GeneralNews

Govt plans to give 2.5 crore mobile phones, 90 lakh tablets free Sep 7, 2013, 06.23 AM IST

The mobile phones will come bundled with free connection charges for two years. The user, who will have to pay a one-time charge of Rs 300, will also get 30 minutes of talk time, 30 text messages and 30 Mb of data usage free per month. This scheme will be restricted to the rural population.

CAG pulls up HRD Ministry on Aakash tablet project Press Trust Of India : New Delhi, Fri Sep 06 2013

In its report tabled in Parliament, the government auditor observed that IITR had told the Ministry that around 90 per cent of the tablets supplied by Datawind between August and November 2011 were rejected by it due to complaints in the devices such as heating and they being slow.

"The Ministry decided to launch the Aakash through the IITR without ascertaining their capacity to undertake the work. This adversely affected the project delivery. It also placed Rs 47.42 crore at IITR disposal without carrying out a prudent assessment," it said.

‘We are talking more using fewer words’ September 3, 2013

PLSI is a rights-based movement, which sees language as crucial for the effective development of fragile communities and for stemming the erosion of India’s diverse, multilingual, and composite heritage.

Working with tribals on their languages at Bhasha since 1996 helped me realise that there was no need to unduly privilege scripts — even English does not have a unique script of its own. Hence the thought that most other languages are derivative forms of Scheduled languages disappeared from my mind. I started according smaller languages greater respect