Newsletter:August2010
From IIITM-k-wiki
kindly place content by 24 July 2010
Inauguration of RTI portal
Respected Shri M. Hamid Ansari, Hon'ble Vice President of India, inaugurated the official knowledge portal on Right To Information Act (RTI) on Friday, the 9th July 2010 in a function held at the Auditorium of IMG. The Portal was developed by IIITM-K with support from Institute of Management in Government (IMG) for providing academic and advisory assistance to people on right to information. Speaking on the occasion, Hon'ble Vice President stated that the Right to Information Act represented a legislative recognition of the view of the Supreme Court that the Right To Information was a fundamental right of the citizens under the Constitution. It was also an acceptance by the executive that it is answerable to the people not just once in five years but every time an RT application is filed, which is hundreds of times a day. It has given a new meaning to citizen engagement with governance.” Respected Shri Ansari said that the Act imposed new obligations on all stakeholders. The Government is called upon to be more transparent and accountable in decision and policy making, and manage its records better. The portal is expected to be an informal clearing house for information to help common citizen to understand and use this new instrumentality.” Referring to the portal, he noted that taking the message of Right to Information to the citizens in their own language was the first step in meaningfully empowering them. Shri V. S. Achuthanandan, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Kerala presided over the function and emphasised that the Right to Information Act was a critical land mark in citizen-centric legislation. It empowered people from the lower strata of society towards breaking the secrecy of administration. The full potential of the Act was yet to be realised. The public and the non-governmental organizations needed to be given adequate knowledge and skill to make best use of the provisions of the RTI Act. Respected Shri R. S. Gavai, His Excellency the Governor of Kerala presided over the function and Shri M Vijayakumar Hon'ble Minister for Minister for Law and Parliamentary Affairs and Shri C. Jayan Babu Worshipful Mayor of Thiruvananthapuram Corporation offered felicitations. The portal, developed for the Institute of Management in Government by IIITM-K, can be accessed at www.rti.img.kerala. gov.in . The project is lead by Sri. Jayachandran M.B and Sri. Merajuddin of IIITM-K with support from Sri. Rajesh and Smt. Priya.
Shri Manoj Kumar, IAS inaugurates second batch of PGDeG
The Post Graduate Diploma jointly offered by IIITM-K and IMG last year had drawn attention of the student community across the country and the second batch of the programme was inaugurated by Shri Manoj Kumar, IAS, Director of IMG in a function held at IIITM-K on 15th July. The second batch consists of 15 Government officials sponsored by Govt. of Kerala, 3 officials sponsored by other Govt. organisations and 20 under General category. This year students from Tamil Nadu, Andra Pradesh and Orissa are also participating in the programme. Mr. Jayachandran, Coordinator of PGDeG course welcomed the guests and new students. Dr. Elizabeth Sherly, Director,IIITM-K,also welcomed the students and gave a brief overview of the programme. Dr. Manoj Kumar delivering the inaugural address emphasized the importance of e-Governance for the benefit of citizens by providing better service delivery models and Business Process Re-engineering. He also highlighted how we have progressed from the earlier computerisation
of departments to e-governance application using ICT. Dr. Iyer,IIITM-K, Mr. Satish Babu of InAPP,Technopark, Mr. Satish Kumar of Asian School of Business offered felicitatations and Shri Rajendrakumar, Registrar of IIITM-K proposed vote of thanks.
IAS Probationary officers visit IIITM-K
Sri. Kowsigan. A, Smt. Mithra. T and Sri. Venkatesapathy. S, IAS officers who are under going training at IMG visited IIITM-K on Friday 23.7. 2010. Dr. R. Jaishanker, Faculty at IIITM-K briefed the team of activities at IIITM-K and highlighted the research work undertaken.
Agriculture Students from KAU visits IIITM-K to learn KISSAN Kerala
A group of 60 BSc Agriculture students and faculty from Kerala Agriculture University visited IIITM-K on 17th July to learn the activities and services of KISSAN Kerala Project. This visit was as part of their core academic curriculum where KISSAN Kerala, an integrated, ICT enabled Agriculture extension services has became a major topic of their interest. The students were trained in all the aspects of ICT enabled agriculture services in Kerala and how KISSAN Kerala project has been playing a major role. The training sessions were handled by Sri. Ajith Kumar, Chief Project Coordinator KISSAN Kerala, Sri. T. Radhakrishnan-CTO, IIITM-K, Sri. Naveen Leno and Dr. S. Rajan Agricultural Scientists of the project.
UNESCO Director of Ecological and Earth Sciences visits IIITM-K
Director, Ecological and Earth Sciences, UNESCO Head Quarters, Dr. Ishwaran Natarajan along with Dr. Ram Boojh, NPO, UNESCO cluster office for S. Asia visited IIITM-K on 25 June 2010 to discuss and identify possible sectors of cooperation in ecological informatics. The delegation met the Chief Minister and discussed at length the purpose of their visit. In a separate meeting with the Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Government of Kerala, Dr. Ishwaran congratulated IIITM-K for having initiated this programme. The visiting delegation expressed their interest in associating with school of Ecological Informatics, IIITM-K.
Dr. Natarajan and Dr. Boojh participated in the second advisory group meeting of ecological informatics held at the office of Vice Chairman, Kerala State Planning Board. Apart from Prof. Prabhat Patnaik; Prof. T.V. Ramachandra, IISc, Bangalore, Dr. S. Ramesh, French Institute, Pondicherry were also present for the meeting. Later in the day, the visiting delegation met students perusing M. Phil. Ecological Informatics at IIITM-K.
IIITM-K Faculty participates in CEU Summer school
Dr. R. Jaishanker, Assistant Professor and Coordinator, Ecological Informatics, IIITM-K participated in the summer school on Ecosystem Vulnerability to Climate Change: Methods for Assessment, Observation and Forecast organized jointly by the Central European University (CEU), Budapest, University of Natural Resources and Applied Life Sciences (BOKU), Austria and University College Cork, Ireland. The school was held from 05July – 14 July 2010 at CEU, Budapest. About 30 participants from as many countries participated in the school.
Visitors
- FISAT Engineering college students visit IIITM-K
55 Computer Science students accompanied by faculty members from FISAT Engg college, Angamaly, Ernakulam made an Industrial visit to IIITM-K on 16.7.2010. Dr. Elizabeth Sherly,Director,IIITM-K welcomed the students and gave an overview of the academic programmes currently on offer namely Master of Science in IT, Postgraduate Diploma in e-Governance, M.Phil Ecological Informatics. She added that admission to 3 more courses namely Master of Science in Computational Sciences, Master of Science in GIS and Post Graduate Deploma in Agricultural Informatices are shortly being announced. Sri. T. Radhakrishnan,Chief Technology Officer at IIITM-K spoke GIS initiatives at IIITM-K and Sri. Merajuddin, Design Engineer,IIITM-K explained research work at IIITM-K including RTI and Education Grid.
