Renowned Indian scientist, former DRDO head and member of Niti Ayog, V.K. Saraswat on Saturday called upon young entrepreneurs and tech graduates to contribute to the ‘Digital India Programme’ by coming up with innovative products and solutions.
He said that the programme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was a great opportunity for the young Indians as it would provide employment on a large scale.
Mr. Sarawat was speaking at the convocation ceremony of International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT), Hyderabad.
The former adviser to Defence Minister gave a complete lowdown on the programme and its challenges. He forecasted that by 2020, about 1.7 crore will be directly employed and about nine lakhs indirectly employed in the IT sector.
He made a pitch for lowering the costs of electronic imports and felt that by 2020, the country should manufacture its own parts and aim at zero net imports in the sector.
“It is expected that 2,50,000 gram panchayats will have broadband facility covering the entire rural India. Use of internet health care is also envisaged viz., online medical consultations, and online maintenance of medical records and online sale of prescribed medicines. Besides, there would be pan-India exchange of patient information,” said Mr. Saraswat.
“Farmers will be able to order inputs online and ascertain real time prices of commodities and also cash transaction on different counts, which includes receiving instalments from government.”
Challenges for
internet growth
He said that digital society would help in uplifting the downtrodden to a great extent. Listing out the challenges for internet growth in the country, he mentioned that there should be increased connectivity but at the same time internet usage prices have to drop.
Earlier speaking, P.J. Narayana, Director, IIIT-Hyderabad spoke on the achievements, research collaborations and the programmes of the institute. The graduating students, totalling 421, from various streams were awarded degrees on the occasion.
