IGB archive

Plugging The Digital India drive around The World

India Inc. Staff

The Narendra Modi led Indian government officially clicked through the country's ambitious Digital India programme last year. The vision is simple: to usher each and every Indian citizen into the digital age. As a bridge between this vision and delivery, India Inc. created its own Digital India initiative to present a worldwide series of online and offline programmes. The aim is to explore the Digital India vision, trigger dialogue, remove any stumbling blocks and plug into this bold new programme to deliver results on the ground.Our offline activities kicked off in the Indian capital with a grand Digital India Conclave in New Delhi on December 5, 2014 by Indian minister for communications and information technology Ravi Shankar Prasad. He explained: “In a nutshell, Digital India is about improving lives of Indians, enabled by technology, through knowledge-based transformation.“We want to ensure each and every Indian, whether in a major metropolis or smaller towns or rural areas, has the opportunities that the proliferation of technology offers in the 21st century.”The event brought together key global players from the IT world, including the likes of Google, Amazon and Qualcomm, to identify the challenges and opportunities within the digital agenda.The ideas thrown up at the inaugural event were then taken forward as part of the US-India Strategic Dialogue Series in Washington DC on January 16, 2015. The dtable built on the groundwork laid in New Delhi to analyse how the public and private sector India-US collaboration could work in tandem to usher India into a truly democratic digital age.Most recently on April 15, 2015, India Inc. scored another major success with the India-EU Strategic Dialogue Series. It coincided with Prime Minister Modi's visit to Europe and brought together key partners such McKinsey & Co. and IT firms like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to the Microsoft headquarters in Brussels.Once again, the Indian IT minister's message was loud and clear: “The European Union has done remarkable work in the field of cyber security, innovation, start-ups, digital governance, e-governance. Here are some of the issues where we can profitably learn from the experiences of European Union and its team member countries.”There was an impromptu invite from the European Commission for India to come on board with its own Smart Cities Unit.Robert Madelin, director-general of DG Connect in the European Commission, said: “India needs to be a louder partner in e-governance. It remains high priority on our side and in future I see huge scope in EU-India cooperation in the European Digital Single Market strategy.”The stage is now firmly set and India Inc. remains committed to carry this agenda far and wide. A befitting crescendo to this year's worldwide activities will take place in the form of a mega conclave in New Delhi on December 3, 2015.India Inc. Founder & CEO Manoj Ladwa extends an invite to each one of you: “Digital India is about rapid poverty upliftment - a quantum leap for India. Given that backdrop, India needs to partner with the very best global companies, harness cutting-edge technologies, and adopt global practices.“Now is the time for the world to click onto this vision.” The above article was published in India Inc′s print edition of the India Investment Journal launched in April 2015 in conjunction with the Global Wealth Management Conclave 2015.

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