Cities need Emergency Warning System

Virginia Tech tragedy has once again highlighted the need for emergency notifications communications system in today’s world. As society is becoming increasingly prone to attacks by terrorists and other anti-social elements, such a system will assist authorities in containing the extent of damage. If a messaging system had existed in Virginia Tech Univ, students could have been warned via SMS or out-dialers and number of casualties could have been considerably less. 

Location based messaging can be very effectively used in times of natural disasters or terrorist attacks without creating panic for general population. City governments, especially those which are susceptible to threats from terrorist organizations, ought to set up such systems on an urgent basis. 

And Corporate sponsorships is a good option for funding such services… 

A shot in the arm of Disaster Management

MARIUS project (Mobile Autonomous Reactive Information System for Urgency Situation) is being financed by the European Union. This project is based on a technology which will enable the rescue teams to send SMS even in areas where the mobile network is not functioning. It will facilitate dispersion of information during rescue operations and possibility of saving far more lives. (Source) 

 

MARIUS is a project which aims to develop a pre-operational autonomous Command Post which can be deployed very quickly to manage every type of crisis. In a country like India, with many inaccessible, unconnected areas, such a technology will go a long way to provide relief and save lives. And now that since large scale effort is being made to provide mobile connectivity in local languages, we hope that such technologies will be accessed by National Disaster Management Teams and deployed in regional languages.

Untapped market in Rural India

Technology has been effectively used to increase the productivity in Agricultural sector which continues to engage over 60% of Indian population. eSagu or Web based Agricultural Expert Advise Dissemination System has been awarded the best e-governance project at the Computer Society of India Nihilent e-Governance Awards. Increasing coverage of rural areas by wireless connectivity and soon-to-be adopted 3G network is sure to make the application turn mobile. Rural India is a hot market for VAS application developers and mobile operators. We expect to see large variety of customized applications tapping into it’s desire for m-governance, m-commerce, entertainment, education related services.