The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : CII event off to unconventional start

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Tamil Nadu - Chennai

CII event off to unconventional start

Special Correspondent

Everyone got to speak, and a softball was hurled in the direction of those who overshot limit

— Photo: S. Thanthoni

DRIVING HOME HIS POINT: Lakshmi Narayanan, vice-chairman, Cognizant, addressing the “unconference” at Connect 2008 in Chennai on Thursday. (From left) Subu D. Subramanian, chairman, Connect 2008; IT Secretary C. Chandramouli; and Kanimozhi, MP, are in the picture.

CHENNAI: It was an unconventional start to a flagship brainstorming event—everyone in the audience got to speak, one minute was all they got to voice their view and a yellow softball with a smiley was hurled in the general direction of those who overshot the time limit.

CONNECT ‘2008, the flagship event of the government and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), got going on Thursday, with an “unconference” that was as lively as it was surprisingly orderly.

So impressed seemed poet and Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi that she suggested that political parties take their cue from the democratic character of the “unconference.”

On the main theme of the meeting, ‘Technology for Common Man,’ Ms. Kanimozhi wanted rural browsing centres manned by persons who can ferret out information from the Internet for the benefit of villagers. Information should be made available in the local language.

Language computing

Lakshmi Narayanan, vice-chairman, Cognizant, said local language computing had to be developed for the information and communication technology to penetrate rural areas.

Information Technology Secretary C. Chandramouli outlined the Centre-supported programme to set up 5,440 common service centres (net kiosks) in villages to enable rural masses to access a host of utilities online. A great progress had been made in standardisation of computer coding for Tamil.

A few IT professionals chipped in with a suggestion to replace the keyboard that inhibits rural user from accessing the Net with more villager-friendly voice and visual clues.

Manikam Ramaswami, chairman, CII Tamil Nadu, saw for IT majors a more proactive role in driving social change.

He pointed out that there was little elbow room in the current scenario of IT companies merely executing government assignments. Instead, the companies should volunteer to develop e-governance software such as one that would ensure the best practices in the Public Distribution System.

Premkumar, Global Head, HCL Technologies, wanted technology demystified for it to gain wider acceptance.

K. Purushothaman of the NASSCOM sought better participation from the IT companies in the monthly social support initiatives chalked out by the agency.

These initiatives, he said, were often met with a lukewarm response from the IT segment.

Hitches in supply

Santhosh Babu, new ELCOT Managing Director, told reporters at a short break that the supply chain hitches in the laptop distribution scheme for students would be ironed out soon.

The two top ideas to be short-listed for further action were to develop computing standards for local languages and to allow FM stations to broadcast news and rural education content.

Summing up the “unconference” experience, Subu D. Subramanian said it was an ideal way to iterate the culture of innovation in the State. The depth of many ideas only warranted augmentation or improvement to be taken to an actionable phase.

Kiruba Shankar, member, Connect steering committee, moderated the “unconference.”

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