Videoconferencing Events Held for Year 2001

1. Inauguration of UP Video Conferencing by Hon'ble Prime Minister of India -
2nd October 2001
2. National Videoconferencing to promote involvement of Scientists, Engineers and Technologist in Comprehensive Disability - 20th June 2001
3. International Symposium & Workshop on Changing Face of Cardiac Surgery - 7th-8th April 2001 
4. Elitex 2001 at Habitat Centre, New Delhi - 5-6 February 2001 
5. Relief Operations in Bhuj, Gujarat - 27th January 2001 - The VSAT was installed for One Month
6. Petrotech 2001 - 8-12th January 2001

Inauguration of UP Video Conferencing by Hon'ble Prime Minister of India -
2nd October 2001

Honourable Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee inaugurated NIC's Videoconferencing facility at 15 Divisional Commissionerates of Uttar Pradesh on 2nd October 2001. Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Rajnath Singh spoke to the Prime Minister over video conferencing from Lucknow. Prime Minister interacted with UP CM and the Divisional Commissioner, Agra for over 30 minutes. Thereafter Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh spoke to Divisional Commissioners and other officers of district administration from 15 different cities in UP over video conferencing which lasted for over three and a half hours. 

NIC for the first time has set-up video conferencing studios in 15 districts of UP where Commissionerates are located i.e. Lucknow, Varanasi, Allahabad, Kanpur, Agra, Meerut, Moradabad, Faizabad, Saharanpur, Basti, Jhansi, Mirzapur, Bareilly, Azamgarh, Gonda. Remaining 2 divisions of UP i.e. Gorakhpur and Banda will have Videoconferencing running within this week. 

Honourable Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Shri Rajnath Singh, commended NIC for establishing the conference and said that this will help the UP Government to cut costs on various fronts. He also said that this set up will help the Government to monitor various schemes and projects being implemented by the State Government on a regular basis by interacting with the District Administration, thus leading to good Governance, accountability & transparency in the Government. 

NIC has last week installed SCPC-DAMA NMS Hub at New Delhi and commissioned first 15 SCPC-DAMA VSATs along with voice, video conferencing and High Speed Internet access capabilities in UP. Using this advanced VSAT technology, any DAMA location can initiate a Video conferencing or audio call with another DAMA location by simply using a handset without the manual intervention of Hub operator. The SCPC-DAMA NMS which is operational 24 hours gives clear bandwidth (SCPC) on demand whenever an application needs it and gives back the bandwidth to DAMA pool after the audio, video or data call is over. 

This is a new beginning for NIC with the Videoconferencing services being spread to the District levels for the first time.

National Videoconferencing to promote involvement of Scientists, Engineers and Technologist in Comprehensive Disability
20th June 2001

Technological idea are an important aspect of the rehabilitation of the disabled. There exists a wide gap between that which is necessary and available. The disparity is particularly marked in respect of newer aids which need to be designed, manufactured, and put in use. The gap can be bridged only if more scientists and engineers take interest in rehabilitation of the disabled and make R&D for this area some part of their overall activities. 

To discuss this issue, a National Videoconferencing was held by linking 7 cities using NICNET on 20th June 2001. The sites connected were Delhi, Jaipur, Navi Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta, Pune, and Guwahati. 

The conference was initiated by Dr. Sujoy Ghosh, of Centre for Biomedical Engineering under the aegis of IIT, Delhi & AIIMS. The conference was chaired by Smt. Asha Das, Secretary, Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment and Jt. Secretary Smt. Gauri Chatterjee from Delhi. The participants at different centres spread over the country included scientists/technologists; industrialists; selected representatives of organizations dealing with the disabled; disabled individuals; and disability programme managers. 

The focal topics discussed were - 

1. Disability 
2. How Technology can Help 
3. Link between R&D and the user through involvement of voluntary organizations 
4. Role of Industries. 
5. Coordination and facilitative support by Governmental Agencies. 

All the participants appreciated the audio/video quality of the conference at 384 Kbps from each site and showed interest in using the state of the art technology very often in future to hold such type of intellectual discussions with experts from various field related to disability.

International Symposium & Workshop on Changing Face of Cardiac Surgery
7th-8th April 2001

A conference title ' International Symposium & Workshop on Changing Face of Cardiac Surgery " was held at India Habitat Center during 7-8 April , 2001. The conference was organized by Safdurjung Hospital , New Delhi. During this conference 5 Numbers of Live Heart operations were transmitted from Safdurjung Hospital to a group of around 100 doctors representing from various parts of the country as well as abroad at Indian Habitat Centre. 

National Informatics Centre has provided the network connectivity using NICNET between both the locations using Portable VSAT and VC Equipments. The conference was conducted at a very high speed of 768 Kbps for better video clarity. 

A PTZ camera was positioned right from the top of the operation table to enable a better zoomed in view of the area of the patient being operated. All the delegates appreciated the minute details of the operation and were able to interact with the doctor conducting the operation too. 

With this conference Videoconferencing division has once again proved how state of the art technology can be utilized in areas like Telemedicine. 

Elitex 2001 at Habitat Centre, New Delhi 
5-6 February 2001 

Electronics and Information Technology Exposition'2001 by MINISTRY OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (MIT) has organised on 5-6 FEBRUARY, 2001 at India Habitat Centre, Lodi Road, New Delhi. 

The theme of ELITEX'2001 was be Convergence. The Seminar focuses sessions on Convergence covering Technologies, Infrastructure, Management and Services, and IPRs including the legislation passed by the Parliament on IT Act 2000 and the Protection of Semiconductor Layout Designs Bill and the proposed Convergence Bill being drafted by the Fali Nariman Committee. 

The exhibition focuses on the technologies/know-how developed at various institutions related to the above theme. 

NIC has put up a stall presenting on the following areas: 
1. Video Conferencing between Bhuj and Elitex stall. 
2. CIC overview and presentation. 
3. Office soft Presentation. 
4. Collectorate 200. 
5. GIS and other presentations from different divisions. 

Relief Operations in Bhuj, Gujarat
27th January 2001 - The VSAT was installed for One Month

As you are all aware that a massive earthquake has hit the state of Gujarat on 26th January 2001. 

NIC has set-up Video Conferencing facility from district Collectorate, Bhuj and Control room, Gandhinagar using Portable SCPC VSATs. It may possible to have a video conference with Bhuj and Gandhi Nagar for releif operations. 

This communication facility is likely to help the State Government of Gujarat and the Government of India in better co-ordination of massive relief work being undertaken in the quake hit areas. 

All agencies who are engaged in relief operations and who need to have a video conference with control room at Gandhinagar or Bhuj are welcome to use this facility. 

Petrotech 2001
8-12th January 2001

PETROTECH-2001 organised by Indian Oil Corporation Ltd. Under the aegis of the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India. The exhibition organised in association with CII and inaugurated by the Hon’ble Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas, Government of India. 

Honourable Chief Minister Shri Chandrababu Naidu signed a memorandum between IOCL and State Government over Video Conferencing on Wednesday, 10th January, 2001 during Petrotech 2001. 

The Video meeting was organised over NICNET at 768 kbps by using two portable VSATs; one at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi and other at Chief Minister's Office at Hyderabad.