9-Nov-2018: Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities 2018 Begins.
The Global IT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities, 2018 was inaugurated by the Minister of State for Social Justice & Empowerment, Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar. The three day event is being organised by the Department of Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (DEPwD), Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment in association with Rehabilitation International Korea and their associated partner LG Electronics from 9thto 11th November, 2018. The objective of the event is to leverage IT skills among youth with disabilities and also to spread awareness about the application of Information and Computer Technology (ICT) in enhancing the quality of life of persons with disabilities especially in Asia-Pacific region. The award ceremony of the event will be held on 11th November, 2018.
The Global ICT Challenge for Youth with Disabilities is a capacity building project that helps youth with disabilities to overcome their limitations and challenge themselves for a better future by providing them with access to ICT and related experiences, improving their ability to leverage information and social participation while setting ICT agendas for participant countries related to disabilities and boosting international cooperation and exchange.
This year around 100 youth with disabilities (visual disability, hearing disability, locomotor disability and intellectual disability/developmental disorder) from 18 countries namely, India, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Malaysia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, Mongolia, Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Korea, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, UK and UAE are participating in this event. India has nominated twelve youth with disabilities to participate in the event. These youth with disabilities have been selected on the basis of the National IT Challenge conducted by the Ministry through NIT Kurukshetra in June, 2018. India has been participating in the event since 2013 and has been winning awards ever since. Last year the event was held in Vietnam.
The competition is focused on strategies for strengthening IT skills of youth with disabilities as a critical requirement for enhancing their access to information and communication services on an equal basis with others. It is being held with a total of four events including e-Tool Challenge to evaluate the skills of using the MS Office programme and e-Life Map Challenge to evaluate the online information search ability in specific situations.
Delivering inaugural address, Shri Krishan Pal Gurjar emphasised the needs to make ICT accessible to persons with disabilities through various services and products so that they participate in all activities of society equally with others. He said that efforts must be made by all the stakeholders to improve IT skills of persons with disabilities. He stated that India is deeply committed to the empowerment and inclusion of persons with disability. All out steps are being taken to make their life easy and productive by use of IT technology.
Smt. Shakuntala D. Gamlin in her address said that Information & Communication Technology is the prime medium for providing accessible platform for dissemination of information for persons with disabilities. Today, we have plethora of applications and software across the world that can be used for improving the life skills of persons with disabilities to enable them to lead the dignified life such ICT tools can work as communication bridge for the persons with disabilities. The use of ICT can reduce digital divide and expand social integration of persons with disabilities across communities and counties by creating an accessible global information network. India has always been in the forefront of software development in the world. However, there is a need to create deeper and wider awareness about the application of ICT at the grass root level for empowering the person with disabilities. We have been tirelessly working in this direction.
She opined that holding of the Global IT challenge annually has certainly made an impact on promoting the use of ICT among the youth with disabilities. DEPwD holding National IT Competition yearly in concert with GITC.
Speaking at the occasion. Mr. Kim Ki Wan, Managing Director, LG Electronic India said, “We are elated to host GITC (Global IT Challenge) for youth with disabilities in India this year. Every year we have seen an encouraging participation from young students and we are positive that this year too it will bring immense value to their lives and help them emerge as future leaders.
31-Oct-2018: Vehicle Location Tracking Devices and Emergency Buttons Mandatory for all New Public Service Vehicles Registered After 1st January 2019.
The Ministry of Road Transport & Highways vide notification dated 25.10.18, has mandated that all new public service vehicles except auto rickshaws and eRickshaws, registered on and after 1st January 2019, will have to be equipped with Vehicle Location Tracking(VLT) with emergency buttons. The VLT device manufacturers would assist in providing the back end services for monitoring. This regulation is being brought in to ensure safety of passengers especially women.
In case of older public service vehicles –those registered upto 31"December, 2018, the respective State/ UT Governments will notify the date by which these vehicles have to install Vehicle Location Tracking Device and Panic Buttons. The Ministry has sent an advisory to the states in this regard.
The Ministry has also notified the operational procedure for implementation of VLT cum Emergency buttons. The State or Union Territories are required to ensure execution of this order and check fitment and functional status of the VLT device in the public service vehicles at the time of checking of the vehicles for fitness certification.
Command and Control Centres will be setup by the State or VLT manufacturers or any other agency authorised by the State Government, and these centres will provide interface to various stakeholders such as state emergency response centre, the transport department or Regional Transport Offices, Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and its designated agencies, device manufacturers and their authorised dealers, testing agencies, permit holders, etc. These centres will also provide feed to the VAHAN data base or the relevant data base of the State with regard to the over speeding, device health status.
The details of each VLT device will be uploaded on the VAHAN database by the VLT device manufacturer using its secured authenticated access. The VLT device manufacturers or their authorised dealers will install the VLT devices in public service vehicles and register the devices along with details of vehicle on the corresponding backend systems in real-time.
The public service vehicle owners have to ensure that the VLT devices installed in their vehicles are in working condition and regularly send required data to the corresponding backend system through cellular connectivity.
VLT device manufacturers will get their devices tested for conformity of production every year after the first certification, from the testing agencies referred to in rule 126 of the Central Motor Vehicles Rules, 1989.
The testing agencies will upload the details of the VLT devices certified by the month eVAHAN database. They will also update the status relating to the Conformity of Production on the VAHAN database.
The State or Union Territories will publish Internet Protocol address (IP address) and Short Message Service Gateway (SMS gateway) details of their respective emergency response system where VLT devices will send the emergency alerts on press of emergency button.
28-Nov-2018: Himachal Pradesh first state to launch pan-India single emergency number.
The Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh launched Emergency Response Support System (ERSS) for Himachal Pradesh at Mandi. Himachal Pradesh is the first state to launch pan-India single emergency number ‘112’ under ERSS.
Addressing the gathering, Shri Rajnath Singh applauded the initiatives of Government of Himachal Pradesh under the able leadership of Chief Minister Shri Jai Ram Thakur for being the first State to launch the single emergency number 112 under ERSS project. He appealed residents of State of Himachal Pradesh to download ‘112 India’ mobile app available in App store of Google & Apple. Citing the success of Himachal Pradesh in rolling out the ERSS project, he requested other States and Union Territories to make all out efforts to commence rollout of their ERSS project.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Jai Ram Thakur expressed his gratitude to the Union Home Minister for inaugurating the 112-single emergency number, 112 India mobile app and ERSS website and for providing financial assistance of Rs. 4.71 Crore for the project. He further thanked Union Home Minister for approving a dedicated NDRF Battalion for the State of Himachal Pradesh, Rs. 4.2 Crore for modernization of State Police force under MPF scheme and for approving enhancement of monthly salary of SPOs in district of Chamba and Lahaul Spiti from Rs. 4,000/- to Rs. 6,000/-.
This event marks the beginning of commencement of a single number based 112 emergency services which will connect to Police, Fire, Health and other helplines through an Emergency Response Centre in the State. This service obviates the need for citizens to remember multiple helpline numbers.
Under this project, one Emergency Response Centre (ERC) has been established in Shimla along with 12 District Command Centers (DCCs) covering entire State. Emergency Response Centre has been integrated with Police (100), Fire (101), Health (108) and Women helpline (1090) Services to provide emergency services via single emergency number - 112. The service also includes a ‘112 India’ mobile app integrated with Panic Button of smartphones and ERSS State website for ease of citizen in availing immediate assistance. To increase the effectiveness of Emergency Response, the ERC has also been integrated with Location Based Services provided by Telecom Service Providers.
To ensure safety of women, a SHOUT feature has been introduced in ‘112 India’ mobile app to seek immediate assistance from registered volunteers in the vicinity apart from the immediate assistance from Emergency Response Centre. The SHOUT feature is exclusively available to women.
The ‘112 India’ mobile app will be subsequently rolled out in all States & Union Territories to help people across the country access the unified emergency services. Central Government has allocated ₹321.69 Crore under Nirbhaya Fund for implementation of ERSS project across the country.