8 yrs on, IHK’s e-governance nowhere in sight

Friday, 26 July 2013

Srinagar, July 27 (Newswire): All efforts by the puppet Jammu and Kashmir regime to ensure e-governance in the Sate seem to be going in vain as major schemes funded by India have been grounded before their take-off.


A crucial project worth Rs 53 crore titled 'State Wide Area Network (SWAN)' aimed at bringing accountability in the system is stuck in a series of technical hitches, especially the tendering process.

 The project, according to sources, is yet to be executed after being approved by the Union IT Ministry in 2005.

 According to official documents, SWAN is envisaged to create a connectivity in the State to bring speed, efficiency, reliability and accountability in overall system of the Government functioning.

"When implemented, SWAN would work as a converged backbone network for voice, video and data communications across State. SWAN is designed to cater to the governance information and communication requirements of entire State," the documents read.

 However, the prestigious project has yet to come out of the tendering process.

 "Jammu and Kashmir E-Governance Agency (JKEGA) had floated tenders and received bids on December 28 last year. The bidding process is still on," the documents reveal. Sources said tendering process is on for the past more than three years.

 Minister of State for Information and Technology, Feroz Khan said the Government of India has already earmarked Rs 53 crore for the SWAN project. "We have received a lowest bid of Rs 70 Crore so far. But there are some other difficulties due to which the tendering process hasn't been closed," he said.

 Khan said that they have taken up the issue with the Union IT Minister Kapil Sibal.  "We hope that the Union IT Ministry would guide us to overcome the hurdles in establishing SWAN," the Minister said.

 Sources said after tendering process, the State will face another challenge which is that of identification of land for laying wires. "Land acquisition is always a problem in JK," sources said.

 The official documents reveal that the vertical component of SWAN would be implemented using multi-tier architecture (typically-three-tier) with the State headquarter connected to each district headquarter which in turn will get connected to each block headquarter.

 SWAN, the documents state, would facilitate vertical as well as horizontal connectivity between various departments and offices for roll out services to common man. "The J&K cabinet has already made it mandatory for all companies to have a local company (of JK) as a partner while bidding for SWAN," the documents read. "In JK, SWAN aims to establish a secure network consisting of 174 points of presence (PoPs) at State, district and block headquarters."

 Pertinently, Government of India (GOI) approved SWAN project in 2005, with financial outlay of Rs 3000 crore for various states across India.

 Sources said JK is lagging behind other states in setting up of SWAN as 20 states, including those in Northeast and other underdeveloped states, are reaping the benefits of the e-program.
 According to sources, initially National Informatics Centre (NIC) was chosen as agency for implementing the SWAN in the state but due to reasons best known to the IT department the project was withdrawn from them in 2009.

 "The JK government then decided to go for Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode for implementing the project. However, there is no headway in that as the project continues to be engulfed in tendering process," they said. 

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Damaged roads blot Pahalgam beauty

Pahalgam, July 27 (Newswire): The circuit road, one of the vital road links leading to the hutment area in this held Kashmir tourist resort, is in shambles causes tremendous inconvenience to the locals and tourists.

"Many luxury huts of Tourism, Forest, PDA, JKTDC, PDD and PHE are located in the circuit road area but the condition of the road is pathetic. It is as such for the last five years and the authorities do not bother to macadamize it even during this summer season too," said a local resident.

The road is completely damaged, dotted with pot holes and remains inundated even during a small downpour.

"The bumpy and muddy road makes the movement of vehicles as well as pedestrians difficult," said Shabir Ahmad, another local resident. He said during dry season dust emanates from it further adding to the woes of passengers and pedestrians.

The pathetic condition of the road forces the tourists to stay away from these huts.

"The road is an alternate link to Pahalgam and could ease the traffic mess in the market if macadamized," say the locals. The villagers living en-route circuit road also suffer due to its dilapidated condition.

The locals have appealed the authorities to immediately macadamize the road. The residents of Larkipora village in Pahalgam have also sought macadamization of the road in their area.

"Tourists, mostly foreigners, prefer to stay in the hotels and huts of Larkipora and Manzimpora, but the road here is in a dilapidated condition causing tremendous inconvenience to them," said the owner of Hotel Brown Palace, Ibrahim Raina.

He urged the authorities to macadamize the road which is in a shabby condition, so that their business doesn't suffer in the remaining tourist season.

"The road also leads to the Golf Course and as such needs immediate attention," Raina said.

The residents say that same is the condition of other important roads in Pahalgam, including Baisaran road.

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Detecting Alzheimer's early

Islamabad, July 27 (Newswire): Building upon a recent discovery that the same Alzheimer's disease process that goes on in the brain also occurs in the eye, researchers have developed a pair of optical tests that can determine the presence of amyloid beta proteins -- found in all Alzheimer's patients -- in the lens of the eye. A device called an interior laser ophthalmoscope can pick up the presence of the amyloid protein.

Since 1980 the number of Americans with Alzheimer's has nearly doubled to 4.5 million. The disease robs people of their memory, while early detection of Alzheimer's has eluded members of the medical field for years. Now a new eye test may help determine if you're at risk and may unlock that mystery.

They say the eyes are the windows to the soul, now they may be the key to saving some people's lives. A new eye test may help in the early detection of Alzheimer's. Dr .Lee Goldstein, a psychiatrist in the Dept. of Psychiatry and Surgery at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, says, "We found the Alzheimer disease process that goes on in the brain also occurs in the lens of the eye."

Dr. Goldstein developed a pair of optical tests that can determine the presence of amyloid beta proteins in the eye lens -- a protein prevalent in the brain of all Alzheimer's patients. The interior laser ophthalmoscope can pick up the presence of the amyloid protein. "What this instrument is capable of doing is picking up those gummy aggregated particles in the lens very early, before you see the cataracts," he says.

The cataract looks like a cloudy arc on the rim of the lens. This is different than the common cataract. To determine if this is an Alzheimer's cataract, Dr. Goldstein injects the eye with special fluorescence drops that bind to the amyloid beta proteins. Under an infrared light, the proteins will glow, indicating Alzheimer's disease.

"If we can get treatments early ... we can slow the disease to the point where we've effectively cured it," Goldstein says. That extra time could give Alzheimer's patients more precious time to live.

This eye test may not only improve patients' chances to start treatment earlier, but it could also speed development of new Alzheimer's drugs.

Researchers at Harvard Medical School have developed two optical tests that could potentially diagnose Alzheimer's disease in its beginning stages. The tests build upon a recent discovery that the presence of telltale proteins in the eye is an early sign of the disease. Such tests can improve patients' chances to start treatment earlier, and may also speed development of new drugs.

The same type of amyloid beta proteins which are a hallmark of Alzheimer's when found in the brain are also found in the lens and fluid of the eye. These proteins produce an unusual type of cataract in a different part of the eye than common cataracts (which are not associated with Alzheimer's). Scientists can detect these proteins by injecting a light-sensitive dye, then shining a laser onto the specific part of the lens where the cataracts tend to form. The molecules in the dye bind to the protein molecules, if they are present, and the light will cause the resulting molecules to glow. This technique is called quasi-elastic light scattering.

Alzheimer's is a slow-moving disease, and in its earliest stages, may merely appear to be mild forgetfulness, and confused with age-related memory change. There may be problems remembering recent events or activities, or the names of familiar people or objects. As the disease progresses, the forgetfulness becomes more severe, interfering with daily activities, such as brushing one's teeth. There are problems speaking, understanding, reading or writing, and eventually the brain damage becomes so severe as to require total care.

As many as 4.5 million Americans suffer from Alzheimer's disease. It usually sets in after age 60, and the risk increases with age, although it is not a normal part of the aging process. While only about 5 percent of men and women aged 65-74 have the disease, nearly half of those 85 or older may have it.

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Burger diet boosts kids' asthma and wheeze risk, study finds

Islamabad, July 27 (Newswire): Eating three or more burgers a week may boost a child's risk of asthma and wheeze -- at least in developed nations -- reveals a large international study, published in Thorax.

Conversely, a Mediterranean diet, rich in fruit, vegetables, and fish seems to stave off the risk, the research shows.

The research team base their findings on data collected between 1995 and 2005 on 50,000 children between the ages of 8 and 12 from 20 rich and poor countries around the world.

Their parents were asked about their children's normal diet and whether they had ever been diagnosed with asthma and/or have had wheeze.

Just under 30,000 of the children were tested for allergic reactions, to see if diet also influenced their chances of developing allergies.

Diet did not seem to be associated with becoming sensitised to common allergens, such as grass and tree pollen. But it did seem to influence the prevalence of asthma and wheeze.

High fruit intake was associated with a low rate of wheeze among children from rich and poor countries.

Similarly, a diet high in fish protected children in rich countries, while a diet rich in and cooked green vegetables protected children against wheeze in poor countries.

Overall, a Mediterranean diet, high in fruit, vegetables, and fish was associated with a lower lifetime prevalence of asthma and wheeze.

But eating three or more burgers a week was associated with a higher lifetime prevalence of asthma and wheeze, particularly among children with no allergies in rich countries.

A heavy meat diet, however, had no bearing on the prevalence of asthma or wheeze.

The authors say that fruit and vegetables are rich in antioxidant vitamins and biologically active agents, while the omega 3 polyunsaturated fatty acids found in fish have anti-inflammatory properties, so there are biologically plausible links for the findings.

Burger consumption could be a proxy for other lifestyle factors, they add, particularly as the increased asthma risk associated with it was not found in poor countries.

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