Hyderabad to host Internet Governance Forum from Dec 3

Hyderabad will play host to the third edition of Internet Governance Forum (IGF) from December 3 to 6, 2008.

IGF, a multi-stakeholder forum for policy dialogue on issues of Internet governance formed by the United Nations in July 2006, will delve on five main themes – reaching the next billion, promoting cyber-security and trust, managing critical Internet resources, taking stock and the way forward, and emerging issues (the Internet of tomorrow), Markus Kummer, secretariat of the IGF, Geneva, told mediapersons here on Monday.

With a theme ‘Internet for all’ taken from the United Nation’s motto ‘Education for all’, the four-day event will see the participation of 2,000 delegates from governments, the private sector, civil society and the academic community from 100 countries, Kummer said.

“At present, there are 1.5 billion Internet users globally. The event will underscore the importance of ensuring that we include the world’s 650 million people with disabilities as we move forward expanding Internet access to the next billion people,” he added.

Speaking on the occasion, N Ravi Kumar, joint secretary, Union ministry of communication and IT, said the Centre had initiated the National eGovernance Plan (NeGP) through a public-private partnership platform, which envisages setting up 100,000 information kiosks, to provide Internet access to 600,000 far-flung villages in the country.

“So far, around 20,000 information kiosks have been launched across the country. The entire rollout will be completed by the end of 2009,” he said.