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Digital Panchayat - Local Area Portal (LAP)
Concept
A project by Digital Empowerment
Foundation, New Delhi
Implemented in Maharashtra
by SMSONE Media Services Pvt Ltd & Mobile Media Association
in association with Deshbhakta Balasaheb Bharade Institute
of Information Technology,Pune
“A comprehensive web
portal for any local area, community/ panchayat or constituency
or a tehsil serves the essential purpose of enabling greater
connectivity with local, national and international community
for the local citizens of the concerned area. What is more
important is such a provision helps in ensuring an easy access
of knowledgeable resources through two-way information sources,
both push and pull information, that shall cater to the need
of the daily requirements and livelihood of so many people”.
A Local Area Portal (LAP) is a central place that integrates
various information sources and services in a two way direction
(push and pull) for the overall benefit of the local community
or communities for whom it is meant as well as serve the needs
of other stakeholders at the local, state, national and international
level. At the same time it a gateway to the World Wide Web!
A LAP is a rich source of information, communication and knowledge
that provides mulitiple advantages to the local people. Information
on local administration, government schemes, tenders, notices,
email services, health, education, local trade and commerce,
local news, proves immense to the community men and women
and using them for their development and empowerment. Such
an online interface helps in bringing together the people’s
representatives and their electorate close to solve their
grievances.
A LAP is a window to the world to showcase and express its
resources, strengths, challenges, issues, to the wider national
and international community. It is the cover face in representing
the local community in its historical, cultural, economic,
political, and natural manifestations.
A LAP shall take care of information required that are very
important and very much relevant to the people and local community.
The prime objective shall be to ensure any local area and
community an information rich society with all the relevant
contents. Any LAP project is indeed an effort to break the
information barrier.
Taking the spirit of the power of Local Content/Knowledge
to the next level of nationalization and globalization, in
order to bring the urban economy to the local level and create
holistic development of entrepreneurship through local human
skills and knowledge, creation of a comprehensive Local Area
Portal can play a pivotal role of poverty alleviation and
creation of glocal (global + local) economy.
About 100 villages in Maharashtra would be on web by the end
of August 2008.
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