- National launches bagless vacuum cleaner
- IBM Transforms Mid-Market eServer
- EPSON challenges monochrome laser printers with the launch of AcuLaser C900 and AcuLaser C1900 -WHO to meet beverage companies to discuss health related Alcohol issues
UAE Ministry of Finance offers e-Dirham services to Dubai e-Government's portal
e-Government to intergrate the e-Dirham with its secure electronic payment gateway to facilitate financial e-transactions to Dubai residents
February 1, 2003
The UAE Ministry of Finance and Industry has recently signed an official agreement with Dubai e-Government, to extend the use of the e-Dirham to a centralized electronic payment system via the Internet, for the e-services offered by various government departments in Dubai. The agreement was signed by H.E. Dr. Mohammed Khalfan Bin Kharbash, the UAE Minister of State for Financial and Industrial Affairs and H.E. Dr. Khalifa Mohammed Ahmed Sulaiman, Head of the Ruler's Court, who signed on behalf of Dubai e-Government.
The e-Dirham, a convenient payment tool devised by the ministry to facilitate collection of revenues and provide the government and the public with a secure payment method was launched about two years ago in the UAE.
The recent agreement between the Ministry of Finance and Dubai e-Government lays down the regulations by means of which the two government bodies will work together to incorporate the e-Dirham into the e-Government payment gateway, in order to ensure maximum benefit for the users. While the Ministry retains the authority to produce and distribute the e-Dirham cards and provide programs to link the e-Dirham with the payment gateway, Dubai e-Government will work towards the integration of these programs on their internal systems. The technology, including the telephone lines required to link the ministry's e-Dirham programs into the system, will be provided by Dubai e-Government, which will also upgrade and enhance the system periodically, in addition to overseeing its maintenance.
"This agreement between a Federal Ministry and Dubai e-Government to introduce a uniform and systematic mode of payment for e-services is a significant step in the UAE's move towards greater automation and is in keeping with the norms of the new economy," said Dr Sulaiman. "It is important that we are working together at this early stage to lay down the stringent regulations to extend the use of the e-Dirham for the payment of e-services offered by the government departments. This will enable us to formulate fool-proof policies and systems that will create transparency and trust among users."
"This agreement to extend the use of the e-Dirham is a segment of the e-Pay system that was launched earlier by Dubai e-Government to facilitate secure online payments while conducting financial transactions via the Dubai e-Government portal www.dubai.ae, " added Dr. Sulaiman. "e-Pay, which is available on the Dubai e-Government portal gives users the option of making payment by credit card, e-Dirham, cheque or cash. We are extremely happy to be working together with the Federal Ministry of Finance and Industry as this will enable us to benefit from their vast experience of the country's financial systems and also add greater credibility to our enterprise."
"The UAE is fast becoming one of the most wired states in the region with a high degree of Internet penetration and computer usage among the residents. As we move towards greater automation and use of the Internet for both business and individual purposes, it becomes imperative to devise uniform systems that are both dependable and secure," said Dr. Kharbash. "This agreement is the result of a crucial need to establish standardized systems that will enable people to conduct financial transactions with the government departments through secure and speedy electronic payment modes."
The e-Dirham Cards that have been devised by the Ministry of Finance and Industry are equivalent to a secure electronic purse and are currently obtainable from various e-Dirham member banks in two formats. The fixed value non-rechargeable e-Dirham cards available in a number of denominations enable users to settle the fees for any one service applied for. In addition, the second-generation of e-Dirham or personalized government client cards enables frequent users of government services to pay for the various services availed. These cards are issued with a zero value loaded onto it. The card holder can have it filled with any amount of money either by paying cash or through account transfer from an e-Dirham Member Bank. A government client card is personalized and issued along with a PIN (Personal Identification Code) arriving in a secure envelope for the cardholder use only.
Dubai e-Government is a pioneering initiative in the region to provide online services across the spectrum of corporate and community life in the emirate. It also has a vision to integrate individually automated government departments under the single umbrella of the e-government initiative, thus empowering employees across lines of businesses and levels of government, besides facilitating the lives of citizens and customers of the government. Dubai has taken a lead in the region in deploying e-government applications and is among the first few governments in the world to provide such integrated services to its citizens. The e-Government portal (www.dubai.ae) is a single contact point masking the complexity of the bureaucratic procedures, and guiding access to all services in the easiest possible way. - (keralamonitor.com)
EPSON challenges monochrome laser printers with the launch of AcuLaser C900 and AcuLaser C1900
Mono print speeds and costs with additional benefit of colour
February 1, 2003
EPSON, the global manufacturer of digital imaging products, has launched the AcuLaser C900 and C1900 in the Middle East market. EPSON's two compact colour laser printers offer black and white printing at a lower cost than many monochrome laser printers.The entry-level EPSON AcuLaser C900 is aimed the small businesses and workgroups. More advanced, the AcuLaser C1900 will suit networked workgroups for the professional enterprise.
"Customers no longer need to buy a second dedicated colour printer, and can still keep control of their costs," said Khalil El Dalu, General Manager, EPSON Middle East. "The AcuLasers' provide a low cost monochrome printing which eliminates the need to buy a separate monochrome laser. It would cost users less to run when printing black and white (B&W) and they will have the flexibility of being able to add colour when required by replacing their current networked monochrome laser printer, with one of the AcuLasers," he added.
The AcuLaser C1900 and C900 share several features, like a resolution of 2400dpi using Advanced EPSON AcuLaser ASIC Colour technologies, ensuring photo-like quality for pictures and well-defined text, logos and graphics. The EPSON AcuLaser C1900 and C900 offer a print speed of 16ppm black and white and 4ppm in colour, and a first page print time of 14 seconds in black and white and 25 seconds in colour. The AcuLasers have been designed to be user-friendly with live status information reported remotely directly to the PC screen, optional automatic two-sided (duplex) unit, and flexible media capabilities
Both printers feature EPSON's new AcuLaser MicroPolymer Toner, which guarantees a high quality output with uniform toner coverage by using smaller toner particles, improves stability and quality, and helps to minimise toner wastage. Other performance features on both printers include flexible media capabilities. The AcuLaser C900 comes with a 200-sheet tray as standard and has an optional 500-sheet tray; and the AcuLaser C1900 comes with both a 200 and 500 sheet trays as standard. The second tray adds the flexibility of two different media types available at any one time. A wide range of media can be used including envelopes, labels, transparencies and paper up to 163 g/m2 thick.
The printers have been designed to have simple maintenance with a simple paper path and all the main consumables located behind one easily accessible door at the front of the machine, which all can be changed quickly and easily even by inexperienced operators.
The AcuLaser C900 is ideal for smaller workgroups or businesses, it has low running costs and it is as easy to use as a monochrome printer. The AcuLaser C900 range has been designed to work with all common Windows O.S. including Microsoft 95, 98, Me 2000, XP, and Windows NT. The AcuLaser C900 comes with all the connectivity required for the smaller workgroup or business including a USB and parallel interface as standard. The AcuLaser C900N includes a 10/100BaseTx network interface for easy connection to your local area network (LAN).
For more demanding environments and applications, the AcuLaser C1900 is already optimised for networked workgroups. The AcuLaser C1900 comes with extensive connectivity as standard, including a built-in 10/100BaseTx network interface, USB and parallel ports. The AL-C1900WiFi adds the benefit of the latest wireless network capabilities. The AcuLaser C1900 is designed to work with all common Windows O.S. including Microsoft 95, 98, Me, 2000, XP and NT, Macintosh, Unix, and Linux. For easy integration, the Aculaser C1900 supports legacy applications with full support for PCL5e, EPSON Esc/Page, ESC/P2, IBM FX emulations and optional Adobe PostScript 3 Ó.
Equally important to the performance of a colour laser printer is the power of its controller. The AcuLaser C1900 uses a combination of a 300MHz processor coupled with a uniquely designed EPSON AcuLaser Colour ASIC ensuring complex and demanding jobs are processed quickly to achieve maximum output.
Additional standard features on the AcuLaser C1900 include advanced job management functions, which are enabled when the optional hard disk drive is added. Documents can be stored in the printer for later reprinting and selected from thumbnail images from a web browser. Each AcuLaser is covered by a one year next day on site warranty service and repair with EPSON qualified engineers is included free. Easily extended up to three years with EPSON Cover+ extended warranty programs. (keralamonitor.com)
31 January 2003
WHO to meet beverage companies to discuss health related Alcohol issues
World Health Organization (WHO) will host a meeting with selected alcohol
beverage company representatives in Geneva on February 12, 2003 to
exchange views on the impact of alcohol on global health. Between them,
the companies represent more than half of total global alcohol sales. The
meeting follows informal discussions over the past six months with a
number of alcohol companies, and reflects WHO's determination to engage
with all interested stakeholders in formulating a policy to address the
public health consequences of alcohol use worldwide.
The impact of alcohol on global health was highlighted by data obtained
for the recently released World Health Report 2002; Reducing Risks,
Promoting Healthy Life, where alcohol consumption featured among the top
10 risks to health. Alcohol is the leading health risk in some developing
countries, and ranks third in industrialized nations. Worldwide, alcohol
causes 1.8 million deaths, equal to 4% of the global disease burden; the
proportion is greatest in the Americas and Europe. Globally alcohol was
estimated to cause 20-30% of oesophageal cancer, liver disease, epilepsy,
motor vehicle crashes, and homicide and other intentional injuries, says
WHR 2002. These findings have reinforced WHO's work on strengthening its
policy responses in this area.
"Worldwide, 5% of all deaths of young people between the ages of 15 and 29
were attributable to alcohol use, and that globally, 140 million people
were suffering from alcohol dependence," says Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland,
WHO Director-General. At the WHO European Ministerial Conference on Young
People and Alcohol in February 2001, Dr Brundtland called for a concerted
review by international experts of the issue of marketing and promotion of
alcohol to young people.
A follow-up meeting of technical experts in Valencia, Spain, in May 2002,
concluded that young people across the globe lived in environments
characterized by "aggressive and ubiquitous efforts encouraging them to
initiate drinking and to drink heavily." The Valencia declaration noted
that new responses were required to address the issues of alcohol
marketing to young people. "The global nature of the marketing demands a
response at international, national and local levels. "
The proposed objectives of next week's Geneva meeting are to brief
participants on current WHO activities in the alcohol policy area; to
brief WHO on relevant corporate social responsibility initiatives; and to
exchange views on how to make progress in two areas: drinking and driving,
and the marketing and promotion of alcohol to young people.
"Alcohol is a serious global challenge," says Dr Derek Yach, WHO Executive
Director, Noncommunicable Diseases and Mental Health. "We need to act now
to prevent the already high levels of alcohol-related harm in both the
industrialized countries and many developing countries.
"But we recognise that problems related to alcohol use are a complex
issue, which demand different responses depending on local and regional
cultures and patterns of alcohol use. We will pay strong attention to the
evidence base in assessing which mechanisms can best secure support for
effective policies on issues such as drinking and driving and marketing to
young people. We see next week's meeting as an opportunity for WHO to
engage in a positive and transparent way with the alcohol beverage
industry, and for the industry to be proactive in suggesting how they can
contribute to solving some of these problems." (keralamonitor.com)
