Event

Technology Sabha 2007: A curtain raiser

A hundred government officials will attend the second edition of this path-breaking event in Goa.

With the success of its first edition in June 2006, Technology Sabha has emerged as a forum for senior IT government policy makers and opinion influencers to exchange ideas, concepts and technology strategies that have proven to be of use, and explore business possibilities with leading technology vendors.

Technology Sabha 2007 will be held at the Marriott, Goa, from June 7 to 10, 2007. The Indian Express Group will host 100 government officials at this event.

The Indian government recognises IT as a driving force of economic development. Each state government has spearheaded several IT initiatives in administration and services, leading to improved access to information, better learning, greater efficiency and an overall increase in productivity.

The Technology Sabha platform raises discussions on the numerous challenges facing IT in India and how to put India on the road to prosperity through IT. e-Governance initiatives (Gyandoot in MP, Warana in Maharashtra and RajNidhi in Rajasthan, etc.) reflect the growing importance of IT in the agenda of state governments. As does the launch of www.india.gov.in, a national citizen’s portal, and state-level initiatives like e-Panchayat, eSeva, eSuvidha, Akshaya and many more, where technology has a large role to play.

This year the participants from the industry include SAS, Citrix, Fortinet, Business Objects, Novell, Nortel, Sybase, Emerson and Patch Link. Also presenting will be Ernst & Young. Of course, this being Technology Sabha, government IT projects will be highlighted.

The Technology Sabha 06, organised by the Indian Express Group at Goa, brought into focus the various e-Governance initiatives undertaken by the central and state governments and the industry’s views on the information and communication technology (ICT) sector.

In the beginning

Last year, the event kicked off with a message from the President, Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, being read out by Director, Technology Interface, President’s Office, V Ponraj at the outset, “It is highly needed at this point in time in transforming India into a developed nation, ICT has to play a vital role.” Ponraj had commented that areas like R&D and manufacturing need to be equipped with IT applications as they have the potential to drive the success story of India towards 2020 and identified three technological areas that are going to drive India’s growth—biotechnology, nanotechnology and information technology. He had stated that IT had a major role to play as it will bring these technologies together.

E-Governance is a transparent way to govern and the government, industry and citizens are showing interest in enhancing the reach of e-Governance. “Many state governments are taking initiatives to improve the service deliverables to citizens,” said Ponraj.

Kalam had stated, “Self-sufficiency is an important aspect for India as it is emerging into a bigger economy and IT applications are the key elements in strengthening self-sufficiency among the citizens.”

It was stated that every government department is going to be connected enabling all the citizens to access relevant data on the Internet and that the President’s e-Gov grid is going to be connected with all the state governments to enhance service deliverability helping both citizens and officials implementing the same.

Other initiatives that had been taken up in the field of education using IT were highlighted. Universities had joined hands and formed a virtual university to create a world knowledge platform by getting many countries to participate.

Yet another message was read out on behalf of Chandrababu Naidu, former Chief Minister, Andhra Pradesh. The message said, “IT holds great potential in making India a developed nation. IT can improve the per capita income of Indian citizens and bring India and other developed countries of the world to a common platform. Participation by the public is the key in making e-Governance a success. Participation by every citizen of India has to be ensured so as to make the Indian e-Governance initiatives a benchmark for other parts of the world.

V Ponraj, Director, Technology Interface, President’s Office	Zohra Chatterjee, Principal Secretary - IT, Govt. of UP
Sudipta K Sen, CEO and Managing Director, SAS India	Sandeep Menon, Director, Sales, Linux West Asia Business, Novell

Goan IT

Goan IT Minister Dayanand G Narvekar had said that there is immense potential for IT in Goa. He had added that the Government of Goa is emphasising on IT and that in a couple of years it would be setting up an IT belt. Projects like e-Infrastructure and SWAN (State Wide Area Network) in partnership with private organisations were said to be coming up in Goa.

The Government of Goa had taken up e-Governance initiatives in various areas including the state transport department and land records—a project called Dharni. National Informatics Centre (NIC)’s e-Gov project which is about setting up of Common Services Centres (CSCs) was also on in the state. Another important scheme was InfoGram, as part of which 109 village panchayats were to be connected through the Internet in a year’s time.

Apart from all this, Goa also had the Goa Healthcare Services—a healthcare initiative, ShikshaNet, an e-education initiative, and a Cyber age scheme.

“By the end of May 2007 we will have all the state government departments fully computerised and completely connected with each other. This will become a reality as the vision of the State government with regard to IT implementation is clear,” Narvekar had said.

Sanjay Deshmukh, Country Manager India & Saarc, Business Objects	Amod Kumar, DM Faizabad, Govt. of UP
Dr BK Upadhyay, DIG Prisons (Nagpur), Govt. of Maharastra	V Mathur, Director General IT, Dept. of Income Tax

UP’s IT forays

Secretary for IT, Uttar Pradesh Government, Zohra Chatterji had elaborated on her state’s IT forays, “UP is an important hub for IT and e-Governance activities. The state government has taken the initiative to create best possible citizen services for governance. UP will have 16,348 CSCs covering all the regions and villages of the state. The state is going to see the biggest SWAN project. Computerisation of treasuries has already taken place in UP. The Principal Secretary Finance regularly monitors the network.”

Chatterji had highlighted other flagship e-Gov projects in UP such as the database of pensioners, digitised land records, UPTPO Online—counselling now available online, a housing portal, and Lokvani programme to address citizens’ grievances.

The award-winning Lokvani project in particular was something of a landmark being the UP government’s flagship project connecting the common man to the decision-makers in the government.

Atul Kumar Gupta, Industrial Development Commissioner, UP Government had said, “We are having leadership in many business areas. IT is a great enabler for development. We are moving at a high speed in implementing IT applications in government practices.”

The UP official had announced that UP had Web sites for all its districts and that the judiciary had its own online infrastructure. Noida was projected as a destination for IT companies and an asset for UP.

Approved by all

The CEO and Managing Director of SAS India, Sudipta K Sen had said, “India has an opportunity to become a robust economy. It is a data-driven scenario that’s the reason why IT applications and e-Governance can ensure that the government sector embarks into a golden future.”

Dr K Subramanian, IT Advisor & Deputy Director General to CAG of India and President Emeritus to eISA had said, “This is a good effort for keeping the e-Governance wagon moving with a sustainable speed in India. I think in the e-Governance scenario, knowledge-sharing is the decisive factor. In that way the Sabha is a great effort.”

He had explained that with India at the threshold of high-end technology of global standards it was time to identify how to go about it. It was clear that IT applications would definitely be a great enabler for the country’s success in coming years.

L V Sastry, Associate Director, Xerox Global Services had said, “The government has lot of areas in which cutting edge technology applications can be a great fit. Xerox as a company deals in entire documentation processes and we foresee a huge potential in e-Governance activities. The way the Indian government is working on the e-Governance initiatives, I am sure of a golden future ahead.”

Sandeep Menon, Director, Sales, Linux West Asia Business, Novell had commented, “Open Source has many applications which are being implemented at the governmental level worldwide. It is a good sign that the Indian government is considering open source as a major area in the implementation of e-Governance.”

Dr T K Seshadri, Scientist G, MCIT, Government of India had said, “I appreciate such events in which the industry and government can interact to discuss e-Governance initiatives. Successful Indian e-Governance is possible by knowledge-sharing.”

Yugal Sharma, Country Manager, India-SAARC, Polycom had stated, “It is a positive approach by the Indian Express Group as the government segment has immense potential. The government is facing a lot of challenges like managing massive information material, enabling easy connectivity and ensuring growth on the technology front. All these can be taken care of by staying connected with the latest technologies from across the globe.” He had added that government officials were giving a good response when his company represented high-end office communication products to them.

Rajendra Dhavale, Consulting Director, CA had said, “The world is being driven by innovation. We are still at the implementation phase. Though in the e-Governance space we are considered to be late-comers, we are utilising the opportunities coming our way. These kinds of initiatives have to be appreciated as they are binding the industry, government, and people and also are the best platforms for knowledge-sharing. I think e-Governance in India needs more such conferences.”

Alok Bhushan, Manager Enterprise Businesses, Juniper had stated, “It is good to see technologies like WAN and MPLS being discussed. Apart from this the government is also making good efforts to keep the flag of e-Governance flying high. Trends like network security are picking up in the government segment. It will help in staying connected with the outside world and keeping up the speed of growth in implementation of IT.”

The designations listed in the story and photo captions were correct at the time of Technology Sabha 2006. In some cases, they may have changed at the time of going to print.