Several speakers highlighted the important efforts and welcomed the opportunity of this dialogue to examine the challenges facing the states in this context. John Davies, Vice President, Sales and Marketing Group General Manager, Intel World Ahead Programme, put forth his thoughts as the Guest of Honour. An excerpt from his talk reads as below: While highlighting some of the features of the Intel World Ahead Programme, like the ‘Accessibility’, ‘Connectivity’, Education’, and ‘Content’ components, John cited some examples with reference to the international community on how to lead with innovation. He suggested some of the approaches that can be adopted in order to overcome the current global recession period. G8 nations and PRC (People’s Republic of China) are investing more than $1.5 trillion to stimulate their economies to emerge from the recession faster and stronger. He also said, government IT investments help creates jobs, which is a critical need during recession. Increased broadband and IT investment should be part of every country’s recovery plan. Stimulus infrastructure spending on roads, rail, power should include broadband connectivity. The opening session was also attended by Sanjay Kumar, the Secretary, IT, Haryana, who was also the Chief Guest of the conference. The other guest of the evening, Ashish Sanyal, Sr. Director, Dept of Information and Technology, added some positive notes to the whole discussions. He said, ‘we can still talk about 14-15 % telephony in a land, where ICT sector is increasing and mobile phones are being added (at the rate of) 10 million a month which is more than the population of Finland. If we increase tele-density by 1%, the GDP growth becomes quite vital.’ PANEL DISCUSSION 1: DIGITAL INCLUSION: A PATHWAY FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The Digital Inclusion and Economic Development session primarily brainstormed about the progress in National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in northern India in terms of rolling out mission mode projects like CSCs, State Data Centres, State Wide Area Networks, etc. It also focused on accelerating e-governance initiatives for Government to citizen interface, like land records, property certifications and public distribution system, etc. The first panel discussion session deliberated on increasing entrepreneurship
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Audience during the panel discussion
and enhancing competitiveness of the growing sectors, relating to the Internet and broadband combined with IT solutions that have the potential to bring in efficiencies and competitiveness of the SME sector. The feeling was strong that, if all goes well, India can lead the world in broadband penetration and Internet access. The panel discussion was moderated by Rajen Varada, The National Co-ordinator of the education community of UN Solution Exchange. The speakers included Ashis Sanyal, Sr. Director, Department of IT, Government of India; Taposh Misra, Head – Govt and PSU Group, ICICI Bank Ltd. and a Representative from BSNL. Starting off the discussion, Rajen Varada said that there is a need to look at the e-Governance project in retrospect and what are the timelines that are being set and where is the Indian IT sector heading towards in the next couple of years. He also said that sustainability is a major issue in the near future and called for some of the action plans which can act as leverage in such a scenario. S V Rajendra, President, PCO Association and a participant of the conclave, said that financial stability, operational functionality and sustainability are very important when it comes to PCOs (Public Call Office). The future is of e-PCOs. Another participant also raised the point that even if one says that there are about 60 lakh PCOs in the country, the question is how many PCOs are situated in the rural areas. He further added that if one looks at the Common Service Centres (CSCs) schemes it has guaranteed revenues for 4 years. So we have taken care of the financial subsidiary. There are 25,000 PCOs and 27,000 e-PCOs will be created in the first phase. The fact that India’s vertical connectivity is very strong also emerged during the discussion. One of the key challenges that emerged out
of the discussions is defining an appropriate role for the government in addressing the digital divide. Several participants pointed out that though creating a proper policy and regulatory environment is fundamentally important, the government’s role goes much beyond just that. PANEL DISCUSSION II: ICT IN EDUCATION: SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPERATIVES The second panel discussion on ICT in Education: Socio-Economic Imperatives was moderated by Ashish Garg, Asia Regional Coordinator, Global eSchools & Communities Initiative (GeSCI). At the outset, she emphasised the importance of education, against something which is there on everybody’s mind, that is the global economic downtrend, and its effect on children and of course, education. The major point that came out of panel dicussion was that putting capital to work not just for the infrastructure, but for creating a capacity for innovation is something we haven’t yet imagined. If the investment is going to make a difference, and helps lay crops for the future, that is what investment means. ICT in education is important for access to quality education across gender, and many other fields. through workshops. This conference celebrated achievements and showcased successes in the field of eInclusion from across three Indian states. It helped industry, practitioners and policy makers to take stock of what still lies ahead and renew their commitments to achieve inclusion in the information society for all in order to overcome the current scenario of global recession and head towards economic development in a society that provides equal opportunities to all. \\