All panchayats in India will be connected in 3 yrs

CHENNAI, INDIA: In the next 3 years all panchayats in the county will be connected through broadband network, said Sachin Pilot, Union Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology.

The Government would take steps to increase the rural tele density to 40 per cent with an aim to connect the rural areas with the rest of the country, said Sachin Pilot in his valedictory address at Connect 2009, here on Saturday.

Pilot said a proposal to network 5,000 research and development institutions and 20,000 colleges across the country would be launched. He further said that the domestic demand of IT is estimated at around 12 million US dollars which is high and the government is committed to meet this demand.

The minister stressed that IT should not be limited to urban and niche markets; it should also reach the poor to improve their quality of life.

He said that a combined effort from the government, industry and stakeholders will let India remain the IT super power of the world. He pointed out that, last year, India had IT exports of US$47 billion, which has come down this year due to the downturn. Diversifying our export portfolios to more countries would help us to address this issue.

Pilot gave away the Connect 2009 Entrepreneurs Awards to winners who have made outstanding contribution for the growth of the ICT sector.

S Mahalingam, chairman, Connect 2009 and ED and CFO, Tata Consultancy Services in his address at the Panel Discussion said that there is an immense need for the IT sector to relook for opportunities for growth in these troubled times. To progress in these times, innovation is very important, he pointed out.

IT exports came down from 27 per cent to 20 per cent last year and further down to 10 per cent this year, so to bounce back a digital society has to be built which is possible if public and private bodies come together and create an infrastructure for the same.

Talking about Tamil Nadu he said that 25 per cent of hardware and software market exists in Tamil Nadu and the State contributes 14 per cent of the national output in the IT domain. Still we need to accelerate the pace, he said.

P W C Davidar, Secretary - Information Technology, Government of Tamil Nadu in the panel discussion said that the State should leverage the opportunity of making the best of the IT resources we have. We are in a phase of realization and the need for having computers in all panchayats is crucial, he said.

Infosys CEO and managing directory S Gopalakrishnan, who is also the Deputy Chairman, CII Southern Region, spoke on the overall connectivity of IT. He said that continued support from the State and Central Government is required to generate the service of broadband connectivity in the rural areas.

Gopal Srinivasan, former Chairman, CII Tamil Nadu and Chairman & MD, TVS Capital Funds Ltd, said that Tamil Nadu has delivered extremely well on the production of electronics and hardware and it has a very strong ecosystem for enhancing overall growth of the ICT sector in the State.

The other panelists who spoke at the session included: C K Ranganathan, Chairman, CII - Tamil Nadu and chairman & MD, CavinKare Pvt Ltd; Narayanan Ramaswamy, executive director, KPMG and Chitra Ramkrishna, Deputy Managing Director, National Stock Exchange of India Ltd.

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