Secretary, Department of IT and Electronics, Government of India RS Sharma said India offered a wide variety of sophisticated IT technologies at frugal cost to the technology acquirers and solution providers.
He was Addressing the inaugural of the 15th edition of Indiasoft (India IT Show) which began in Delhi on Thursday. The international IT event and conferences are attended by over 400 delegates from abroad. Billed as the one of the largest IT shows focused on small and medium enterprises and organized by Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC), the show was participated by 150 exhibitors from India.
Sketching the dramatic transformations taking place in the digital eco-system of India, Sharma said that digital India program would be a game changer in India's march towards development. All social welfare and governance programs would be working on digital platform. For instance the unique identification program launched by the Government has so far enlisted 750 million people and it would be covering the entire population.
The cost of enlisting an individual in the scheme might work out to be cheapest in the world. While similar ID card program in the UK cost Pound 150 per individual, in India it entailed only Rs 100 only. It could even work out to be cheaper, when the project gets completed. Sharma invited the foreign delegates to adapt the Indian technologies, which combine innovation with frugality, speed and scale. That suited the need and affordability of countries, which are passing through various stages of development.
Also, a variety of newer technologies are developed such as digital lockers, digital certificates etc. which would enable a person to store digitally all records and forward them as and when they are required by relevant organizations . Enhanced digitization would also help eliminate the last mile leakages in some of the social welfare programs like employment guarantee, subsidy transfer programs etc.
Referring to the financial inclusion programs being launched by the government, Sharma mentioned that the high mobile phone penetration would be used to reach out the target group. India has over 950 million mobile phones. Since the PC and broadband penetration are not very high, mobile texting would be used for reaching out the target group to inform them about their bank balances and other facilities like direct subsidy transfer etc.
At the same time, every effort will be taken to increase the quality broadband penetration. India would have 250,000 touch points connected with optical fiber , wherein every person would have access to the net.
