E-Pao! - a journey through 2011
- XII Anniversary -

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This day 31st December, 2011 marks the completion of twelve years of e-pao's existence as a portal of Manipur in particular and Northeast India in general. In this short span of time e-pao.net has been able to reach out to the larger population of the society, within and outside Manipur. It would not be an exaggeration, though, to say that the role of an intermediary in providing information brings its own challenges.

The developments taking place in the field of information technology and the changing nature of the society has acted as an external stimulus to e-pao.net in keeping the portal relevant with the time, both its look and content. This is because, of late, the web world has played major roles in bringing changes in the society throughout the world.

Here, the 'jasmine revolution' and its subsequent revolution in different countries of African continent that brought a regime change in their respective countries is a case in point. Not only this, the 'occupied movement' that started with the occupation of 'Wall Street' in New York against the corporate greed has taken a world-wide phenomenon with the spread of instant news and information through the web world.

Consequently, different widgets under different sections, such as Announcement 2011 , Job Posting 2011 , Press Releases , Educational Announcement 2011 and Top Stories sections have been incorporated recognising the importance of maintaining the web pages in the portal more user friendly - http://www.e-pao.net/ .

Development on the design front is accompanied with the addition of new topics to gallery , new recipes in Chakhum , classic and contemporary songs from Manipur have been added in the e-pao Radio , more videos on the internet video section of Ooba .

Further, new Manipuri names have been added to eMing to help the expecting parents in finding a Manipuri name for their child, many new pictures of Manipur have been added in the Panorama section.

New articles on the Manipuri entertainment world have been added to eRang section,especially in the singer and fashion sub section.

Manipur and e-pao.net, in 2011, witness many political issues, ranging from economic blockade, demand for district formation, inauguration of big and large infrastructures, demand for alternative administrative arrangement, demand for separate stateto continuing political violence. But, the issue of economic blockade imposed by the other major political community, namely the Nagas and Kukis, and their ability to continue for long period of time shall be one of the markers of this year.

The issue of demand for the 'alternative administrative arrangement' for Nagas from the Government of Manipur keeps on rising at different period and places throughout the year. This particular demand has been the rallying point for the community for any issue at any place in Manipur.

Opinions were express on the validity of the demands. These voices have been reported and recorded on daily basis. Further, the long standing demand of the people residing in the Sadar Hills to upgrade the status from autonomous district council to a proper district was the main discourse in the latter half of the year. The demand was able to occupy the minds of the society, not sure of elected executives, for the simple reason that non fulfilment of the demand by the government was responded with an economic blockade.

This particular blockade shall go down in the history of the world for continuing for more than 100 days. The demand of the people of Sadar Hills (predominantly Kukis) was opposed by the Naga's of Manipur that the said demand encroaches on their traditional land. To register their protest against the encroachment of their land of forefather imposed economic blockade. In addition, the demand of a separate state for Kukis was added to the already saturated basket of issues in the state of Manipur.

On the other side, the end of the year was marked by the inauguration spree conducted by the government on half completed major government infrastructures before the announcement of 11th Assembly election by the Election Commission of India. However, the incident of bomb blast at Sangakpham, where two school going children were among the victims shall be known as the first time in the violence porn state to have an incident of blast at the public place. This is followed by another blast during the Sangai Festival at Hapta Kangjeibung.

The above mentioned news have been updated, recorded and archived by e-pao. In the same vein, e-pao has been able to update and archived the editorials of the English newspaper published in Imphal on a daily basis. The process has been accompanied by the update on the news from the world that are related with the issues of Manipur and Northeast India. These are over the daily news broad cast of All India Radio News, Imphal and ISTV Imphal.

E-pao is not about providing and archiving news alone, it is also of interaction and sharing of ideas amongst the concerned people. To facilitate interaction and expression of ideas, 'comment' enabling features have been added for each article, picture, video or any item available in e-pao.net. This is along with the interconnectedness provided with other social networking sites.

Special mention may be made here of the role of twitter in the e-pao.net. Through, twitter instant news is provided on the struggle of Sharmila against the AFSPA. The same technology was used to provide live feed on Santosh Trophy and CC Meet Football championship.

Simultaneously, e-pao.net also tries to encourage people engaging in different domains of human life. This idea of providing incentives was transformed into a reality when e-pao.net collaborated with the organisers of Miss Manipur Pageant and incorporated online interactive session with people outside the venue. The most proficient in the web interaction was honoured with Miss Internet Queen .

Further, e-pao.net supported the TedXImphal, where people who have achieved and contributed to the society but less known by the society shared their experiences. Continuing the tradition of promoting musical groups, different form the conventional Manipur modern songs, and providing them a space to express themselves have added Sendrembee and The Dirty Strikes to the Yellout section.

Finally, e-pao.net, in promotion to games and sports, sponsors the Man of the Match award in the semi-final matches of the CC Meet Football Championship 2011. Also, to the sports persons hailing from Manipur that have qualified for the upcoming 2012 London Olympics are supported and encouraged by dedicating a web page that records their achievement, dreams, desire and the struggles that they have endured.

Today, as the moon acknowledges the contribution of 2011 and look forward to the year ahead we at the e-pao.net wishes a happy, peaceful and exploitation free world to all the citizens of this beautiful world.

And hope that these small contributions from the Team E-pao shall help the citizens of Manipur in particular and Northeast India in general in shaping their individual lives and society in taking forward.

Pix by Jinendra Maibam