E-GOV SNAPSHOTS DataWind Completes Aakash-2 Supply 67,000 Hectares to IIT-Bombay with 12 months war- Granted for SEZs ranty and accessories . in 2013 The devices utilize multi-touch projective capacitive touch-screens manufactured at India’s only touch- screen making facility in Amritsar. The devices are powered by a Cor- tex A8-1Ghz processor, and contain 512MB of RAM. of ataWind has completed 4GB can be supplemented by up to the supply of 100,000 32GB through its micro-SD card slot. DAakash low-cost comput- In addition to embedded Wi-Fi, ing access devices for IIT-Bombay the Aakash-2 tablet computers sup- (under the Ministry of Human port external 3G and EVDO dongles resenting a written reply in Resources Development’s National for mobile broadband data connec- the Lok Sabha, commerce Mission for Education). tivity. Supporting ’s Android Pand industry minister The project won by DataWind 4.0 operating system, VGA camera, Anand Sharma announced the for the supply of Aakash-1 de- G-sensor, internal microphone, export numbers from the Special vices was subsequently modified speakers, and headphone jack, the Economic Zones (SEZs) during to 98,000 Aakash-2 devices and Aakash-2 is said to be a full-featured the last 3 years and the current 2,000 devices for Aakash-3, all at a intended to break financial year. price of `2,263 (currently $41.61). the affordability barrier with the mis- In FY09-10, the value of SEZ The Aakash-2 devices are, as sion of bridging the digital divide. exports was `220,711 crore, re- claimed, the world’s lowest cost Commercially, the device is sold cording a growth of 121% over the computing access devices, delivered as the UbiSlate 7Ci previous year. In FY10-11, the value of SEZ exports stood at `315,868 crore VMware Selected for Maha Gov Cloud (43% growth over the previous year), whereas in FY11-12, the he Government of Mahar- Government of Maharashtra, says, value of SEZ exports were re- ashtra has selected VMware “The Government of Maharashtra is corded at `364,478 crore (15% Tvirtualization and cloud committed to making e-governance growth over the previous year). infrastructure technology for its a success in the state. We were con- From April to December, 2012, MahaGov Cloud. fident that virtualization and cloud the value of SEZ exports stands at MahaGov Cloud is an initiative computing would play a pivotal role `353,195 crore. Formal approv- by the Directorate of Information in enabling our vision for e-govern- als for 577 SEZs covering a total Technology (DIT), the Government of ance in the state of Maharashtra. Our area of 67,787 hectares have been Maharashtra, to provide Infrastructure partnership with VMware, the indus- granted, as on February 20, 2013. as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a serv- try leader, will help us on our cloud According to a government ice (PaaS), and Software as a Service journey and fulfill this vision.” release, “In terms of SEZ Act, (SaaS) to various state departments for The Directorate of Information 2005, a SEZ may be set up either their e-governance initiatives. Technology (DIT) has conducted a jointly or severally by the central The Government of Maharashtra number of user awareness programs government, the state govern- has deployed VMware vSphere and and has laid down guidelines for the ment, or any person for manu- VMware vCloud Director to virtual- state departments to confidently host facturing of goods or rendering ize the state’s data center, which their applications on the MahaGov services or for both or as a free hosts the MahaGov cloud. Cloud. It has also published a rate trade warehousing zone. Such VMware was chosen after an card for these cloud services that any proposals duly recommended by extensive evaluation conducted by government department or public the concerned state government the Government of Maharashtra. sector undertaking can avail at a are considered by the board of Rajesh Aggarwal, secretary IT for the nominal cost. approval for SEZs.”

52 | May 15, 2013 visit www.dqindia.com DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication 11 Cr Vehicle RCs and DLs to be Digitized by March 2015

he details of registration Vijay Chhibber, secretary of vehicles and driving ministry of RT&H, welcomed the Tlicense holders from 993 participants of the 5th national regional transport offices across all workshop on computerization in the the 35 states and union territories, transport sector and explained the will be available on one integrated implementation of new portals in the Kapil Sibal national platform. system.‘Vahan’ is designed to auto- The ministry of road trans- mate vehicle registration, permits, Unveils National port and highways has initiated a taxes, and fitness certificates. IPv6 Deployment scheme to provide financial assist- Whereas, ‘Sarthi’ deals with the is- ance to the state governments for suance of the driving license, learning Roadmap digitization of the legacy data and license, conductor license to citizens, nion Minister for Communi- aims to digitize all the legacy data and license for driving schools. The cations and IT Kapil Sibal of 11 crore vehicle registration idea behind these 2 portals is to Urecently unveiled the ‘Na- certificates and driving licenses by ensure the registration of vehicles tional IPv6 Deployment Roadmap March 31, 2015. and data of driving license holders Version-2, a document containing to be placed on one policy guidelines for IPv6 transition integrated national prepared by NT Cell, Department of platform. Having data Telecom (DoT). online will not only Highlighting the importance of eliminate duplication internet, Sibal said:”Internet is an of driving licenses important tool to connect not only but will also ensure to people but people and devices. record data of driving The explosive growth of mobile offenses or challans subscribers and exponential growth at one place. This will of data has made it imperative to benefit both citizens transit to IPv6 to move to smart and the system. knowledge society.” Sibal emphasized that IPv6 is a limitless highway and the challenge Aakash 3 to Cost `2,500 is to bridge the gap between IPv4 and IPv6. aving supplied 1 lakh units tablets. The device will also include He further added that Internet of Aakash tablets to IIT a SIM slot and enable users to make of Things (IoT) offers an immense HBombay for `2,263, Da- calls. opportunity for India whereby tawind is ready to provide the next Tuli also mentioned that the products and services based on version of the device at a tentative company will manufacture LCD IPv6 can be manufactured here and price of `2,500. panels in India for the tablets to exported globally. “As per my information, the com- comply to the Preferential Market “IPv6 based innovative appli- mittee on Aakash tablets is looking Access policy norms which in gen- cations in areas like rural emer- at higher version of the device for eral has been opposed by foreign gency healthcare, tele-education, `2,500 a piece and we are ready to companies. The policy mandates smart metering, smart grid, smart match the price on order for every government to procure electronic building, smart city, etc, have 10 lakh units,” Datawind CEO products, including tablet PCs, tremendous potential to boost the Suneet Singh Tuli. which should have at least 30 per socio-economic development of the It is learnt that Datawind has cent components made locally. country,” added Sibal. recommended higher specifica- Datawind will set up a LCD touch- COMPILED BY ONKAR SHARMA tions for the next version of Aakash screen unit in Amritsar. [email protected]

DATAQUEST | A CyberMedia Publication visit www.dqindia.com May 15, 2013 | 53