MUMBAI: Government support to the community radio movement in India and the key challenges to community radio services delivery will be some of the issues addressed at the eIndia2007 event to be held in New Delhi from 30 July to 3 August 2007.

With the recent revision in government policy to support community led radio, the potential of this medium to make a developmental difference has come into the limelight. The proposed 4-5000 community radio stations that are likely to come up in the country in the next couple of years will open up opportunities for employment, engagement and content development. The development ofconvergent technologies and lowering of costs through, Wimax and Radio, Internet and Community Radio, Satellite Radio and the like are also creating enabling environments for this emerging market.

The two day track on community radio during the eIndia event will evaluate the idea of linking telecentres with community radio. Commodity exchanges, extension and communication systems including state agriculture machinery and university system, call centres for support and market information, for production,using advanced technologies for weather forecasting, research and learning using ICTs will also be explored.

Organised by the Centre for Science, Development and MediaStudies (CSDMS) and co-organised by the Department of Information Technology(DIT), Government of India and United National Development Programme(UNDP) is proposed to be an inclusive, consultative and constructive ICT for Development forum - through its seven inter-related conferences namely Egov, Digital Learning, Telecentre Forum, eHealth, mServe,Community Radio and e-Agriculture.

eINDIA2007 will address the issues of digital divide and identify and explore the opportunities for a Digital India. It is slated as India`s premier ICT4D event, aiming to bring together over 300 distinguished speakers, 1200 delegates from more than 50 countries and over 70 exhibitors.

The conference will organise a day-long film festival, the i4d Film Festival, at the IndiaInternational Centre Annexe in NewDelhi. The viewing of development films will be supplemented by in-depth discussions by lead community media experts. The i4d Film Festival, will focus on the use of any ICT tool in poverty alleviation, genderissues, health, sexuality, human rights,education, governance, etc. Grassroots representation from not only India, but from all around the world, in the various cinematic forms will constitute the world`s first ICT4D film festival. The event will also draw participation from the Ministry of Information andBroadcasting, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Government of India.

In addition, the conference is bringing high-level speakers from the Governments of Philippines, Korea, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, and the Kingdom of Bahrain. Several leading corporate sector partners are supporting this event by showcasing their products, developments and innovations.

In all, over 70 vendors are exhibiting their work in a total of 1800 sq metres of floor space. These include IBM, Intel, Motorola,Educomp, Designmate, SAP, NIIT, Delhi Government, Media Lab Asia, Nortel,Polycom, and Globus Infocom. Leading sponsors of the conference include: IBM, Intel, Educomp, 3i Infotech, Motorola,Nortel, Smart, Polycom, SAP, GlobusInfoCom, Hughes, Sun Microsystems, RedHat, Wipro, NIIT Technologies, Alcatel-Lucent, Computer Associates, Edutech,and Designmate.The lead recommendations emerging from the deliberations will besubmitted to various relevant ministriesin an attempt to advocate for an inclusive policy and implementation.