Union minister for communication and IT Kapil Sibal has unveiled the draft policy on information technology (IT) 2011 that aims at creating a pool of one crore (10 million) skilled manpower by 2020 and strengthening India's position as a global IT power.
The policy also targets exports worth $ 200 billion and a total revenue of Rs 14.82 lakh crore ($ 300 billion) by 2020 from the IT and IT-enabled services (ITes) industry. Currently, India exports shipment worth Rs 2.91 lakh crore ($ 59 billion), while the revenue generated stands at Rs 4.34 lakh crore ($ 88 billion).
'Our objective from this policy is to increase revenues of IT and ITeS (ITenabled services) industry from $ 88 billion at present to $ 300 billion by 2020 and expand exports from $ 59 billion at present to $ 200 billion by 2020 and to create a pool of one crore additional skilled manpower in ICT (information and communications technology),' Kapil Sibal said while unveiling the draft policy on information technology 2011.
The draft is available for comments from the public and various stakeholders for a month on the Websites of the Department of Information Technology and the Department of Telecommunications. The draft policy aims to provide fiscal benefits to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and start-up ventures in the key industrial verticals for adoption of IT.
'The Indian IT sector, which gets 80 per cent of its revenues from exports, employs over 2.5 lakh skilled people,' Sibal added.
'We are waiting for the Direct Taxes Code (DTC) to be put into place, then we will make a framework to provide incentives to small and medium IT firms,' he said.
The draft also focuses on gaining significant global market share in cloud-based technologies and services and mobile-based value-added services.
The policy also formulates fiscal and other regulations to attract investments in the sector in Tier-II and III cities and to create employment opportunities across the country.
As most of the IT companies are located in big cities like Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, the policy will now look at expanding to Tier II and Tier III cities as well, Sibal added.
'A conducive policy environment and the concerted strategy is needed for the country to remain a global player on a long-term basis,' he said. Further, it also calls for setting up centres of excellence in institutions of higher learning so as to produce at least 3,000 PhDs in ICT in specialised areas by 2020.
-Policy to provide fiscal benefits to SMEs and start-up ventures in key industrial verticals
-Aims to gain big global mkt share in cloud-based services & mobile-based value-added services
-Formulates rules to attract investments in IT in Tier-II & III cities
-Draft is available for comments from public and stakeholders
Instantly bombs and bullets fell from the sky like hails, the 80-year-old recounted how the government hospital in his village was attacked from the sky by the Japanese force on March 28, 1944.
The hospital and its adjacent doctor s quarters are believed to be the only structures in Mizoram that still bear the scars of the World War-II.
According to R L Buatsaiha, a headmaster of government-run Oriental Middle School in the village, six Japanese jet fighters attacked the hospital towards the end of the Second World War for reasons unknown till today. Buatsaiha (63) has documented the terrifying incident by interviewing people who had witnessed the aerial attacks.
Most of the persons whom he had interviewed have now passed away. Six bombs were dropped, which meant that each jet fighter dropped a bomb. Going by the empty cartridges recovered from the site in the aftermath of the attacks, the jet fighters also swept the place with machine guns, Buatsaiha said.
However, luckily no one died in the attack despite the fact that there were five patients lying on the hospital beds at the time of the attack, he said. The hospital s quarters was damaged beyond repair. Luckily, the doctor was on a holiday at that time, otherwise, he could surely have died, said Buatsaiha.
Till recently, the ground near the hospital had still had holes following the bombings. But, the holes have now been filled with soil by the owners of the land. The bullet holes in the hospital and the doctor s quarters are the only remaining testimony to the forgotten attack during the Second World War, Buatsaiha said.
No one knows why the Japanese wanted to attack the hospital, that reportedly bore no Red Cross mark.
A British army officer was coming to North Vanlaiphai a few days before the attack. That was what most of the persons whom I had interviewed believed as the cause of the Japanese attacks, the school headmaster said.
The British army officer was staying at a bungalow at a nearby village, they said. People of North Vanlaiphai wanted to preserve the hospital as one of the state s heritage. The building, commissioned in 1913, itself is a heritage as it is one of the oldest buildings built during the British time.
The government should declare it a heritage building, he said. Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH) Mizoram chapter, the source said, has not taken any step to preserve the building which currently serves as a primary health centre manned by a single doctor and a few nurses.
By Devesh Gupta
Addressing media persons during the 19th anniversary of Rapid Action Force, Kumar said: "The CRPF is working in complete coordination with the state police of Manipur and putting all efforts to bring the convoys of trucks carrying essential commodities like food and fuel safely to the state to prevent any shortage like situation."
He further said that last year also during the July - August, CRPF helped to clear the convoys of trucks in the state to a good extent.
"CRPF is in aide to the state police of Manipur and there is no independent deployment of its forces in the state," he added.
Emphasising that the security situation is very tricky in Manipur including the Sadar Hills, Kumar said: "As far as CRPF is concerned, it is present in good numbers and if there is any necessity of increasing the numbers, it will be done by Ministry of Home Affairs."
"We have acquired non lethal and sub lethal weapons that will create less fatality and which will create injury but will not be of grievous nature. We have acquired many things in last one year for modernizing our forces and we are working on other areas too," he added.
Minister of State for Home M. Ramachandran, who was present at the occasion said: "RAF is a very disciplined force, known for its meticulous action and the prompt way they act."
By Esha Roy
She has now graduated to not only anchoring the 2011 transgender beauty pageant, but is also the first ever transgender/cross-dresser to be cast in a Manipuri mainstream movie, to be released next year.
“The movie is called Aungtamo (Yes Brother). It’s about the love between a young transgender and a boy — I of course play the transgender,” says Huirem.
Wearing a flirty polka-dotted top and black slacks, Huirem doesn’t look like a young man at all. “Hopefully there will be a time in the near future when I will be cast in a lead female role,” she says, striking a pose inside ‘Bishesh Glam’, the beauty parlour she runs.
Sixty per cent of Imphal’s beauty salons are run by the gay and transgender community. They are unisex salons catering to both men and women. “We are known mainly for our hairdressing. Most transgenders and homosexuals here are a part of the beauty industry,” says Huirem.
Moirangthem Sadananda Singh of Saathi, a group that works with people with alternative sexualities, says the fashion and beauty industry provides the community with an economically viable occupation. “Most members of this community are school or college dropouts as they get bullied at school — this despite the fact that the Manipuri society is more or less accepting of them. But they don’t need particular educational qualifications to become hairdressers, beauticians, choreographers, fashion designers or make-up artists,” Singh says.
While the official State AIDS Society figures show there are 850 transgender and gay people in Imphal, Manipur has approximately 1,550 known transgender/gay people.
“The gay community here is traditionally a very high-profile community. A musical drama art form called Sumang Lila has traditionally cast transgenders in the roles of the heroine and other female characters. So they actually have a bit of a celebrity status here, Sumang Lila being a very popular art form,” adds Singh.
This is one of the reasons the 2011 transgender beauty pageant had a big turnout, with the 5,000-odd capacity Bheiganchandra Open Air Theatre in Imphal nearly completely full on a Monday night. Even families had turned up, for an evening out. It was the biggest such beauty pageant in Manipur till date, with an unprecedented 31 contestants.
Mona Okram (previously Oliver Okram) who emerged the winner is also from Huirem’s salon. Now 21, she has been working at the salon for six years. Her ambition is to be a world-class hairdresser and maybe compete in Miss India one day. Her style icon is Lady Gaga and she is also a big Katy Perry fan.
“From the time I was in Class II, I felt more like a girl and would dress up and behave like one. While my father died while I was a baby, my mother never discouraged me from being the way that I was. I have two elder sisters who were also supportive,” says Okram.
“When I walk down the street, no one gives me a second glance. My mother used to be a little apprehensive when I grew up but when she realised that the beauty line was this lucrative, she stopped worrying,” she adds.
Bishesh Glam gets at least 20 customers a day and the salon makes a neat Rs 2,000 daily — a considerable sum in this Northeastern state.
But not everyone has had it as easy as Okram. Ranjit Maimon, who helped organise the beauty pageant and is not a cross-dresser like the others, says he used to be beaten up by his brothers.
“They used to say I was too girlish. Till about two years ago my family, especially my mother, would pressure me to get married to a woman. They just would not grasp that I’m gay. I have been explaining my work to my mother and telling her I work in HIV prevention. I think she’s finally given up. So now I tell her I will get married but to a man,” says the 36-year-old.
A senior health department official told reporters: 'Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla held a high level meeting here with ministers concerned and top officials. The meeting decided to enforce tough laws to check the drug abuse and tobacco related menaces.'
'The meeting has decided that the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and the Assam Drug Control Act (adopted by Mizoram) should be enforced with state specific amendments to suit the prevailing problem. The proposed act would be made more tough with sufficient penalty and sentence provisions for the guilty,' the official stated.
According to a recent study conducted by a local social group -- Mizoram Population Base Cancer Registry (MPBCR) -- cancer claims lives of 550 to 600 people on an average annually in Mizoram, whose total population is just little over one million.
As per the state government records, the mountainous northeastern state, bordering Myanmar and Bangladesh, had topped the country eight years ago in the consumption of tobacco.
The Mizoram government has already launched a programme last year to become a 'smoking-free' state.
'No persons are being allowed to smoke in open places or in front of a non-smoker. Smoking has already been banned in the premises of government offices, educational institutions, health centres and crowded places across Mizoram,' an official release quoted the chief minister as saying in the meeting.
The chief minister's wife, Lal Riliani, president of the Mizoram chapter of the Indian Society of Tobacco Health, said that more than 50 percent of cancer cases among Mizos were caused by tobacco.
'The state government is giving its all out support to anti-tobacco organisations and activists to strictly enforce the Control of Tobacco Products Act (CTPA) in the state,' Lal Riliani told reporters.
Mizos, both men, women and children, are traditionally heavy smokers of different types of tobacco. The latest survey, conducted in 2009, revealed that over 65 percent of the state's population were smokers.
'Awareness drives on the ill-effects of tobacco campaign are part of the anti-tobacco programme,' Lal Riliani stated.
