ICT Industry to Develop Solutions to Turn India Digital
NEW DELHI: India's Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry pledged to offer solutions to turn India digital, as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his Independence Day address to the nation Aug 15.
"We will innovate and offer the most advanced integrated technological solutions required by the government to achieve the prime minister's vision of a digital India," Genpact founder Pramod Bhasin said at a conference on 'ICT innovations for Next Generation', organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The National Democratic Alliance government's "Digital India" programme envisions the setting up of an ICT infrastructure, including high-speed internet at all 2.5-lakh gram panchyats across the country to provide state-run services like education and health and digital literacy to citizens.
"To complement the programme, we have to develop solutions which integrate data analytics, GIS (graphic information systems) and biometrics to enhance governance, strengthen education, healthcare, transportation, physical and cyber security and public delivery systems to the last mile for improving the standard of life in urban and rural areas," Bhasin said.
Asserting that the ambitious programme could be accomplished only through the public-private partnership (PPP) model, he said the project would involve providing last mile connectivity to a whopping 635,000 villages, 250,000 local bodies, 6,000 blocks and 672 districts, 1.2 million state-run schools, 50,000 public and rural libraries, 100,000 departments and public agencies.
"We need to execute and manage the desired projects with out-of-box solutions so as to reduce the high cost of bandwidth, which is four times more than in China," Bhasin observed.
