Freelance Writer / broadcaster

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Lalbazar Srinagar(Kashmir), Jammu and Kashmir, India
A freelance journalist /broadcaster /sports reporter and scriptwriter from Jammu&Kashmir (India), an Associate Member of ONA (Online News Association), Sports Keeda and Elance U.K

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Advertsiement


English to Kashmiri and vice versa Translation Services/ Voice Over in Urdu and kashmiri languages, audio and video production  services are AVAILABLE. 
                                            BY

Abid Gowhar, a freelance journalist, broadcaster, sports analyst, Poet, writer and reporter/commentator with more than twenty years experience in the filed of art, media and writing. Provides 24-hour service to clients looking for English to Kashmiri  and Kashmiri To English translations and voice over and media productions. 

I offer competitive pricing and volume discounts, as well as some of the fastest turnaround times possible. I work exclusively with professionals and subject matter experts to produce translations that are accurate and regionally focused. 

I believe in hard work to deliver that meets the deadlines, formatting preferences and branding/style guidelines. 
I can be directly contacted  on +919419007959 or mail via agowhar6@gmail.com/abidgowhar@gmail.com

The services are most accurate and professionally designed and articulated. 
Kashmiri Language Facts:
Kashmiri is spoken by approximately 5.5 million people, and most speakers live in the northern Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir. Because its roots lay in the border area between India and Pakistan, Kashmiri, unlike most other Indian languages, includes a number of loan words from Persian and Arabic. Kashmiri is classified as one of the 22 official languages of India, meaning the country is responsible for developing and promoting its use. Kashmiri is written primarily with the Devanagari script, though historically it has also used the Perso-Arabic and Sharada writing systems. Kashmiri has a poetic tradition dating back over 750 years, placing its literary tradition at roughly the same age as modern English’s. Kashmiri uses the verb-second word order, which is more common in Germanic languages than in other languages more closely related to it. Service Categories You can rely on the following services: Legal translation Patent translation Litigation support Technical translation Certified translation Interpretation services Transcription services Multimedia subtitling Voiceover work and translation Website translation My English to Kashmiri translation comes from a wide range of professional backgrounds and can provide accurate, focused translations that correctly utilize technical and industry-specific vocabularies and idioms. Our English to Kashmiri translators include professionals with education or experience in the following fields: Life science and medicine Legal Finance and banking Manufacturing Consumer products Government Non-profit organizations Human resources Electronics and mechanical Energy and natural resources Multimedia and mass media production I assure you that i will deliver accurate translations when you need them, so you can focus on what’s most important to your clients.

Saturday, November 07, 2009

E-Governance through CSC centers A Dream project, nearer to come true in J&K


By: Abid Gowhar

In the ensuing electronic age, where e-mail, e-bank, e-chat, e-paper etc. have become a cakewalk around the globe, where every corner of the life is embraced by technology and the livelihood of every common person is supported by tech savvy products and services, e-governance is no more a dream for those who govern a democratic country like India. Impressed by the other developed countries, the e-governance initiatives in India have been crucial developmental activities undertaken in the past few years.

As a part of its commitment in the national common minimum program to introduce e-governance on a massive scale, the government of India approved a National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in May 2006 to create specialized electronic service centers in rural-India.

The Government of India aims at providing support for establishing one lac Common Services Centers (CSCs) in six lac villages of India by the year 2010. The Scheme envisions CSCs as the front-end delivery points for Government, private and social sector services to rural citizens of India, in an integrated manner. The objective is to develop a platform that can enable Government, private and social sector organizations to align their social and commercial goals for the benefit of the rural population in the remotest corners of the country through a combination of IT-based as well as non-IT-based services.

Eventually Karnataka became the foremost state in India in implementing many of such e-governance related developmental projects. Such projects were run by NGO’s and rural youth in the remote villages of the State by creating specified centers called Common Service Center (CSC).

The CSC thus became the title name of India’s e-governance plan with different local designations to provide high quality and cost-effective services in the areas of rural development, communication, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment as well as other private services.

Role of CSC

As per the envisaged project an ICT enabled CSC has to (a) provide citizen centric services of the State and Central Government in a convenient and efficient manner through the CSCs across rural India, (b) enhance the accountability, transparency and responsiveness of the Government to citizen’s needs, (c) provide efficient and cost effective methods of service delivery to departments and agencies, (d) allow private and social sector to collaborate with the Government to offer world-class services in rural India and (e) empower the rural citizen through information dissemination and market linkages.

Apart to act as an agent for various private and public services, it is mandatory for a CSC to deliver certain key government services like maintenance of land records, Registration of vehicles, Issue of certificates/ Government schemes, issue ration cards, IT enabled electoral services, pension schemes, road transport, public grievance and utility/Telephone Bills (Government undertakings).

The Business to Consumer (B2C) services included in the scheme are to provide public easiness for digital photos, web surfing, photography, DTP,email/chats, CD Burning, typing, printing and Form downloads/estimates. The financial services available at the Centre would be the delivery of low volume transactions like old age pension, electricity bill collection, small withdrawals and deposits, completion of certain steps of account opening and loan appraisal.

The Scheme creates a conducive environment for the private sector and NGOs to play an active role in implementation of the CSC Scheme, thereby becoming a partner of the government in the development of rural India. The PPP model of the CSC scheme envisages a 3-tier structure consisting of the CSC operator (called Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE); the Service Centre Agency (SCA), that will be responsible for a division of 500-1000 CSCs; and a State Designated Agency (SDA) identified by the State Government responsible for managing the implementation over the entire State.

Some of States in India have also taken various other innovative steps to promote e-governance and have drawn up a roadmap for IT implementation and delivery of services to the citizens on-line. The applications that have been implemented are targeted towards providing G2B, G2C and B2C services with emphasis on use of local language.

Different projects for a single mission:

Under the projectBHOOMI” in Karnatka State, the department of Revenue has computerized 20 million records of land ownership of 6.7 million farmers in the State. The Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India has embarked upon a major programme to rollout Land Records Computerization in several States of the country.

The “E-SEVA” (electronic Seva) project launched in the year 2001, is the improved version of the TWINS project launched in 1999, in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad in Andhra Pradesh. Thes e-Seva centers spread across the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad offer 118 different services like payment of utility bills/taxes, registration of births/deaths, registration of applications for passports , issue of births/deaths certificates, filing of Sales Tax returns etc.

The project “ FRIENDS” is the Fast, Reliable, Instant, Efficient Network for the Disbursement of Services in Kerala State. FRIENDS counters handle 1,000 types of payment bills originating out of various PSUs. The payments that citizens can make include utility payments for electricity and water, revenue taxes, license fees, motor vehicle taxes, university fees, etc.

“LOK MITRA” is first of its own kind of Electronic service in the state of Rajasthan. It aims to deploy Information Technology for the benefit of the masses. It is a one-stop, citizen friendly computerized centre located in the heart of the city in Jaipur. This has provided relief to a common man as he gets efficient services through IT driven interfaces at a single window.

“SETU” is a bridge for facilitation between Citizen & Government that is harnessing the benefits of Information Technology for effective and transparent functioning of the administration through IT policy of the Government of Maharashtra. It offers the possibility of making routine interactions faster, smoother and transparent.

“JAN MITRA” is an integrated e-platform through which rural population of Rajasthan through which people avail services related to various government departments at kiosks near their doorsteps.. This project has been successfully implemented on pilot basis in Jhalawar, Rajasthan. Jhalawar is the first district among five project location districts in India, where the project has been implemented before schedule.

“DRISHTEE” Project offers a software platform that enables e-governance and provides information about and access to education and health services, market-related information, and private information exchanges and transactions across the rural villages of Haryana, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat and Orissa. It aims to be the window to the world' for Indian villagers. Drishtee services not only provide financial benefits in terms of reduced costs and increased incomes, but also other social benefits like access to education and health information. Drishtee kiosks provide viable employment opportunities for unemployed rural youths and help stem rural-urban migration.

In less than two years, Drishtee has successfully demonstrated its concept in over 90 kiosks across various Indian states. It is a state-of-the-art software which facilitates communication and information interchange within a localized intranet between villages and a district center. Apart from these projects in many of the north-eastern states a new structure of localized governance called Community Information Centers (CIC) were introduced , that are well-equipped with modern high-tech facilities and are running in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.

A prestigious project ready to get launch in J&K State

Few months back J&K Bank has entered into a ‘Service Center Agency’ (SCA) tie-up with J&K government for setting up 1109 IT Kiosks in the state. The Kiosks, set up on a Franchiser-Franchisee basis, will act as Common Service Centers (CSC) for delivery of G2C (Government to Customer) and B2C (Business to Customer) services including financial services in all the rural areas of the state. The centers shall be called as “KHIDMAT” and run by Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) identified through a comprehensive selection process made by J&K Bank. This prestigious project will help the Bank in extending its services at the door-step in all the 22 districts of the state.

“We are ready to set up 250 CSC centers to the end of November 2009 across Pulwama, Anantnag, Ganderbal, Bandipora, Kulgam and Shopian, Budgam and Doda districts of J&K state” said, an Executive of the Bank associated with the project.

“To initiate their functioning, the “Khidmat” centers shall process banking loan documentation, social welfare pension disbursement, collection of public utility bills like electricity fee etc and other DTP works” The officer added. He however said that some state government departments are casual in their approach by not updating their departmental records electronically or not creating their electronic database.

Claiming high that the country is harnessing the benefits provided by the Information & Communication Technologies (ICT) to provide integrated governance, a faster reach to the citizens, provide efficient services and citizen empowerment through access to information, the story at implementation level throughout the country is still lingering despite the idea of a Smart Governance is well knitted in the books and projects.

Can we dream of getting our land revenue record without paying unwanted bribe to the most corrupted patwaris of the State?

Can these “Khidmat” centers help to demote our corruption ranking (ironically in 2nd rank)?

Shall the electronic window get open to our rural farmers to minimize their cost and time delays?

Can our old age pensioners feel real relief in getting their monthly social welfare fund at their door-steps?

Can our rural educated youth find their way to the web-enabled services?

Can we think of getting or submitting recruitment forms without remaining in the long queues?

Is there a real possibility of obtaining school and college admission forms without quas and hectic procedures?

These questions will definitely find answer in coming two or three months after the “Khidmat” centers will start function by virtue of vigorous efforts borne by J&K Bank’s during last five months or so.

(Author is a freelance journalist/ broadcaster)

Monday, September 28, 2009

Kamalbir Singh Jaggi,A blind leading from the front to run a National Blind school

48 year old Kamalbir Singh Jaggi, a visually challenged person is administrating country’s biggest blind school in National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH) as Principal of the school since December 2008. A cool and calm sardar has proved himself as a tough administrator and effective teacher of the Model Secondary School in the vast campus of the institute situated at Rajpur Road Dehradhun, the capital of Uttrakhand State.

National Institute of Visually Handicapped (NIVH) in Dehradhun , Uttrakhand is an institute for visually handicapped and is considered as one of the biggest blind educational cum training institutes in Asia

Mr. Kamalbir Singh Jaggi in a face to face with Abid Gowhar, is really upbeat in speaking about his role to perform and his cherish for the sightless (blind) students of the school. Here are the excerpts of the interview.

Q: Being himself visually challenged, how big challenge it is for you to administrate a blind school?

A: The challenges there of course are many but in fact the whole life is a challenge. The challenges we generally confront are related in handling the students that are coming from different parts of the country and staying together and not being able to integrate some times. But we know that the students are also willing to cooperate as much as possible and our staff makes all effort to confront these challenges together.

Q: How was your choice as Principal made by the authorities to replace a sighted person?

A: in fact when the interview for the post was held, I was the only one blind among the candidates. It was the performance of the individual that counted rather than selecting a person on his disability. I think I was selected on my merit only. Perhaps they thought that I should be able to run the school much better keeping my life experience in view vis-à-vis to understand the blind’s psychology better .

Q: This being the biggest school of its kind in the country, what are the specialties you are offering in the school?

A: Yes the institute (NIVH) is certainly quite big, it has its own reputation all over the country. It is been there since 1959 and this year we celebrated its golden jubilee also. Actually the Model secondary school is a part of the Institute that runs a variety of programmes providing training to adult blind, education to blind children, equipment and text-books to the visually handicapped and their institutions at highly subsidized rates and supply of books in Braille and cassettes. It also runs a wide-variety of staff training programmes and research and development project. The model School attached to this institute provides free education to blind boys and girls from preschool stage to class XI. Nearly 250 students from various parts of the country, are provided free boarding, lodging, clothing and monthly pocket money with separate hostel facilities for boys and girls. The school is affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education.

Q: As you said, the year 2009 is the golden Jubilee year of the school, At this point of time, have you taken any special initiatives for the overall betterment of the school?

A: This has also being my first year in the school as Principal and I have been involved in many new initiatives like we have first time introduced Science and Mathematics in the school from class IX to replace music and Sanskrit. Also we have sent our students to different kind of competitions at zonal, state and country level. Three students from our school have gone to Colareda America into participate in an international athletic event in July this year. Sanjay, a IX class student made us proud by bagging the most gold medals by an Indian at the International Blind Sports Association (IBSA) Youth and Students Championship held at Colorado, USA. He secured three golds for the Indian team. At the Games, our students bagged four gold and two bronze medals in the championship in which as many as 27 countries participated. Among girls, Gulshan won a bronze medal each in 100 m and long jump. This year we have we have achieved good results in Board exams with highest 82% marks in XII class and 86% in 10th . I plan to continue with the same efforts and enhance the activities this year.

Q: The students are coming all over the country. Who do you cope with the students coming from different social-cultural back grounds and traditions?

A: You are right, an example is that majority of the students presently hail from J&K, UP and Uttrakhnad. Out of 234, the large number is from J&K, other majority is from UP and. Bihar, Assam, Meghaliya are other parts from whom good number of students are coming every year. Although there may be differentiations in their different habits but we try to integrate them by offering various kind of foods offered in different regions of the country and expose them to different cultural activities.

Q: Why the studies in the school can’t be transformed from Hindi to English medium?

A: yes, we have started to transform Hindi medium into English so that our students should be able to compete well with others in CBSC exams. Initially we have introduced it up to class 3rd and at the same time we have to recruit new staff for which we have a long project ahead. In a phased manner, we shall be able to complete the project in next five to six years.

Q: Other than providing schooling to the visually disabled children through specially trained teachers, how do you cope up with their other extra ordinary intelligence and of course problems?

A: What are the problems with them? Why don’t we look at them as normal being? Why so we segregate them? They are intelligent as other people are. I do not look at them as separate identity. I want them to be integrated along with other people. In fact our individual societies should change their attitude towards all blind persons. All our students who have passed class 12 from this school have joined different colleges, which are not specifically meant for visually challenged.

Q: Coming to your personal life, as a blind person how do you differentiate your schooling and the present day experience in running a blind school?

A: I have passed out my schooling in 1983. Till then, we didn’t have Braille books ourselves. We used to share one copy of the book in whole class of about 15-20 students. Now the students have abundant of books available, they have copy with each of them and they always get new set of books, once they tear or mal any of the books. When I was studying only audio cassettes were available, now compact discs are given to the students. We faced scarcity of books, which today is no more. Other than that the education in all parts has become tech savvy. There is a special computer software available by which students can also benefit.

Q: How is your personal family life?

A: I am married and have two kids. My spouse is alright with me and is living in a nuclear family. There great support is always there to boost my morale in life.

Q: Sir, last but not the least, any strong message you would like convey to the people in general and sightless in particular?

A: My sincere message to the common masses is that whenever they see any visually challenged person, please guide and help him to be educated, try to create awareness about the parents. My message to the visually challenged would be, not to consider themselves weak in life, be confident that they are as good as every body else and be bold to face the challenges of life as physically- normal people are facing also.