Videoconferencing Events Held for Year 1999 and before

1. Videoconferencing at TASKNET'99
2. Demo of NIC VC Services from Scope Convention Centre, 2nd November 
3. Smart card Expo'99 -September 28th - Oct. 1st'99 
4. Pune-IT.com - 26th - 29th October'99 
5. NIC Videoconferencing services during Elections'99 
6. Performance Review Interviews of NIC over Videoconferencing in 1999 
7. Annual General Body Meeting of IFFCO 
8. Web Site for West Bengal Telecom Circle, Sikkim 
9. Inauguration of Assam Government’s Web Page 
10. Release of Electoral Rolls of CD of Government of Sikkim 
11. Director General, DAVP interacts with Department of Field Publicity Officers, Chandigarh 
12. Trends in Police Computerization and Computer Crimes 
13. TASKnet Core Committee videoconference with Global Knowledge Partnership, Washington 
14. Computerized Information System in Road Sector using NICNET 
15. Interview for M.Des Student of IIT, Mumbai 
16. National Seminar on Y2K for Fertilizer Sector 
17. Performance Analysis of Circle Offices by Department of Explosives, Ministry of Industry, 
Nagpur 
18. Expert Level Meeting of G15 Countries on Y2K 
19. 253 Days to the Y2K Bomb - The Solutions, Bangalore 
20. NICNET Support during Honourable PM's historic Bus Trip to Lahore 
21. Indian Institute of Coal Management, Ranchi January 18th - 19th 1999 
22. The World has come to LONI - November 14th - 16th, 1998 
23. Remote Village Interaction over NIC VIDCON - 21st November, 1998 
24. NIC at Infotek 98 
25. NIC at Infocom 97 
26. NIC conducts Employee Performance Review through Videoconferencing

Videoconferencing at TASKnet'99 

A two day conference named "TASKNET 99" hosted jointly by British Council 
and NIC was held at Vigyan Bhawan during November 23-24, 1999. TASKNET is 
an acronym to "Towards A South Asia Knowledge Network". It is an initiative 
that attempts to empower the underprivileged and the poor access to 
information, for meeting the challenges of human, social and economic 
development. 
NIC's Videoconferencing services were provided at Hall No. 5 Vigyan Bhawan 
so that delegate can participate in the proceedings remotely from Bhopal, 
Hyderabad and Calcutta. 

NIC also provided Internet access through ISDN to about 20 stalls, which 
were exhibiting their products parallely in the Exhibition Hall at Vigyan 
Bhawan. 

Related sites 

TaskNET Secretariat - http://www.tasknet.nic.in 

Demonstration of NIC Videoconferencing Services from Scope Convention Centre- 2nd November, 1999 

A Videoconferencing lecture cum demonstration for all public sector units 
was arranged from SCOPE Complex in New Delhi on 2nd November 1999. 
A total of around 80 representatives from Public Sector Units and SCOPE 
Member constituents participated in the one-day program. The lecture cum 
demonstrations was divided into four separate sessions. The response and 
feedback was encouraging and some of the organisations have already started 
using NIC Videoconferencing facility from 26 cities. 

Videoconferencing Division, NIC and NICSI jointly coordinated the event for 
promoting NIC's VC services on charging basis among different public sector 
units. 

Smartcard Expo'99 September 28th - October 1st'99 

NIC had put up a stall at Smart Card Expo, which took place at Hotel Taj 
Palace, New Delhi during Sep 28- Oct 1, 1999. 
EDI services and Videoconferencing services over NICNET were demonstrated 
at the NIC pavilion. We had taken two temporary ISDN line connections from 
Hotel Taj, one for running Videoconferencing services and other for running 
data services over NICNET. 

Efforts were made to promote NIC Videoconferencing services among the 
visitors who came to NIC stall. Visitors were really impressed by the state 
of the art technology. 

Pune IT.com'99 26th -29th October'99 

NIC Pune had put up a stall to display NIC services during Pune IT.com 
exhibition being held at Hotel Le Meridian, Pune. Videoconferencing 
Services was also demonstrated from the stall. 
A conference was also being held parallely at Hotel Holiday Inn in Pune. 
NIC had made videoconferencing arrangements to give lectures from NIC Delhi 
studio to the delegates attending the conference at Pune. SS & DG (NIC) Dr. 
N. Seshagiri was chairing one of the sessions in the conference. 

Shri S. Sarkar, STD and Shri Rajesh Gera, TD presented their lectures over 
videoconferencing from Delhi and discussed about the Election'99 Project 
and Videoconferencing Technology and Applications respectively. 

The audiences were enthralled to see this innovative state of the art 
technology in use, live at Pune. There has been tremendous support provided 
by NIC team at Pune and NICSI engineers to make both these events successful. 

NIC Videoconferencing services during Elections'99

PIB conducts a series of Videoconferences for Elections'99 
Press Information Bureau conducted a series of videoconferencing sessions 
with different states during the Elections'99 between September 29th till 
October 7th. The session was chaired by PIO, Delhi from the conference hall 
of PIB and by PIO officials from various state centres at the remote sites. 
The discussion were based on the preparation for ongoing Elections'99 as 
well as during the counting of Lok Sabha results.

Mobile Videoconferencing Setup in CPC, Doordarshan 
Mobile Videoconferencing setup was installed in CPC, Doordarshan for 
providing videoconferencing during counting of Lok-Sabha results from 30th 
September - 7th October 1999. The videoconferencing helped the Election 
Project team of NIC to interact with 25 NIC VC locations and monitor 
different stages of the project.

Open Videoconferencing Session for Election Project 
An open Videoconferencing sesison was conducted by Mr. S.Sarkar, STD for 
discussing various issues related to Elections '99 on 1st October 1999 as 
well as on 4th October 1999. SIOs and Election project Officer from the 
remote sites interacted with Mr.Sarkar chairing from Delhi. 

Videoconferencing was held from almost all the 25 videoconferencing studios 
of NIC and each open session was for 3 and half hours duration.
CEC press conference using videoconferencing services of NIC 
NIC's multipoint video conferencing was used from PIB Shastri Bhawan 
linking it with 5 cities namely Air India Builiding, Mumbai, Calcutta, 
Chennai, Bhopal and Hyderabad. 

Mr Gill, Chief Election Commissioner addressed the local press and remote 
press thru VC from PIB Conference hall, on 5th October 1999 between 3.30 PM 
to 4.30 PM. The press conference thru NIC Vidcon services went on very well 
with no disturbance in audio and video from any site.

Performance Review Interviews of NIC over Videoconferencing 

National Informatics Centre conducted its performance review interviews for 
the fourth time in succession over videoconferencing. The videoconferencing 
technology has proved to be a cost effective for NIC. 

Interviews for the posts of Scientific officer/SB, Maintenance, Support and 
Documentation staff, Scientific/Technical Assistant -B, Tradesman F,E,D,C 
were held successfully over Video conferencing from 17 cities. 

A total of 141 eligible candidates from 17 cities were interviewed during 
21st to 25th, Sept 1999. DPC interviewed the candidates from Pune.

Annual General Body Meeting of IFFCO 

NIC Video conferencing was provided by using Portable SCPC VSAT of NIC from Talkatora Indoor Stadium during Annual General Body meeting of IFFCO held on 10/9/99 from 11 AM - 2 PM. Delegates and Share holders of IFFCO from 6 states who could not come to Delhi (due to elections in their states tomorrow) participated in the IFFCO AGM from NIC VC studios at Chennai, Hyderabad, Tiruvantapuram, Bangalore, Pune and Bhopal.

There were more than 2000 delegates who attended the AGM from Talkatora. Video from remote VC sites was projected using 3 large screen projectors in the stadium. VC meeting was very well appreciated by all those present at Talkatora stadium as well as by delegates who participated from remote sites. The conference was well appreciated by participants present in Talkotra Stadium as well as delegtaes from the remote centres. The comments of some of the participants is mentioend below- 

Thiruvananthapuram 
"The facility provided by NIC was very beneficial and highly appreciable" 
"The programme is very interesting and was beneficial to us" 

"All the IFFCO delegates were very happy to appreciate the Videoconferencing of AGM. NIC did a great job. There is no reason why NIC & IFFCO be partners in networking communication in future" 

"Very interesting and useful for getting more information about IFFCO"

Bhopal 
"The delegate was Shri Ajay Narain Mushran, Finance Minister Govt. of MP, who is also the Chairman of the District Cooperative Central Bank, Narsinghpur. The honourable delegate commented at the end that 'he is educated' by the VC. The IFFCO officials also appreciated the usefulness of the VC service."

Related sites: http://www.nic.in/iffco

Web Site for West Bengal Telecom Circle, Sikkim 
From Sikkim VIDCON Desk 

Online telephone Directory for Gangtok was hoisted on web page of NIC Sikkim state unit by Honourable Chief Secretary of Sikkim Shri Sonam Wangdi on 15th August at 12.30 p.m. 
Chief General manager, Telecom (western region) and his senior colleagues addressed the function from Calcutta through NIC's videoconference service. Dr. N. Vijayaditya, Deputy Director General, NIC participated in the function from Delhi over Videoconferencing. Officers of NIC SIKKIM State unit did live demonstration of online telephone directory from Gangtok. 

Inauguration of Assam Government’s Web Page, 11th August 1999 
From Guwahati VIDCON Desk 

Web page of Assam Government over NICNET was launched today by the Chief Minister of Assam from Janta Bhawan at Guwahati State Secretariat. Video Conferencing services was utilised to participate in the above function from NIC, Delhi. SS & DG (NIC) delivered the keynote address over videoconferencing from studio at Delhi. Data Rate of 384 Kbps over SCPC VSAT was used for providing high quality video and audio. High speed internet connection was also provided in the auditorium for showing live demonstration of the web site. 

Release of Electoral Rolls of CD of Government of Sikkim, 27th July 1999 
From Sikkim VIDCON Desk 

Shri Sonam Wangdi, Chief Secretary, Government of Sikkim released Electoral Rolls CD of Government of Sikkim over videoconferencing on 27th July 1999. The compact Disk contains complete information of parliamentary constituency and assembly constituencies of Sikkim. Shri T.T.Dorji, CEO, Sikkim and Dr. Saurabh Gupta, SIO Sikkim was also present in the CD 
release function at the videoconferencing studio. 

Dr. N.Vijayaditya, DDG and Dr. S.Sarkar, STD, NIC participated from Delhi studio and interacted with dignitaries present at Gangtok VC Studio. Shri Wangdi in his inaugural address said that the CD was developed as per the guidelines of Election Commission and this new step will bridge the information gap and ensure free and fare poll atmosphere in the state. He also praised the efforts put in by NIC Sikkim State Unit officers in completing this project in such a short duration. 

Mr. N.Vijayaditya, assured to extend their support in all possible state of requirements. He had explained various action plan in the election process that NIC has been successfully performing from the electoral rolls to the counting and result transmission and briefed on the future course of actions. 

Director General, DAVP interacts with Department of Field Publicity Officers, Chandigarh, 27th July,1999. 
From Chandigarh VIDCON Desk 


Mr. Suresh Chopra, Director General, DAVP and Director , Dept. of Field Publicity, Ministry of I & B and Sh. Mozhui, Deputy Director (Programmes), DFP Hqrs interacted with participants of DFP at NITPU Chandigarh from Delhi over videoconferencing. Shri V. Ramakrishna, TD and incharge of NIC Cell at Ministry of Information and Broadcasting was also present in the Delhi 
studio along with DG, DAVP. The participants at Chandigarh site included Field Publicity Officers from various State offices of Department of Field Publicity, namely Dehradun, Lucknow, Jaipur, Delhi and Chandigarh and are currently undergoing training on ' Working with Windows and Office Automation'. 

Director General, lauded the efforts made by NIC in training its staff and suggested to have a more advanced training for these officers in near future. He has announced an honorarium of Rs. 1000/- to each of the participants to motivate them use computers more effectively and improve efficiency. On his request, NIC has agreed to extend the training for one more day to cover e-mail and internet concepts also. 

The participants as well as the team at Delhi had a very useful interactive dialog during this conference and they highly appreciated the state-of-the-art video conferencing technology. 

Trends in Police Computerisation and Computer Crimes, 26th July,1999. 

SS & DG (NIC), gave a keynote address at a conference held in Bangalore over Video Conferencing from Delhi on "Trends in Police Computerisation and Computer Crimes". The two day conference was inaugurated by Honourable Chief Minister of Karnataka and presided over by Hon'able home minister of Karnataka Government. More than 500 delegates attended the opening session of the conference. 

The conference was organised by Indian Police Service, Crime and Technical Services Division to discuss various issues related to Police computerisation and usage of computers in detecting crimes. Videoconferencing system was installed over ISDN line at Vidhana Soudha, Banquet Hall, the venue of the conference, and connected to Delhi over ISDN and SCPC using Hotlink Imux. 

TASKnet Core Committee videoconference with Global Knowledge Partnership, Washington, 19th July,1999. 

British Council and National Informatics Centre is jointly co-hosting a major international conference to explore the role of knowledge & information technology in development. The conference is titled TASKnet : Towards a South Asian Knowledge Network and will focus on turning the information revolution into a force for economic development, social cohesion and poverty alleviation in the 21st Century. 

TASKnet is a part of the Global Knowledge Partnership which is an evolving, informal partnership of organisations - public, private and not-for-profit - committed to sharing infromation, experiences and resources to promote broad access to, and effective use of, knowledge and infromation as tools of sustainable, equitable development. 

The video session was held between British Council, NIC and other major partners of TASKnet with Global Knowledge Partnership Secretariat, Washington to discuss the programme details in length and also to firm up GKP support for TASKnet and formally join British Council and NIC in developing the programme. 

Related Sites : 
Global Knowledge : www.globalknowledge.org 
British Council : www.britcoun.org/india 

Computerised information system in Road Sector using NICNET, 16 July,1999. 
From Chandigarh VIDCON Desk 

National Informatics Centre conducted videoconferencing on 16th July,1999 between Chandigarh and Delhi. It was booked by Indian Road Congress, which comes under Ministry of Surface Transport. The Finace Secretary-cum-Engineering Secretary, Shri Rakesh Singh, Chandigarh Administration inaugurated and delivered a keynote address at the fifith two day training workshop on 'Computerised information system in road sector using NICNET' on 
16.07.99. The President of the Indian Road Congres, Mr. R. K. Rajoria, while interacting with the delegates through videoconferencing stressed the need for the use of technology to build roads of the desired standards to enter the next century. 

Forty representatives from the states of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal, U.P. Delhi, Chd UT and the regional offices of Ministry of Surface Transport participated in the workshop. The workshop covered updating and transmission of data, traffic census, information about bridges on NHs, inventory and monitoring systems. 

Interview for M.Des Student of IIT, Mumbai

National Informatics Centre for the first time conducted interview for M.Des students of IIT Mumbai through videoconferencing. The recruitment was for NIC enrollment. The interview panel was present in the New Delhi VIDCON Studio of NIC and the candidates (4 nos.) were present in the VC Studio located at Air India Building, Mumbai. A document camera, VCR and 35 mm Slide projector was arranged and connected to the Videoconferencing setup to help the candidates show their work to the panel at New Delhi. 

This was a first time experiment by NIC to hold such kind of recruitment process. The candidates themselves were very much impressed by the videoconferencing technology used by NIC. 

National Seminar on Y2K for Fertilizer Sector 

A two-day National Seminar on Y2K for Fertilizer Sector was organised jointly by Department of Fertilizers, National Informatics Centre and IFFCO at Taj Mann Singh, New Delhi on 25th June 1999. The objective of the conference was to discuss the various implications and issues on Year 2000 problem with special focus on the Fertilizer Sector. Mr. Krishna Allavaru of Nishith Desai & Associates presented a lecture on “Y2K Legal Issues” through videoconferencing from Mumbai. 

The seminar covered the various components of the IT industry for Y2K resolution i.e., hardware, software, communication and application software. Issues in embedded systems, which poses a greater challenge for the fertilizer industry was also examined by the speakers. 

Performance Analysis of Circle Offices of Department of Explosives 
From Nagpur VIDCON Desk 

A Videoconferencing Session for Department of Explosives, Ministry of Industry (Industrial Development) was organised on 16th June 1999. The conference was a multipoint videoconferencing session involving Delhi, Calcutta, New Mumbai, Chennai and Nagpur. 

Sh. R.H. Bhalekar, Jt. Chief Controller of Explosives (HOD) conducted the proceedings from Nagpur and interacted with other officers of their circle offices from these cities. The officers from Faridabad office of Department of Explosives participated in this conference from our Delhi studio. 

Sh. Bhalekar discussed about various technical and administrative related matters pertaining to their office. Performance of their circle offices was also evaluated in the meeting. The conference was highly successful and the department was thankful to NIC for providing videoconferencing facility, which saved their energy and time in getting the performance report from their circle offices. 

Nagpur had dial-in over ISDN to NIC Multipoint Conferencing Server located at New Delhi and was connected to rest of the four sites over NICNET. 

Expert Level Meeting of G15 Countries on Y2K 

Mr. Satish Naralkar, Senior Vice President(IT), National Stock Exchange presented a case study on Y2K implementation in National Stock Exchange. The presentation was part of a conference titled "Expert Level Meeting of G15 Countries on Y2K" being held at Hotel Maurya Sheraton, New Delhi. Mr. Naralkar presented the case study from Mumbai over videoconferencing to a group of delegates from G15 Nations, who were present at NIC Hqrs on 19th May 1999. 

The seminar was inaugurated by Honourable Shri Jaswant Singh, Minister for External Affairs, Government of India on 17th May 1999. The objective of the conference was to exchange country experiences in solving Y2K problem as well as interaction with solution providers. 

Please check NIC Home Page for more information on Y2K. 

253 Days to the Y2K Bomb - The Solutions, Bangalore 

On April 23rd 1999, Indo-American Chamber of Commerce organised a seminar titled " 253 Days to the Y2K Bomb - The Solutions, at Taj Residency, Bangalore. SS & DG (NIC) inaugurated the seminar over Videoconferencing from Delhi and delivered a keynote address on the various issues relating to Y2K problem. He also apprised the distinguished audience on the steps being taken by Government of India to tackle the Y2K problem in India. SS & DG (NIC) inaugurated and delivered his address over Videoconferencing from Delhi. NIC has installed portable SCPC VSAT along with videoconferencing system at the venue of the 
seminar. This was the first time NIC used both ways 384 Kbps of data transfer rate to hold a videoconference using the portable VSAT. The delegates present were very much impressed by the audio and video quality, which was near to natural quality. 

The seminar was intended for Industry people from various sectors to share their views on the Y2K impact and actions being taken by the Industry to overcome the Y2K problem. Senior dignitaries from various industry sector like Telecom, Financial Institutions, Transport etc presented paper. 

Please check NIC Home Page for more information on Y2K.

NICNET Support during Honourable PM's historic Bus Trip to Lahore 

NIC had installed Portable SCPC VSAT at Lahore during Hon'ble Prime Minister Shri A.V.Vajpayee visit to Pakistan on 20th and 21st February 1999. Following services were provided from Indian Media Center at Awari Hotel, Lahore using High speed NICNET VSAT for the benefit of Indian and foreign journalists. 

Internet Access and Fast E-mail, Colour scanning of photographs, Hindi Word processing and 
Video Conferencing between Lahore & Delhi, High Speed data and videoconferencing services at 128 kbps were provided simulatneously from Lahore for full two days. Indian 
and Indian based foreign journalists (more than 200) used NIC's Services from Lahore for filing their stories and scanning pictures. Pakistani people showed a lot of interest in talking to Delhi over videoconferencing as they had seen it for the first time. NIC was able to provide these services in a very short span of time and got all the logistics support from MEA. 

Indian Institute of Coal Management, Ranchi January 18th - 19th 1999 

Indian Institute of Coal Management, Ranchi organized a two-day seminar on "Emerging Trends in Information Technology". The seminar was held on 18-19 January 1999 at the premises of IICM, Kanke. The seminar objective was to provide a common platform to Industry, Academia and Solution providing companies to interact with each other and develop an effective IT system. Dr. N.Sheshagiri, SS & DG (NIC), had inaugurated a 2-day seminar from New Delhi through videoconferencing. Dr. Sheshagiri gave a keynote address on "IT Implementation plan in Government Sector" over videoconferencing from New Delhi. 
Mr. Dewang Mehta, Chairman NASSCOM also participated in the seminar using NIC videoconferencing from New Delhi. He apprised the august gathering about the trends & changing technologies and appreciated the portable videoconferencing setup, which was 
installed by NIC at IICM, Kanke for remote lecture purpose. 

Many corporate participants like Coal India Ltd., TISCO, SCCL, SAIL, NLC, MECON and other leading public and private sector enterprises from the Eastern part of India who attended the seminar, widely appreciated and accepted the advantages of videoconferencing technology. NIC also participated in the exhibition, which was parallaly being held at IICM, Kanke and demonstrated NIC Videoconferencing services over NICNET. Delegates attending the seminar visited the NIC videoconferencing setup and had the opportunity to interact with remote sites from Kanke. 

The World has come to LONI - November 14th - 16th, 1998 

National Informatics Centre has installed video conferencing facility at the International Conference on Woman and Child at Pravara Medical Trust, Loni on 14th -16th November 1998. 

For the first time NIC has installed and demonstrated its Portable VSAT setup at Loni for video conferencing over NICNET. All the delegates and dignitaries were highly impressed to see the state of the art technology from NIC bringing Loni closer to the rest of India. 

Dr. N. Seshagiri, SS &DG NIC, Mr. Alan Court, Director UNICEF and Dr. Stephen Atwood, Chief Health section, UNICEF addressed a gathering of around 300 delegates, representing 39 countries, from Delhi, during the conference over video conferencing. There was a special mention about NIC video conferencing services in the valedictory session of the conference. Prof. Y.K.Alagh, who is also in the National Advisory Board of Pravara Medical Trust summed up the efforts made by NIC by quoting " THE WORLD HAS COME TO LONI". 

Remote Village Interaction over NIC VIDCON - 21st November, 1998 

Remote village interaction between Honourable CM of Andhra Pradesh Shri N. Chandrababu Naidu and the villagers of Gudihatnur in Adilabad district. The interaction was made possible using NIC's portable VSAT and videoconferencing system that was installed at Gudihatnur and at CM's office where Hon'ble CM was present. The press clipping which came out in The Indian Express dated 22nd November 1998 is worth mentioning. 

From Hyderabad Correspondent, The Indian Express, 22nd November 1998 

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated the first ever video-conferencing facility in the state today. He announced on the occasion that such electronic conferences with persons at different locations simultaneously would be the next step in this direction. 

Shri Naidu interacted with Tribal Welfare Minister G. Nagesh and the Adilabad District collector besides the functionaries of self help groups and local people of Gudihatnur, a remote village in Adilabad district, and enquired about the progress of the developmental activities there. The conference was organised in the office of the National Informatics Centre. 

According to the information received here, people of the village participated enthusiastically in the programme. Naidu said that the videoconferencing facility would be extended to all mandals in a phased manner and five video vans were proposed to 
be launched as a pilot project. " The chief minister's tele-presence" would promote better citizen-government interface. 

According to an official release, some of the National IT task force members also participated in the conference. 

NIC at Infotek 98 

National Informatics Centre participated in the 3 days INFOTEK' 98 exhibition being held at The Taj Palace, Mumbai from February 15th -17th, 1998. The theme of the exhibition for NIC was Videoconferencing Applications and Technology. NIC demonstrated its continuous presence multipoint video conferencing services from 15 different cities where NIC has setup 
video conferencing studios. NIC VIDCON services allows 5 sites to participate in a conference simultaneously with each site viewing four remote sites on its remote monitor on a continuous presence mode. This adds value to the previous setup where each site can view only the remote site which is speaking at that point of time. 

A seminar was also organised where keynote address was given by Special Secretary & Director General of National Informatics Centre Dr. N.Sheshagiri on " Government On Line". A brief review of the keynote address, which came out in The Telematics India, is worth mentioning. 

From Telematics India Correspondent, Telematics India, February, 1998 

The big event of INFOTEK came in the afternoon when the session chaired National Informatics Centre Special Secretary and Director General in Planning Commission, Dr. N. Seshagiri explained in detail how the government proposed to go "on-line" and what it would mean to the people. " The challenge is to steer the Government from offline to on-line". Dr. Sheshagiri conceived NIC as network for collating and bringing government data to the people far ahead of many other on-line data services in the wrold. Some of his recent successes include reaching the entire Union Budget to all 540 district headquarters 
within a few minutes of its presentation in Parliament. 

The NIC Director General pointed out how the administration with broadminded persons in charge like Cabinet Secretary, T.S.R.Subramaniam had already drawn up the programme for transforming it from offline to on-line. "This is swimming against the current of secrecy", he said. It al began when the NIC chose a more difficult area like the Delhi customs office to turn it into a paperless arm of the bureaucracy. "It was a challenge" for us, he said. The next project was the ng in Civil Aviation Department. This was now being transferred horizontally to other departments. 

The "Government On Line: speech also had its points of caution. "There are concomitant social problems as many of the traditional jobs disappear." The NIC had taken up the challenge of training 10,000 stenographers who would now be given other jobs, actually new type of jobs. "In two years, there would be no need for stenographers", as the dictation software of the NIC would be available to all offices. 

The entry of Multimedia System in Government would provide enormous business opportunity for information technology companies. "It is a major upheaval" is how Dr. Sheshagiri put it. Yet another innovation is the "Tele Financial Adviser" attached to all departments. This would reduce delays in processing proposals by a fourth to one-eighth. Other innovations 
are slated to be introduced. Once the Internet becomes countrywide, the government on-line could hook up with the Internet and a wired countrywide could access government from the most distant quarters. Some day, but not very far away, " All these would help fight corruption also. 

NIC at Infocom 97 

National Informatics Centre participated in the 4 days INFOCOM' 97 exhibition being held at World Trade Centre, Mumbai from February 12th -15th, 1997. The theme of the exhibition for NIC was Videoconferencing Applications and Technology. NIC demonstrated Desktop Videoconferencing services over ISDN ( Integrated Services Digital Network ) Line. NIC had taken a temporary ISDN line connection at World Trade Centre. The overall response of the visitors was very encouraging. 

We also conducted a Press Conference with the Special Secretary & Director General of National Informatics Centre Dr. N.Sheshagiri and Mumbai press officials of leading newspapers and dailies. An excerpt of the press conference which came out in The Times of India, Mumbai edition is worth mentioning. 

From Mumbai Correspondent, The Times of India. 

Dr. Sheshagiri said that security of the nation was important but the degree of importance should be decided. "We will have to tackle this situation, " he said. On the issue of usage of Internet for telephony, he said " Its a trade off between the value of revenue for the authorities and the kind of facilities required by the mass." Though revenue loss to the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) was important, the economic growth and abilities of ready information to various agencies should not be overlooked " For the sake of DOT and VSNL we cannot choke the advancement 
of technology" he said. 

Dr. Sheshagiri said that NIC was in the process of creating studios for videoconferencing at the secretariat buildings. 

The national connection for videoconferences in Mumbai will be made available in the next few days. "Faults have occurred in the radio link between Mumbai and New Delhi for the international connection. it will be solved in a few days, " said Dr. Sheshagiri. 

NIC conducts Employee Performance Review through Videoconferencing 

National Informatics Centre conducts its Performance review test for its employees every year. Earlier all the employees eligible had to come to New Delhi and face the Interview panel. This process was costing NIC a huge sum as each one of them are paid by the Organisation for boarding and lodging. The productivity of the employee was hampered, as he had to break from his project work for the duration he is away from his office. 

National Informatics Centre decided to conduct performance reviews through Videoconferencing on September, 1996 thus saving costs and also informing other employees who are in the remote areas as to what National Informatics Centre is doing in the field of Videoconferencing. The performance review tests from then on is being held through Video conferencing every year. 

The methodology used for the same was simple. The Panel were at New Delhi talking to each of the videoconferencing sites and at times to more than one site. The eligible candidates (more than 250 every year) went to the nearest Videoconferencing centre located at NIC premises and faced the review panel. The whole process took 3 weeks for completion whereas in the earlier instance it used to take more than a month to complete all the formalities of review. 

A decision was taken by the authorities that in future the performance reviews will be conducted through Videoconferencing. The successful completion of the review process was another feather in the cap added to Videoconferencing Division.