India and Japan have decided to partner on developing Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). In the first meeting of the India-Japan ICT Ministerial Forum, a joint statement and three MoUs were signed by Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran and Taro Aso, Minister of Internal Affairs and Communications, Japan. The partners will explore and identify joint ventures and standalone projects in broadband, mobile communication, e-governance, information security, R&D and ubiquitous computing. Three working groups will promote interactions between the two countries at the government, business and user levels. A Joint Task Force will be headed by M. Madhavan Nambiar, Additional Secretary, Department of Information Technology and Ishida, Director General, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications (MIC) from the Japanese side. NICT of Japan and C-DAC, C-DOT and IIT (Guwahati) also agreed to undertake and promote joint programmes in R&D and human resource development jointly. Maran said India’s cost-effective and innovative software skills can be productively aligned with Japan’s undoubted prowess in the hardware industry. SWAN to take core sector to rural areas NEW DELHI: As part of its efforts to improve rural connectivity and give e-governance a nationwide ambit, the Department of IT has identified key priorities in e-governance including the State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), a scheme to take core infrastructure to rural areas and make their e-enablement sustainable. This was stated by Communications and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran while addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee of the IT Ministry. — ENS
