the Camera battery ran out.

What are the Bush people doing to Iraq

Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq - washingtonpost.com: "Ties to GOP Trumped Know-How Among Staff Sent to Rebuild Iraq: Early U.S. Missteps in the Green Zone"

Just goes on to prove what many people believe - as they say in Punjabi, "rang hi gora hai, kam taan ohi ain" (only the skin is white, the deeds are the same). The writer, Ravi Chandrasekaran is a staff writer for the Baghdad Bureau of the Washington Post. His book, "Imperial Life in the Emerald City," published in 2006 is an account of the deeds of the greedy and selfish Americans in the post-war Iraq. This article is an excerpt from the book. it is a real good read.

Comments, Messages etc.

Click the Comments button below.

Google Personalised Home

I blogged about this a few days ago. The two new features of google ig - the tabs and minimise features are cool. Here is another screenshot of the two features at work.

Get the picture?

www.nyt.com Mobile Phone Proliferates, A Hallmark Of New India  By SARITHA RAI  15 September 2006

 

"India has become the fastest-growing cellular market in the world, adding a net 5.9 million cellular subscribers in August, the Cellular Operators Association of India said this week. The gain outstripped China's increase of 5.19 million subscribers........

 

''Everybody can afford it,'' said T. V. Ramachandran, director general of the Cellular Operators Association -- ''the teawallah, the dhobi and the sabsiwallah,'' conjuring up the traditional tea vendor, launderer and vegetable seller....

 

"Callers are increasingly faced with the frustrations of dealing with dropped calls and recorded messages like ''The network is busy, please try later'' or ''The mobile you are trying to reach is currently unavailable.''  

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Posted by Baljit Grewal

Wises.co.nz Map

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Posted by Baljit Grewal

 What Is Meant by the Knowledge-Based Economy: An analysis of KBE on the Panjab.org.uk website

Knowledge: The MSN Live Search Macro-based engine

My own knowledge policy concepts related search engine at MSN Live Search

URL: http://beta.search.live.com:80/macros/grewalbs/knowledge/

You can also use it by adding macro:grewalbs.knowledge to a query in any Live Search box.

Search operators like "", ( ), AND, NOT, OR, intitle:, inurl:, hasfeed:, has:, -, |, etc. are supported

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Posted by Baljit Grewal

RFID is the new craze in e-government infrastructure projects

i4donline reports that US government has joined the bandwagon. Japanese government has been thinking along these lines for a few years now specially under their u-Japan policy.

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Posted by Baljit Grewal

Can science bring China and India closer?

So asks Pallavi Aiyar in the Hindu newspaper. Despite the potential and mutual benefit to both countries, the question that begs and answer is what role will the behemoth bureucracies in both China and India play in this policy.

While the babucracy in India still carries the Raj mentality, the comradocracy in China has no qualms about "begging, borrowing or stealing" at all costs the commercifiable S&T.

China has an advantage here - its tertiary education related R&D system is better than India, even though India has one advantage - English. That would count little in the final analysis. Japan did not become an english-speaking country in its rapid progress phase. Agreed the strengths of Japan were in electronics and automobiles but they did not require much english.

Software does require english and India would have to face enormous hurdles just because its competitive advantage in computing and business processes requires (1) to be able to satisfy the ever more demanding westerners, and (2) always to be at the cutting edge of popular IT trends and standards, something Indian companies are not really good at. When was the last time an indian-startup made waves? when was the last time indian technologists lead in creating standards in IT? Indian technologists still look to the west for inspiration in IT matters.

Coming back to the question - what do china and India and have to offer each other that is not what their bureaucracies think as a potential national and economic security matter?

"For meaningful cooperation aimed at the realisation of both countries' scientific aspirations, a change in mindset will be necessary. "

A much more is neccessary - a level playing field, sophisticated policy apparatuses and a geopolitical alignment.

Andhra Pradesh as a Knowledge society: focus areas listed

Good old Andhra Pradesh is at the forefront of state-level knowledge strategies in India. It is also one of the more tech-savvy states at the forefront of IT boom. The Hindu newspaper regularly reports on the knowledge policy initiatives in South India. What is striking in this coverage is the use of the label "knowledge society". Till recently the most prominent labels used in context of india were "information society" and "knowledge economy". The use of knowledge society as a policy label in context of india is very recent even though the term, according to Armand Mattelart was actually coined in early part of last century in India by scholar AK Coomaraswamy:

Knowledge society: focus areas listed
Date:18/08/2006 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2006/08/18/stories/2006081810430500.htm

"Platform sought for scientists, social scientists and administrators
Concern over shortage of teachers
Need for planners to think two decades ahead stressed
Role of Knowledge Commission explained

HYDERABAD: Improving higher education infrastructure, having a common platform for scientists, social scientists and administrators, encouraging innovative entrepreneurship and boosting sector-specific R&D should be the focus areas for the country to become a leader in the knowledge economy. "

The Left and the Jihad

Fred Halliday in an article on the website: openDemocracy writes about the realignment of forces of the left and the militant islamic groups, here he argues that the left (in the west) has become very sympathetic to the struggles waged by its former nemesis the radical islamic gropus. My own take on this is that this is due more because of the classical Kautilyan dictum "the enemy of my enemy is my friend" rather than any substantive agreement between the actors. Anyways it is a good read because it reflects how frustrated the left is with the right-wing policies being waged by the "mainstream" western governments in the middle east:

"The approaching fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks on the United States highlights an issue much in evidence in the world today, but one that receives too little historically-informed and critical analysis: the relationship between militant Islamic groups and the left.
It is evident that the attacks, and others before and since on US and allied forces around the world, have won the Islamist groups responsible considerable sympathy far beyond the Muslim world, including among those vehemently opposed from a variety of ideological perspectives to the principal manifestations of its power. It is striking, however, that - beyond such often visceral reactions – there are signs of a far more developed and politically articulated accommodation in many parts of the world between Islamism as a political force and many groups of the left. " .... Read More

Google Personalised Homapage (ig) has a new "Tab" feature

Following Pageflakes and other services google personalised home page has answered the prayers of a lot of users by introducing the new "Add a Tab" feature.




















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Posted by Baljit Grewal

Pammi has setup a msn space for friends:

http://panjpanee.spaces.live.com/

I will setup the blog and get it going soon.

I have setup a sanjha Gmail account as well for posting and reading shared mail.

The address is:

Enjoy!

Any Comments?

Comments Re http://baljit.googlepages.com/

Greed by Julian Edney

GREED by Julian Edney Sign the tab in certain Midtown eateries and your neighbors' eyes slide over. Is that a $48,000 Michel Perchin pen? What's on your wrist – a $300,000 Breguet watch? In Palm Springs and Bel Air, $100,000 twin-turbo Porsches and $225,000 Ferraris buzz the warm streets. In New York at an exclusive Morell & Company auction last May, a single magnum of Dom Perignon champagne was sold for $5,750. And there are the paintings of course - one evening at auction two Monets sold for $43 million (2). Hotel rooms, anyone, at $10,000 a night? Estate agents in suburbs of Dallas and Palm Beach have advertised baronial homes for sale at over $40 million (3). These are prices paid by the exceptionally wealthy, the folks who skim the pages of the Robb Report (average annual salary of subscribers: $1.2 million) in whose glossy pages are reviewed the best of everything. In a recent issue a southern plantation is advertised, "everybody's dream," at $8.5 million. Robert Reich points out that the superrich live in a parallel universe to the rest of the country: much of the time we don't see them because they live in walled estates, travel in private limousines and use different airports from the rest of us (4). There's lots of them. There are now more than 200 billionaires. Some five percent of American households have assets over $1 million. And we're back to levels of extravagant consumption not seen for 100 years (5). By historical accounts this is a nation of persistent and resilient people with an unshakable mission: the pursuit of happiness. This idea of happiness is largely connected with wealth (and this connection has long philosophic roots). It is a nation of ambitious people with notions of unfettered future growth, a nation that celebrates abundance. There seems to be no reason anyone should be deprived of luxury, if he works hard. Indeed with this country's aggregate wealth, there should be no reason anyone should ever go hungry or suffer. People are going hungry in America. A Los Angeles survey found more than a quarter of low income residents, many working, are not getting enough food to meet basic nutritional needs. And 10% are experiencing hunger(6). Estimates are that 3 out of 10 Americans will face poverty sometime in their lives (7). Misery is a word seldom applied to the contemporary scene. Like wretchedness it seems antique, an Old World term. But many Americans live in cold, dank slums; many do not earn enough for shelter, many sleep outside. In America's inner cities and at its lowest levels, under freeway bridges and in tubercular alleys, in stained and broken rooming houses and in torn-apart schools, misery exists and persists. All our largest cities contain neighborhoods where some people live day to day in apartments that could be mistaken for closets, some fearing to leave home on gang-terrorized streets, some sharing bus seats with people with drug-scarred arms. Every great metropolis has its skid row mired in fecal gutters, where whole blocks are awash in narcotics and violence, its inhabitants despised and flatly abandoned. America is once again a nation of extremes. ...... Read More

Google Map for 76 Elliot Street Papakura New Zealand

have a look at the geocoding features in Google Maps now available for New Zealand and Australia. For our home this is the link 

Another Bush scheme

Imagination running wild

Check out this photo on raphie's Fotolog

Raphie pays tribute to Steve Irwin on her Fotolog.

http://www.fotolog.com/raphie/?photo_id=14031210

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Make it easy for your friends and family to see what`s up with you. Put your latest, greatest digital photos on the web in a daily journal format.

Create your own Fotolog at www.fotolog.com

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