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News: CJ Exclusives
Sunshine Week puts spotlight on what N.C. government tries to hide
Brooke Conrad
in CJ Exclusives
If a Florida parent wants to see the personnel file for their child's public school teacher, the school would hand it over.
In North Carolina, that parent probably would be turned away, said media lawyer John Bussian, who represents Carolina Journal and other media outlets.
That's one reason North Carolinians should care about Sunshine Week — an annual initiative (running this year starting Monday) designed to raise awareness about the public's right to know what happens behind government doors. Governments at all levels — federal, state, and local — owe taxpayers accountability and transparency. Guidelines intended to reinforce the First Amendment's protections for free speech, freedom of the press, and the right to petition the government are enshrined in state open records and public meetings laws.
North Carolina gets high marks on transparency from some advocates, but high marks don't matter if the laws aren't enforced. Florida, in contrast, threatens public employees with criminal penalties if they violate public records and open meetings laws, and they should be held up as the gold standard, Bussian said.
"With the traditional press in this country less equipped in many places to hold the government accountable the way it historically has done so, the public needs the right to know more than ever," Bussian said.
Experts disagree where North Carolina stands on transparency compared with other states. The state ranks in the top five for transparency nationwide, said Mike Tadych, a lawyer whose firm represents the N.C. Press Association. Others, like Bussian, would demote North Carolina to the bottom five.
Still, advocates generally see room for improvement.
North Carolina law includes roughly 150 exemptions to providing public records. Many states include exemptions, and some are valid, said Gene Policinski, CEO of the Freedom Forum Institute and the institute's First Amendment Center. But taxpayers pay government bills. They should have access to receipts.
Often, suing an agency is the only way to ensure compliance. That's why these cases are often left up to media companies who have more money than the average resident, Tadych said.
That includes the recent case over the University of North Carolina System's Silent Sam settlement. UNC's $2.5 million deal to give the controversial Confederate monument to a Confederate organization was struck behind closed doors. DTH Media Group filed a lawsuit citing a violation of North Carolina's open meetings law. The case is pending.
Transparency issues plague North Carolina at the highest levels. In 2019, Gov. Roy Cooper prevented employees from cooperating with an investigation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline deal. The administration stonewalled again that year over Cooper's out-of-state travel records, with the State Highway Patrol insisting to WBTV it doesn't keep such records. The television station filed a lawsuit in January to get the records.
But the biggest issues occur at the local level, said Brooks Fuller, director of the N.C. Open Government Coalition at Elon University. Unlike the N.C. Department of Revenue or N.C. Department of Justice, local school boards and school systems often don't have the people to deal with public records requests.
Even if they did, North Carolina includes broadly worded exemptions regarding law enforcement and personnel records, Fuller said.
Many local boards fail to take complete, full, and accurate minutes of their open and closed session meetings, Fuller said. It's illegal, but it happens. Public officials are required by law to cite a statute explaining why they went into closed session — to discuss a personnel issue or emergency response, for instance. When the minutes eventually become public, it's important for people to be able to look back at those meetings and see how the process actually worked.
Some advocates argue more transparency equals more taxpayer money. But that's simply the cost of doing business in a democracy, Policinski said.
Agencies' data doesn't belong to them, Policinski said. Those records are created on behalf of the public, and being able to look over the shoulder of public agencies every day is essential for making intelligent decisions in their elections.
"It's a fight we have to renew every generation, every Freedom of Information Day, every Sunshine Week," he said.
Editor's note: The original version of this story incorrectly said DTH won the Silent Sam lawsuit. The lawsuit is pending. We regret the error.
series: Open Government
categories: Business and Regulations, City & County Government, CJ Exclusives, Education (PreK-12), Government Reform, Higher Education, Law & Regulation, Local Government, North Carolina, State Government
tags: Brooks Fuller, Gov. Roy Cooper, John Bussian, N.C. Open Government Coalition, Silent Sam, sunshine week, UNC system


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Home/Sports/NBA/Wizards edge Mavericks in first game after Rui Hachimura trade
Wizards edge Mavericks in first game after Rui Hachimura trade
DALLAS — When Wes Unseld Jr. woke up early Tuesday morning, he had an unusual item on his long to-do list ahead of the Wizards' 127-126 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. Washington's second-year coach had a new player to face.
Kendrick Nunn had taken a flight at 5 p.m. from Los Angeles to Dallas on Monday after learning he had been traded four hours earlier, packed up what he could of his house and said goodbye to his two young children. Suddenly, the third-year guard had a 10-day road trip on the wagon, and Rui Hachimura was heading west.
The Wizards, who sent Hachimura to the Los Angeles Lakers for Nunn and three second-round picks, opened the trade season well before the NBA's Feb. 9 deadline. The move gave Washington some salary flexibility and the type of draft capital that president and General Manager Tommy Sheppard has historically used to grease future trades — Tomas Satoransky, drafted in 2012, was the latest second-round pick to become a rotation player with Washington.
Practically, Sheppard said Tuesday that the move allows the Wizards to play 2020 lottery pick Deni Avdija more. The front office believes that the 22-year-old will have a key role in the team's future.
"Defensively, I think we need Deni on the floor more," Sheppard said. "Better secondary playmaker, just turned 22 – I think he has a bright future. I think it's difficult when you take his minutes and they're cut in different ways."
Sheppard called Avdija, a 6-foot-9, 210-pound forward averaging eight points, six rebounds and 2.5 assists entering Tuesday, the team's second-best defender behind backup point guard Delon Wright and pointed to his talent as a defender on the wing and in the pick and roll. The third-year player is averaging 25.8 minutes, up slightly from his second year in the league (24.2), but has been in and out of the starting lineup.
Buckner: What do wizards do? No, seriously, what are they doing?
On Tuesday, he scored 15 points and added 10 rebounds in 32 minutes off the bench in a defense-heavy, up-and-down game that came down to the final seconds.
But Avdija is not the only player who could benefit from Hachimura's departure. Unseld said Tuesday that there are also more opportunities for Kyle Kuzma to slide from small forward — where he's started lately alongside Kristaps Porzingis at power forward and Daniel Gafford at center — back to power forward, where he originally flourished for the Wizards last season.
Kuzma started at power forward Tuesday with guard Corey Kispert at shooting forward and Gafford at center because Porzingis is out with a left ankle sprain.
"At the beginning of the season we play more against KP at the five, (Kuzma) was predominantly at the four and I think that helped him offensively. So (this one) pushes him back to the four spot a little bit, does allowing him to play off the bounce, attack from fours in coverage, which has been really good for us," Unseld said. "Obviously Deni will have a little bit of an advantage as a playmaker, being able to have the ball in his hands and play pick and rolls a little more, but where those minutes are a little bit on the line. Whether it's Deni at the three, Deni at the four, KP's at the four, it gives us a lot more flexibility."
The Wizards (21-26) also now have more financial flexibility, which Sheppard said will go at least in part toward backup guard Jordan Goodwin's standard contract. Washington plans to convert the two-way player when it opens up a roster spot by waiving a player or making a trade. Goodwin was inactive Tuesday and under his current contract can play just six more NBA games this season.
Against Dallas (25-24), the shorthanded Wizards fought hard until the last minutes.
Without Porzingis, its second-leading scorer, Washington tried to match Luka Doncic's scoring barrage by committee. It had six players in double figures behind Kuzma's team-leading 30 points. Bradley Beal had 22 points and four assists and Kispert added 14 points in his 25th start.
No player on the floor was more awe-inspiring than Doncic, whose 41 points came without a three-pointer and who added 15 rebounds. But the wizards didn't need to be more flashy. They just had to be sharper down the stretch.
Wizards' Kristaps Porzingis is week-to-week with a sprained ankle
Washington closed out the game with Avdija on the floor and a small lineup after Gafford fouled out with nine points in 19 minutes. Beal made a three-pointer with 1:32 to play that put his team up by one, and Kispert made a smart move as he longed for a loose ball to save a possession that ended with Avdija at the free throw line, where he hit. both shots for a three-point lead.
Doncic hit a jumper to bring the Mavericks back within one. He stole the ball from Beal at the other end and drew a foul on the fast break to tie the game with 12.5 seconds left.
Kuzma hit a Hail Mary jumper from the wing and fouled Doncic, but just made his second free throw, which proved to be enough. Wright stole the ball from Doncic on the final play, giving the Wizards their third straight win to open their five-game road trip.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


96. The alienation or concession of the whole or a part of an undertaking does not invalidate any civil claim arising from the application of this Act or a regulation which is not paid at the time of such alienation or concession. The former employer and the new employer are bound solidarily in respect of that claim.
1979, c. 45, s. 96; 2002, c. 80, s. 59.
96. The alienation or concession of the whole or a part of an undertaking otherwise than by judicial sale does not invalidate any civil claim arising from the application of this Act or a regulation which is not paid at the time of such alienation or concession. The former employer and the new employer are bound solidarily in respect of that claim.
1979, c. 45, s. 96.


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Q: On importing yaml config file , application.yml is getting overriden I am importing a yaml config file onto my main ServerConfig class. However when I am bringing up the server, it is setting the new yaml file as the applicationConfig & ignoring the properties set in application.yml. Ideally it should append the new config but without ignoring the base application.yml. How can I fix this?
Main config class
@Configuration
@EnableScheduling
@Import({
        NewPropertiesConfig.class
        })
@EnableConfigurationProperties({...})
public class ServerConfig extends AbstractConfig  {
...
}

NewPropertiesConfig.class
@Configuration
@PropertySource(
    value = {"classpath:abc-client.yaml"},
    factory = YamlPropertySourceFactory.class
)
public class NewPropertiesConfig {
    public NewPropertiesConfig() {
    }
}

A: Based on my understanding of the question, we are trying to load properties from two separate property files.
Based on the provided code example, the specified properties file is abc-client.yml, thus Spring will load properties from that file.
If we want Spring to load properties from multiple files, then we need to specify each file to use.
I have never tried loading properties from multiple yaml files, but here is how I do it with multiple .properties files.
@PropertySource("classpath:application.properties")
@PropertySource("classpath:abc-client.properties")
public class NewPropertiesConfig {
    //...
}

In the event of a name collision, the property from the last file wins, which is the desired behavior based on my understanding of the question. Not sure if this also works with yaml.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Men arrested at Philadelphia Starbucks will get free Arizona State University tuition
Rachel Leingang
Two men who were arrested at a Philadelphia Starbucks last month will get free tuition at Arizona State University as part of their settlement with the corporate coffee giant, the company announced Wednesday.
Donte Robinson and Rashon Nelson, who are black, were arrested on trespassing charges April 12 at a Starbucks in downtown Philadelphia after they didn't order food and drinks.
They were waiting for a third person to join them for a business meeting.
The incident created a firestorm about racial profiling. Starbucks subsequently announced it would close all of its U.S. stores on May 29 so its employees could go through racial bias training.
The announcement comes as the two men also reached an agreement with the city of Philadelphia. Nelson and Robinson will each get a symbolic $1 from the city. The city also agreed to spend $200,000 to start a program for young entrepreneurs.
In a statement on its website, Starbucks said the agreement between the men and the company includes a confidential financial settlement.
More:Starbucks and two black men arrested in Philadelphia incident reach private settlement
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More:Starbucks arrests: Restaurant racism is as old as the U.S.
The two men have been "offered the opportunity to complete their undergraduate degrees through the Starbucks College Achievement Plan," the statement says.
The agreement with Starbucks also will give the men the chance to talk about their experience with former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder "as part of the company's long-term diversity and equity efforts," Starbucks said.
Starbucks' college program began at ASU in 2014. Starbucks employees who work at least 20 hours per week can take classes through ASU Online, and the coffee company will cover their tuition costs.
ASU President Michael Crow recently shared updated statistics about the program in a late April email to university faculty and staff.
Half of U.S. Starbucks stores had at least one employee enrolled in classes this spring, Crow wrote.
So far, more than 7,000 Starbucks employees have taken courses at the university, he wrote, and nearly 1,300 of them have earned degrees. Almost 500 will graduate this semester.
The program hopes to count 25,000 graduates by 2025.
Starbucks would not provide any further information on how the ASU tuition became part of the settlement agreement or whether Nelson and Robinson had requested the college money.
ASU was not a party to the settlement.
But the university said it is "pleased to work with any individual who receives a scholarship to the university."
The Associated Press contributed to this article. Follow Rachel Leingang on Twitter @rachelleingang


If this pedal suits you then you have a great tool... If it doesn't quite fit, then it's over. The functionality of the pedal is limited. Centring the beaters on the drum head is also a challenge. Other 'feel' adjustments such as pedal height, beater distance etc. are not available. You can however adjust the spring tension to very light which does make the pedal fast if it suits your playing style.
Very happy with these. I got rid of my old one and decided for these and my playing just got better. Highly recommend!
ID: 164033 © 1996–2019 Thomann GmbH Thomann loves you, because you rock!


Steven Gullotta Synthpop, New Wave Oh, how Mr.Kitty has captured the attention of many, many people in such a short amount of time. With the release of LIFE, he managed to garner multiple album of the year awards alongside numerous accolades. And, well, it is no surprise that his next album, Time, has been announced.
However, to give us a tease of what's to come, the good folks over at Juggernaut Music Group decided to release a single from the album, XIII. The single itself shows off a bit of a harder side to the cat, but not so much that you'll be thinking of violent thoughts whilst listening to it (unless you're the sadistic type who can find murder and violence in near everything).
The beat is something that I would expect from Mr.Kitty by far and full. It still has roots in synthpop, some might even say futurepop, but it holds firm and true. The vocals themselves are faded when not in the chorus. However, when the chorus does come in, the vocals are really odd. At first, I find myself quirking an eyebrow as to what was being brought to my ear, but, after a few passes of the song, I found myself genuinely enjoying it.
Oh, how Mr.Kitty has captured the attention of many, many people in such a short amount of time. With the release of LIFE, he managed to garner multiple album of the year awards alongside numerous accolades. And, well, it is no surprise that his next album, Time, has been announced.
Included with this single are both the instrumental and acapella versions of the song. So, if you have a preference to either the vocals or the electronics that hit you, you have your pick. Now, this is just a simple teaser for the next album. But, if it's showcasing anything, it's telling me that Mr.Kitty's not the type to sit on material for too long. He's moving forward. And I can definitely see some folks out there bashing him for transitioning from one sound to the next. But, hell, I salute the man for what he's doing as an artist, and am also excited for what's to come next from him.


We're delighted to have published a monograph on the award winning architect and interior designer Rabih Hage. Ranging from London townhouses to escapist farmhouses, this book provides a comprehensive survey of the atelier's work. Beautifully illustrated throughout with photographs, drawings and sketches, Hage discusses his process and the development of each of the projects with author Dominic Bradbury.
A view of the main living spaces at The Boltons, where bespoke glass and steel screens lightly divide its different zones. Photograph by Simon Brown.
The swimming pool sits within a new subterranean storey with natural light coming from two skylights from the back garden above. The space features a lounge and bar as well as a fireplace. Photograph by Simon Brown.
A grand piano sits in front of an artwork by Ian McKeever to one side of the sitting room. Photograph by Sharyn Cairns.
Rabih Hage: Quiet Architecture by Dominic Bradbury is available in hardback, £40, here on our website.


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Jim laughed lightly shaking his head. "The fun part is when you get the look from your woman." He said and they continued working out.
Becca gasped. "Get over here! You need to tell the story to me live!" She said as she kissed Becky's cheek walking back out to sit in the chair just as Angie and Jenna finished mixing the dye. "As for me we are having loads of fun. Get your butt over here. Love you!" She said she hung up putting the towel back on herself.
Nicole giggled. She grabbed her purse, tossed her phone inside, and got in her car. Nicole drove to Becca's house and was very excited to meet her sister and the kids. She sat outside Becca's in her car to fix her makeup and adjust her beanie, then got out and went to the door. Nicole knocked lightly and waited for someone to let her in.
Angie was applying the dye to Becca's hair when Nicole pulled up and knocked. "Can you answer that, Jen? It's Nicole." She said and Jenna walked inside to answer the door. She opened it with a smile. "Hi Nicole! Come on in!" She said friendily. "My Mama's just dyeing my Aunt Becca's hair." She said leading Nicole to the back porch.
Nicole smiled at the girl. "Hi there. Becca's getting a new look? Wow. And who might you be?" She asked as she let the girl lead her. Nicole loved kids and the little girl was adorable.
Jenna giggled at Nicole's question. "My name is Jenna and this is my little sister, Becky and over here is my Mama, Angela Alyn. She and my Aunt Becky are identical twins." She said as she sat back down at the patio table. Becca smiled when she saw Nicole. "Hey Sis! This is Angie." She said with a giggle. Angie gave a nod. "Hey! I've heard a lot about you. Nice to meet you" She says setting the mixture down to hug Nic. Becca smiled.
Nicole hugged Angie back. "I've heard a lot about you too. It's a pleasure to finally meet you." She said and turned back to Jenna. "I'm pleased to meet you and your sister too, Jenna. You both look so much like your mom. I guess, Becca doesn't need to wonder what her kids would look like." Nicole said with a wink.
Becca rolled her eyes at Nicole's comment about what her kids would look like. "Soooo... What happened? Did you slap a bitch?" She asked giggling. Angie shook her head looking to Jenna. "Honey, can you and Becky go in the living room and let us talk?" She asked and Jenna went inside sliding the door closed. Angie nodded at the two. "Continue."
Nicole rolled her eyes now. "I would never hit his parents. Besides, his mom was an angel. It's the dad that gave me problems. To start from the beginning, Henry told them I play the violin and when his dad found out he lied, he totally flipped. Long story short, his dad called me a slut, said I sleep around with a ton of men, and then I told him he's a terrible dad and kicked him out of the house. I was really angry at the time. I shouldn't have done it. I should've calmed down and talked reasonably. Now his dad hates me. Henry isn't going to like this." She said with a sigh.
Both Alyn sisters stopped what they were doing and were staring at Nicole with wide eyes when she told them about Henry's Dad calling her a slut. Becca gritted her teeth shaking her head. "I would have kicked his ass if I were you.. He's lucky I wasn't there.." She said as she was pissed. Angie nodded. "I would have straight up punched him. You don't call someone that expect not to get hit.." She said as she finished applying the dye. "There. Let that sit for a while. It shouldn't take long given the length." She said and Becca crossed get legs while sitting. She soon got a text from Jim. Hey baby, we're just finishing up. I put Henry through hell. Lol wha'dya think of this? He said including a picture of him flexing with his shirt off. Becca bit her lip trying to stay calm while looking at the picture. Angie looked and rolled her eyes. "Good grief... someone dump ice water on Rebecca.." She said jokingly. " It's a guy flexing for Pete's sake! Get ahold of yourself." She said picking on Becca even though she agreed that Jim looked good. Becca gave her the finger giggling.
Nicole wrinkled her nose. "Ew, Bec. Get a room, please. I do not want to hear about how hot you think Jim is. Especially that lip bite. Yuck!" She said with a shiver. Nicole was completely grossed out whenever Becca drooled over Jim, but she had to admit their love was adorable and so romantic.
Becca held the same middle finger up at Nicole giggling. She texted Jim back. You always tease me when I'm with the girls! Lol I love you! Come to my place! She sent it and Angie checked her hair. "I think it's good to wash out now. Go ahead. I'm going to check on the girls." She says giving a smile at Nicole. She was starting to like her. She seemed like a very down to Earth person despite being a celebrity. Becca gave a nod to her sister. "After you check on them meet me in my room and we'll get you changed." She said hurrying to the bathroom. She was anxious to play a trick on Jim. Angie turned to Nicole. "Make yourself at home. We'll be back." She said and went in to check on her daughters.
Nicole went inside to the kitchen to raid Becca's fridge. "Becca, you're out of ice cream!" She yelled as she grabbed the tub of ice cream. Nicole put the tub on the counter. "You kids want any before I claim this as mine? Is it okay if they have some, Angie?" She called to them.
Becca rolled her eyes at Nicole's comment about her ice cream. Great.. Oh well, Jim and I will go to the store soon. She thought to herself as she finished washing her hair and dried it off. She then took the opportunity to pee since she was already in the bathroom. Angie nodded at the question. "They're allowed but I'm going to make them something to eat first." She said as she finished checking on them went into Becca's bedroom to change so that they were dressed exactly alike. Becca finished in the bathroom washing her hands then joins Angie. In ten minutes they came back out. Angie wore the same pants, shirt and they both had a black beanie on. Angie had her long, blonde hair up in a bun under the beanie. Becca giggled. "This is going to be so funny!"
Nicole looked at them both, back and forth a couple times. "Whoa. I can't even tell who's who. That's so freaky. You guys must have done this before because you're really good at it." She said and grabbed a spoon to eat the ice cream.
Jim got the text just as he and Henry were walking out of the gym. Turning to him Jim smiled. "Thanks for going with me, big man. It was cool to have someone to talk to and to workout with." He said nudging him. He really liked Henry. He treated Nicole good and he was a nice dude. "I'm going to Becca's place afterwards. Are you going with or going home?" He asked while unlocking the car.
Both women giggled shaking their heads. Becca took her beanie off showing Nicole her now blue hair which was cut a little shorter than before. "What do you think?" She asked hoping that Nicole liked it.
Henry winced a little and shook out his arms. "No problem. Besides feeling like I was a punching bag, I actually had a good time. But, you can drop me off at my place. I need an ice pack. Besides, Nicole wanted to talk to me about my parents." He replied.
Nicole gasped. "Oh my gosh! I LOVE it! Blue is definitely your color. You should've done this sooner." She said.
Jim laughed lightly. "Alright man. I hope everything's alright. I'm going to go to Becca's place, see everyone and take a shower." He said starting the car and leaving the gym. "You did great by the way, dude. If you keep at it you'd be ripped in no time." He said nodding confidently. He liked to encourage his friends.
Becca hugged Nicole. "Thanks, Sis! Are you staying for lunch?" She said as she looked at the ice cream. "Oh and make sure that you leave enough for the girls." She said. Angie too raided Becca's freezer but not for herself. "Bec, is it okay if I make this chicken?" She asked turning to Becca who shrugged giving a nod. "Yes, that's fine. Just make it all. I'll peel some potatoes." She said while taking her phone out and taking a selfie with her new do. She tweets it out with the caption. Thanks to my real sister Angie for giving me the blues. Lol #SundayBlues #SavageGroove #SavageFamily.
Henry chuckled. "I'd better be after doing all that." He said doing a little flex. Henry laughed at himself. "Seriously, though. It was fun. We should do this again soon." He really didn't want to think about what Nicole was going to tell him. Especially since he was so sore.
Nicole closed the tub and stuck her tongue out at Becca. "No, I should head back to Henry's. He and Jim should be on their way and I need to tell him what happened." She said.
Jim nodded. "Anytime, man. You name the day." He said with a smile. He started thinking about Becca and what she was doing. "I'm thinking about taking everyone to the beach. It's too nice of a day to spend inside.." He said while driving. He wanted to get some sun.
Becca frowned slightly. She wanted the three of them to hang out. "Okay.. Thanks for coming over." She said hugging Nicole, kissing her cheek. "I love you, Sis. Always." She said and let go of the hug with a sigh and turned on some 80s music to break the silence. She started dancing bumping Angie with her hip who rolled her eyes with a smile. "You're real close to getting smacked, Bec." She said as Becca did it again and Angie turned to her with a raised hand and the two laughed. Angie turned to Nicole hugging her. "It was nice meeting you. I'll buy your album next time that we are out and get you all to sign it." She said with a smile. She liked Nicole.
Last edited: Monday at 3:37 PM
Henry nodded. "That it is. Sounds fun. I would say Nicole and I will join you, but whatever she's going to tell me will more than likely keep us inside nearly all day." He said with a sigh.
Nicole laughed. "Thanks for the support, Ange. I hope I see you again soon. Bye Becca, don't forget to get more ice cream for the next time I come over." She said with a wink. Nicole went to her car and drove back to Henry's.
Jim nodded silently at Henry's comment about he and Nicole's dilemma. "I hope everything's okay, man." He said while driving. Soon he pulled into the driveway of Henry's house letting him out then left for Becca's. Ten minutes later he pulled into the driveway and Jenna saw him. "Mommy, Aunt Becky! Uncle Jim's here!" She shouted as Becca put her beanie back on as did Angie. "Okay, Angie you meet him at the front door and I'll sit on the couch with the girls." Becca said looking at Jenna who was giggling like mad which made her giggle. "You two girls keep cool." She said looking at her Nieces. "You're a big part of this. If you have to giggle look at the TV. Make it like you're laughing at the cartoon. Places everyone!" She said sitting down with the kids while Angie fixed her beanie standing by the front door.
Jim walked in seeing who he thought was Becca and kissed her. Angie, surprised by the kiss, kissed back wrapping her arms around him. He wrapped his around her. Becca watched trying not to get mad as she knew it was only a joke. She'd scold her sister later. Jim broke the kiss and sighed. "Hey babydoll." He said letting her go. Angie smiled taking off her beanie. "Hi Jim!" She said and they all started laughing. Jim blushed shaking his head walking to the kitchen. He was slightly embarrassed. He'd been fooled by the Alyn Sisters and their twin trick. Becca frowned getting up to go talk to him. "Hey.. It was just a joke.." She said softly hugging him. Jim hugged back. He felt awful for kissing another woman in front of his fiancée. Becca kissed him as only she could, putting some roughness into it. Jim kissed back and smiled. "There's that kiss. Love you." He said with a sigh. Becca smiled back. "I love you too. We're sorry." She said kissing him again.
When Jim dropped off Henry, Nicole was just getting out of her car. She looked at him and her happiness deteriorated. "Hey, how was the gym?" She asked. Henry grabbed her hand and pulled her inside. "Torture. What did my parents do?" He asked. Nicole sighed. "Can I at least make you something to eat first?" Henry sat her on the couch and knelt in front of her, taking her hands. "Just tell me." She looked at their hands. "Your mom was wonderful. I think she likes me. Your dad...well, he called me a slut." She said quietly. Henry dropped her hands, stood, and speed walked outside. Nicole got up and chased him. "Henry, where are you going?" She asked. Henry got in her car and looked at her, face a deathly calm. "I'm going to find my father and beat him to a bloody pulp."
Angie listened to them while giving a sigh. She felt bad for kissing Jim in front of Becca. "I'll be right back, girls." She said and got up walking to the kitchen to confront the two. "I'm sorry, Bec.. I should have kissed him lightly then pulled my hat off.." She said with a frown. Becca gave a nod. "I'll let it slip this time. But please don't ever kiss my man again. And you.." She said turning to Jim. "Don't ever kiss anyone else but me... and the kids.." She said in a calm but stern tone. Jim smiled giving a nod. "You got it, dollface. You're the only one that I want anyway." He said kissing her cheek then walked in to see his Nieces. "And how are my two favorite girls?!" He asked kneeling down hugging Jenna and Becky as they ran to him. He was a big teddy bear when it came to them. They both had him wrapped around their little fingers.
He kissed both girls on the cheek then sighed. "So Jenna, how old are you now?" He asked as Jenna smiled. "I'm 11 now! I'm in 6th grade!" She said happily at Jim's eyes went wide. "Wow! You're a big girl now! Do you have a boyfriend yet?" He teased her. Jenna wrinkled her nose and stuck out her tongue. "Eeww! No!" She replied. She was still at the age where she thought boys were gross which made Angie happy. Jim laughed shaking his head and turning to Becky. "And how old are you now, Bec?" He asked. Becky blushed giggling. "I'm 7 and I'm in second grade." She said and Jim fell over acting like he fainted. The girls piled on him at they played in the middle of the living room floor.
Last edited: Saturday at 2:32 AM
"No you're not. I already dealt with him, Henry. Just let it go." Nicole said. Henry grabbed the wheel so hard his knuckles turned white. "Let it go? He called you a slut! My future wife! He can do whatever he wants to me, but no one, not even my father, can mess with you." He yelled. Nicole grabbed his other hand. "Come inside and let me make you something to eat." She said gently. Henry was still for a few moments, then finally got out of the car and went back inside. Nicole released a breath and followed. "Only because of you, Nicole. My father gets to live today because of you." He said. She kissed his head. "What do you want to eat?" Henry pulled her down and kissed her. "You." He said briefly before kissing her again.
Jim played with his Nieces in the middle of the living room floor for about ten more minutes then sat up smiling at he looked at the two of them. "You two mean the world to me. I want you to know that." He said as Angie snuck a peek at them. She smiled big as she watched the three of them and how good Jim treated them. Jim continued. "I love you both very much." He said as both girls hugged him. He hugged back then stood up. "Alright, I hate to cut our playtime short but Uncle Jim needs a shower. I'll be back." He said and walked upstairs to shower. Angie let out a sigh as she watched him leave. Why can't I have a man like him? She thought to herself. Damn he's a good kisser.. She shook off some intrusive thoughts that made their way into her mind and went back to cooking lunch with who was starting to peel the potatoes.


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National Digital Communications Policy - 2018
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Draft National Digital Communications Policy 2018 - 1st May, 2018
Custom Notification on Mobilephone Parts - 2nd April, 2018
In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of section 25 of the Customs Act,1962 (52 of 1962), the Central Government, being satisfied that it is necessary in the public interest so to do, hereby makes the following further amendments in the notification of the Government of India in the Ministry of Finance (Department of Revenue), No. 57/2017- Customs, dated the 30th June, 2017, published in the Gazette of India, Extraordinary, Part II, Section 3, Sub-section (i), vide, number G.S.R. 798 (E), dated the 30th June, 2017, namely:-
In the said notification, in the Table,-
(i) after serial number 5 and the entries relating thereto, the following serial numbers and entries shall be inserted, namely:-
"5A. 8517 70 90, 8525 80 20, 8525 80 90, 8529 90 90 Camera Module for use in manufacture of cellular mobile phones 10% 1
5B. 8517 70 90 Connectors for use in manufacture of cellular mobile phones 10% 1";
(ii) against serial number 6, in column (3), the items (i), (ii) and (iii) shall be omitted;
(iii) after serial number 6 and the entries relating thereto, the following serial numbers and entries shall be inserted, namely:-
"6A. Any Chapter (a) Inputs or parts for use in manufacture of Printed Circuit Board Assembly (PCBA) of cellular mobile phones
(b) Inputs or sub-parts for use in manufacture of parts mentioned at (a) above Nil 1
6B. Any Chapter (a) Inputs or parts for use in manufacture of Camera Module of cellular mobile phones
6C. Any Chapter (a) Inputs or parts for use in manufacture of Connectors of cellular mobile phones
(iv) in the Explanation for the words "For the purposes of this notification", the words and figures "For serial numbers 7A, 7B and 7C of this notification" shall be substituted.
Ministry of Environment finalizes E-waste Amendment Rules, 2018 - 22nd March, 2018
The Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change has come out with a E-Waste (Management) Amendment Rules, 2018 applicable from March 22, 2018.
The manufacturer, producer, importer, transporter, refurbisher, dismantler and recycler shall be liable to pay financial penalties as levied under the Provisions of the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 and rules made there under for any violation of the provisions under these rules by the State Pollution Control Boards with the prior approval of the Central Pollution Control Board in accordance with the guidelines published by the Central Pollution Control Board.
The Central Pollution Control Board may conduct random sampling of electrical and electronic equipment placed in the market to monitor and verify the compliance of reduction of hazardous substances provisions and the cost for sampling and testing shall be borne by the government for conducting the reduction of hazardous substances test and the procedure of random sampling and permissible error value of reduction of hazardous substances test shall be as per the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board.
If the product does not comply with the reduction of hazardous substances provisions, then the cost of the reduction of hazardous substances test will be borne by the producer and in addition, the producer shall take corrective measures to bring the product into compliance and withdraw or recall the product from the market within a reasonable period as per the guidelines of the Central Pollution Control Board.
The collection, storage, transportation, segregation, refurbishment, dismantling, recycling and disposal of e-waste shall be in accordance with the guidelines published by the Central Pollution Control Board.
Year - E-Waste Collection Target (Weight)
2017-2018 - 10% of the quantity of waste generation as indicated in Extended Producer Responsibility Plan
2023 onwards - 70% of the quantity of waste generation as indicated in Extended Producer Responsibility Plan
Extended Producer Responsibility targets for producers, who have started sales operations recently, i.e. number of years of sales operations is less than average life of their products mentioned in the guidelines issued below by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) from time to time. These targets are applicable from financial year 2018-2019 and once the product achieves its average life as fixed by the Central Pollution Control Board, the collection target shall be revised.
2018-2019 - 5% of the sales figure of financial year 2016-17
2020-2021 - 10% of the sales figure of financial year 2018-19
2025 onwards - 20% of the sales figure of the year preceding the previous year
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) to enable Digital Payments in Post Offices - 10th February, 2018
India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) Expansion Programme continues to make brisk progress and a nation-wide roll-out is scheduled beginning April 2018. No decision has been taken to revise the timelines as reported in some sections of the media on Tuesday, 06th February 2018. Once the proposed expansion is completed, IPPB will be providing the largest financial inclusion network in the country, covering both urban as well as rural hinterland with ability to provide digital payment services at the doorstep with the help of Postmen and GraminDakSewaks (GDS). IPPB will also enable more than 17 crore active account-holders of Post Office Savings Bank to make interoperable digital payments including the benefit of NEFT, RTGS, UPI and bill payment services. Additionally, the IPPB will enable acceptance of digital payments across post offices in the country in line with the digital payments initiative of the government.
Plastic or PVC Aadhaar Smart Card is not usable: UIDAI - 6th February, 2018
The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) said today in a statement that the Plastic or PVC Aadhaar smart cards are often not usable as the QR code commonly becomes dysfunctional during such unauthorised printing at some vendor/shop. Also, there could be a possibility of sharing Aadhaar details (personal sensitive demographic information) without informed consent with some devious elements.
UIDAI reiterated that Aadhaar letter or its cutaway portion or downloaded versions of Aadhaar on ordinary paper or mAadhaar are perfectly valid and people should not yearn for the so-called Aadhaar smart card as it may make them fall to the ploys of some unscrupulous elements who are printing Aadhaar on a plastic/PVC sheet and charging anywhere between Rs.50 to Rs.300 or more.
UIDAI has asked people to keep away from such elements/shops/vendors. Dr. Ajay Bhushan Pandey, CEO, UIDAI said, "So-called Aadhaar Smart card is totally unnecessary and a waste as during such printing its QR code often becomes dysfunctional. The Aadhaar card or the downloaded Aadhaar card printed on ordinary paper or mAadhaar is perfectly valid for all kind of uses."
"If a person has a paper Aadhaar card, there is absolutely no need to get his/her Aadhaar card laminated or obtain a plastic Aadhaar card or so called smart Aadhaar card by paying money. There is no concept such as smart or plastic Aadhaar card", added Dr. Pandey.
In case a person loses his Aadhaar card, he can download his Aadhaar card free of cost from https://eaadhaar.uidai.gov.in. The print out of the downloaded Aadhaar card, even in black and white form, is as valid as the original Aadhaar letter sent by UIDAI. There is absolutely no need to print it on plastic/PVC card or get it laminated.
CEO, UIDAI advised people to be watchful for the protection of their privacy and recommended not to share their Aadhaar number or personal details to unauthorized agencies for getting it laminated, or printed on plastic card.
UIDAI has cautioned unauthorized Agencies not to collect Aadhaar information from general public for printing of Aadhaar card as collecting such information or unauthorized printing of Aadhaar card or aiding such persons in any manner amounts to a criminal offence punishable with imprisonment under Indian Penal Code and Aadhaar Act, 2016.
To Incentivise Domestic Value Addition And Make In India, Customs Duty Increased On Mobile Phones And TV Parts - 1st February, 2018
In the first General Budget 2018-19 after the roll-out of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), the Union Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs, Shri Arun Jaitley, made a calibrated departure from the underlying policy in the last two decades, wherein the trend largely was to reduce the customs duty. In the General Budget 2018-19 presented in Parliament here today, Shri Jaitley acknowledged there is substantial potential for domestic value addition in certain sectors, like food processing, electronics, auto components, footwear and furniture. The Finance Minister thus proposed to reduce customs duty on raw cashew from 5% to 2.5% to help the cashew processing industry.
To further incentivise the domestic value addition and Make in India, the Finance Minister proposed to increase customs duty on mobile phones from 15% to 20%, on some of their parts and accessories to 15% and on certain parts of TVs to 15%."This measure will promote creation of more jobs in the country' Shri Jaitley added. In fact, this will make the domestic items cheaper than imported ones and will generate more demand which, in turn, will create more employment opportunities for the people at large.
TGeM 3.0 launched - 30th January, 2018
Government e Marketplace (GeM), has been envisaged by Government of India as the National Procurement Portal of India. GeM strives to keep pace with ever-evolving technological challenges and stake holder aspirations and in line with this endeavour, GeM is coming up with a scaled up third version. The GeM 2.0 was launched as a pilot in August 2016 and its success led to this massive transformation program - GeM 3.0 which would offer standardised and enriched catalogue management, powerful search engine, real time price comparison, template-based Bid and RA creation, demand aggregation, e-EMD, e-PBG, user rating, advanced MIS and analytics and more.
Some of the notable enhancements in the 3.0 version:
Market Based generic requirements across all government agencies
Standardisation of specifications of both products and services enabling empirical price comparability
Completely transparent transactions across all ranges
Generic standards established through universal service levels and cost comparison enabled
Open and dynamic market place with rating based on performance of user on website
Coinciding with the migration to the 3.0 version, National Sellers On-boarding Campaign has been launched to train sellers/ service providers for transition from GeM 2.0 to GeM 3.0. All MoU signed 20 State Capitals will be trained by GeM MSP trainers along with Business Groups – CII, ASSOCHAM and PHDCII. Senior Officers from GeM will visit these states to facilitate the transition.
More than 200 people were trained and supported in registering during the walk-in Training cum Registration Centre organised on 27th and 28th in GeM Office (Delhi) from 10am to 6pm. The officers of GeM and training team guided the sellers in registration on the new portal and listing of products. The GeM Contact Centre is also fully functioning during to handle any queries from the sellers.
Commenting on the campaign, Smt. Radha S. Chauhan, IAS, CEO, GeM said, "We are proud to launch this campaign on a day of national importance. Redefining purchase/procurement; enhanced GeM 3.0 platform, delivered and to be operated by Intellect Design Arena Ltd – Managed Services Provider (MSP) and its consortium partners will further the Digital India vision of transparency, openness and fairness. GeM 3.0 has undergone a digital transformation with superior technology and ability to scale from the previous version. This will bring together many sellers and service providers for products and services across the country under one roof, truly making it a digital tool of empowerment and entrepreneurship. This initiative gives a huge uplift for growth of MSME's, manufacturers & service providers. As Digital India aims to bring in maximum transparency by minimising Government's human transactional interface, the launch of the Sellers On-boarding Campaign will streamline the procurement of goods and services making it an easy, go-to portal for sellers and service providers".
Industry & Academia should work towards making India leader in global Digital Space - 19th January, 2018
The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEIT) on yesterday organized a day long workshop on Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its applications for good governance. Held under the chairmanship of Hon' Minister for Electronics and Information Technology, Over 30 representatives from the industry and academia took part in the workshop. These include AI experts from the IITes at Kharagpur, Madras, Hyderabad and Patna. Industry representatives included Microsoft, Google, IBM, Accenture, NVIDIA. NASSCOM and IIIT Hyderabad also gave their views on the strategy to take advantage of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technology.
Union Minister of Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, SH. Ravi Shankar Prasad has called upon industry and academia engaged in the development and use of AI to join hands in developing AI model which is capable of addressing complex problems in the field of health, education, agriculture and governance. Speaking at the workshop held here to exchange ideas on the use of AI for good governance, he said the government was keen to support such initiative as its development model is based on inclusive growth. He went on to add that AI had the potential to leapfrog India to its true potential of being a world leader in the digital space.
Acknowledging, the work that has already been done in the field by the US and China, the Minister added that India's model of uptake and scale-up of AI will be one that is indigenous to India and is built on the principle of augmenting intelligence and not the displacement of jobs. He underscored his government's commitment to retraining and skilling people such that they are able to adapt, adopt and thrive in the dynamically changing society. The Minister also emphasized the need for taking a multi-stakeholder approach to developing the ecosystem for AI in India, committing that the government to its end would help facilitate interactions between the industry, government and academia and will come up with a robust legal framework for the same.
The industry and academia present in the workshop were unanimous in seeking support for getting clean data for evolving effective solutions through the application of AI. They also opined that the government should define policy priorities in the application of AI. This would facilitate them in pursuing a strategy that would benefit the country most. Data has to be available for innovation and India being a country with large number of languages and dialects need to translate data in a usable format. Country has all ingredients to be a hub center for data analysis.
During the discussions that followed the presentations made by various stakeholders, there was unanimous agreement amongst the participants that India should focus its AI initiative to solving complex development challenges. The participants suggested that AI applications had a potential to help improve food and water security for the country, help improve traffic management and also help expedite particular types of cases in the judiciary. Responding to a query raised by one of the participants, the Minister said that data privacy is an important tenet of an individual's rights, but also stressed on the point that innovation cannot be curbed under the garb of privacy. The Minister also mentioned that the country is well set to bring out a comprehensive policy on Data Protection and a committee under Justice (retd.) Sri Krishna will shortly finalize its recommendations.
Indian Railways introduces OCR Kiosk Machines for quick printing of tickets booked through UTS Mobile App for suburban commuters - 11th January, 2018
Indian Railways continues to take steps based on new technology to facilitate execution of its various activities. It has now been decided to introduce modern Optical Character Recognition (OCR) Kiosk Machines for quick & easy printing of tickets booked through UTS App for mobile phones by suburban commuters.
Western Railway (Hqrs. Mumbai) becomes first railway zone to introduce this facility for its Mumbai suburban commuters of Western Railway. This new facility will make printing of tickets much simpler and quicker. Under this facility just by simply placing the screen of mobile phone displaying the SMS of the ticket booked through UTS Mobile App in the designated slot provided in the OCR Kiosk machine and the machine will simply read the SMS and print ticket immediately.
In the first phase, 25 OCR Kiosks have been planned by Western Railway for installation, out of which 20 Kiosks have been installed and became functional w.e.f today i.e. 11th January, 2018 on five Mumbai Suburban Stations of Western Railway namely Churchgate (1 Kiosk), Dadar (6 Kiosks), Bandra (3 Kiosks), Andheri (5 Kiosks), and Borivali (5 Kiosks). In addition, installation of five more OCR Kiosks at Churchgate is under process and will be installed shortly.
The use of these Kiosks will facilitate the passengers to get print-out of tickets booked through UTS mobile app and also reduce the queues at booking counters/ATVM machines thereby promoting transactions through UTS mobile app. Presently, passengers have to feed their mobile number and booking ID received on their mobiles, in the ATVM machines to get their tickets printed or get it through UTS counter. This new facility of simply placing the screen displaying the SMS in the designated slot provided in the Kiosk will also reduce the time of printing of tickets as the machine will simply read the SMS and print tickets immediately.
BharatNet Phase 1: Target Achieved Through Meticulous Planning and Focused Implementation at Ground Level - 8th January, 2018
Government has achieved a significant milestone under the BharatNet by completing Phase-1 of the project by connecting over one lakh Gram Panchayats (GP) across the country with high speed optical fibre network as per the declared deadline of 31 Dec 2017. BharatNet network built under Phase 1 envisages delivery of high-speed broadband services in over 2.5 lakh villages benefitting more than 200 million rural Indians.
At a function held here, Union Minister for Communications Shri Manoj Sinha said that the vision and the mission of the country is to connect India to realise the goal of Prime Minister's Digital India by bridging the digital divide. Describing the BharatNet as the world's largest rural broadband project created on the mantra of Create, Collaborate and Conquer, Shri Sinha said that the project will generate massive employment opportunities both direct and indirect in the country in days to come. He underlined the need to complete the 2nd phase of the BharatNet well before the target of March, 2019 to usher in a rural digital revolution by connecting 2 lakh and 50,000 Gram Panchayats with broadband network. The Minister asked the officials to include and enforce the clause of financial incentive for speedy execution of Phase-2 of the project and said that the infrastructure created under BharatNet will be a national asset, accessible on a non-discriminatory basis to the service providers. The project aims to provide affordable broadband services to citizens and institutions in rural and remote areas, in partnership with States and the private sector.
Under Phase 1 of the project, till 31st May 2014 the work had been started in 4,918 GPs and 358 km Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) was pulled and only 59 GPs were made service ready. Till 30th June 2016 work had been started in 84,834 GPs and 1,24,817 km OFC pulled covering 53,557 GPs with 7,229 GPs made Service Ready. As on 31st Dec 2017, 2,54,895 km OFC has been laid covering 1,09,926 GPs out of which 1,01,370 GPs have been made Service Ready.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Department of Telecom Ms Aruna Sundararajan said that to complete the Phase-1 of BharatNet, the entire eco-system of the department responded to the call of the Hon'ble Minister Shri Manoj Sinha. She said that it has given boost to Make-in-India as the key highlight of the project is that the telecom equipment deployed in it has been fully designed, developed and manufactured in India. She said that the project also achieved a global record of laying of 800 kilometres of optical fibre per day. She said that the BharatNet infrastructure is expected to catalyse digital delivery of services for the rural poor – viz. health, education, livelihood, skills, e-agriculture and e-commerce. The tariff for BharatNet was also revised to attract more Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to use the infrastructure to provide high-speed broadband services in the rural areas through Wi-Fi, FTTH, and for developing utilisation models by TSPs and Common Service Centres (CSC).
The Department of Telecom felicitated the key performers and stakeholders who significantly contributed to achieve the target. Shri Manoj Sinha gave away the awards for the Best Performing States, States which covered all the GPs, Best Utilisation of BharatNet, Best performing implementation partners, Best performing equipment supply partners, Best performing OFC supply partners, Best technology partners, and significant individual contributors.
Under the award categories, UP(East), Maharashtra, MP, Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Jharkhand were adjudged as the Best performing States which implemented BharatNet Phase 1. Kerala, Karnataka and Haryana were the States which covered all the GPs under the Project. Karnataka bagged the award for Best Utilisation of BharatNet. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd received the awards for the Best performing implementation partners. While Tejas Networks and Indian Telephone Industries Ltd were honoured with the Best performing equipment supply partners, Finolex Cables, Sterlite Technologies and Vindhya Telelinks Ltd were bestowed with the Best performing Optical Fibre Cable( OFC) supply partners. Centre for Development of Telematics(CDOT) and National Informatics Centre(NIC) were given the Best technology partners award.
Shri Mahmood Ahmed, JAF, USOF, Shri Rupendra Kumar, Director(BB), USOF, Smt. Deepika Khosla, CGM, BBNL, Shri Deepak Chanduka, CGM, BBNL, Shri Shahnawaz Alam, CGM, BBNL, Shri Anil Kumar Gupta, CGM, BBNL, Shri Vinod Kumar, CGM, BBNL, Shri P K Panda, GM, BBNL and Shri B P Meena, GM, BBNL received the Significant individual contributors' award from the Minister.
Ministry of Electronics & IT Key Achievements: 2017 - 29th December, 2017
Digital India, the flagship project of the Government of India, has made rapid progress in the year 2017. The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY), as a key ministry under the Government of India and the enabler of Digital India programme, has undertaken numerous revolutionary initiatives in the area of IT/ ITeS and electronic manufacturing that have put India on the global map and went on to become case studies for the reputed Universities across the globe. Having covered over 99% of the adult population of the country through the unique identity Aadhaar, the country is now looking at embracing the second phase of Digital India.
The year saw a 27% jump in the investment on electronic manufacturing where the total volume of investment reached 1.57 lakh crore in 2017 vis-à-vis 1.43 lakh crore in 2016; this was only 11,000 crore in 2014. There has been almost 60% rise on the production of mobile phones to reach 17.5 crore units vis-s-vis 11 crore units last year, adding 4 lakh direct and indirect jobs in the sector; this was only 6 crore units in 2014-15. Digital transactions witnessed a growth of over 300% during this year.
In 2017, the Government of India has introduced many pro-people IT initiatives that have transformed the governance system for good. Some of the key initiatives that were pushed forward included India BPO Promotion Scheme, Software Procurement Policy for faster delivery and effective monitoring of services, Tele-Law through CSCs to Mainstream Legal Aid in Rural India, amongst others. The CSCs (Common Services Centers) have been effectively used to reach out to the last miles and bridge the gaps between urban and rural sector, between digital haves and have-nots.
Enlisted below are some of the data points that substantiate the country's march towards a robust digital economy:
The Mobile Phone Revolution: Today India is home to 121 Crore Mobile Phone users, compared to 103 crore in 2016.
Smartphone Users: The number of smart-phone users have grown from 30 crore in 2016 to 40 crore in 2017
Internet Users: The number of internet users have grown from 40 crore in 2016 to 50 crore in 2017
Growth in Mobile Phone Manufacturing:
Jump of 60% in terms of units made. Manufacturing of mobile phones has reached 17.5 Crore units in 2016-17 from 11 crore in 2015-16.
105 mobile/ ancillary manufacturing units
Created 4 lakh direct and indirect jobs since 2014 of which 2.4 lakh added in 2017
Aadhaar: With an objective to empower residents of India with a unique identity and a digital platform to authenticate anytime, anywhere, Aadhaar today is the world's largest biometrics based digital identity system. Total number of Aadhaar account holders reached 119 Crore in 2017 compared to 104 Crore in 2016. Aadhaar is being used as a digital platform to enhance governance.
Jeevan Pramaan: It is an Aadhaar based platform for biometric authentication of the pensioners and senior citizens. Since its launch on 10 November 2014, over 150.15 lakh pensioners have registered on the portal till date, which was 16.54 lakh in 2016. Digital Locker System (DigiLocker): DigiLocker, launched in July 2016, serves as a platform to enable citizens to securely store and share their documents with service providers electronically after giving due permission. So far, over 197 crore document have been placed in DigiLocker enabling access to over 88 lakh users. For the first time both CBSE 10th Class results and NEET Results were also sent digitally into Digital Locker.
Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) through Aadhaar Payment Bridge (APB): A total of Rs. 2.43 Lakh Crore have been disbursed through Aadhaar based DBT to beneficiaries of 394 government schemes which have led to saving of Rs. 57,000 Crore in the last 3 years by removing fictitious claimants. Through this process a total of 2.33 Cr. bogus ration cards and 3 crore fake LPG connections were identified
e-Taal (Electronic Transaction Aggregation & Analysis Layer): There has been a stupendous growth in e-Transactions in various e-Governance services. Today, e-Taal registers 4.5 crores transactions per day which grew from 2.07 crore in 2016 thereby integrating over 3506 e-Services.
Common Services Centres (CSCs): CSCs are the world's largest digital service delivery network. These information and communication technology enabled kiosks with broadband connectivity has been providing various governments, private and social services at the doorsteps of citizen.
Today, around 2.7 lakh CSCs are active and offering digital services like Aadhaar enrolment, Ticket booking, of utilities and other eGovernance services to citizens from 1.68 Lakh Gram Panchayets, which was only 2.29 Lakh 2016. MyGov: This is a citizen-centric digital collaboration platform that empowers people to connect with the Government & contribute towards good governance. Started on July 26th 2014 and with a modest 8.74 lakh users in the first year, today MyGov has over 50 lakh active users under 64 groups who contribute their ideas through 756 discussion groups and participate through 701 earmarked tasks, that has grown from 36 lakh active users in 2016.
Other noteworthy achievements: India BPO Promotion Scheme: 18,160 seats of BPO already allocated. Another 13822 sect allocation nearing finalisation
Jan Dhan Accounts: 30 Crore
Jan Suraksha Schemes Registrations: 15 Crore
MUDRA: 9 lakh people got Rs. 4 lakh Crores of loan
Soil Health Card: 9.5 Crore cards made
eNAM: 50 lakh registered farmers; 455 Agri Markets linked
National Scholarship Portal: 1.4 Crore students registered
GeM: 4600 byers, 14,512 sellers registered
Year End Review-2017: Ministry of Communications - 28th December, 2017
Launch of National EMF Portal: Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched Tarang Sanchar, a web portal of information sharing on Mobile Towers and EMF Emission Compliances, with a view to generate confidence and conviction with regard to safety and harmlessness from mobile towers, clearing any myths and misconceptions. The portal can be accessed at www.tarangsanchar.gov.in. The EMF portal provides a public interface where an easy map-based search feature has been provided for viewing the mobile towers in vicinity of any locality. By click of a button, information on EMF compliance status of mobile towers can be accessed. Detailed information about any tower site, if requested, will be sent on email to the users. Additionally, any person can request for EMF emission measurement at a location by paying a nominal fee of ₹4000/- online. Local Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) field unit of DoT will conduct the test (the requestor can be present, if he so desires) and the test reports will be provided. The portal also has 'EMF Overview' and 'Learn' Sections, which provide numerous articles, booklets and videos, to further educate the citizens about EMF and coverage of telecom services. Public can also access the 'DoT Initiatives section' which has various leaflets, articles and Frequently Asked Questions. The portal has the complete collated technical details of over 16.33 lakh base stations (BTSs), spread across the country, of all technologies (2G, 3G, 4G etc.) and of all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs).
Public Awareness Programmes on EMF emission issue: The nation-wide Awareness Programme, on EMF Emissions & Telecom Towers to build a direct bridge of engagement between different stakeholders and to fill the information gap with scientific evidence, initiated by DoT in 2016-17, have further been followed up at sub-state level by the TERM field units of DoT so that more and more people are made aware about the scientific facts on health effects of EMF emissions from mobile towers. Pamphlets/Information Brochures on various topics related to EMF have also been published and distributed in various regional languages. These programmes have helped in bringing lot of clarity on this issue and resulted in reduction of new court cases, public grievances and RTI on the related matters.
Launch of Satellite based mobile services through Satellite Gateway M/s BSNL: The Department of Telecommunications granted a License under 'Suigeneris' category to M/s BSNL on 25.08.2014 for "Provision and Operation of Satellite based service using Gateway installed in India" with all India service area on non-exclusive basis. This work has been carried out by M/s BSNL in partnership with M/s INMARSAT and the Satellite Gateway has been installed at Ghaziabad, UP. The Satellite mobile services through the BSNL Gateway have been inaugurated on 24.05.2017. This is a quantum leap in the field of Telecommunications to connect the un-connected through the provisioning of satellite mobile services across the country. The services are being provisioned in phased manner initially for the government agencies such as Defence Services, Disaster Management Authorities, Parliamentary Forces, Railways, PSUs etc. and subsequently for the common public.
Launching of schemes under Skill Development: Hon'ble MoSC (IC) has launched two schemes in the domain of Skill Development in Telecom Sector to commemorate the Birth Centenary of Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayaji as under:
(i) Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Sanchar Kaushal Vikas Pratisthans Scheme - It is a Pilot scheme which proposes to create the skill development training centres that will be opened in various rural, backward and other needy areas and will be named as "Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Sanchar kaushal Vikas Pratisthans". Initially in the Pilot phase, it is proposed to start 10 such centres to impart skill development trainings to 10,000 candidates taking the necessary training infrastructure from BSNL/other PSUs/Government Organisations/Private entities etc. Subsequently, as the scheme succeeds it will be spread to open more 'Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Sanchar Kaushal Viksa Pratisthans' across the nation.
(ii) Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya Telecom Skill Excellence Awards schems: This scheme is aimed to recognize the special contributions of citizens of India in the areas of Telecom Skilling, Telecom Services, Telecom Manufacturing, Telecom Applications in deploying telecom dependent sectoral solutions for different fields such as agriculture, commerce, health, education etc.
Growth in Telecom Sector:
The growth of Telecom Sector in our country has been remarkable over the last few years as a result of key reforms and initiatives undertaken by the Department of Telecommunications. The industry has also wholeheartedly participated in the development efforts. From 898.02 million in 2012-13, total telecom connections in the country reached 1194.99 million in 2016-17, registering a growth of 33.07%. As on end of September 2017, the total subscription stood at 1207.04 million out of which 501.99 million connections were in the rural areas and 705.05 million in the urban areas. Wireless telephony now constitutes 98.04% of all subscriptions whereas share of landline telephones now stands at 1.96% at the end of September 2017.The overall tele-density in India is now at a high of 93.42% with tele-density in rural areas being 56.78% and that in urban areas at 172.86%.
The Government has placed considerable emphasis on growth of internet and broadband in the country as part its Digital India campaign. The number of Internet subscribers (both broadband and narrowband put together) which was 422.18 million at the end of March, 2017 increased to 431.21 million by the end of June'17. The number of subscribers accessing internet via wireless phones etc. was 409.55 million at the end of June'17. The number of wired Internet subscribers was 21.67 million at the end of June'17. The number of Broadband subscribers was 300.84 million at the end of June, 2017. There was a net increase of 9.03 million in the Internet subscribers during the period from March,2017 to June,2017.
FDI equity inflow in the telecom sector touched US $ 6.08 billion in the first half of the financial year (April to September, 2017). This is more than four times that the sector witnessed during financial year 2015-16 and around 10% more than that during 2016-17.
Important Achievements of Department of Posts
Implementation of Core Banking Solutions in the Department of Posts
The Post Office Savings Bank (POSB) was started in 1882 to facilitate small savings in the country. It operates as an agency of the Ministry of Finance and caters to the basic savings needs of the citizens.
All the 1.55 Lakh Post Offices in the country provide the basic banking products of the POSB. Of these 25,353 are departmental Post Offices which are manned by the regular government employees.
At the end of March 2017, there were35.62 Cr live accounts with a balance of Rs. 5,32,338 Crore and Savings certificates with an outstanding balance of Rs. 1,98,935 Crore
The Post Offices were operating on a standalone software which operated in a closed environment.
Many value added services like ATMs, inter branch banking, Internet and mobile banking, DBT etc were not available to the POSB customers.
Challenges faced:
Though an impressive customer base, the banking services were not upto industry standards.
As the complexity of services grew, it became difficult to monitor it on the old system.
Government schemes of DBT, financial inclusion and social security could not be serviced on the old software.
Modern payment systems like Debit cards, AEPS, APBS, Internet and mobile banking were not available.
Thus there was an urgent need for introduction of a Core Banking Solution (CBS) software in the POSB at par with the banks.
The project of CBS was conceived as a part of the overall IT modernization project 2012 of the DoP. The project aimed to introduce CBS in all the 25,353 departmental Post Offices.
The sheer size of the number of offices, the data to be migrated, connectivity and the tight timeline were the biggest challenges to be overcome.
The RFP for this was floated on 21.12.2010 and was awarded on 12.03.2012
Special teams were formed at the Directorate, Chennai and all the administrative units to take this up in a project mode.
The huge data was cleansed, verified, checked and rechecked to avoid any errors in migration to the new system.
Efforts were made to verify all the passbooks of the customers one at a time to verify their balances.
Infrastructure was upgraded wherever required to support the software.
Monitoring played a key role in the project. Regular reports, Video Conferences, meetings, field visits and web based monitoring was used extensively to track the progress.
A big task was change management, internal communication and training of more than one lakh employees in the new software. This was managed through training in the Postal Training Centres, Work Place training Centres, Regional, Circle and Divisional Office levels. Officials were provided handholding by internal teams to make them feel comfortable.
Frequent interactions were arranged for the employees, unions and officers to listen to their grievances and give them the ownership of the project.
With this preparation in the background, the first Post Office of the country, Greams Road, Sub Post Office was migrated to CBS on 16.12.2013
Key results:
23,424 out of a total of 25,353 (92%) Post Offices are on the CBS platform as on 11/10/2017. Thus the POSB is the largest entity in the country on the CBS platform surpassing all the banks. This feat was achieved in less than four years.
A total of 37.62 Cr accounts and 31.79 Crore savings certificates are on the CBS platform for anywhere banking as of 11/10/2017.
991 of the proposed 1000 ATMs are functional in the country. The ATMs are interoperable with other banks.
Customers can access their CBS POSB account from anywhere in the country
Greater visibility of transactions for better reporting and monitoring.
Internet and Mobile banking in closed environment is ready for roll out.
Impacts:
A significant step towards financial inclusion as all these CBS accounts can be used for MGNREGS, DBT, social security pensions and other programs of the Government of India. CBS can also be integrated with AEPS and APBS.
The data and CBS environment is ready for providing CBS based services even to the rural areas through handheld devices in 1.3 lakh Branch Post Offices.
Introduction of operational hygiene and system at par with other banks.
Saving of time for the customers as the transactions are online and happen in real time.
Provision of alternate banking channels like ATMs, Internet and Mobile banking to customers.
Services like RTGS, NEFT, POSB debit cards at POS as digital payments, full fledged internet and mobile banking can be provided with India Post Payment Bank (IPPB) in near future.
India Post Payments Bank will help in financial inclusion-Manoj Sinha - 9th October, 2017
Minister for Communications Shri Manoj Sinha today said that Government is working on setting up 650 India Post Payments Bank and gearing up fast to provide its financial services through all of 1.55 lakh post offices to fulfil the Prime Minister's vision of financial inclusion. Speaking here on the occasion of World Post Day, he said that Indian Postal Department is undergoing major transformationwith changing times, be it the inter-operability of ATMs, core banking or providing of Passport Seva and Aadhar enrolment. He said that so far 57 Post Offices are providing Passport Seva and in coming days 93 more will be added to the list.
Shri Sinha launched International Tracked Packetservice designed speciallyto meet the cross border requirements of e-Commerce sector in Asia-Pacific Region. He said, at the beginning, the service will be available to 12 countries and gradually the whole world will be covered. This new service has many special features like affordable price, track & trace, volume discounts, pick up facility, compensation for loss or damage and, therefore, high value for money.He said, with the launch of this service, Department of Posts is set to start a new chapter of close collaboration between the post office and the business in India that want to reach to their customers abroad.
The Minister also launched e-IPO (Indian Postal Order) in the denominations of Rs. 10/-, Rs. 20/-, Rs. 50/- &Rs. 100/-, as a pilot project in Bihar, Delhi and Karnataka and said that in the next two months, the service will cover the entire country.e-IPO will be used for all purposes like fee payment for RTI/ educational institutions/ Court/ online registration for Cable Operators etc. Customer can purchase e-IPO online from one's home or workplace, as per one's convenience. This launch is a part of Digital India Initiative as the payment will be made through Debit Card/ Credit Card / Net Banking.eIPO can be purchased online at:https://www.epostoffice.gov.inor, it can also be accessed through a link at Official website of India Post i.e. http://www.indiapost.gov.in
Shri Sinha also unveiled the revamped website of the India Post which is made more user-friendly and informative to meet the need of customers in a better way. The citizens shall benefit by getting relevant information fast and in a user- friendly manner.
During the function, commemorative stationery in the Post Card, Inland Letter and Envelope Category, each featuring five postal heritage buildings viz. Patna G.P.O, Delhi G.P.O, Mumbai G.P.O, Shimla G.P.O & Kolkata G.P.O.was also issued.For the first time, the stationery has been issued in multi-colour format.
Members of Parliament Ms. MeenakshiLekhi, Dr.Udit Raj and Shri Ramesh Bidhuri graced the occasion as guest of honour. Secretary (Posts) Shri A. N. Nanda and Member (Planning) Ms. MeeraHanda were also present on the occasion.
India Post celebrates the National Postal Week every October from 9th to 15th October, starting with World Post Day which is celebrated each year on 9th October, the anniversary of the establishment of the Universal Postal Union (UPU) in 1874 in Berne. The purpose of World Post Day is to create awareness of the role of the postal sector in people's and businesses' everyday lives and its contribution to the social and economic development of countries. Moving a step ahead, Department of Posts celebrates National Postal Week undertaking programme/ activities aimed at generating a broader awareness of its role and activities among the public and media on a national scale.
India Joins Race in 5G Ecosystem, Constitutes High Level Forum on 5G India 2020 - 26th September, 2017
India is at the cusp of a next generation of wireless technology 5G. 5G has been conceived as a foundation for expanding the potential of the Networked Society. A digital transformation brought about through the power of connectivity is taking place in almost every industry. The landscape is expanding to include massive scale of "smart things" to be interconnected. Therefore, the manner in which future networks will cope with massively varied demands and a business landscape will be significantly different from today.
The economic benefits from the 5G technology are also quite immense. As per the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development) Committee on Digital Economic Policy, it has been stated that 5G technologies rollout will help in,
a) Increasing GDP
b) Creating Employment
c) Digitizing the economy
For India, 5G provides an opportunity for industry to reach out to global markets, and consumers to gain with the economies of scale. Worldwide countries have launched similar Forums and thus, India has joined the race in 5G technologies. We are open for collaboration with them.
Government has constituted High Level 5G India 2020 Forum with three Secretaries of key Ministries/Departments Telecom, Meity and DST, and also comprising of renowned experts like Dr. A. Paulraj, Professor Emeritus, Stanford University, USA, Mr Gururaj Deshpande - Chairman of Sycamore Networks, Sandstone, USA, Indian industry led by CEOs of ICT industry, Telecom Standard Development Organisation of India (TSDSI), Professors from IIT Madras, IIT Mumbai, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IISc Bengaluru, IT industry and stakeholders from industry associations.
The Term of Reference of the High Level Forum for 5G India 2020 shall be: -
a) Vision Mission and Goals for the 5G India 2020, and
b) Evaluate, approve roadmaps & action plans for 5G India 2020.
The primary goals of the forum are to achieve:
early deployment of 5G in India
a globally competitive product development and manufacturing ecosystem targeting 50% of India market and 10% of global market over next 5 to 7 years.
The forum will complement the eco-system by focused actions in the following areas: development, standards development and proof of concepts through research projects, PPP projects, testbeds and pilot roll-outs.
Regulatory Framework – including spectrum assignments and a start-up friendly regulatory environment to enable leap-frog and embracing of innovative technologies.
Inclusive Business environment – with special focus on investment incentives favourable to start-ups and innovators and enablement of Venture capitalists.
Forum will constitute a number of Steering Committees in different domains.
A vibrant eco-system of research built around 5G that encompasses Industry, Government and Academia will further strengthen the MAKE (& DESIGN) in INDIA initiatives to enable:
Design and manufacture of 5G technologies, products and solutions in India;
5G start-ups that enable this design and manufacturing capabilities;
Generation of IPR backing the above designs;
India based companies should have some essential IPR in the 5G standard;
Manufacture of 5G chipsets, this may require massive investments;
Appropriate testbeds and technology platforms to enable and help Indian technical ecosystem to have an edge in 5G;
Accelerated deployment of next generation ubiquitous ultra-high broadband infrastructure with 100% coverage of 10 Gbps across urban India and 1 Gbps across Rural India.
Cabinet approves hiving off mobile tower assets of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited into a separate company, fully owned by BSNL - 12th September, 2017
The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has given its approval for hiving off mobile tower assets of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) into a separate company, fully owned by BSNL.
This approval authorizes BSNL to monetize its telecom tower infrastructure with the formation of a separate subsidiary company.
There are around 4,42,000 mobile towers in the country out of which more than 66,000 mobile tower are of BSNL. An independent, dedicated tower company of BSNL with a focused approach will lead to increasing of external tenancies and consequentially higher revenue for the new company.
Background: The telecom tower industry has emerged as an independent business to harness the potential for sharing of infrastructure. The business model arose from the need to achieve economies of scale and to reduce capital investment costs for providing mobile services. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) policy allows sharing of passive infrastructure i.e. the tower structure, Diesel Generator sets, battery units, power interface unit, air-conditioning etc., which has facilitated the growth of the telecom infrastructure industry. A tower infrastructure company essentially owns the passive infrastructure asset and leases it to telecom service providers enabling them to minimize duplication of investments and economize on costs of Operation and Maintenance (O&M), thereby improving profitability.
Besides the captive model in BSNL and MTNL where the service provider owns their passive infrastructure also, there are three different business models within the telecom tower industry:- companies created by hiving off the tower assets portfolios of service providers into subsidiaries, companies established as independent joint venture entities by service providers jointly and companies promoted by specific service providers but established as independent entities with the promoter being the anchor tenant for the tower company.
EESL to procure 50 lakh Smart Meters for realization of Smart Grids in India - 25th August, 2017
Energy Efficiency Services Ltd. (EESL), under the Ministry of Power, Government of India had put out a mega tender for procurement of 50 lakh smart meters in July, which would help in reducing AT&C losses, power theft and also help in monitoring of round the clock power supply eventually leading to greater efficiency and 24X7 power for all.
A Pre-Bid Meeting was held by EESL on 22nd August 2017 for procurement of 50 lakh smart meters which elicited a stellar response from the smart meter manufacturers, system integrators and has also excited various other stakeholders including World Bank and telecom operators etc. The interest shown by the smart meter fraternity is also evident from the participation of about 100 companies in the pre-bid meeting and is a measure of the potential which smart projects have in India.
EESL will be making the entire upfront investment as well as maintain the whole infrastructure for the next ten years. This approach has made the project feasible as most of the state utilities are not in a position for such rollouts due to their financial constraints. EESL will recover its investment from the savings accruing to the DISCOMs in subsequent years.
The meters are being procured for implementation of smart grid projects in the states of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. These meters will help these states in not only significantly reducing their AT&C losses way of increased billing efficiency, but will completely change the way in which electrical energy is presently being consumed and paid for by the ordinary consumers.
Installation of these smart meters along with its associated communication and IT infrastructure will enable the DISCOMs to obtain real time energy consumption data of each consumer for subsequent analysis and will pave the way for initiating various smart measures by DISCOMs like Time Of Day (TOD)/Time Of Use (TOU) billing, prediction and management of peak demand, providing real time energy consumption data to consumer, prepaid billing facility, remote connection and disconnection of load, accurate billing, etc. Installation of these meters will also obviate the need for the meter reader's visit to each and every consumer.
In order to make the entire project feasible and affordable, EESL has unbundled the Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) project into two parts viz. procurement of smart meter and arranging the system integrator. EESL is also planning to issue the tender for selection of system integrator early next month, as second part of the AMI project.
Senior officials of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh DISCOMs were present in the pre-bid meeting along with representatives from DISCOMs of Bihar, Jharkhand and Odisha, as well as senior officials from CEA, NSGM etc.
Indian Telecom Market is expected to cross the Rs 6.6 trillion revenue mark by the year 2020-Manoj Sinha - 2nd August, 2017
The Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha today said that the Indian telecom industry has seen a paradigm shift from a voice centric market to a data-centric market. While voice business still contributes a large chunk towards operator revenues, data revenues have shown an exponential growth trajectory over the last few years. Speaking at a Workshop on Telecom India here, the Minister said that by the end of 2016 the number of internet subscribers in India was 391.50 million making India globally the 2nd highest in terms of internet users.
He said that mobile data traffic also grew by 76 per cent in India in 2016 primarily attributed to increased smart phone penetration. This growing usage of smart phones, especially in urban areas, has increased the usage of internet on hand-held devices – in 2016, 559 megabytes of mobile data was generated per month by an average smart phone, up from 430megabytes per month in 2015.Consumption of video content is also forecasted to be 75 percent of India's mobile data traffic by 2021, compared to 49 percent in 2016.
Shri Sinha said that advancements in innovative IoT technologies, like health monitors, smart transport, smart meters among others, is projected to result in 21 per cent increase in M2M services. These advances will result in a significant growth of mobile data, and as the telecom sector moves to newer technologies, TSPs will need to identify innovative avenues to monetise this data opportunity. He said that Indian Telecom Market is expected to cross the INR 6.6 trillion revenue mark by the year 2020.
The Minister said that Indian Government had launched the 'Digital India' initiative in July 2015 which had three broad targets – providing Digital Infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen, Governance and Services on Demand as well as Digital empowerment of citizens.
Shri Sinha said that one of the projects under the 'Digital India' initiative was 'BharatNet', launched to deploy high-speed optical fiber cables to connect 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayat across the country by 2018. This project would also help in increasing the fiberized sites in India which currently stands at less than 20 per cent as compared to other developed countries. The project is being implemented in Phases, with more than100,000 gram panchayats connected under Phase-I as of July2017 and states like Kerala, Karnataka, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh neared 100 per cent completion.
The Minister also outlined the major achievements of the Indian Telecom Industry-
Over 400 million internet users
FDI quadrupled in FY2016-17 recording inflow of approximately USD 5.6 billion
Greater than 20 per cent tower sites now diesel free
Rural Tele density increased by 30 per cent over the last five years
More than 3/4th of the data consumption was from 3G/4G
Telecom industry generates over 4 million jobs direct and indirect
LTE device ecosystem grew by 270 per cent from 2015
38 new mobile manufacturing units set up since September 2015
30 new locations added to 'Smart City' mission in June 2017, total count reaches 90 smart cities
The government, is also working aggressive to connect 54,000 unconnected villages and would speed up its efforts after getting due reports from all states.
There is the inter-ministerial group to look into the financial health of the sector.
Speaking on the occasion, Secretary, Telecom, Ms Aruna Sundararajan said that in tune with the vision of the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India is attempting to do nothing short of charting a new digital strategy for growth. She said that new Telecom Policy will be a key building block for achieving the growth target of 10 percent from the current 7.6 percent as Telecom and IT are the two sectors contributing to 16.5 percent to the GDP, and there are immense possibilities for it to go up to 25 percent.
Justice Krishna to head expert group on Data Protection Framework for India - 1st August, 2017
Recognising the importance of data protection and keeping personal data of citizens secure and protected, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India has, on 31st July 2017, constituted a Committee of Experts under the Chairmanship of Justice B N Srikrishna, Former Judge, Supreme Court of India and comprising of members from Government, Academia and Industry to study and identify key data protection issues and recommend methods for addressing them. The committee will also suggest a draft Data Protection Bill. Protection of Data is expected to provide big boost to Digital economy of the country.
India to have 600 million broadband connections by 2020 - 28th July, 2017
The Minister for Communications Shri Manoj Sinha said that as per information provided by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), there were 422.19 million broadband subscribers and the internet penetration (internet subscriber per 100 populations) was 32.86% in the country as on 31st March 2017. In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, he said that the National Telecom Policy-2012 envisages 600 million broadband connections by the year 2020.
He further informed that the Government has planned the BharatNet project to provide 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.5 lakh) in the country. Under first phase of the project, 1 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) are to be connected by laying underground Optical Fibre Cable(OFC) which is under implementation. Under Phase-II, targeted to be completed by March 2019, connectivity will be provided to remaining 1.5 lakh GPs in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media.
The Minister said that the provision of last mile access to the network and broadband service provisioning shall be through Wi-Fi or any other broadband access technologies in all 2,50,000 GPs in the country. As on 23.07.2017, the status of implementation of BharatNet is as under:-
No. of GPs where OFC laying is completed : 100,299 GPs
Optical Fibre Cable laid : 221,925 Kms
Broadband Connectivity provided in GPs : 25,426 GPs
Stringent EMF radiation norms are operational in India: Manoj Sinha - 26th July, 2017
The Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha said that for provision of seamless services including advanced facilities like 4G, 5G and Internet of Things (IoT), the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) are required to expand their network so as to ensure adequate coverage at all the locations where such services are required to be provided. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, he said that as on 31-05-2017, there are total 4,48,273 mobile towers installed by different TSPs in the country.
On the issue of EMF radiation from the mobile towers, he said that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in the year 2008, adopted the International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines that are recommended by World Health Organization (WHO) for basic restriction and limiting reference levels of electromagnetic radiation from mobile towers. Based on the recommendations of an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC), with effect from 01.09.2012, these limits have been made ten times more stringent than the limits prescribed by ICNIRP and recommended by WHO.
The Minister said that the present limit/level of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) for Mobile Handsets in India is also one of the most stringent in the world and is 1.6 Watt per Kg averaged over a mass of one-gram human tissue, at par with USA, Canada and Australia, as against the global standards prescribed by ICNIRP of 2 W/kg averaged over a mass of 10 gm tissue and adopted by China, Singapore, Ghana, Brazil, Japan, Nigeria, Republic of Korea etc.
Data is going to drive Telecom Industry in near future-Manoj Sinha India to emerge as a major player in 5G Subscriptions by 2022 - 14th July, 2017
The Minister of Communications Shri Manoj Sinha said that the Telecom Ministry is dealing with an extremely dynamic industry and progressive market which is evolving at an extremely rapid rate. He said that with the increase in usage of Smartphones and an exponential increase in broadband usage, data is going to drive industry more and more rather than voice and therefore, the Ministry has initiated a move to relook at the current Telecom Policy through public consultation, as the need of the hour is to ramp up for the Digital era. Speaking at the 10th Anniversary Celebrations of IPTV Society here, Shri Sinha said that whether it is broadband spectrum, Internet adoption/availability, data protection, or cyber security, what was applicable five years back is no more relevant in today's context, and new policies will need to be futuristic. They will also need to be capable of dealing with India's challenges and figuring out ways to deal with those challenges.
Shri Sinha said that Broadband is of vital importance to India, as indeed to all customers globally, to ensure digital connectivity as this is the stepping stone to higher productivity as is proven in many a developed economy. It enhances commerce, improves banking facilities, improves administrative facilities and empowers the public as a whole. Broadband development is the cornerstone of Digital India and every Indian and remotest location will be empowered through the Digital India initiative.
He welcomed Broadband India Forum for bringing out credible Research documents from time to time in the form of white-papers and reports, independently or in combination with reputed research agencies on relevant issues which are of value to all stakeholders and for the future of broadband in India.
The Minister also released a paper by Broadband India Forum and ICRIER which he described is of economic significance for the digital economy concerning ICT Applications.