The Hindu Business Line : India calls for mechanism to promote IT adoption

The Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Mr Dayanidhi Maran, told the World Summit of Information Society 2005, taking place here, that it was imperative to design an improved organisational structure where the legal and regulatory framework to promote ICTs would be in place.

He said creating an information society where financial flows are adequate and predictable so that strategic planning is possible.

Also, communities are to be empowered through `multi-lingualisation' and localisation of content and application access.

On the issue of Internet governance, Mr Maran said: "if the Internet is a shared resource, so must be its oversight and management... We regard this (the decision) as a preliminary and modest step."

The outcome document embodies the collective resolve that the world is moving `slowly but surely' towards a system of oversight and responsive to the changes in technology, the emergence of new stakeholders and istruly multi-layered, multi stakeholder system that is democratic and transparent

$100 laptop unveiled

MILLIONS of school children in poor countries now stand a chance to have their own laptop computer in about two years.

The US-based Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has unveiled the prototype of a laptop computer that will cost $100, just about one-tenth the price of a normal model.

MIT Media Lab's Founding Chairman, Mr Nicholas Negroponte, and the United Nations Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, unveiled the prototype of the $100 laptop at the World Summit on Information Society here on Wednesday evening.

The bright green and yellow prototype has a handle to crank up power. It will be Linux-based and Wi-Fi enabled for wireless Internet access. Its current specifications, according to MIT, are 500 Mhz, one GB and One megapixel.

The laptop will not be sold through normal channels and be available free of cost through governments who want to adopt the `One Laptop per Child' project.

Mr Negroponte said it was very important for children to own the computers like a book.

The laptop will be produced in association with many industry partners, which includes one major computer maker.

Mr Negroponte said he was hopeful of producing several thousand laptops this year and over 100 million by end-2006, or 2007.

The laptop is likely to be launched in one country in West Asia, two in Asia, one in sub-Saharan Africa and two in Latin America.

Discussions are now on with governments to launch the laptop in their respective countries.

The MIT project is being supported by companies such as Google and AMD.

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