Moving towards a digital India

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Digital India Programme envisioned by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s government to transform India into a digitally enabled society and knowledge economy was empowered to an influential start through the Digital India Conclave 2014 presented by India Inc. in association with FICCI/Invest India and Chase India. The Conclave in the presence of eminent industry veterans was organised on 5th December 2014 at Hotel Taj Mansingh in New Delhi.

Addressing the inaugural session of Digital India Conclave 2014, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology said, “If the country has to grow, then we must bridge the difference between rural India and digital India.”

The Union Minister laid emphasis on how Digital India programme would lead to an empowered nation where digital infrastructure would be made available for all citizens of India. Availability and easy access of government services will be accessible to the entire population thereby leading to a strong digital infrastructure for the country.

At the Digital India Conclave 2014, Power and Coal Minister Shri Piyush Goyal said, "IT-enabled smart grids can have tremendous impact on the energy sector in India — right from power generation to power consumption. We will ensure that all Indians have 24x7 electricity by March 2019". He reiterated that the government has initiated speedy environmental clearances, steps to protect the surroundings, renewed thrust to wind power capacity addition besides clearing the long-pending transmission projects worth Rs 12,272 crore, in order to achieve the set target.

The online-offline integrated four month programme will continue to bring in further perspectives and participation of senior policy decision makers, key stakeholders and other crucial influencers to explore the potential of India-US collaboration around this key initiative of the Indian government – thereby, further intensify the potential of the collaboration. These programmes will be part of the India-US Partnership Hub that was launched during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the United States in September 2014.

“We want a series of dialogues to help create a platform for interaction between Government and Industry. Through the Digital India conclaves and associated online activities our effort is to create a roadmap for turning the Digital India vision into reality," stated Manoj Ladwa, CEO, India Inc. and Chase India Director, Nitin Mantri.

The conclave in association with Amazon.in, Google and Qualcomm was supported by TCIL and NIXI and was the first phase of the programme which brought together around 100-150 key stakeholders across government/public sector, the private sector as well as other influencers such as think tanks, media and specialist experts. The several sessions focused on the prominence of the Digital advancement across sectors and the requirement to streamline digital with the core business in order to take the Digital India vision to fruition.

The second conclave will be held in Washington DC on 15^th January 2015 where the emphasis would be on how the US with it’s capabilities and innovation track record can help India realize it’s own vision of a truly digitally empowered society.