Digital Telangana, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao’s programme is much more ambitious than Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India, going by the targets outlined in it that include broadband connectivity to a whopping 8.5 million households and making the City of Pearls completely WiFi-enabled by this year-end.
This was broadly the message Telangana Secretary-Information & Communications Technology (ITC) Jayesh Ranjan had to offer at an interaction programme organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI) with InfoComm International, an industry body whose mission is to enhance audio-visual (AV) communication globally.
The seminar titled ‘Integrated Digital Solutions for a Smarter Telangana’ brought together several industry professionals on the initiative of the Department of IT & C in Telangana, including FICCI’s Director-General Arbind Prasad, who also presided over the deliberations that were followed by a networking lunch.
Mr. Jayesh Ranjan outlined Telangana Government’s digital plans and how Digital Telangana stood on two pillars - supply and demand. On the supply side, the goal was ‘Internet for All’ and on the demand side, it was among others, to ensure that each household had atleast one member who could be termed ‘digitally-literate. “Riding piggyback on our Government’s Drinking Water Mission programme, we will provide internet to 8.5 million households,” he reiterated.
“Our benchmarks are higher and we wish to ‘Catch them young’ by having an interesting computer education from Class VI onwards to digitally prepare the citizens of tomorrow. And by using broadband, 4 G and WiFi together, we wish to take the number of citizens’ services we offer digitally, up from the present 320 to over 400,” he declared, giving an overview of the Telangana Government’s digital architecture.
Summing up, Mr. Arbind Prasad said FICCI’s Communication and Digital Economy was driving the Government-industry dialogue to ensure effective delivery of digital transformation programs in partnership with State Government at the grassroots. Earlier, welcoming the participants FICCI’s Co-Chair for Andhra Pradesh and Telangana J.A. Chowdary underscored the importance of ICT in achieving the last mile connectivity.
The inaugural was followed by a panel discussion on ‘Leveraging ICT in building a Smarter Telangana’ that was moderated by Ernst & Young Partner Kali Prasad.
InfoComm International’s Senior Director-Development (Asia Pacific Region), Jonathan C. Seller and InfoComm Asia Project Director David Lim in their presentations, showcased the increasing importance of the audio-visual medium and how it was all about effective and efficient communication to tap the power of digital interconnect.
