The public will now have access to two more databases — the UN-Energy Database and the Polytechnics Information Database — through the, now familiar, General Information System Terminals of the National Informatics Centre (GISTNIC).
The UN-Energy Database
The United Nations Statistical Office (UNSO), New York, compiles information in statistical form on various important sectors such as energy, industry, national accounts etc. Data tapes of these information are released annually through subscribers. The National Informatics Centre recently acquired the status of a subscriber and, with the information procured from UNSO, has built up the UN-Energy database and incorporated it in GISTNIC.
The UN-Energy database consists of generation, consumption and other vital details pertaining to the energy sector for all the member countries of the United Nations. The data is in time series originating from 1950 and has proved to be extremely useful for various activities such as energy modelling, comparative generation analyses on an international basis and forecasting of energy consumption trends. This database holds high potential for the User Community, specially for the Energy Sector comprising the Central Ministry of Power, state ministries of power and electricity; and other related organizations of the Government of India, state governments, local bodies, scientific laboratories and economic institutions (such as the Tata Energy Research Institute). Academicians and research scholars could also find the database very useful for their work.
The UN-Energy database can be invoked by typing in 'UNER' in the system prompt 'SYSTEM!' of NEC, from any User-id.
Polytechnics Information
Though polytechnic education has gained tremendous popularity in the Country, the dearth of comprehensive and up-to-date information on various courses available in different polytechnics, has been a major obstacle for prospective candidates of polytechnic education. It is noteworthy that there has been no source of information, whatsoever, either in printed form or in the computer media, which could help aspiring candidates in locating a course and institute of choice.
In this connection the World Bank Sponsored Project on Polytechnics came forward with a proposal for the National Informatics Centre to take up the task of creating a database on polytechnics information under its GISTNIC project. The responsibility of compiling the information from the respective polytechnics, based on the format designed by NIC, was undertaken by the World Bank Project. The information was computerized into a form of public database and released for use by the public as the Polytechnics Information Guide under the Education Guide of GISTNIC.
The Polytechnics Information Guide can be accessed through the main menu of GISTNIC. For a given polytechnic institute, all details such as address, facilities available, courses offered, admission procedures, last date of admission, fees etc. are provided. Alternatively, for a specified course, all the polytechnic institutes offering the course are identified and the respective details displayed on the screen.