Indian Parliament to go Completely Paperless Starting Today #DigitalIndia

Indian Parliament to go Completely Paperless Starting Today #DigitalIndia

Today, winter session started in the Indian Parliament and for the first time, the corridors of the institution will not be filled with bundles of papers as the it is going completely paperless.  From this session onwards, all annual reports from various ministries, committee and panel reports, private member’s bills, unstarred questions and bulleting –1 will be uploaded on the Parliament website.

The Government is also carrying out a comprehensive training program for all the MPs on how to use Digital documents going forward. Once the training is over, all the ministers and MPs and expected to use the digital version.

The new move will not only cut down on the usage of paper significantly but also will usher a new age into the parliament, where all MPs will able to access any and every document at a touch or a click of a button making Parliament sessions more productive.

While initially, those MPs without much tech know-how may face some teething problems, proper training should help them get upto speed within no time.

In February of this month, it was also announced that Union Cabinet meetings will use Kindle and will go completely paperless. All notes of the meeting will be put up on Kindle devices for ministers reference. The ministers will be able to access those notes from their eBook readers at meetings and then return these devices to the Cabinet Secretariat immediately after.

While such plans and proposals have been around for quite a few years, it is heartening to see Modi led government’s intent in bringing about these changes. Sources have mentioned that personnel from National Informatics Centre (NIC) have been working overtime to make this digitization possible.

What is also good to see is that Government’s Digital India initiative has an holistic approach, where every Government function and activity is being digitized rather than being done in bits and pieces manner.

We are sure that this initiative may have met with a lot of opposition as most of our ministers (who are on the wrong side of seventies) are zero tech-savvy and they resist change. Even after all this, the Parliament has boldly gone paperless!

Cortesy of : trak.in

Indian Postal Department Will Now Convert Your Selfies Into Postage Stamp!

Indian Postal Department Will Now Convert Your Selfies Into Postage Stamp! Posted: 12 Nov 2015 09:51 PM PST Stamp department of India Post have introduced a unique program, wherein anyone can convert their selfies into a valid postage stamp. Christened as ‘My Stamp’, this innovative program can be seen as an interesting plot to revive the old tradition of hand written letters and snail mails. As per reports, India Post is already in the process to acquire high end printing devices, which can efficiently convert selfies into postage stamp. Prasar Bharti informed this via Tweet yesterday: Indian Postal department to launch a scheme ‘My Stamp’ in which people can convert their “Selfies” into a #PostageStamp. — Prasar Bharati (@prasarbharati) November 11, 2015 After some time, All India Radio also confirmed this development, by tweeting: “#Indian Postal department would soon launch a scheme ‘#MyStamp’ in which people can convert their “Selfies” into a postage stamp.” Charges for Selfie-Postage Stamp DNA India reported that India Post will charge a fee of Rs 300 to create a dozen worth of postage stamp from your selfie. As per the reports, one needs to visit the Head Post Office with a selfie and fill out a form detailing your identity. Soon, the selfie would be scanned, and converted into a legal postage stamp and provided to you instantly. In case you don’t have any camera to click to selfie, India Post will provide you one on the spot, and help you to click a selfie! The ‘My Stamp’ sheet will have 12 customized postage stamps, printed with the selfies of the person who is willing to shell out Rs 300. In Bhutan, this special program has been running for quite some time now; wherein tourists can convert any picture (or selfie) into a legal postage stamp. Introduction of this innovative program in India can certainly help India Post to generate a new level of interest among net-savvy generation. Meanwhile, India Post has launched a stamp design competition for Republic Day – 2016 celebrations. This competition will give a prizes of Rs 20,000. Details can be found here. Selfies: Driving Innovation The immense popularity of selfies is now driving innovation across various industries. For instance, Federal Bank is inviting new customers to open a new bank account using just a selfie and Aadhaar Card/Pan Card. Very soon, Master Card will allow payment authentication using selfies as your security credentials can now be verified from your images. Soon, selfies would hold the same importance as fingerprints. Selfie, along with Hashtag and Tweep have already found mention in the 2014 Merriam-Webster Dictionary. However, selfie clicked inside a polling booth during an election can also land you in jail. Will you convert your selfies into postage stamps? Do let us know by commenting right here! courtesy of : trak

Zomato Blacklisted By 6 IITs for Campus Placements; Students Warned Against Contacting Them

7 year old Zomato, which is the poster-child of food tech based startups in India, having expanded to 22 countries and generating 1.9 million views page traffic in a month; having a valuation of more than $1 billion have been blacklisted by IITs from campus placements.

Atleast 6 IITs – Delhi, Bombay, Kharagpur, Madras, Guwahati and Kanpur have confirmed this development.

Atal Ashutosh Agarwal, Vice-President, Technology Students’ Gymkhana at IIT-Kharagpur, said, “Any company which violates the procedural guidelines laid down by the AIPC may be blacklisted,”

Meanwhile, another placement official at one of the IITs have said, “No company should take the IIT system for granted,”

Back in July, Deepinder Goyal, founder of Zomato had lashed out against IIT Delhi, the place from where he had graduated. The issue was that Zomato was not provided day 1 slot for campus interviews, as the salary + ESOPs offered by them amounted to just Rs 26 lakh, a figure way too less for IIT Delhi’s standards.

He had said, “Campus placements in India are broken. Placement cells optimize only for money. Growth, esops, quality of work is secondary.”

Mohak Mehta, former placement manager at IIT Bombay says, “There are startups which get very egoistical about getting an early slot.”

At that time, IIT Delhi had responded by saying, “Any company which has to compete for a slot has to match the cash salary offer. Zomato did not match the salary offer,”

The issue didn’t end, it seems. Placement heads from 6 different IITs have now ganged up, and entirely stopped Zomato from entering their premises for any placement related activity.

As per Times of India, the main reason for Zomato’s blacklisting may be the recent layoffs, wherein their management had fired 10% of their employees in one single go. IITs do tend to give a warning in case of such unprecedented actions by recruiting companies; and blacklisted in case of severe actions.

Students Warned Against Contacting Them

An unverified circular from IIT Delhi is making rounds in the social media, which explicitly warns students from contacting Zomato in any form. As per the circular, Directi, a domain and web hosting company along with Zomato are blacklisted from campus placements, and if any student is found aiding them or contacting them, on or off campus, then strict disciplinary action would initiated against them.

This is most probably for the first time in history that IIT students are being warned from contacting a billion dollar startup!

source

We are still trying to verify the authenticity of this circular.

Meanwhile, blacklisting of Directi, which was implemented last year, may be revoked for 2015-16 placement season. They were blacklisted over placement interviews at IIT Kanpur last year. Placement heads at one of the IITs said, “Since IIT-Kanpur was the most aggrieved party, the decision to revoke the ban has now been left to them,”

Recently Deepinder Goyal came into news for sending out a hard hitting email to their sales team, detailing how they are missing the targets and more firing may become a necessity. The stern tone of this email surprised one and all.

We had earlier covered how Deepinder Goyal performed poorly at Reddit India AMA; and we had shared his 16 weird answers.

Is this recent blacklisting an issue of ego clash or a personal vendetta against Zomato? We will keep you updated as more details come in.

Courtesy of : Trak