ICT helps overcome fundamental challenges

NEW DELHI: India recognizes the potential of ICT for rapid and all round development, Union Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran has said.

Addressing the ministerial roundtable conference on the sidelines of Commonwealth e-partnership summit here, Maran said that e-governance will reduce corruption and increase transparency and convenience

“The Government of India has recognized the potential of ICT for rapid and all round development in general and transforming governance in particular. The National Common Minimum Programme adopted by the Government accords high priority to improving the quality of basic governance. As a step in this direction, India has drawn up a National e-Governance Plan for delivering Government and private services at the doorstep of the citizen,” he said.

Informing the audience on the establishment of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) at a total outlay US $750 million over a period of five years, Maran said: “These SWANs will extend data, voice and video connectivity of 2 Mega bits per second up-to the block level in all States and Union Territories in the country. The block level nodes, in turn, will have a provision to extend connectivity further to the village level using contemporary wireless technology.”

“The Government has also approved a major plan to establish 100,000 Internet and broadband enabled Common Service Centres in rural areas of the country,” the minister said.

“The resulting benefits can be less corruption, increased transparency, greater convenience, revenue growth and cost reductions. I believe that we can overcome the fundamental challenges of universal literacy, improved public health and equitable economic growth by using modern Communications and IT as an invaluable tool to ensure that the benefits of rapid growth are enjoyed by all sections of the people,” he said further.

Stating that India was a multilingual and multi script country, Maran said that the Indian government has accorded special thrust to develop user friendly and cost-effective tools, applications and contents that enable access to ICT infrastructure in Indian languages.

© CyberMedia News