e-Content

E-mpowering people through rich content
DEF's Founder & Director, Osama Manzar in this interview with www.AOL.in explains the whole rationale of Manthan Award initiative and his setting up of Digital Empowerment Foundation as a means for bridging the digital divide in the region, which is a rich enabler for others in the world but poor themselves as far as digital development is concerned. Read on for--- more

e-hut

Abu Zafar Babu, at Badda in Dhaka, has turned his laundry shop to an e-hut -- a telecentre type of bussiness. He earns around Tk 800 (USD 11) a day from Internet surfing alone. He offers basic computer courses where each trainee is paying Tk 1500 (USD 22) for the course. The basic computer literacy course allows students and professionals to become knowledgeable about: how to operate computers, how to install basic software and how to troubleshoot some problems. Babu said a few small bussinesses and residents in the area wanted to take Internet connection using e-hut service.

Republished by:
Mohd Niyaz

Manthan Award

THE MANTHAN AWARD is about celebrating and recognizing best e-Content practices and innovations having sound development impact on lives of communities and citizens at large. The Award recognizes innovations in critical areas of education, health, livelihood, mobile content applications, and community radio and in total 15 categories. The Award is an initiative of Digital Empowerment Foundation with institutional support from World Summit Award, Austria. The Manthan Award is a first of its kind initiative in India to recognize the best practices in e-Content and Creativity. From 2008 Manthan Award goes South Asia, recognizing e-Content innovations and practices across the region for greater learning, sharing and replications for greater social and economic impact.

Mission
“To churn out innovative ICT enabled e-content innovations and solutions having sustainable social and economic impact on lives of communities and citizens and recognize the same for further scaling up, support and linkages with visible impacts through wider replication to address citizen content and services needs”.

Objectives
› Enabling outreach and visibility of e-Content innovations and solutions for greater impact;
› Demonstrating the richness and diversity of content creativity and contribute towards understanding and planning of Information Society;
› Demonstrate to every stakeholder the existing range of creativity and excellence in the use of the IT tools and communication networks;
› Substantiate the conviction that access to networks and ICT platforms is beneficial to the high quality and value of e-contents which are produced and available;
› Demonstrate that quality contents, their production and economic sustainability are fundamental requirements which require changes to the way markets operate and governments act;

The Reach
ª 8 Countries: Afghanistan, Bhutan, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
ª 8 nation e-Content innovations
ª 8 national governments
ª 8 nation NGOs / CSOs
ª 8 nation business entities
ª 8 nation ICT – e-Content experts
ª 8 nation officials
ª 8 nation academic institutions
ª 35 States / UTs in India



Invitations for Nominations & Partnerships
Manthan Award South Asia 2008 is open to nominations and partnerships. Nominations are open for all South Asian countries from e-Content practitioners, innovators who wish to nominate their innovative products for this coveted recognition. For nominations please click at www.manthanaward.org / http://www.manthanaward.org/NomProduct.asp

Partnership options are open in knowledge, networking, institutional and financial categories. The Award platform provides multiple advantages for partners to explore and achieve key economic and networking collaborations and gains. For sponsorships and partnership options and details please contact: Ms. Ravi Kanta / Syed Kazi

Contact:
Manthan Award South Asia Secretariat 2008
12/17, Sarvapriya Vihar, New Delhi, India
Tel: +91-11-26532786 / 26532787
Email: ravikanta@gmail.com/ syedskazi@gmail.com,niyaz.defindia@gmail.com
website: www.manthanaward.org / www.defindia.net\