There is no specific law governing online gambling in India, writes Justice Mukul Mudgal in Law & Sports in India (www.lexisnexis.com). He speaks of two types of online gambling – casino-style gaming and lotteries, which are typically based on chance; and the second, betting, particularly in sports, where events take place in real time and can be verified independently. Adding that the only States that allow casino gambling are Sikkim and Goa, the author notes that in the former, online gambling is legal.

Taking into account that betting in sports is prohibited in India, it remains to be ascertained whether the government will take steps to regulate sports betting on Web sites registered outside India, where gambling and betting are legal, observes Justice Mudgal. For, such Web sites would fall outside the territorial jurisdiction of the Indian law. The scenario of the Net activity described in the book is of a person placing a bet on Web sites, the servers of which are hosted in countries where betting is recognised by law, with payments happening through bank account, wire transfer, credit or debit card, or through PayPal.

One learns from the book that, to curb online gambling, the Indian authorities rely on the Information Technology Act and the Foreign Exchange Management Act. Section 67 of the former specifies penalty for publishing or transmitting in the electronic form, any material which is lascivious or appeals to the prurient interest or if its effect is such as to tend to deprave and corrupt persons. The author, however, adds that this section would not govern sports betting since horse racing has expressly been recognised in many States as a game of skill.

As for overseas online betting, he makes a reference to Rule 3 of the Foreign Exchange Management (current account transactions) Rules, 2000, which prohibits transactions such as remittances out of lottery winnings, and for sweepstakes. Even betting on cricket and hockey would fall under the Rule's purview and a person would not, therefore, be able to play on these Web sites without contravening the provisions, cautions Justice Mudgal.

Recommended read for the legal professionals.

Effervescent e-mails

It is with an e-mail from one Emmi Rothner for cancelling a subscription that Love Virtually by Daniel Glattauer (www.landmarkonthenet.com), opens. Translated from the German by Katharina Bielenberg and Jamie Bulloch, the story that unfolds is of the mail landing at a wrong address, with @leike.com instead of @like.com, presumably.

Nine months later, when Leo Leike receives Rothner's ‘Merry Christmas' message, the response is simple: “We don't know each other in the slightest but I'd like to thank you for your…” To that, Emmi writes, “You seem to have slipped into my contacts list by accident – a few months ago I was trying to cancel a subscription and inadvertently got hold of your email address. I'll delete you straightaway.”

Some time later, the original problem remaining unsolved, Emmi resumes her efforts to cancel the subscription, only to find the mail reaching Leike again. He wonders, “Are you doing this on purpose?” Emmi is seriously embarrassed. “Unfortunately I have this chronic ‘ei' problem, or rather an ‘e' before ‘i' problem. If I'm typing quickly, and I'm trying to type ‘i', somehow I always manage to slip in an ‘e' before it,” she rues.

But, why so? “It's as if the tips of my two middle fingers are fighting over the keys. The left one is always trying to be that bit quicker than the right. The fact is, I was born left-handed and made to write with my right at school. My left hand hasn't forgiven me to this day. It keeps tapping out an ‘e' with the middle finger before the right hand can type an ‘i'.”

A few mails later, you read about how Leike guesses that Emmi would have taken no longer than twenty seconds to write the ‘ei' mail, because he thinks that her emails seem to effervesce. “I could have sworn that you were a fast talker and typist, a bubbly individual who cannot go about her daily business quickly enough. When I read your e-mails I can't detect any pauses. Both their tone and tempo seem to be bursting with energy – breathless, zippy, even a touch excited. Your written style is not that of somebody with low blood pressure…” reads his diagnosis.

A book that can make you miss your plane, watch out.

Governance services for the neighbourhood

A kebele (Amharic for ‘neighbourhood') is the smallest administrative unit of Ethiopia similar to a ward, a neighbourhood or a localised and delimited group of people, informs Wikipedia. “It is part of a woreda , or district, itself usually part of a Zone, which in turn is grouped into one of the regions based on ethno-linguistic communities (or kililoch ) that comprise the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia. Each kebele consists of at least five hundred families, or the equivalent of 3,500 to 4,000 persons.”

You can read about the Kebele Life-Event Services System (KLESS) in one of the essays included in Local Governance and ICTs in Africa: Case studies and guidelines for implementation and evaluation ,' edited by Timothy Mwololo Waema and Edith Ofwona Adera (www.idrc.ca). Kebele , described by the Addis Ababa city government's charter as ‘a centre for development and direct popular participation as well as a location for the delivery of basic services', provides development services such as for the small industries and education, and also life-event services such as birth and marriage registration.

“The services provided by the kebeles include: issuing identity cards to kebele residents; registering kebele house-seekers; supplying documentation verifying eligibility for free health treatment; … and communicating with utility agencies regarding maintenance and other services that are essential for government and kebele houses.” Ethiopia's ICT policy, as the authors note, aims to create a knowledge-based society, and promote ICT use in all sectors of the economy to nurture democratic values, good governance, transparency, and accountability.

The book is a veritable treat for those looking for stories about e-governance, similar to the Ethiopian experience. Among the examples discussed are the automation of civil registration in Morocco, the e-local governance roadmap in Kenya, a training course for non-IT decision-makers in South Africa, the e-national project in Mauritius, and the adoption of business process mapping methodology in Egypt.

A final finding of the research documented in the book is on the importance of a sustained e-local governance leadership throughout the life of the project. For instance, in Kenya, “the success of rolling out the Integrated Financial Management Information System was partly attributed to the sustained leadership provided by the local government reform programme in the Ministry of Local Government and consistent leadership from the accounts departments of the two municipal councils studied.”

Useful study for those in the governance domain.

Tailpiece

“Whenever the system becomes slow…”

“You know that it is getting overloaded?”

“No, it means negotiations are on!”

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