Forest and environment sectors go hi-tech, people-friendly

Shimla, Oct 3 (UNI) In a major boost to the forestry and environment sectors, their operations including research work, would soon be available at click of a button to farmers, stakeholder and other user agencies.

Under a prestigious Central project, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education (ICFRE) Institutes have been connected with a computer network and provided video-conferencing facility.

Director Himalayan Forest Research Institute (HFRI), Mohinder Pal, while addressing an e-workshop which concluded here today, said that the implementation of e-Governance initiative could work as model to other Research Institutions engaged in research, Universities and Forest Departments.

It had the provision of fixing the responsibility at each level including time limits under various modules developed for various aspects including research, accounting, personal information, management, digital library information, scientific service management by the ICFRE, he said.

During the five-day workshop, different modules designed and prepared for use in ICFRE and its Institutes situated in various parts of the country, were tested.

Dr Harish Kumar, Project Manager, e-Governance speaking on the valedictory session informed, ''we are in final stage of implementation of this prestigious project under which all ICFRE Institutes have been connected and facility of Video-conferencing has also been provided.

About 30 e-Champions of ICFRE and IT experts from Shoba Renaissance Information Technology (SRIT), Bangalore and Wipro India, Gurgaon, among others, tested the modules and removed any discrepancies which was observed.

The modules were declared ready for adoption and implementation.

Speaking on the occasion, Additional Director and Joint Director, Union Ministry of Information Technology P.R. Chandrakar, informed that all the Central government offices will be covered under the e-governance programme in a phased manner.

UNI JN MMS1831