VADODARA, May 26: Okay, so we've all been hearing about the world at our fingertips, the information superhighway, the on-line blitz. But how much has it touched us, the common man or woman, in Gujarat?Now there's a very real chance that it can. The National Informatics Centre, headquartered at Gandhinagar, is in the process of formulating a new, user-friendly information package on a galaxy of subjects via the satellite INSAT-1D. Each of its 19 district centres and 190-odd dial-in sub-centres in the State are likely to be able to access this package.The information package will cover general data on the country, world events concerning India, forthcoming events, sports and recreation, science and technology, agriculture, industry, education, health transport, energy, environment and tourism, besides government schemes and performances.According to sources, only a few of the senior State bureaucrats and politicians can access the package at present on their personal computers. The PC version will be made available to district collectors within a couple of months; NGOs and social fora can approach the NIC for a more limited package, sources said.But what is more interesting is that the general public too may be able to access the package, a storehouse of data relevant to everyday life - including medical help addresses - which will be updated regularly. The modalities for general access are currently being finalised.The programme, however, has rather downbeat antecedents: the poor response to the GISTNIC (general information services terminal, NIC) launched in December 1991. Poor response reportedly hastened its closure. ``Not even a single student interested in computer science approached us, despite the fact that the best software engineers are associated with NIC'', says a senior NIC official, pointing out that the organisation won kudos for its work during the 1991 and 1998 general elections.According to Rajnish Mahajan, NIC's State Information Officer, and its Principal Systems Analyst Shailesh Shah, the new service is a repackaging of the GISTNIC in combination with the PC version. The problem with the previous incarnation, they say, lay in the ``heavy rush of information''.
