Mobile Software Medical

Ias Eligibility– Foreign Degree E

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 04:22:05 +0000

A degree of any of the Universities incorporated by an Act of the Central or State Legislature in India or other educational institutions established by an Act of Parliament or declared to be a Deemed University under the UGC Act, 1956, or an equivalent qualification.

Eligibility

Eligibility

Other Eligibility Conditions for IAS Exams

Eligibility

Nationality: Only Indians are eligible for IAS and IPS. For others, a candidate can be a citizen of India, or a subject of Nepal, Bhutan, a person of Indian origin who has been migrated.Age Limit: A candidate must have attained 21 years and not be over 30 years on August 1 of the year of examination.Educational Qualifications: Bachelor’s degree of a recognized university with at least one of the subjects namely Animal Husbandry & Veterinary Science, Botany, Chemistry, Geology, Mathematics, Physcs, Statistics and Zoology

Eligibility

An Overview Of The Different Arthritis Medications

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Sun, 29 Aug 2010 09:12:30 +0000

Patients suffering from arthritis have to undergo a wide range of treatments which includes medication. There are over 100 medications that are presently being used to treat arthritis. However medicines at this stage can only help people suffering from arthritis, and not act as a cure. The medicines can be used to reduce pain, improve joint mobility, decrease flare-ups and reduce inflammations. The aim of this article is to present an insight into 4 main types of medicines that can be used by arthritis patients.
The first category is called pain-relieving medicines which include aspirin, paracetemol and ibuprofen. As a matter of fact, aspirin and ibuprofen are mainly anti-inflammatory drugs; however they also contain small amounts of pain killing doses. These pain relieving drugs are available at almost all chemists, without subscription from doctor.
Anti-inflammatory medicines can be used to decrease flare-ups and reduce swelling. It comes in two packages which include Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and steroids. NSAIDs need to be taken over an extended period of time so to make it more effective. However its side effects include stomach problems. It is the most common prescribed medicine against arthritis. Some NSAIDs include naproxen (Naprosyn), fenbufen (Lederfen), piroxicam (Feldene) and Cox – 2 inhibitors. However there have been concerns raised about the safety of Cox-2. Steoids are very effectives against inflammation. However they can cause harm to the body is used for a long period of time. They are mainly used to bring severe cases of arthritis under control before any further prescriptions are given.
Disease-modifying medicines are used with cases which involves damage to the immune system such as by rheumatoid arthritis and juvenile idiopathic arthritis. They can be either taken in by mouth or through injections and deals with the whole of immune system, instead of the symptoms. Some types of this kind of medicine are methotrexate, sulfasalazine and gold (sodium aurothiomalate).
Biologic response modifiers (BRMs) are increasingly being used in the treatment of arthritis. They were used to treat severe cases of rheumatoid arthritis, however now they have assumed a new role and are used to treat patients in the early stages of arthritis, so to prevent profound damage to the joints. Although many people with rheumatoid arthritis find BRMs effective, it is still not suited for everyone with arthritis. The downside of these products is that they are expensive and can only be given through injections or infusion.
All medicines contain some side effects. Also these side effects may vary from patient to patient. Many patients undertaking arthritis related medicines experience certain side effects such as stomach pain. Nevertheless arthritis medicines can be very powerful and can have a profound effect on the body. There are certain approaches in order to reduce minimize the side effects. It is important to take to take medicines according to instructions such as 2 times in the day. Your doctor must be constantly supervising you so that he or she can see whether the intake is going according to the plan. Another important aspect to be taken into account is that the benefit of taking the medicine shall be weighed against the harm of not taking them. Arthritis can get worse if no medication is taken.
The reason so many medicines for arthritis has been produced is to meet specific demand of arthritis patients. Also using one can have side effects. Therefore the range of medicines allows a person to choose ones that gives least side effects to him or her. Before you start taking any medicine, it is essential for you to contact your family so to great a grip of the actual situation and choose the medicine that best caters to your needs. Additionally, it is very important for pregnant women to consult their doctors. Some medicines contain strong side effects and can be harmful to the baby. Therefore it is essential to adjust medication in such cases.

Need to lose weight fast? Fat Loss 4 Idiots is the most popular diet available online that enables you to quickly lose up to 9 pounds every 11 days without diet pills. To Learn more about the Fat Loss 4 Idiots program visit: weight loss diet.

Introduction to Carpal Tunnel Ergonomics

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Sat, 28 Aug 2010 08:14:21 +0000

The study of how to adapt man to a machine or environment is a way that is not stressful is called workplace ergonomics. A lot of individuals think that workplace ergonomics has something to do with computer. Yes it has but it is not just the focus. It also looks into the many causes of job- related pain. Here, the basic concept of carpal tunnel ergonomics will be discussed in order for it to be applied. It is to keep those energy levels up then lessen the twinge and throb. As a recap, the carpal tunnel is an area in the wrist and palm where the nerves and tendons of your forearm and hand pass. When this area is aggravated, it swells, putting pressure on the nerves thus, causing pain. Most people feel this pain at night when they sleep with bent wrists or awkward positions for a long time. It can even awake them at the middle of the night because of those pins and needles tingling sensations. When they are fully up, many people ignore the pain until permanent nerve damage occurs. To prevent the eventual intense pain, here are simple carpal tunnel ergonomics’ tips. These will be of great help to extend the comfort stage while working. You can buy gel pads at almost everywhere. This for the keyboards and mouse you use everyday in the office. Wrap all vibrating tools with paddings. Most of the hardware stores have it for a few bucks a roll. Adjust your chair to a position where your wrists are straight on the keyboard. Wrong posture starts the trigger for an eventual carpal tunnel syndrome. Even if you have a deadline to beat, it is best to take a rest. If you are so much in a hurry that you tend to forget, download a software that will just instantly pop- up out of your monitor and give you a reminder. Wrist braces keep your wrists from bending or being flexed. Supports and splints have been proven effective. This can be bought at medical supply houses even without a doctor’s prescription. Every so often, perform wrist exercises such as limbering and curls. You can tie a gallon of water to a towel, roll it over and grasp it tightly. This is a good alternative if you do not have any dumbbell. Carpal tunnel ergonomics also looks into how to stop shoulder pains. There are times that the ache brought about by the carpal tunnel syndrome will reach to the arms and towards the upper back. Here is a carpal tunnel ergonomics exercise: put your thumbs down and arms out straight. Lean forward a bit and bring your pinkies up high and back far. Hold this for a five counts and release a few times.

Learn about prevent carpal tunnel and carpal tunnel surgery at the Carpal Tunnel Pain site.

Depression or a Case of the Monday Blues

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:02:08 +0000

The beginning of a new work week can cause a case of the blues for many people but according to recent research from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1 in 20 Americans over the age of 12 suffer from a clinical state of depression. 40-59 year old women have the highest rates. Poor people also report depression symptoms more than wealthier Americans. 80% of people with depression report they have some level of functional impairment because of depression and 27% report serious difficulty in work and home life as a result. Only 29% of people with depression seek out mental health professionals. Depression comes in many forms including:

Depression is a mental state or a chronic mental disorder characterized by feelings of sadness, loneliness, despair, helplessness, low self-esteem and self-reproach. Other signs include psychomotor retardation, agitation, and withdrawal from social contact, insomnia, and decreased appetite. The symptoms can become severe enough to cause self harm or suicide (major depressive disorder). Anyone can be afflicted with depression at any time in their life. The comedian Jim Carey and the talk show host Larry King both reveal that they have fought depression during stages of their careers.Post partum depression strikes women following the birth of a child. Brooke Shields wrote a book about her experience after the birth of her daughter Rowan called Down Came the Rain. This made a media sensation when fellow actor Tom Cruise criticized her for antidepressant use. This condition can be debilitating in the caring of a new infant and create barriers to the appropriate bonding with the child. Post partum depression looks like major depression except that it occurs right after delivery. This affects 1 woman in every 500 who have given birth. The symptoms can be severe enough to impair normal functioning and put the mother and baby’s life at risk. Treatment should be sought immediately after symptoms arise.Seasonal affective disorder is a form of depression that appears in winter and resolves in the spring. Patients experience depression and a general lack of energy. Light exposure is felt to be part of the cause and light is used in the treatment. This condition is more common in women. To learn more read the iTriagehealth.com Health Blog.Situational depression is an episode of acute depression that results from a stressful life event such as a loss of a job, loss of a loved one or natural catastrophe. It is unclear why some people are affected and others are not. The symptoms can last for days or years. Adjustment disorder is an inability to adjust to the normal stressors of life resulting in significant emotional or behavioral symptoms and impairment of function in daily life.A close condition to depression is bi-polar disorder or manic depression. People with bi-polar disorder experience the same symptoms as people with depression, but they will also experience manic highs or hyper manic episodes. This condition is characterized by mood instability and can be serious and disabling. Mania reveals itself in excessive excitability, reckless behavior, impulsive actions, excessive energy, restlessness and inability to sleep.It is important for health care professionals to make the diagnostic distinction between straight depression and bi-polar disorder to ensure that patients receive the appropriate treatment as soon as possible. Patients need to help their therapists identify whether they are suffering from only depressive symptoms or if they have components of bi-polar disorder as well. A good professional will ask a patient if they are experiencing the opposite feelings of depression as well as depressive symptoms. Sometimes family members will supply important information by noticing excessive energy, reckless behavior or grandiose actions. The award-winning actress Glenn Close speaks out passionately about bipolar disorder because it has struck very close to home with her sister Jessie Close (view below). Because of her first hand experience with the cultural stigma against mental illness, Ms. Close has started a national anti-stigma campaign to change the publics perception of mental illness called Bring Change 2 mind.

The very nature of depression can prevent a person from seeking help. Denial is one reason people with depression do not receive treatment. Others do not seek treatment because they do not believe that they can be helped. There is still a stigma in our society surrounding mental illness and insurance coverage is spotty and this will prevent others from seeking care. The good news is that depression is a treatable condition. With appropriate treatment patients can return to their normal level of functioning.The most affective way to help a depressed person is to assist them to seek treatment. This might involve helping make an appointment and going to the appointment with a qualified health care or mental health professional. This might also involve giving emotional support and encouraging the patient to stick with prescribed treatment until the symptoms begin to abate. Antidepressants and psychotherapy are the mainstays of treatment. Mental health professionals to seek out for treatment are psychiatrists and psychologists. Psychiatric hospitalizations may be needed for severe symptoms and for suicidal ideations.Depression is not just an emotional state but a medical condition that needs appropriate treatment. When your feelings move beyond a case of the Monday morning blues, it is time to seek appropriate care.

Alicia Verity brings 20 years of experience in the healthcare field, along with a Master’s Degree in Public Health, both of which uniquely positions her to help guide Healthagen’s content and user experience. Diagnose medical symptoms and find appropriate medical care with Healthagen’s free healthcare app called iTriage.

Preventing Information Security Breaches

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:02:56 +0000

Protecting both client and corporate information is a key concern amongst many organizations that handle sensitive information. A USB key containing hundreds of Ontario patient health information files was stolen. According to the CBC, the USB wasn’t encrypted and was stolen from the purse of a University Hospital Network (UHN) employee. The theft of these files has resulted in a call for efforts to increase the security of sensitive information. This is the second instance in under a year where private patient information was compromised in Ontario due to theft. The lesson learned from this story can be applied to any business that maintains client or customer personal information records: make sure sensitive information is encrypted. Controlling access to information can further prevent information security breaches, as the number of people viewing sensitive information is decreased. Regular evaluation of training programs and internal procedures related to information security must be undertaken to ensure each employee is completing the necessary steps to safeguard information.

Preventing information security breaches needs to become a main priority for any company when handling both customer and company information. In regards to the above-mentioned incident, a CBC article “Hundreds of Ont. Patient Health Files Stolen,” quotes Ontario’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, Ann Cavoukian, stating:

“The ease with which we transfer information now and we engage in online activities, somehow it’s factoring into this and not making people go through the steps they need to.”

The ease of accessing and sharing information has significantly increased due to the use of e-mail, Internet, intranets, mobile devices and other portable technologies. These developments make communication easier and faster, but can also compromise data security. Here’s a list of steps companies can take to ensure sensitive information remains protected and prevent future information breaches from occurring:

Data encryption is one of the easiest ways to ensure sensitive information is kept private. Data encryption helps keep information secure, prevents companies from losses incurred from security breaches and noncompliance fines. To secure information, there are a number of different data encryption software solutions on the market, as well, it might be wise to invest in encrypted USB keys to avoid situations such at the UHN incident above. There are various levels of encryption strength, therefore, choose the level of encryption appropriate for the type of information on the server. Develop a policy for password strength. Longer passwords that contain a variety of numerical, symbol, upper and lowercase letter characters are more difficult to crack.

Restrict access to information based on an individual’s role within a company. This helps reduce the spread of information and the risk of information landing in the wrong hands. If certain projects require access to information for a specific period of time, provide employees with access to the information but restrict immediately after the project is completed.

As with every other program or workplace procedure, train and reinforce data security protocols within the workplace. Effective training includes information on the risks and effects of information security breaches, the importance of following internal procedures to protect the privacy of information, as well as the various ways information security can be compromised. Training programs and procedures must be evaluated and updated on a regular basis to reflect new information related to security threats and laws. As mentioned at the beginning of this post, it’s important to ensure that each employee follows the established procedures and completes all of the steps necessary to ensure private information remains secure. Tailor training programs to different roles within the organization in order to address the different information security challenges throughout the entire organization. Every employee is responsible for ensuring information is kept secure, however, depending on the individual’s role in the company, they may be responsible for a greater number of information security related tasks.

Should an information breach occur, contact the Privacy Commissioner or similar regulatory body depending on the country of operation. In the case of last week’s privacy breach, the UHN failed to report the incident to the commissioner based on the low numbers of compromised files. In the CBC article “Hundreds of Ont. Patient Health Files Stolen,” UHN president and CEO Dr. Bob Bell stated:

“‘There was a decision made that this wasn’t a significant enough breach to warrant informing the commissioner, and I’ve apologized to the commissioner for that,’ he said. He added that it is the UHN’s policy that medical information on any mobile device needs to be encrypted. ‘The employee had not realized that there was personal health information on that USB key,’ said Bell. The network is looking to make some changes to prevent future breaches, including the automatic encryption of any device that gets used by the network, he said.”

i-Sight is a case management software platform designed to simplify your process and provide outstanding reports. It’s primarily configured to manage customer complaints and corrective actions, or employee relations, HR & ethics investigations. It’s also used for a variety of other customized case management solutions. We blog at i-Sight.com, providing advice and tips to HR managers and investigators in regards to managing internal investigations.

Medical Consultation In Bangkok

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 20:15:50 +0000

Medical consultation in Bangkok, Thailand caters to the diverse needs of patients. Apart from the top-class facilities offered to patients of local origin, most hospitals cater to foreign patients and are very well equiped to handle patients with world class medical expertise.
For instance, it is comparatively easy to take an MRI of your brain of limbs if you want, while at least in some so called developed countries in Europe, this is not always the case. If you undergo some surgery, even if it requires epidural anesthesia the procedures you go through are very well arranged, and you will feel in safe hands altogether when going for treatment.
Medical consultation in Bangkok includes specialized centers that come complete with the most contemporary diagnostic and treatment methods. They also have specialists ranging from pediatrics to geriatrics, neurology to cardiology, and ophthalmology to treatments for sports-related injuries.
In 2000, the Bangkok Heart Institute was the first in Thailand to offer off-pump surgery and minimally invasive cardiac surgery which reduces wound size and time needed for the surgical procedures, leading to faster recovery for the patient.
For emergency coronary cases, a mobile Coronary Care Unit was launched in 2003 to bridge a critical gap in general ambulance service. The only unit of its kind in Thailand, it is staffed by an experienced coronary doctor and two nurses to attend chronic heart patients en route to the hospital.
The doctor may not be available all the time as can be seen in Europe or the U.S. ,but the nursing staff will give you all the attention you require, to such an extent that it might be tough to get a good sleep in hospital, because they will monitor you around the clock to check on your condition.
The cost of treatment looks to be well calculated, and not at random. You will be informed before treatment of the resulting price and you pay in advance. There is a possibility for small extra costs or reimbursements and they can be settled before discharge.
The fees of the doctors are not notably less, even though less than what you would spend in Europe and surely the U.S. You will be astonished when you hear the low costs for nursing care, the room etc.
Calculate your room and nursing costs for almost 3,000 to 6,000 baht per day only. So if you are puzzled and uneasy departing the hospital soon, and being rooted to your hotel room, just try to delay your departure from the hospital a little, where you do not have to be to be too much concerned, in the event some additional problem surfaces.
Outpatient treatment is also well arranged in most hospitals in Bangkok. At least here you are not required to pay in advance. The doctor’s fee is also very affordable and will be in the 500 to 800 bath range. Regarding of the other services fees, a standard chest X-ray costs about 250 baht, electrocardiogram 500 baht, MRI (including radiologist fee) about 10,000 baht, standard blood examination (including lipid profile) about 3000 to 4000 baht.
Apart from having up-to-date facilities and offering a calm and peaceful environment, medical consultation in Bangkok offers enviable traffic control in almost all parts of the region. Bangkok provides you quick and easy access and excellent transportation facilities.
Reaching almost every hospital from most roads in Bangkok is relatively easy. Besides the superb facilities for the vehicles, Bangkok also sincerely attempts to provide attractive service for pedestrians as well even if they are crossing a road or doing something else.
Medical consultation in Bangkok has few peers when it comes to providing top-class medical treatment, in Asia.

Bangkok Hospital – 36 years of advanced medical technology and expertise, complemented with Thai hospitality and compassionate care. Includes the world-renowned Bangkok Heart Hospital and specializing in oncology, neurology and orthopedics. Some of the worlds most advanced minimally invasive diagnostics and treatment procedures are in place.

Issues For Building E-Solution: The Boon For The Future?health!

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 12:08:05 +0000

Abstract

The health care management is a critique for the coming phase of era, where every time a new decease, new viruses, high pollution, high food adulteration and new chemicals make the environment very critical to survive a human being. In this type of situation only the fast growing technology of IT and booming of internet with the medical technology can definitely helps to both normal persons and patients for taking care of health.

This article includes all the necessary aspects, which should be considered when we are going to build E- commerce solutions for ehealth care system e.g. selecting the best technology, business model , application model and software engineering issues etc. This also deals with, how this E-health care system can adopt the innovation in health care world? This also deals with the aspects of health care management where E-commerce must be used which can change the ratio of perfect treatment e.g. taking health care of newly discharged patients who are not able to come regularly until his/her fitness. They can online check their health statistics, consults with his/her doctor and order the medicines etc.

The topics which are included this article focusing on:

1) Choosing the best suitable technology and tools.

2) Considering the different health care issues and managing techniques.

3) Updating with the new information of medical world.

4) Connecting the patients with the consultants and hospitals.

5) Tacking feedback for improvement.

6) E-Solution building blocks.

7) Management of E solution.

1. Introduction

The patient safety highly depended on the community of care. Informational continuity, management continuity, and relational continuity were raised to categorize different sort of needs on continuity. In the case of our discussion only the issues for development and management are considered. As an important component of social security system, health care system plays a vital role in promoting social stability and reflecting the fairness of the system.

Diverse and typical health care systems are formed in different countries, based on different national conditions and human rights situation, as well as historical and cultural differences. Health care system seems most complicate and difficult to control among all social security systems, and its setting and performance concerns all of us. Health care system includes free medical services, medical insurances, medical assistance, and so on. In many countries across the world, it becomes a basic social and economic system.Professionals still need to address the issue of efficient electronic medical records. Thus, real-time information presents a persistent challenge to the emergency response community. In emergency situations, particularly with unconscious, incoherent and unaccompanied patients, providing emergency physicians with a patient’s accurate medical history could be the difference between life and death.

2. Technological and Managerial Issues

When, we are going to develop the e-solution for health care system then we choose any according to the requirement. we can select the suitable technology from available e.g. for development of e-solutions the Ms.NET platform is best for care management but when we concern about more security and overload, we can go for j2ee technologies, for the automatic equipment we can use advanced technologies of robotics and neural networks.   Some available tools and technologies are described bellow:

Defined technological issues in Wikipedia:

Electronic Healthcare Records : enable easy communication of patient data between different healthcare professionals (GPs, specialists, care team, pharmacy).

Telemedicine: includes all types of physical and psychological measurements that do not require a patient to travel to a specialist. When this service works, patients need to travel less to a specialist or conversely the specialist has a larger catchment area.

Consumer Health Informatics: (or citizen-oriented information provision): both healthy individuals and patients want to be informed on medical topics.

Health knowledge management (or specialist-oriented information provision): e.g. in an overview of latest medical journals, best practice guidelines or epidemiological tracking. Examples include physician resources such as Medscape and MDLinx.

Virtual healthcare teams: consist of healthcare professionals who collaborate and share information on patients through digital equipment (for transmural care).

mHealth or m-Health: includes the use of mobile devices in collecting aggregate and patient level health data, providing healthcare information to practitioners, researchers, and patients, real-time monitoring of patient vitals, and direct provision of care (via mobile telemedicine).

Medical research uses eHealth Grids that provide powerful computing and data management capabilities to handle large amounts of heterogeneous data.

Healthcare Information Systems: also often refer to software solutions for appointment scheduling, patient data management, work schedule management and other administrative tasks surrounding health. Whether these tasks are part of eHealth depends on the chosen definition, they do, however, interface with most eHealth implementations due to the complex relationship between administration and healthcare at Health Care Providers.

RAFID:The RFID technology has penetrated the healthcare sector due to its increased functionality, low cost, high reliability and easy-to-use capabilities.RFID-based system architecture and data model that would provide efficient means to perform essential information management for emergency care across hospital and country boundaries.

Wireless sensor networks by JTH: The purpose of this project is to integrate the technologies of wireless sensor networks and public communication networks to construct a healthcare system for senior citizens at home without interfering their daily activities.

3. Connecting People with Innovation

First thing is to make people known with the technologies and promoting the e-solutions. So that we can facilitate people and can change the system of medical science for the best support for the health of people. In India there are so many rural areas that are not aware of these innovations. If we pay attention then we can see if field of medical science and hospitality there is no very good services and also the patients have to pay lot of money (or fee).

Defiantly when we will use the IT technologies in this field we can provide the drastic change in health of people.

4. Management Activities in Health Care

The major concerns of the management in health care are patient safety, service quality and risk management. When, we are going to develop an e-solution for health care first we have to categories the field and type of services. The system may be for: Home health care application, use of health smart card system, An RFID-based System for Emergency Health Care Services, Cross-Domain Communication of Health Care Units and Climate Impact of Material Consumption in the Health etc.

Major management concerns are:

emphasis on managing chronic conditions,

implants, embedded medication).

5. E-Solution Building concerns

The e-solutions building blocks for any type of system must have the following blocks:

6. Concluding remark

Today we see an increasing interest in developing technical solutions, by academics and industry alike, to problems associated with healthcare delivery. The

problem is technically challenging and socially important. A fundamental challenge for work in this

area is the scale of the undertaking: in order to develop realistic solutions an interdisciplinary team is required. Furthermore, in the case of developing integrated home-care solutions (as our Smart Condo project aims to be), substantial physical resources are required. This requirement for substantial up-front investment makes the need for systematic software-engineering methods, tailored to the area, even more pressing.

7. Future Scope

Now this time of age many developed countries uses the EHR (Electronic Hospital Report)and EMR(Electronic Medical Reports), no hand written report is allowed but they are facing personal issues of doctor and patients etc. but this system will definitely change the scenario of health care and make the perfect treating and cure very fast in very effective way.

10. References

[1]       E-commerce Systems Architecture and applications By: Rajput, WasimPublished By: Artech House

[2]           E-Health care information system

By Joseph K. H. Tan

[ 3 ]         IEEE: http://www.computer.org

[ 4 ]         E-learning for health care: http://www.e-lfh.org.uk

[ 5 ]         http://www.ebenefitsinc.com.

[ 6 ]         World Health Organization, 2003. Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health.

http://www.who.int/hpr/NPH/docs/gs_diabetes.pdf,

Mohammad Azam

MCA, BCA

contact 9911937244

Android?IT services, sector-11, noida

Informations About Medications for Arthritis

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 07:11:03 +0000

Narcotic Pain Relievers

Narcotic pain relievers help with pain but don’t relieve joint inflammation. Often they are combined with Tylenol (acetaminophen) or an NSAID to enhance their effects. You can develop dependency on narcotic drugs, and they can cause constipation, urinary problems, and sedation.

Hyaluronan Injections

There are several versions of hyaluronan injections — also called viscosupplementation — that are used to treat osteoarthritis of the knee. They are injected directly into the joint. They can help reduce the pain in a knee affected by osteoarthritis, increasing mobility and allowing more activity.

Osteoporosis

All corticosteroids slow bone growth and create conditions that lead to osteoporosis, a disease process that results in reduction of bone mass. Compression fractures of the vertebrae can happen with long-term corticosteroid use. Men and women past menopause are most likely to develop osteoporosis. Your doctor may recommend that you take calcium and vitamin D pills while you take corticosteroids.

Chemotherapy Medications

Chemotherapy, traditionally used as cancer treatment, helps people with certain inflammatory and autoimmune diseases because it slows cell reproduction and decreases certain products made by these cells that cause an inflammatory response to occur. The doses of medication used for rheumatic or autoimmune conditions are lower than the doses used for cancer treatment.

Anti-Inflammatory Painkillers (NSAIDs)

These drugs, both over-the-counter and prescription can be used to relieve the symptoms of arthritis (joint swelling, stiffness, and pain). Almost everyone with arthritis has taken or is taking one of these drugs.

Methotrexate:

Methotrexate is a new usage of a very old medication. In general it is given by “modified pulse” with 3 to 9 tablets administered weekly. Methotrexate should only be given by those physicians who are knowledgeable and experienced in its usage. The use of Methotrexate involves periodic monitoring for toxicity. Monitoring should include complete blood counts with differential and platelet counts. It should also involve liver and renal function tests. Patients who are at increased risk for impaired Methotrexate elimination (i.e., patients with kidney problems) should be monitored more frequently.

Rheumatoid Arthritis

The tried-and-true anti-inflammatory medications can relieve pain, improve daily function, reduce joint swelling and tenderness, and improve range of motion — and that’s all good. “All my patients take these drugs,” Kavanaugh says.

But there’s so much more. In the past two decades, drugs that target the immune system have become a backbone of treatment. A class of drugs called disease-modifying antirheumatic drugs (DMARDs) is able to alter the course of rheumatoid arthritis by suppressing or interfering with the immune activity that attacks joints.

Corticosteroids:

Corticosteroids are among the most potent of the anti-inflammatory agents. However they have a high incidence of toxicity and may not change the course of rheumatoid arthritis. They should only be used in patients with activie synovitis in many joints. These medications are useful in incapacitating constitutional symptoms such as fever, anemia, weight loss, neuropathy and vasculitis (blood vessel inflammation

Plaquenil:

Plaquenil or hydroxychloroquine is an anti-malarial agent with anti-inflammatory properties in rheumatoid arthritis. Like gold it is used in those patients who fail to respond to a conservative regimen including rest, salicylates and/or other nonsteroidal anti- inflammatory drugs. These are given orally. Ophthalmologic monitoring is necessary to check for visual loss at an early reversible stage. Patients should be seen by their eye doctors a minimum of once a year. This therapy should be discontinued if any eye problems are related to the medication.

Read about Herbal Natural Home Remedies and Girls Discussion Forum. Also read about Beauty and Makeup Tips

Medical Business Cards for All Healthcare Practitioners

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 18:06:26 +0000

You’re probably used to seeing or even keeping several medical business cards of doctors, one from your cardiologist, another from your dermatologist, dentist, ear eyes nose throat doctor, surgeon, and the list goes on. Some doctors even have several business card sets, one from the hospital, one for the clinic and one personal business card set. If you are a healthcare practitioner and you want to have your own set of business cards just like them, you can get one through online printing. Professionals in the fieldThere are a number of people involved in the medical field, not just the doctors. There are nurses, dieticians, physical therapists, speech therapists, occupational therapists and even caregivers. You may be working alongside the doctors or your profession may require you to work closely with a few. If you have been wanting to have your own business cards to help you network better in your field, you may do so. Getting help with the designSome printing companies offer pre-designed business card templates that can help you with this printing project. The beauty of this is that it’s free, both the use of the design program and the use of the templates. If you are still not familiar with the design process and printing needs for business, here are the details you need to know:

Once you have had your medical business cards printed, always keep a sufficient supply in your wallet or desk. Your business cards can present opportunities for you to gain connections in the medical industry, or for those who provide supplementary treatments like therapy, you may have more clients upon the recommendation of the connections you make. Reach out to more people so you can help address their medical needs.

This composition is projected to give the readers information about business cards and on how it can help you in your marketing needs. For more topics and tips about business cards printing please refer to Online Printing – U Printing

APPRAISAL OF INDIAN SITUATION- EFFECTIVE UTILISATION OF ICT IN INDIAN PERSPECTIVE

Mobile Software Medical Admin — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 16:13:20 +0000

Today we are living in the age of information, and communication where the information societies are rapidly transforming themselves from information society to knowledge society. Information society or rather its Japanese term “Johoka Shokai”, was perceived by the Japanese writer, Yoneji Masuda, “as a society, which would eventually move to a point at which the production of information values became the formative force for the development of the society.”

               In India the significance of communication in equipping people with new information and skills; and mobilizing them for their willful participation in various development programmes and activities has been well recognized and emphasized in the country’s blueprint policy i.e the five year plans. Communication is fun, Communication is power, Communication is money and Communication is intelligence today. So a country’s growth, cultural moorings, its inner strength and competitive edge all depend greatly on communication power. In the recent years the country is on the threshold of a new communication revolution of which satellite, TV, Video are major manifestations. In this information age from high frequency wireless communication to digital compression technology, to microwave communication to silicon chips, satellite communication, optic fibers, telematics, computer graphics, Internet, world wide web, Internet protocol TV(IPTV),interactive TV(ITV),digital audio broadcasting(DAB),multimedia and so on, there is no stopping and no looking back. Communication wise the whole world is technically knit together and with the constraints of time and distance disappearing, it has been possible for humanity at large to be integrated at intellectual, economic, cultural and emotional levels, by sharing a global commonwealth of human resources, transforming the whole world virtually into a ‘global village’.



NEW COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES-Different Perspectives And Significance

            The concept of global village by Marshall McLuhan is becoming increasingly interconnected by communication technologies that is gradually defining the way we look at the world. The Gutenberg era is over. A new digital communications technology has emerged. An electronic superhighway is beginning to girdle the globe as voice, video and data converge bringing in the wake a new basket of digital multimedia and interactive communications technologies. New technologies such as Global Satellite of Mobile communications(GSM),General Packet Radio service(GPRS), Teletext, Videotex, Virtual Private Network(VPN), Wi-Fi, Coded Division Multiple Access(CDMA) etc are gaining wide acceptance due to several advantages like–



Marriage of mediums or rather, Convergence is today a reality and India is fast waking up to the digital era, re-shaping the way the individuals and organisations produce, process, market, collaborate and share information. The launch of paid Internet radio services on Yahoo! And Rediff.com, Edge, Third Generation(3G) and Bluetooth, Internet on TV, are some of the new technologies that have been used for the benefit of mankind. At the same time ,there is an increasing demand from consumers for data delivery, telephony services, global roaming, e-mail, video and Internet access on one single device. These needs have resulted in global standards that are more open, making available the vast knowledge base and providing substantial increase in productivity, a better quality of life, enhancements in education and recreation and cross cultural understanding.

COMMUNICATIONS SCENARIO: Then And Now

                        Coming to the access of these new technologies, no wonder it can be safely said that the Indian middle class have moved at a much faster pace than expected. If you still deny than consider the communications scenario.

Within a decade the average citizen owns a private telephone, television and personal computer. In addition to these ,telephone and Internet access is increasingly provided by phone booths and cyber cafes situated in public places. In 1947 it, when India gained independence, it had only 84000 telephone lines, to reach out to a population of 300 million. By 1999,India had an installed network of over 25 million telephone line, spread over 300 cities, 4869 towns and 310897 villages, making India’s telecommunication network the 9th largest in the world. Another most successful achievement was the introduction of mobile telephone services in 1995, along with pager services. By 1998,India had one million cell phone users in its four metropolitan cities, with 45% in Delhi followed by Mumbai 35%,Calcutta 12% and Chennai 8%.Another 500000 or so existed in towns and cities. Previously the use of cell phone was restricted only among the urban elites, corporate leaders and business professionals, but currently the omni presence of rural phone in rural setting is also very much conspicuous. These services satisfies the strong cultural need of the pan Indian to keep constantly in touch with the family members. For a vegetable seller in a remote village of Karnataka, uses his mobile phone ,to supply and take orders for his customers, who lives in far off villages. He has no pucca house, nor he has any pucca shop. What he has is a small make shift shop, a two wheeler moped and a Nokia 1100 mobile phone. Again Yashwant Singh a villager in Hoshiarpur of Punjab, owner of several trucks, has purchased cell phone for his truck drivers, to keep with them in constant touch. Many well to do farmers in India often own mobile phones keeping in touch with block and district level officials, checking market information, scheduling transportation, pick ups and so forth. Many mobile users access mobiles for listening to FM radio or MP3 DVD player,capturing images and videos and simultaneously transfer them via infrared or Bluetooth to other mobile users,use multimedia through 3G(Third Generation),send SMS and MMS playgames and various other purposes.

                    The traditional sectors like radio and television have also undergone functional displacement, owing to the changing times and needs. DTH (Direct to Home) technology which takes cross border satellite programmes direct to viewers homes without the intervention of cable operators, is the future of TV.DTH TV is digital and interactive and offers up to a hundred subscription channels. Also development of radio has taken giant strides in the past few years. Satellite radio was a major innovation ,followed by Podcasting , which is currently riding high on the success of Apple computers ipod. Technically speaking Ipod are basically digital basic (MP3)players with local storage and Internet connectivity-the latter is required for downloading audio and other files from web servers via RSS or XML protocol. Podcasters are like web loggers ,amateurs who create radio like programs of commentary, music and humour, save them in MP3 audio format and post them as websites which are ipod enabled. Then there is Digital Audio Broadcasting which consists in combining a series of services into a frequency band called a base group, enabling a multiplex bit stream to be created in which services of all shapes and sizes can be transmitted, thus providing perfect sound quality, free of interference, capable of serving a mobile audience.

                     In the case of personal computers, one important factor promoting the diffusion of personal computers, in India, in the late 1990s was the rise of various financing schemes. More and more middle class could purchase computers. Till 2000 a typical Pentium II desktop computer cost about 50000,which was quite a heavy burden upon the middle class. But the things changed with the alternative model of an assembled piece where the consumer brought the computer home, by choosing the specific configaration of a computer-like the speed and amount of ram, modem speed, speakers and monitors etc. and surprisingly all this within a very affordable range. Now the situation has changed to such an extent that even branded laptops are available for rs 30000.the enthusiasm for the computers was immediately visible through the internet. Cyber cafes were quick to catch the pulse of the market and in 1995 after Internet connectivity was made available to the individuals and the organisations, on a commercial basis, cyber cafes sprang up to add zeal..These cafes unleashed opportunities before an individual. It enabled an individual to log on to the net, surf it, play games, watch video, e-mail, chat,e-shop for Rs10/-15/per hour. Initially urban centric now it has spread its wings to rural areas too, by upgrading themselves into ICC(Internet Community Centres ), providing net surfing, net telephony, telephone, multimedia, video conferencing and photocopying services all in one.

                           Further the Internet gave rise to an era of e-business-both e-marketing and e-commerce. E-marketing requires the use of the Internet to market ones products and services, and e-commerce is commercial transactions between two parties on the Internet. In India though these concepts are relatively new, yet many individuals and organisations are entering into these business as they are time saving, cost effective and most important of all ensures 100% transparency and improves efficiency. The age old concept of middle class, underhand activities and unethical practices and unjustified harassments are gradually being overcome by these e-business. Some of these e-business companies who have establised themselves as a reputed brand name in the international arena are Metal Junction Services limited, e-bay, Amazon.com, Aditya Birla, IFB, Dell, etc. Today the Internet is accessed via cable TV, telephone, mobile phones, palm tops, and DTH apart from the conventional computers.

(DIAGRAM IN THE LAST PAGE)



CASE STUDY 1

Andhra Pradesh has already implemented four e-governance initiatives, adopting the old and new technologies like –

?      CARD-Computer Aided Administration of Registration Department

This enables a person regarding registration of land ,purchasing of land,ascertaining marketing value,transfer duty,etc. that which took earlier days and hours,now took only 15 mins.

?      APSCAN-Andhra Pradesh State Secretariat Administrative Network.

?      APSWAN-Andhra Pradesh State Wide Network

Both of these networks help in interaction among the villagers ,government officials, block development officers, chief minister, state secretariats, and the extension agents through video conferencing.

?      TWINS-Twin Cities Network Services

This services is provided to the two cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Here the citizens are provided all kinds of services like-electricity bill, phone bill, driving license, holding tax,insurance claim-all under one roof.

CASE STUDY 2

              In a rural country like India, health remains a perennial problem. But Maharashtra has achieved astounding success in routing information to the villagers not only health conscious but also avail them of all those benefits of doctors and medicines, that their urban counterparts are habituated to enjoy. Its a dose of e-medicine for rural folks across the state. The doctors and experts together treats patients in the remote interiors of Maharashtra via satellite. Civic authorities ISRO (Indian Space Research Organization) and state officials have joined hands to make success their project. Here the patients in the rural areas get easy access to the modern facilities without having to travel long distance and spending big bucks. Thus the patients and the physicians in distant areas remain in constant touch via telecom network.

CASE STUDY 3

               Recent government records show that more than 25% ( 59 million school-aged children ) are still not enrolled in a school. Despite these poor figures in education , India has highly competent human resources as also a strong base in ICT, which if utilized to its maximum capacity in future , India will be among the topmost Asian countries. the Bridges to the Future Initiative –India ( BFI) seeks to improve the basic skills, literacy and entry in vocational skills of out-of-school youth and young adults in poor communities in several Indian states. to achieve these goals , the BFI employs innovative and cost-effective ICT tools and methodologies to improve the quality of teaching, learning in basic and vocational education and to assist community members in obtaining information resources that can improve their daily lives. At the official level , the BFI is situated under the patronage of MHRD and state education agencies ( initially Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, where formal MOU’s are signed in May 2001.).

INDIA’S INFORMATISATION PROCESS

                  India’s informatisation process started in 1990,which accompanied by the liberalisation , globalisation and privatisation policy, opened up borders for several MNC’s like McDonalds, Reebok,Pepsi,Coke etc. And also encouraged individuals to come forward to set up their own private organisation. The NEP (New Economic Policy) by Manmohan Singh reflected Indias enthusiasm to pursue an informatisation route. Prior to this Rajiv Gandhi government instituted favourable policies in electronics, software and telecommunications and pushed for the application of information technology in computerising the Indian railways reservation system,banks and land records. During his tenure, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), The Centre for the Development of Advancement Computing(C-DAC)) and the NIC(National Informatics Centre) were established. Also he invited Texas instruments,GE, and Hewlett Packard triggering the rise of Bangalore Technopolis. Further the establisment of a National Task Force in 1998 in the Atal Behari Vajpayee,regime under the co-chairmanship of AP’s the then chief minister Chandra Babu Naidu was a watershed event in India’s road to informatisation. Its action plan made 108 recommendations on ways of utilising technologies for socio-economic development,it recommended the privatisation of internal services,the waiver of license fees for private Internet, service providers allowing ever cable operators and ISD/STD booth operators to use their infrastructure to enhance Internet access and zero duty on all it products by 2002 ad .It further recommended that software and IT be treated as a priority sector by banks for five years and that students, teachers and schools be offered computers at reduced prices. The task force wanted every ISD/STD booth in the country to be turned into an information kiosk providing access to the Internet and related services like e-mail. More over in 1999,it introduced an IT bill in parliament for facilitating e- commerce and e-business activities and created a 25 million venture capital fund to fuel computer start ups.

Not surprisingly some of the famous and richest IT Indians are Aziz Premzi (Wipro), N R Narayanmurthy (Infosys), Vinod Khosla (co-founder of Sun Microsystems) , Sabeer Bhatia(co-founder of hot mail) and Sam Pitroda,who had spearheaded the country’s communication revolution to a large extent.

From the above situation one can summarise the India’s informatisation effort-

?      India has vast potential to compete with world’s best -Japan,Germany,U.S,and U.K .The rich resources,huge talent and billion population should be tapped by the Indian government and thus facilitate innovation, enterpreneurship and creativity, rather than stiffling it or creating barriers like red tapism, bureaucratic hassles in approval and licenses. India’s enthusiasm and zeal should motivate young enterpreneurs to come forward and be an active member in the participatory process for socio-economic development in the country. Theinformatisation strategy through which an information society emerges centres on new communication technologies, on research universities where technicalbrainpower is trained andresearch anddevelopment is conducted,and on favourable government policies. With this India is poisedto become an it world power.

?      The infrastucture,the economic policy and various other policy and strategies should be directed towards facilitating of India’s communication revolution .For eg the PCO’s, ICC’s, cyber cafes that have come up has not only provided employment to the young people but also has enabled the individuals to empower themselves and others with knowledge and information.

?      Indian personalities should also play a role model for the coming generation. The role of conventional media like radio and TV should be imitated and most importantly folk media should be merged with it to create a far wider acceptance. The DD should be more innovative and the government should ensure the cable TV /DTH participation towards a more socially responsible approach rather than only spinning off money.

With the development of technologies in the past few decades , the role of information and communication technologies(ICT), in improving economic efficiencies and enabling social development . Governments , the private sector and civil society alike note that , ” vast no’s of people are excluded from the benefits of these technologies , in particular people who lack the infrastructure, skills , literacy and knowledge of the dominant internet language-English. They also recognize the opportunities for ICT to bring about change not only to address existing obstacles to the social and economic development of these groups , but also to transform the very systems that create these inequalities in the first place . ICT must be deployed to build an information society where everyone specially disadvantaged women, poor and rural people – can fully participate as citizens and reap the benefits of the information revolution.

According to Robert Schware , lead informatics specialist, the global ICT dep’t, of the World Bank, said-that India did take up over 200 pilot projects in the area of e-governance ; out of which only 100 are worth taking up full scale and can be replicated in other parts of the country. In his answers , to the global scenario in e-governance , he said- “that it is estimated that approximately 85% of e-governance projects in developing countries are total failures, approximately 50% are partial failures, only some 15% can be fully seen as success.” Though he commented that the primary factors for the failures include inability to deliver government services that provide benefit to citizens or business, lack of clarity on business perspective , projects are done in dept-al isolation rather than via a single co-ordination body and lack of political will and leadership and lack of skills in project management among some.

There are many countries that have achieved a reasonable amount of success in their e-government initiatives. For e.g. according to Cap Gemini Ernst & Young consultants , during 2003, Denmark had achieved 72% of government services on line with an 87% score on degree of sophistication. Other countries that have high rate for particular e-government services includes the U.K, Spain, Greece, Finland, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania and Mexico. According to Sudhir Narang, Vice President, government and service provider business , Cisco systems , India & SAARC, ” almost every state has an it policy in place with the aim of evolving itself from being an it aware to an it enabled govt. state govt’s are fast recognizing the benefits of an it-enabled working environment”. Shivaji Chatterjee , senior director , sales and marketing, Hughes Escorts Communication, says ” IT has a vital role to play in all transaction that the govt undertakes. It helps the govt cuts red tapism, avoid corruption, and reach citizens directly.” Adds Rajiv Kaul, MD Microsoft, India –” a strong technology infrastructure can help central and state govts deliver a comprehensive set of services to citizens.” The Karnataka’s govts ‘ Bhoomi’ project has led to the computerization of the countries old system of hand written rural land records. Through it , the revenue Dep’t. has done away with the corruption ridden system that involved bribing at every step. ITC’s E-Choupal unique web based initiative offers farmers the information, products and services they need to enhance productivity , improve farm-gate price realization and cut transaction costs. Farmers can access the latest local and global inform on weather , scientific farming practices, as well as market prices at the village itself through this web portal all in Hindi. The national e-governance plan ( 2003-2007), reflects the strategic intent of the central govt. in the right perspective. In the future State Wide Area Networks (SWAN), & Community Information Centers ( CIC), projects have to be rolled out , backed by a strong Public-Private Participation model( PPP), to achieve long term sustainability. Already the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and national institute of smart government ( NISG) has hosted India’s first S. Asia public sector ICT summit. The theme of the summit was ‘ new models for e-govt. in S. Asia and the world’ & was targeted at senior govt & policy makers from the countries in S-Asia including India.

Again if the example of Mizoram , then it can be seen that ever since its inception in 1989, the continuous and tireless efforts of NIC Mizoram have resulted in spreading of ICT culture in the state. NIC along with the government of Mizoram has taken up many initiatives in facilitating and promoting e-governance in various sectors such as transport, land record, public health engineering, accounts and treasuries etc. –

For eg in transport communication ‘ Sarathi’ and ‘Vahan’ provide provide a complete solution for district transport office ( DTO) computerization including registration , licensing, permit and enforcement, tax and fee collection etc. a vehicle statistics information systems has been developed that helps in collection of various reports required annually by state transport authority of Mizoram.

26 CIC ( Community Information Centre) have been established since 2000 which are equipped with computers , VSAT, TV, web cameras, printers, ups etc . Two qualified operators manage these CIC’s , which provide the following services to the people in the far flung and remote areas of the state. E-mailing , web browsing and document priority; imparting IT training to the villagers, students, etc, providing G2C ( government to consumer) services such as support for BPL survey, village council elections, publications of tenders, notifications etc.

PROBLEMS ENROUTE TO INFORMATISATION

Though from the above discussion it might seem that India has successfully become an information society and can be considered for future knowledge society, yet wait before coming to any conclusion .consider these:

?      Although India ranks 18th in the world in terms of usage of TV, radio, and Internet and with an entertainment industry having as size of Rs 14,400 crore in 2000, which is expected to rise to Rs 80,000 crore in 2009,yet amidst the expected fast rate of media development, rural India is marginally affected. Without effective communication no society can be apt enough to adopt dynamic models of development communication. Rural India faces a lot of problem. They are:-

1.     Wide communication gap

2.     Traditional values and attitudes

3.     Large and diverse population

4.     Low socio-economic status

5.     High cost of mass media

6.     Illiteracy

7.     Stereotypes and prejudices

8.     Low motivation

9.     Defective opinion leadership

10. Persuasion difficult

11. Feedback difficult

12. Acute social deformity

                                 In a society where till recently the mother has scarcely spoken ,the wife has spent her life without virtually seeing her husband, loveable children are produced without seeming parental interaction, it is very difficult to consider the meaning of communication and hence such a society demands mutual interaction, literacy dissemination, physical interaction, institutional transmission, political participation and cultural togetherness.

?      Indian media is largely urban centric. All the development that have taken place in the recent years gave rise to a rural urban divide. The important challenge is to reach the unreached and to include the excluded in its efforts to create an information society for all. . Starting by consulting at the grassroots level is essential. Top-down projects generally don’t work. These end up by providing information that people do really need or use at an incomprehensible level of technical detail and terminology.

?      The effective utilization of ICT is still unknown to many. The lack of policy support and political will is also due to lack of awareness of economic, political, and social benefits ICT, can bring. The level of awareness among professionals and decision makers in the region about the role of ICT in development is generally low.

?      Connectivity and access at an affordable cost in the region in particular, in rural and remote areas is still a problem. Computer literacy is low and the common model based on individual computer access in most cases is unfeasible due tohigh computer costs and lack of energy resources. Low cost devices such as handhelds can contribute to mitigating this problem, but they are not available or they do not have any utilityvalue in many rural or marginalized societies. The same applies to other useful communication technologies such as low cost FM radio stations, but here the challenge is often the lack of political will to open the broadcasting sector for communities to own and manage community radio/TV. Even the radio/TV sets provided by the government remain unutilized due to reasons like intermittent electricity supply, want of repair, or inadequate infrastructure.

?      Internet has been largely popular with the people who are well conversant in English. Lack of appropriate local content and diversity in the Internet like local language, local problems and local needs has posed the greatest challenge. Development of local content in many language has been insufficient due to lack of language processing capacity. Tools to capture analogue content into digital form for many Indian languages are yet not available and this has slowed down the digitalization of existing analogue content in text mode and the development of pages enclosing indigenous knowledge. Incapacity to develop local content is equally a challenge for many electronic media and in particular for cultural and educational programmes suitable to local audiences.

?      Lack of software, lack of local trainers capable of imparting various skills related to ICT, content development and media operations a challenge which makes it difficult to extend the information society beyond affluent citizens in the region. Moreover most software’s are prepared by persons who have no knowledge about rural people, they are born and brought up and fed on the contents of Zee, Sony , Star Plus etc. difficulties abound . in one e.g. , the officer involved in computerizing land records in one Indian state recently said more than half of them are either legally contested , or in the names of the dead people , or illegible etc. yet the computerizing of land records is on the agenda of almost every Indian state.

?      The most of the traditional systems have not been exploited fully. Lack of innovativeness and creativity is a major factor. Generally all the programmes are made with the bureaucratic mentality, such that if the programmes are educative , they are boring as they cannot sustain the interest of the viewers for long and if they are entertaining they are not educative. Consequently they lack the personal touch and hence lack credibility. More so with the failure of public service broadcasting, the meaning has lost somewhere in the bureaucratic tangles. The information people initially say they need , may not always be what they end up using . in the M.S. Swaminathan Pondicherry project , for e.g. , male farmers originally said they needed information about agriculture. In fact , their largest single usage of village info. Kiosks was to get information about government programs.

?      India underwent a high degree of change in terms of commercialization and media information. Proper utilization and meaning of information has been distorted to give rise to western media imperialism and consequently the digital divide. The information gap is real and and runs between north-south, rich-poor, young-old, literate- illiterate, rural-urban, and men-women.

?      IT should not be simply identified with computers and internet. Some of the inventive uses of the IT involve radio, television and embedded chips, potentially useful satellite inventories etc. The classic e.g. is the use of automated butterfat assessment equipment in Gujarat , which has radically simplified the process of automating milk and paying diary farmers.

?      Lack of business process modification- in many well meaning projects & duplication of the manual process in the it environment was seen as major reasons for the end users / citizens not associating any value addition with the projects & looked upon e-governance as an unwelcome addition to the hurdles to be crossed before getting the work done. For e.g. in depts. Which maintain land records specially in rural areas the details regarding land ownership ,cropping patterns etc were computerized , but no legal sanctity was given to the output generated by such systems in absence of a commensurate change in the status.

?      More talk than action- lot has been talked about. Seminars , conferences and workshops at national, international, local level has taken place a lot. Various five year plans have been planned. But few actions have taken place in reality so far.

?      Financial sustainability- the goal of financial sustainability is rarely achieved . granting that initial start up costs have to be borne by someone, very few projects even plan for long term sustainability and even fewer achieve it.

?      A successful commercial ict sector does not necessarily trickle down to ordinary Indians. Proposals by state governments to develop it for the masses often place primary emphasis on developing software technology parks , improving education at higher levels of information technology etc. though these goals are praiseworthy , yet there is very little evidence as to the increased growth rate of software industry in relation to improved living conditions, more schools and colleges, better healthcare, eradication of poverty,, more jobs, or any other benefits.

?      Apparently technical decisions concerning it regulation, bandwidth allocation, pricing mechanism, transmission standards etc, can have profound effects on whether or not information technologies benefit ordinary Indians. One case is the requirement that internet service providers guarantee to cover an entire state. This effectively precluded local entrepreneurs from providing internet connectivity in small & medium towns , unlike local initiatives that have helped spread satellite television rapidly in rural India. Analysis of the impact of technological decisions on it for the common man is largely absent.

?      Wiring India- until the cost of last mile of basic devices & of local language software are brought down , the goal of wiring India will remain unachieved . Though low cost technological solution alone cannot solve the problem, but they are requisites for it India.

?      Credibility- one cannot believe in what they are told. A no of projects that are publicized turn out , on a site visit , to have closed, or not yet to be in operation,or to have detoriated from their stated original goals.

PROMISES OF ICT-

At IBM’s India research laboratory , the researchers are trying to develop a mobile software platform, called the ‘ spoken web’, for delivering the above kinds of services to communities in emerging countries . the spoken web is a network of voice sites , which exists and operates on the telephony network rather than the internet. Accessing the spoken web does not require an expensive computer , an internet connection or the ability to read and write . people can browse voicesites by talking to them and traverse from one voicesites from another via voilinks, and even conduct transactions simply by talking. What’s more a phone number can act like a URL in the traditional web , and one does not need a high end mobile device to access the spoken web, a plain old rotary phone can do the job. Interaction with customers and dissemination of government information everything can be possible in the mobile web.

INDIAN KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

                     Even though there are huge disparities en-route to informatisation, India’s focus on growth of the ICT sector has paid rich dividends in terms of export earnings, employment generation and its image of an emerging economy. Large corporations are becoming competitive by deploying enterprise wide solutions to interpret data and make panning and decision making data based. Many have started to feel that the next century will be the century of knowledge. A nation’s ability to convert knowledge into wealth and social good through the process of innovations going to determine its future. The economics of knowledge will dominate the coming century.



                     To meet the twin objective of growth with equity ,knowledge cannot be the prerogative of a few, everyone in the society must have access to knowledge and become knowledge workers. Nations which do not create knowledge societies will vanish into the oblivion. But those that do create knowledge societies will have the potential to lead the world. Now before embarking into a knowledge society , one must first know what is a knowledge society? Creation of a knowledge society should revolve around creating, sharing and using knowledge and information to create wealth and improve the quality of life. Knowledge can be defined as familiarity gained by research and experience, and includes

                      If the Indian society has to become a knowledge society, then it is important that every Indian becomes a knowledge worker. We need to recognize the concept of a knowledge worker in the broadest possible sense .It is not scientists and technologists alone, who will be knowledge workers .Even a farmer can be a knowledge worker, provided he understands the soil that he is sowing his seeds in and how he lives in an information village, where he has the benefit of short and medium range weather forecasting to plan his farming activity and so on.

PRIORITY OF A KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

                     A knowledge society is characterised by new structures of knowledge, methods of dissemination and a technology that permits and sustains unrestricted access to knowledge control over it. Since all human activity uses and creates knowledge, the existing societies are also, in this sense, knowledge societies. Human activity uses and creates knowledge and each society should be characterised and identified by its knowledge base (Lokavidya).



                         The societal transformation has to be through large-scale development in education, health-care, agriculture and governance. These will turn to employment generation, high productivity and rural prosperity. Such models should aim to provide opportunity for rural economic development and prosperity. Youth in the locality could be easily trained to cater to the requirement of IT enabled services. This will also make available place and manpower at very cheaper rates when compared to urban localities. This will also aid in stopping movement of families towards urban localities .More so the model should try to improve the quality of life in rural places. Knowledge powered rural development is a essential need for transforming India into a knowledge power and high bandwidth rural connectivity is the minimum requirement to take education, health care, and economic dynamism to the rural areas. Knowledge society leading to knowledge superpower can prosper and survive only in the environment of economic security and internal security. Nation has to work for transformation into developed India. For eg if people find that they can book railway tickets through the web in a reliable and secure manner , then nobody will take the pains to travel by scooter or the bike.

CASE STUDY 4

The knowledge system for sustainable food security in the villages of Pondicherry has the empowerment of rural women, men and children with information relating to ecological agriculture,economic access and utilisation as its goal. Such a knowledge system is being managed by the local youth at the village knowledge centre from where the computer aided information system is operated. Farmers who are becoming the knowledge workers are also being trained to maintain a “soil health card “to monitor the impact of farming systems on the physical,chemical and microbiological components of soil fertility.

           Enlightened citizens empowered with knowledge will be able to see the crucial link between the 5 E’s namely environment,ecology, economics,equity and ethics. They will then not be guided by misinformation fed by vested interest groups. But they will use their knowledge to decide on their own as to what is wrong and what is right. They will not stop projects that lead to economic development but they will stop those that lead to destruction .

CASE STUDY 5

     ICT policy of Malaysia

Malaysia being a middle income economy is able to shift from agrarian society in a single generation(during 60’s to 80’s).ICT has played a dual role in the development of Malaysia, one in product sector and another one   as a strategic enabler. Malasia took two major initiatives to address both the issues of economic competitiveness and social equality, such as Multimedia Super Corridor(MSC) targeting economic development and National Information Technology Agenda(NITA) targeting social development. In 1996 National Information Technology Council (NITC was formed in 1994) came out with national IT agenda , with a people centred approach to development. Ita was operationalised with five e-trusts model. They are e-economy,e-public services, e-community, e-learning,and e- sovereignity.

   Access to knowledge can impact effectiveness when individuals feel enriched (with new ideas, solutions to problems) and are able to seek information at the time and place where it is needed. Thus knowledge management initiatives should supplement traditional networking through face to face contact. The rural populace lacks the life skills required to filter through the vast information available on the Internet and identify information most relevant to them. The role of intermediaries in interpreting the information needs of rural communities ,collecting the information from public domain sources and dissemination of the information in local text and idiom is very important, as has been demonstrated in pilots in Kothamale and in Pondicherry.

  STEPS NEEDED FOR FULL PROOF KNOWLEDGE SOCIETY

?      Creation of IT mind set in India-

Information and technology are moving so fast that it has been impossible for general public to keep a tab on the events. There is a need for awareness of it among the people and its utilisation. For e.g. many people though know what is Internet, they dabble with only its minimal applications whereas it has far reaching and in-depth utilisation and impact.

?      Promoting development of an enabling policy environment-

To be a knowledge society India needs to develop holistic national policy promoting an enabling environment for a knowledge society for all .In the policy development process special efforts should be taken to address to equitable access, human resources, and application development. Also the linkages between the knowledge society and media and in particular public service broadcasting as a conduit for educational and cultural content should be addressed as an integral part of the policy formulation process and media law revisions .In formulating policy India should encourage transparent dialogue with all the members including the civil society ,communities and private and public sector agencies.

?      Promoting equitable access-

India should promote shared access through community multimedia centres and conduct assessment of current access models. India should support innovations in low cost community access targeted specially at marginalised groups. With the possibility to use ICT, librarians and archivists offer great potential as knowledge workers. Many libraries and archives in the region do not provide online access to their readers .Libraries if properly equipped with ICT ,can become for many people an effective gateway to the information society.

?      Enhancing knowledge management capacity-

The process of knowledge management for both content and availability is an essential part of modernisation. Human resource development in information management for knowledge workers should take a central place in India’s communication and information programme. To support capacity building, particularly in the area of human resource development,India should provide training of local trainers in the fields of ICT at various levels. Also India should promote specialised training programmes for disadvantaged groups to reap the benefits of ICT particularly in ICT enabled learning and enterpreneurial opportunities.

?      Developing appropiate content

India to promote appropiate content development ,should rely on creating proactive partnerships with extension services (education,agriculture,health),government agencies,non-governmental agencies,media organisations,and professional organistions. It should be geared towards the ethos and relevance of the local people,and their problems and needs. The universal access cannot be achieved without promoting multilingualism in cyberspace. India should also motivate and support the efforts of public institutes and universities to identify and promote technologies and tools capable of digitizing local contents.

?      Developing Public Service Broadcasting

India should continue to harness the potential educational and cultural role of Public Service Broadcasting and need for public service broadcasting to reposition itself to fulfill this function. The challenge to transform public service broadcasting as a democratic platform and an enabling tool for masses to migrate into an eventual knowledge society remains relevant. This is more so with the potential to use broadcasting as a disseminating technology for distance learning in remote rural areas with the possibility of simultaneous data casting of distance learning modules. Repositioning Public Service Broadcasting to act as an interface to bring benefits of ICT to the greatest number of people is a real challenge. India in collaboration with the partners should strive to introduce sharing of high quality educational content through the public service broadcasting systems .There is also a need to ensure a greater gender balance and to supporting media training for women.

?      Promoting community radio

The central public interest principle in broadcasting is that of universal access. This principle of access should allow people to participate meaningfully in their community and society. It also includes greater access to the means of production and participating in broadcasting. Community owned and operated radio networks can make radio a truly participatory communication tool. Community radio

Community radio also has the potential to act as an interface between communities and internet. Converting community radio into multimedia centres with access to information networks should be main thrust of India’s approach to promote community radio.

?      Regional flagship programmes

India should establish regional flagship programmes.

CASE STUDY 6

E-SEVA project of Andhra Pradesh-

From a mere 4,800 transactions a month in august 2001 to a whooping 7.5 lakh transactions a month in February 03, e-seva , Andhra Pradesh , G2C ( Government to citizen) utilities service project has come of age , offering nearly 43 services ranging from payment of utility bills to issuing of certificates, permits to licenses, reservation of buses to B2C services.

CASE STUDY 7

The project SAUKARYAM

Saukaryam in Vishakapatnam is among the few projects using the net effectively to connect citizens to civic administration in real time. People can settle their bills online , check the status of building and water supply plans , receive information on births and deaths, track garbage clearance , even scan tender notices. The idea behind the project is to track every service that is offered by the corporation online; from taxation to public works to city sanitation. Also it offers a discussion forum for people.

CONCLUSION

Though India can boast of an informatisation process which is going down well, yet it would be blunderous on its part to get smugged off easily with its partially achieved success. The problems which are seemingly appearing minuscule, are only the tip of an iceberg, which urgently requires timely intervention, before it assumes gigantic proportion. Instead of resting on its laurels , the government should take note of the loopholes in the machinery itself, which affect seriously the vision of this project.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

  1.”Within a decade….family members”, India’s communication revolution-from bullock carts to cyber marts—Everett M Rogers and Arvind Singhal—Sage Publications.

2. “In the case of personal computers….affordable range”. India’s communication revolution-from bullock carts to cyber marts—Everett M Rogers and Arvind Singhal—Sage Publications.

1.. Case Study 1,—-India’s communication revolution-from bullock carts to       cyber marts—Everett M Rogers and Arvind Singhal—Sage Publications.

2. Communication revolution—Kewal J Kumar.

3.www.bsnl.in

A First class Third Post Graduate in Mass Communication from The University of Burdwan, currently working as a Sr Lecturer in the Department of Media Science , teaching Marketing Communications in DSMS (Durgapur Society Of Management Sciences).Also worked as Lecturer in Department of Media Science in NSHM Institute of Media?Communications, teaching Advertising, Branding and Marketing . A NET qualified MARCOM Specialist, I started my career as a Guest Faculty in The University of Burdwan and Michael Madhusudan Memorial College, Durgapur. With?six years of teaching experience I have wide exposures in presenting papers in conferences and seminars, and writing in various research journals and books related to branding, Advertising, PR and Marketing.My domain knowledge spans from Advertising, Marketing and Corporate communications, in short Marcomm. I have attended and presented papers in seminars and conferences of national and international repute on Branding and Marketing. I have published papers on branding in the research journal of the University of Burdwan and ICFAI Journal of Brand Management. One of my research article is published in the executive MBA Book, of ICFAI, in September 2008.