T the importance of electronics and information technology (IT) and its critical role in the economic growth of the country, and as a result, established the Department of Electronics (DOE) in June, 1970 and the Electronics Commission in February, 1991. The objectives of the Department were to review the field of electronics with regards to research, development and industrial operations, to formulate policy in the field of electronics and IT and to direct implementation of all measures, both promotional and regulatory, to attain self-reliance. In 1975, the Government of India strategically decided to take effective steps for the development of information systems and utilization of information resources, and also for introducing computer-based decision support system in government ministries and departments to facilitate planning and programme implementation to further the growth of economic and social development (Informatics-led development). In view of its relevance for all round socio-economic growth, and also to get benefit of the emerging digital economy, the Central Government has created a new Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) in 1999 by merging the DOE, National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Electronics and Software Export Promotion Council. The 1970s saw the Policies of “self-reliance” and “promotion” of an indigenous IT industry in India. The idea that “import of technology could accelerate national development in the field of electronics and computer”, had gained support in the Policies/Statements of the Central Government announced between 1978-1984. Many State/Central Electronics Corporations (i.e. KELTRON, MELTRON, UPTRON, WEBEL, HARTRON, ESPL, KEONICS, ELCOT, BEL, ECIL) were established in 1970s and 1980s to develop electronics industry in the states. Various policy announcements like the Import Policy (1983), Computer Policy (1984), Electronic Policy (1985), and Software Policy (1986) laid the foundations for the liberalized growth of IT industry in the country. It was recognized that IT would become strategically as important to the Indian economy as oil. E MERGING D IGITAL E CONOMY T he global market for IT enabling services is esti- mated at US $ 585 billion by 2004, of which 5%, or about US $30 billion, could go to Indian compa- nies, (Goldman Sachs Global Equity Research Report). Indian IT sector has recorded a compound annual growth rate of 55% from USD 270 million in 1992 to 5.7 billion in the Fiscal Year 1999-2000. The NASSCOM-McKinsey report projects about USD 87 billion in 2008 for Indian IT Companies. More than 40 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies use the ser- vices of Indian enablers. NASSCOM reports that spurred by IT spending by the various State P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE E LECTRONICS AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY 358 CHAPTER XXXVI Governments, Indian softwar e and har dwar e market (including Devanagari) is slated to touch US D 2.2 bil - lion by 2001. In the era of globalization and knowledge economy pr opelled by the phenomenal gr owth in IT , a paradigm shift in pr oductivity and economic development and in management thought is clearly discernible. Significant gr owth has been witnessed in the Electr onics and IT sector during 1980s and 1990s. The electr onics pr oduction, in value terms, has incr eased fr om Rs. 9,100 millions in 1989-90 to Rs. 6,87,000 millions in 2000-01. The softwar e exports gr ew fr om Rs. 1,650 million to Rs. 2,85,000 in 1990s. The outsour ced or trans-bor der IT Enabled Services (ITES) have a gr eat potential for gr owth and contribution towar ds employment opportunities in India. Unlike most developing countries, India is expected to gain fr om the ‘emer ging Digital Economy’, as it has: λ Af for dable access to cor e information r esour ces, cutting edge technology and sophisticated telecommunication systems and infrastr uctur e; λ The capacity to build, operate, manage, and service the technologies involved; λ Policies that pr omote equitable public participation in the information society as both pr oducers and consumers of information and knowledge; and λ A workfor ce trained to develop, maintain and pr ovide the value-added pr oducts and services r equir ed by the information economy . Information T echnology Act (2000) and Communication Conver gence Bill (2001) of the Government clearly show the dir ection in which the country is moving to facilitate a single communication network catering to all types of technologies (i.e. Internet, Datacom, T elecom, W ir eless, W ir eline, Fixed, Mobile, Cellular , Satellite Communication, etc.), and e-commer ce. Public Investment for cr eation of basic informatics infrastr uctur e with universal access and the consequent cr eation of employment, has been r ecommended to be r ealized by allowing every Central, Centrally sponsor ed and State Plan pr ojects to utilize up to 3% of their total budget for IT . A National Information Infrastr uctur e (NII) is evolving as a “network of networks” including such nationwide networks as NICNET , ERNET , HVNet & I-Net, in addition to an extensive Fibr e Optic T elecommunication Backbone being set up by Department of T elecommunication (DOT), Railways, and the Private Sector . IT investment in Government Sector has been negligible up to 1990s. The V ittal Committee (1997) constituted by the Department of Administrative Reforms r ecommended 2-3% of the budget outlay for IT applications in Government Departments. The National Confer ence on Informatics for Sustainable Agricultural Development (ISDA) 1995 r ecommended 3-6% of IT applications in the agricultural sector . In the pr esent “cr ucial decade” of this millennium, a high rate of investment in IT capital and a supportive envir onment ar e expected to achieve “digital economy”. National T ask For ce on Information T echnology and Softwar e Development (1998) of the Central Government has suggested a plan of action to make India an IT super power in the W orld. Emer gence of IT on the National Agenda and announcement of IT Policies by about 19 State Governments have str engthened India’s position in the softwar e-driven IT sector in the world. These IT policies, mor e or less, envision: Re- engineering administrative pr ocesses, IT Budget, IT initiative fund, Statewide Ar ea Network, Smart Car ds, Department-wise specific MIS, IT literacy , and Pr omotion of IT industry . Many State Governments have intr oduced “computer education” as a compulsory subject in schools and established Indian Institutes of Information T echnology (IIIT s), IT Parks, Har dwar e Parks, and Softwar e T echnology Parks to pr omote the gr owth of IT education, services, and industry in India. Impact of IT would be pr edominant in the social sectors like health, education, judiciary and r ural development. P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE 359 I NITIA TIVES OF THE M INISTR Y OF I NFORMA TION T ECHNOLOG Y T he MIT has taken steps to implement a compr e - hensive action plan to make India an IT Super Power and achieve a tar get of USD50 billion in soft - war e exports by 2008, and to accelerate the internet r evolution emphasizing the cr eation of useful contents in Indian languages. Development of IT enabled ser - vices, IT education, electr onics and computer har d - war e manufacturing and exports, silicon facility , e- commer ce and Internet based enterprises has become the thr ust ar ea of the Ministry . R&D in emer ging tech - nological ar ea has r emained a key activity of the Ministry and the pr omotional ef forts in electr onics and IT have helped enormously in the laying of solid foun - dation in the IT industry . The Ministry has set up sev - eral autonomous or ganizations, as given below , to addr ess the r equir ements of dif fer ent sectors of IT in a focussed manner: Centr e for Development of T elematics (C-DOT); National Informatics Centr e (NIC); Centr e for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC); Computer Maintenance Corporation Ltd.; Standar dization, T esting & Quality Certifications (STQC) Dir ectorate; Contr oller of Certification Authority(CCA); National Centr e for Softwar e T echnology (NCST); Society for Applied Micr owave Electr onics Engineering and Resear ch (SAMEER); ERNET Society; DOEACC Society; Centr e for e- Governance; Centr e for Electr onics Design and T echnology of India (CEDTI); Semiconductor Complex of India (SCI); Electr onics Resear ch & Development Centr e of India; ET&T ; Electr onics and Softwar e Export Pr omotion Council; T echnology Development Council; National Radar Council; National Photonics Council; Electr onics Materials Development Council. These or ganizations ar e playing a major r ole in training and development of humanpower for electr onics and computer industry . In addition they help and guide the electr onics industry by pr oviding infrastr uctur e, policy support, design, consultancy , training, testing, accr editation, market support, and ar e also actively involved in R&D activities in their specific ar eas. The Ministry supports and funds technology development thr ough councils set up in various fields. A major r esult in sponsor ed r esear ch has been the enhancement of technological base and capabilities in the country , besides generating specific pr oducts and equipment. Major ar eas wher e significant success has been achieved, at par with the developments internationally , thr ough sponsor ed R&D pr ojects, ar e as follows: λ Appr opriate Automation Pr ogramme – Retr ofit Automation, Ener gy Management, Pr ocess Contr ols, Robotics W elding System, & Simulators for Pr oactive Shop Floor contr ols; λ Automatic Data Handling Systems for Plan ADGES; λ Axle Counter and Chopper Contr ol Equipment and Interlocking System for Indian Railways; λ Communication, Br oadcast & T elemetry – Digital Mobile Radio, Subtitling in r egional languages, Spr ead Spectr um Radio Modem, and UHF W ir eless Data Modem; λ ‘P ARAM’ series of Super Computers based on distributive memory ar chitectur e; λ Meteor ological instr uments (i.e. Cyclone W arning Radar , Radiosonde, MST Radar); λ Pollution fr ee vehicles; λ T elemedicine Networks; λ Electr onics Industry Development Pr oject (Manpower Component) – Pr oject IMP ACT ; λ Fibr e Optics Application Pr ogramme (FOSAPP); λ Futur e Air Navigation Systems (F ANS) pr ogramme in Airport navigation; λ HVDC pr oject jointly with BHEL, AP T ransco and CPRI; λ Instr umentation for Paper & Pulp, T extiles, T ea, Sugar , Jute Industry; λ Micr opr ocessor Application Pr ogramme; λ Micr owave T ubes for pr oviding strategic solutions; λ Softwar e for Indian Languages; λ T echnologies for Internet, e-Commer ce, and P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE 360 e-Governance; and λ V ehicle T racking System based on GPS technology . The Ministry has initiated about 300 R&D pr ojects at mor e than 100 institutes including industries, academic institutes and r esear ch laboratories. Recently emphasis has shifted towar d Information & Communication T echnologies (ICT) Ar ea for sponsor ed pr ojects development. Some of the major ar eas of activities ar e: T echnologies for Internet, e-Commerce and e-Governance : Netmaster , a softwar e system for traf fic monitoring and bandwidth management of the Internet access link has been developed. Anglabharti , a r ule based machine translation system for translating documents fr om English to Hindi has been developed. A number of e-governance and e-commer ce pr ojects have been undertaken. VOICE, a versatile online information system to addr ess the needs of citizens, civic administration and municipal corporation has been successfully implemented. Another pr oject, knowledge management system KMAP has been developed to help people in an or ganization to have access to context specific information to help them in decision making pr ocess. T ourism Information system is under development in collaboration with Government of Andhra Pradesh. Pr oducts for e-commer ce applications i.e Internet based cr edit car d and e- cheque alongwith digital certification. Communication, Broadcast & T elemetry : Digital mobile radio to pr ovide secur e and r eliable mobile communications with full duplex voice or data with an option for encryption has been pr ototyped. A ster eo console for br oadcasting and har dwar e and softwar e for news r oom automation has been developed. A system for use in subtitling of featur e film telecast in r egional languages has been designed and developed. A spr ead spectr um radio modem has been developed indigenously for various networking applications. UHF wir eless data modems for high speed data communications have been designed and developed. Software for Indian Languages : Rupanthar , softwar e developed by NCST was used for transliterating documents in lar ge numbers fr om English to Hindi and have been used by many or ganizations like universities for translating names fr om English to Hindi. E-mail in Devanagari and other languages has also been made available in public domain. Development ef forts on machine aided translation fr om English to Indian languages have led to the development of Anglabharati, Matra and Mantra , the machine translation systems; Anusarak , the language accessor; V arthalap , a multilingual internet r elay chat application, e-mail in r egional languages with cr oss translation possibilities etc. Collaboration with micr osoft has r esulted in incorporating Indian languages at the kernel level in W indows 2000 and further similar localization ef forts for Linux have also been initiated. Softwar e for dir ectory building, spell checker and similar softwar e tools for various Indian languages have been developed. Automation & P rocess C ontrol: Pr ocess contr ol system which is a display and monitor system and can be customized for any envir onment has been developed. Robotics welding system for hazar dous applications has been developed alongwith a seam tracking system. This is for high quality welding especially for pr essur e vessels, power plants and heat exchangers. An instr ument for monitoring paper cr oss-dir ectional str ength and uniformity has been successfully developed. Retr ofit automation for pulp, paper , sugar , jute and tea, steel and textile industry has been completed. Dyeing systems with computerised contr ols for textile industry and computerized ener gy management system for steel plant have been developed. Agro - and Rural Applications: V arious agr o- instr uments like fertilizer testing kit, soil and grain moistur e indication instr uments, soil nutrient measuring instr ument, rice polish measur ement P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE 361 system and multichannel choke indicator to optimize seed spacing, using a tractor have been developed. These instr uments ar e simple to operate and can be pr oduced at nominal costs. Also IT tools for watershed development have been developed alongwith irrigation canal contr ol automation. Solar pumps for r ural use have been fabricated. Under Micr opr ocessor Application pr ogramme, various infrastr uctural sectors like water tr eatment, irrigation and r oad wer e addr essed. Microelectronics & Photonics: In this ar ea various semiconductor devices have been developed alongwith manufacturing technologies to impr ove the yield of semiconductor devices. Other important r esults of R&D ef forts in this ar ea ar e development of Optical fiber , nano technology , need-specific detectors for high-speed optical communications and optical r eceiver module etc. Power Electronics: Major initiative of DOE in this ar ea is HVDC pr oject funded jointly with BHEL with AP T ransco and CPRI as the main executing agencies. Har dwar e and softwar e for state-of-the- art Digital Contr ol and Pr otection System have been indigenously developed. Many subsystems and devices like 200MW thyristor have been developed as a part of this pr oject. Supervisory contr ol and the data acquisition system developed is under use at 1500MW Chandpur Padghe Commer cial HVDC pr oject. In addition, lightning pr otection unit, A TE for UPS also have been designed and developed. A UTONOMOUS O RG ANIZA TIONS Centre for Development of T elematics (C-DOT) : Development of T elecommunications equipment and technologies have been ar eas of priority for the DOE. C-DOT was established in 1984 with a mission to develop switching system/exchanges in India to work in harsh tr opical envir onment of the country . C-DOT has developed a wide range of Digital and Rural Switching Systems between 200 lines to 40,000 lines. C-DOT technology based design has now about 17 million lines manufactur ed by over 20 dif fer ent cooperatives and has r evolutionized r ural telecom in India. A number of items of equipment including ISDN and Intelligent Networks have been added. C-DOT was subsequently transferr ed to the Department of T elecommunications, which is the nodal Ministry for T elecom in India. National Informatics Centre (NIC): National Informatics Centr e (NIC) is a pr emier S&T or ganization of the Government of India in the field of Informatics Services and IT applications. NIC was set up in 1977 as a constituent unit under the aegis of DOE to pr ovide computer -based informatics services to Government and other agencies having majority funding by the Government. The nation- wide Computer -Communication Network, NICNET , set up by the NIC, is the Government Network. NIC is of fering network services over C- band and Ku-band (TDMA, FTDMA & SCPC) VSA T s, W ir eless Metr opolitan Ar ea Networks (MANs) and Local Ar ea Networks (LANs) with NICNET gateway for Internet r esour ces, to pr omote economic, social, scientific and technological activities, and also for macr o-economic adjustment pr ogramme of the Government. During the last 25 years, NIC has played an important r ole as an ‘active, catalyst and facilitator ’ in informatics development pr ogrammes in Governments at the national, state and district level, which made them take policy decisions to cr eate ‘knowledge societies’ – societies that can exploit knowledge to derive competitive advantage using the opportunities pr ovided by ‘digital technology’. NIC has been instr umental in adopting IT and Communication T echnology ‘to r each out into India’ (i.e. by implementing IT applications in social and public administrations), which ar e discernible fr om the following developments: λ Central Government Informatics Development Pr ogramme- A strategic decision to over come ‘Digital Divide’ in Central Government Departments and Ministries during the Fifth P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE 362 T he Government of India visualized the importance of electronics and information technology (IT) and its critical role in the economic growth of the country, and as a result, established the Department of Electronics (DOE) in June, 1970 and the Electronics Commission in February, 1991. The objectives of the Department were to review the field of electronics with regards to research, development and industrial operations, to formulate policy in the field of electronics and IT and to direct implementation of all measures, both promotional and regulatory, to attain self-reliance. In 1975, the Government of India strategically decided to take effective steps for the development of information systems and utilization of information resources, and also for introducing computer-based decision support system in government ministries and departments to facilitate planning and programme implementation to further the growth of economic and social development (Informatics-led development). In view of its relevance for all round socio-economic growth, and also to get benefit of the emerging digital economy, the Central Government has created a new Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) in 1999 by merging the DOE, National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Electronics and Software Export Promotion Council. The 1970s saw the Policies of “self-reliance” and “promotion” of an indigenous IT industry in India. The idea that “import of technology could accelerate national development in the field of electronics and computer”, had gained support in the Policies/Statements of the Central Government announced between 1978-1984. Many State/Central Electronics Corporations (i.e. KELTRON, MELTRON, UPTRON, WEBEL, HARTRON, ESPL, KEONICS, ELCOT, BEL, ECIL) were established in 1970s and 1980s to develop electronics industry in the states. Various policy announcements like the Import Policy (1983), Computer Policy (1984), Electronic Policy (1985), and Software Policy (1986) laid the foundations for the liberalized growth of IT industry in the country. It was recognized that IT would become strategically as important to the Indian economy as oil. E MERGING D IGITAL E CONOMY T he global market for IT enabling services is esti- mated at US $ 585 billion by 2004, of which 5%, or about US $30 billion, could go to Indian compa- nies, (Goldman Sachs Global Equity Research Report). Indian IT sector has recorded a compound annual growth rate of 55% from USD 270 million in 1992 to 5.7 billion in the Fiscal Year 1999-2000. The NASSCOM-McKinsey report projects about USD 87 billion in 2008 for Indian IT Companies. More than 40 per cent of the Fortune 500 companies use the ser- vices of Indian enablers. NASSCOM reports that spurred by IT spending by the various State P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE E LECTRONICS AND I NFORMATION T ECHNOLOGY 358 CHAPTER XXXVI Governments, Indian softwar e and har dwar e market (including Devanagari) is slated to touch US D 2.2 bil - lion by 2001. In the era of globalization and knowledge economy pr opelled by the phenomenal gr owth in IT , a paradigm shift in pr oductivity and economic development and in management thought is clearly discernible. Significant gr owth has been witnessed in the Electr onics and IT sector during 1980s and 1990s. The electr onics pr oduction, in value terms, has incr eased fr om Rs. 9,100 millions in 1989-90 to Rs. 6,87,000 millions in 2000-01. The softwar e exports gr ew fr om Rs. 1,650 million to Rs. 2,85,000 in 1990s. The outsour ced or trans-bor der IT Enabled Services (ITES) have a gr eat potential for gr owth and contribution towar ds employment opportunities in India. Unlike most developing countries, India is expected to gain fr om the ‘emer ging Digital Economy’, as it has: λ Af for dable access to cor e information r esour ces, cutting edge technology and sophisticated telecommunication systems and infrastr uctur e; λ The capacity to build, operate, manage, and service the technologies involved; λ Policies that pr omote equitable public participation in the information society as both pr oducers and consumers of information and knowledge; and λ A workfor ce trained to develop, maintain and pr ovide the value-added pr oducts and services r equir ed by the information economy . Information T echnology Act (2000) and Communication Conver gence Bill (2001) of the Government clearly show the dir ection in which the country is moving to facilitate a single communication network catering to all types of technologies (i.e. Internet, Datacom, T elecom, W ir eless, W ir eline, Fixed, Mobile, Cellular , Satellite Communication, etc.), and e-commer ce. Public Investment for cr eation of basic informatics infrastr uctur e with universal access and the consequent cr eation of employment, has been r ecommended to be r ealized by allowing every Central, Centrally sponsor ed and State Plan pr ojects to utilize up to 3% of their total budget for IT . A National Information Infrastr uctur e (NII) is evolving as a “network of networks” including such nationwide networks as NICNET , ERNET , HVNet & I-Net, in addition to an extensive Fibr e Optic T elecommunication Backbone being set up by Department of T elecommunication (DOT), Railways, and the Private Sector . IT investment in Government Sector has been negligible up to 1990s. The V ittal Committee (1997) constituted by the Department of Administrative Reforms r ecommended 2-3% of the budget outlay for IT applications in Government Departments. The National Confer ence on Informatics for Sustainable Agricultural Development (ISDA) 1995 r ecommended 3-6% of IT applications in the agricultural sector . In the pr esent “cr ucial decade” of this millennium, a high rate of investment in IT capital and a supportive envir onment ar e expected to achieve “digital economy”. National T ask For ce on Information T echnology and Softwar e Development (1998) of the Central Government has suggested a plan of action to make India an IT super power in the W orld. Emer gence of IT on the National Agenda and announcement of IT Policies by about 19 State Governments have str engthened India’s position in the softwar e-driven IT sector in the world. These IT policies, mor e or less, envision: Re- engineering administrative pr ocesses, IT Budget, IT initiative fund, Statewide Ar ea Network, Smart Car ds, Department-wise specific MIS, IT literacy , and Pr omotion of IT industry . Many State Governments have intr oduced “computer education” as a compulsory subject in schools and established Indian Institutes of Information T echnology (IIIT s), IT Parks, Har dwar e Parks, and Softwar e T echnology Parks to pr omote the gr owth of IT education, services, and industry in India. Impact of IT would be pr edominant in the social sectors like health, education, judiciary and r ural development. P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE 359 I NITIA TIVES OF THE M INISTR Y OF I NFORMA TION T ECHNOLOG Y T he MIT has taken steps to implement a compr e - hensive action plan to make India an IT Super Power and achieve a tar get of USD50 billion in soft - war e exports by 2008, and to accelerate the internet r evolution emphasizing the cr eation of useful contents in Indian languages. Development of IT enabled ser - vices, IT education, electr onics and computer har d - war e manufacturing and exports, silicon facility , e- commer ce and Internet based enterprises has become the thr ust ar ea of the Ministry . R&D in emer ging tech - nological ar ea has r emained a key activity of the Ministry and the pr omotional ef forts in electr onics and IT have helped enormously in the laying of solid foun - dation in the IT industry . The Ministry has set up sev - eral autonomous or ganizations, as given below , to addr ess the r equir ements of dif fer ent sectors of IT in a focussed manner: Centr e for Development of T elematics (C-DOT); National Informatics Centr e (NIC); Centr e for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC); Computer Maintenance Corporation Ltd.; Standar dization, T esting & Quality Certifications (STQC) Dir ectorate; Contr oller of Certification Authority(CCA); National Centr e for Softwar e T echnology (NCST); Society for Applied Micr owave Electr onics Engineering and Resear ch (SAMEER); ERNET Society; DOEACC Society; Centr e for e- Governance; Centr e for Electr onics Design and T echnology of India (CEDTI); Semiconductor Complex of India (SCI); Electr onics Resear ch & Development Centr e of India; ET&T ; Electr onics and Softwar e Export Pr omotion Council; T echnology Development Council; National Radar Council; National Photonics Council; Electr onics Materials Development Council. These or ganizations ar e playing a major r ole in training and development of humanpower for electr onics and computer industry . In addition they help and guide the electr onics industry by pr oviding infrastr uctur e, policy support, design, consultancy , training, testing, accr editation, market support, and ar e also actively involved in R&D activities in their specific ar eas. The Ministry supports and funds technology development thr ough councils set up in various fields. A major r esult in sponsor ed r esear ch has been the enhancement of technological base and capabilities in the country , besides generating specific pr oducts and equipment. Major ar eas wher e significant success has been achieved, at par with the developments internationally , thr ough sponsor ed R&D pr ojects, ar e as follows: λ Appr opriate Automation Pr ogramme – Retr ofit Automation, Ener gy Management, Pr ocess Contr ols, Robotics W elding System, & Simulators for Pr oactive Shop Floor contr ols; λ Automatic Data Handling Systems for Plan ADGES; λ Axle Counter and Chopper Contr ol Equipment and Interlocking System for Indian Railways; λ Communication, Br oadcast & T elemetry – Digital Mobile Radio, Subtitling in r egional languages, Spr ead Spectr um Radio Modem, and UHF W ir eless Data Modem; λ ‘P ARAM’ series of Super Computers based on distributive memory ar chitectur e; λ Meteor ological instr uments (i.e. Cyclone W arning Radar , Radiosonde, MST Radar); λ Pollution fr ee vehicles; λ T elemedicine Networks; λ Electr onics Industry Development Pr oject (Manpower Component) – Pr oject IMP ACT ; λ Fibr e Optics Application Pr ogramme (FOSAPP); λ Futur e Air Navigation Systems (F ANS) pr ogramme in Airport navigation; λ HVDC pr oject jointly with BHEL, AP T ransco and CPRI; λ Instr umentation for Paper & Pulp, T extiles, T ea, Sugar , Jute Industry; λ Micr opr ocessor Application Pr ogramme; λ Micr owave T ubes for pr oviding strategic solutions; λ Softwar e for Indian Languages; λ T echnologies for Internet, e-Commer ce, and P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE 360 e-Governance; and λ V ehicle T racking System based on GPS technology . The Ministry has initiated about 300 R&D pr ojects at mor e than 100 institutes including industries, academic institutes and r esear ch laboratories. Recently emphasis has shifted towar d Information & Communication T echnologies (ICT) Ar ea for sponsor ed pr ojects development. Some of the major ar eas of activities ar e: T echnologies for Internet, e-Commerce and e-Governance : Netmaster , a softwar e system for traf fic monitoring and bandwidth management of the Internet access link has been developed. Anglabharti , a r ule based machine translation system for translating documents fr om English to Hindi has been developed. A number of e-governance and e-commer ce pr ojects have been undertaken. VOICE, a versatile online information system to addr ess the needs of citizens, civic administration and municipal corporation has been successfully implemented. Another pr oject, knowledge management system KMAP has been developed to help people in an or ganization to have access to context specific information to help them in decision making pr ocess. T ourism Information system is under development in collaboration with Government of Andhra Pradesh. Pr oducts for e-commer ce applications i.e Internet based cr edit car d and e- cheque alongwith digital certification. Communication, Broadcast & T elemetry : Digital mobile radio to pr ovide secur e and r eliable mobile communications with full duplex voice or data with an option for encryption has been pr ototyped. A ster eo console for br oadcasting and har dwar e and softwar e for news r oom automation has been developed. A system for use in subtitling of featur e film telecast in r egional languages has been designed and developed. A spr ead spectr um radio modem has been developed indigenously for various networking applications. UHF wir eless data modems for high speed data communications have been designed and developed. Software for Indian Languages : Rupanthar , softwar e developed by NCST was used for transliterating documents in lar ge numbers fr om English to Hindi and have been used by many or ganizations like universities for translating names fr om English to Hindi. E-mail in Devanagari and other languages has also been made available in public domain. Development ef forts on machine aided translation fr om English to Indian languages have led to the development of Anglabharati, Matra and Mantra , the machine translation systems; Anusarak , the language accessor; V arthalap , a multilingual internet r elay chat application, e-mail in r egional languages with cr oss translation possibilities etc. Collaboration with micr osoft has r esulted in incorporating Indian languages at the kernel level in W indows 2000 and further similar localization ef forts for Linux have also been initiated. Softwar e for dir ectory building, spell checker and similar softwar e tools for various Indian languages have been developed. Automation & P rocess C ontrol: Pr ocess contr ol system which is a display and monitor system and can be customized for any envir onment has been developed. Robotics welding system for hazar dous applications has been developed alongwith a seam tracking system. This is for high quality welding especially for pr essur e vessels, power plants and heat exchangers. An instr ument for monitoring paper cr oss-dir ectional str ength and uniformity has been successfully developed. Retr ofit automation for pulp, paper , sugar , jute and tea, steel and textile industry has been completed. Dyeing systems with computerised contr ols for textile industry and computerized ener gy management system for steel plant have been developed. Agro - and Rural Applications: V arious agr o- instr uments like fertilizer testing kit, soil and grain moistur e indication instr uments, soil nutrient measuring instr ument, rice polish measur ement P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE 361 system and multichannel choke indicator to optimize seed spacing, using a tractor have been developed. These instr uments ar e simple to operate and can be pr oduced at nominal costs. Also IT tools for watershed development have been developed alongwith irrigation canal contr ol automation. Solar pumps for r ural use have been fabricated. Under Micr opr ocessor Application pr ogramme, various infrastr uctural sectors like water tr eatment, irrigation and r oad wer e addr essed. Microelectronics & Photonics: In this ar ea various semiconductor devices have been developed alongwith manufacturing technologies to impr ove the yield of semiconductor devices. Other important r esults of R&D ef forts in this ar ea ar e development of Optical fiber , nano technology , need-specific detectors for high-speed optical communications and optical r eceiver module etc. Power Electronics: Major initiative of DOE in this ar ea is HVDC pr oject funded jointly with BHEL with AP T ransco and CPRI as the main executing agencies. Har dwar e and softwar e for state-of-the- art Digital Contr ol and Pr otection System have been indigenously developed. Many subsystems and devices like 200MW thyristor have been developed as a part of this pr oject. Supervisory contr ol and the data acquisition system developed is under use at 1500MW Chandpur Padghe Commer cial HVDC pr oject. In addition, lightning pr otection unit, A TE for UPS also have been designed and developed. A UTONOMOUS O RG ANIZA TIONS Centre for Development of T elematics (C-DOT) : Development of T elecommunications equipment and technologies have been ar eas of priority for the DOE. C-DOT was established in 1984 with a mission to develop switching system/exchanges in India to work in harsh tr opical envir onment of the country . C-DOT has developed a wide range of Digital and Rural Switching Systems between 200 lines to 40,000 lines. C-DOT technology based design has now about 17 million lines manufactur ed by over 20 dif fer ent cooperatives and has r evolutionized r ural telecom in India. A number of items of equipment including ISDN and Intelligent Networks have been added. C-DOT was subsequently transferr ed to the Department of T elecommunications, which is the nodal Ministry for T elecom in India. National Informatics Centre (NIC): National Informatics Centr e (NIC) is a pr emier S&T or ganization of the Government of India in the field of Informatics Services and IT applications. NIC was set up in 1977 as a constituent unit under the aegis of DOE to pr ovide computer -based informatics services to Government and other agencies having majority funding by the Government. The nation- wide Computer -Communication Network, NICNET , set up by the NIC, is the Government Network. NIC is of fering network services over C- band and Ku-band (TDMA, FTDMA & SCPC) VSA T s, W ir eless Metr opolitan Ar ea Networks (MANs) and Local Ar ea Networks (LANs) with NICNET gateway for Internet r esour ces, to pr omote economic, social, scientific and technological activities, and also for macr o-economic adjustment pr ogramme of the Government. During the last 25 years, NIC has played an important r ole as an ‘active, catalyst and facilitator ’ in informatics development pr ogrammes in Governments at the national, state and district level, which made them take policy decisions to cr eate ‘knowledge societies’ – societies that can exploit knowledge to derive competitive advantage using the opportunities pr ovided by ‘digital technology’. NIC has been instr umental in adopting IT and Communication T echnology ‘to r each out into India’ (i.e. by implementing IT applications in social and public administrations), which ar e discernible fr om the following developments: λ Central Government Informatics Development Pr ogramme- A strategic decision to over come ‘Digital Divide’ in Central Government Departments and Ministries during the Fifth P URSUIT A ND P ROMOTION O F S CIENCE 362
Posted on: Wed, 02 Oct 2013 16:20:17 +0000
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