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Wednesday, March 4, 2015

UN Women Executive Director’s Message for International Women’s Day

In 1995, at the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, world leaders committed to a future where women are equal.

One hundred and eighty nine countries and 4,000 civil society organizations, attended the conference.

Women left Beijing with high hopes, with a well-defined path towards equality, and firm commitments at the highest level. Their hope was that we would see this by 2005.

Today, not one single country has achieved equality. It is more urgent than ever that we define – and stick to – a time frame.

There has been some progress in the last 20 years – although it has been slow and uneven.

Countries have narrowed the gender gap in education and some have even reached gender parity in school enrolment.

They have reduced the toll of maternal mortality and morbidity. Many more women survive pregnancy and childbirth than in 1995.

Many countries have created institutions that address gender inequality. Many have passed laws against gender-based discrimination. Many have made domestic violence a crime.

This is all good news.

And yet we are still a long way from achieving equality between men and women, boys and girls.

Implementation of good policies has been patchy. Allocation of the resources needed for effective implementation has been insufficient to fund women’s ministries, gender commissions, gender focal points, and gender-responsive budgeting.

For too many women, especially in the least-developed countries, not enough has changed.

In Africa, 70 per cent of crop production depends on women yet women still own only 2 per cent of the land.

Violence against women continues to blight lives in all countries of the world.

And no country has achieved gender equality.

Women need change and humanity needs change. This we can do together; women and girls, men and boys, young and old, rich and poor.

The evidence is overwhelming of the benefits that equality can bring. Economies grow, poverty is alleviated, health status climbs, and communities are more stable and resilient to environmental or humanitarian crises.

Women want their leaders to renew the promises made to them. They want leaders to recommit to the Beijing Declaration, to the Platform for Action, and to accelerated and bolder implementation.

They want more of their leaders to be women. And they want those women, together with men, to dare to change the economic and political paradigms. Gender parity must be reached before 2030, so that we avert the sluggish trajectory of progress that condemns a child born today to wait 80 years before they see an equal world.

Today, on International Women’s Day, we call on our countries to “step it up” for gender equality, with substantive progress by 2020. Our aim is to reach ‘Planet 50:50’ before 2030.

The world needs full equality in order for humanity to prosper.

Empower women, empower humanity. I am sure you can picture an equal world!

ACCA to host State Minister for IT,

04MAR2015Leave a comment

by newdelhisamachara in Uncategorized Edit

The Asia Cloud Computing Association (ACCA) to host State Minister for IT, Mr. S.R. Patil at Industry and Eminent Persons Dialogue at its Q1 Meeting on 5 Mar 2015 in Bangalore

The premiere APAC industry association for cloud computing is in Bangalore to meet local players, and launch a new research report,“Asia’s Financial Services: Ready for the Cloud — A Report on FSI Regulations Impacting Cloud in Asia Pacific Markets”

4 March 2015, BANGALORE – The Asia Cloud Computing Association will be in Bangalore on 5 Mar to host an Industry and Eminent Persons Dialogue, and launch a new report on cloud adoption by the financial services industry. The Association represents key stakeholders in the cloud computing ecosystem, and provides a vendor-neutral platform to discuss implementation and growth strategies for accelerating cloud computing throughout the Asia Pacific.

This is the first time that the ACCA is visiting India. “We elected to visit Bangalore as it is home to the technology heartbeat of India,” says Ms Lim May-Ann, Executive Director of the Asia Cloud Computing Association. “As the apex cloud computing association in Asia, we knew we had to make visiting the country a key priority for our 2015 plans.”

“We are pleased to be hearing about the Digital India plans from State Minister Shri S. R. Patil,” added Mr Bernie Trudel, Chairman of the ACCA. “We have been following India’s budget discussions, and are pleased to hear the continued focus on inclusive growth, and the focus on technology – such as cloud computing – as the backbone for government processes and systems.”

“The ACCA continues to provide an excellent bridge for networking between private sector players, and a platform for public-private dialogue in the cloud industry,” says Mr. Aman Neil Dokania, Vice-Chairman of the ACCA, and Vice-President and General Manager for Cloud, HP Asia Pacific and Japan. “As hosts of ACCA’s meeting in Bangalore, we extend a warm welcome to all participants from the India cloud ecosystem to our Industry and Eminent Persons Dialogue, and look forward to a fruitful discussion on the building, management and consumption of cloud for business success in India.”

The ACCA holds quarterly meetings in different Asia Pacific markets. This is the ACCA’s 2015 Q1 meeting, and will be held on 5 Mar 2015 at the ITC Windsor Hotel. For more information or interview requests, please contact Ms Aparajita Rao at aparajita@trpc.biz or +91-88613 72461

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About the Asia Cloud Computing Association

The ACCA is an industry association that represents stakeholders of the cloud computing ecosystem in Asia. Our mission is to accelerate the adoption of cloud computing through Asia Pacific by helping to create a trusted and compelling market environment, and a safe and consistent regulatory environment for cloud computing products and services. Through dialogue, training, and public education, the ACCA provides a vendor-neutral platform to discuss implementation and growth strategies, share ideas, and establish policies and best practices relating to cloud computing.

More about ACCA Leadership

Bernie Trudel, Chairman
	Bernie has been in the ICT industry for over 25 years. He is currently the Cloud CTO at Cisco Asia Pacific, where he has been involved in a number of technical roles for the last fourteen years. Prior to Cisco, Bernie worked for as an IT consultant in Europe and ANZ during which he advised enterprises and service providers on their Wide Area Network architecture. Bernie is an Electronic Engineer from Canada, where he started his career as a hardware design engineer and earned two patents for his innovative work.
Aman Neil Dokania, Vice-Chairman
	Aman Neil Dokania is vice president and general manager of Cloud Division for HP Asia Pacific and Japan (APJ). In his current role, Aman is responsible for HP cloud across APJ, for private, public and hybrid solutions. He is driving HP’s regional leadership in cloud ecosystem development through partnering with leading ISVs, SIs, Service Providers and channel communities delivering customer centric solutions for both build and consume services for cloud. He plays a key role in driving HP’s strategy on HP Helion (HP Cloud), HP OpenStack, HP BladeSystem and CloudSystem. Prior to this, Aman spearheaded sales for HP Bladesystem, management and virtualisation business in APJ. He also developed and executed growth strategies for HP India’s Enterprise Storage and Server business, which were established as best practices for emerging markets.
Before moving to Asia, Aman was responsible for driving future specifications for the HP BladeSystem c-Class in the United States. He also led the development and introduction of HP’s first management software and introduced the concept of lights-out management, for which he holds a patent for related technology. Aman holds a bachelor’s degree in commerce from St. Xavier’s College (India) and a master’s degree in business from Oregon State University, and he is a Kellogg Scholar of Marketing from Northwestern University.
Lim May-Ann, Executive Director
	May-Ann is currently the research director at TRPC and the chair of ACCA’s public policy regulatory working group. She has over a decade of experience in development, tech policy and communications across the Asia Pacific, working with organisations on thought leadership, government relations and stakeholder outreach efforts. Her career has spanned a number of regional and global institutions, including the World Bank, the Singapore Institute of International Affairs (SIIA), and the Singapore Internet Project. She is an active member of a number of trade associations and civil society groups. Through TRPC, she has worked with the Asia Internet Coalition (AIC), an advocacy group comprising Internet companies lobbying for free and open Internet policies, and is active in the Internet Society (ISOC), recently having been appointed as ISOC Ambassador to the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) in Oct 2013. May-Ann lectures on Internet and ICT Policy at the National University of Singapore (NUS).