The World Bank is happy to bring to you via live webcast a knowledge sharing and training program prepared for the annual World Bank PREM Conference and Learning Week 2008 with the overall theme of ICT as Enabler for Growth and Public Sector Reform.  We have been very fortunate to attract excellent speakers to these events. We hope that you will find the program to be relevant to your work, innovative and stimulating and that the sessions will provide you with knowledge that you will use in your daily work.

There will be four events in this series:

• April 15: BBL on  India's Emergence as a Global IT Player: The Role of NASSCOM
• April 16: PREM Conference: Session on Global Sourcing of Services for Achieving Sustainable and Inclusive Growth
• April 17: Government Enterprise Architecture as Enabler of Public Sector Reform
• April 23: ICT Applications for the Public Sector

1. Tuesday, April 15, 2008 : India's Emergence as a Global IT Player: The Role of NASSCOM  -  http://go.worldbank.org/RNNSJWO430

Kiran Karnik the former President of India's NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Service Companies) has represented the Indian IT and IT enabled services (ITES) industry with great distinction....

2. Wednesday, April 16, 2008: Global Sourcing of Services for Achieving Sustainable and Inclusive Growth - http://go.worldbank.org/I6JB1XMNS0

The increasing penetration of broadband, falling telecommunications costs and greater openness to FDI, has made it possible to "outsource" or "offshore" services to different locations around the globe. Services ranging from low-end data entry, medical transcription and call centers to high-end software development and R&D ....

3. Thursday, April 17, 2008: Government Enterprise Architecture as Enabler of Public Sector Reform - http://go.worldbank.org/BO7T7221X0

Transforming governments is both a challenge and an opportunity. Technology is increasingly becoming an integral part of transformation efforts in the public sector. ...

4. Wednesday, April 23, 2008: ICT Applications for the Public Sector - http://go.worldbank.org/YLBJQROJZ0

This workshop aims to address practical issues in the development of projects that have ICT components; and to enhance knowledge of ICT issues so operational staff can better deploy ICT as a tool to meet the demands of their clients in various areas of public sector reform. ...

For further details on the webcasts of these events, please go to this Web page: http://www.worldbank.org/edevelopment/live