Ready to Enable mGov in U’khand: Dipankar Ghoshal

Dipankar Ghoshal, Business Head-UP West & Uttarakhand, Vodafone

Vodafone has come up with some unique mGovernance initiatives that could help citizens in Uttarakhand access government services anytime, anywhere. Dipankar Ghoshal, Business Head-UP West & Uttarakhand, Vodafone, tells Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN) about their plan to facilitate mGovernance in the State

What sort of mGovernance services are being offered by Vodafone that can benefit Uttarakhand?

Vodafone’s robust, cost-effective, round-the-clock, intelligent services have enabled applications and mGovernance solutions across various spheres. Some of them are as follows:

  • Partnering with the State to reduce infant mortality: Facilitating communication through alerts and voice calls for health activists as part of a State Government’s health initiatives;
  • Ensuring cleaner water supply: Help municipal corporations track and monitor water quality; and
  • Partnering with governments in civic initiatives: Helping municipal corporation officials upload pictures and location of potholes; M2M-based intelligent street light and smart electricity meters.

Vodafone will be an eager partner with the Uttarakhand Government in various mGover- nance initiatives to deliver value to citizens and businesses in the State.

Financial inclusion is a big challenge for state governments and a critical aspect to complete the ecosystem for smart governance. How is Vodafone poised for delivering on the same?
Vodafone M-Pesa is an innovative, safe and secure mobile wallet that enables complete suite of services like money transfer, bill payments and recharge on the move from the mobile through a simple text-based approach. The technology brings the bank to the mobile and addresses the issue of access to financial services. It caters to all segments of the society, from the unbanked to the under-banked, and to the net-savvy and evolved customers. Today, with a pan-India distribution of close to 90,000 agents and 7,200 in UP West, Vodafone M-Pesa is the largest banking correspondent in the country and is playing a vital role in enabling financial inclusion and m-commerce.

Lots of talks are happening centering Smart Cities. How does Vodafone connect with this concept?

Vodafone Business Services (VBS), the enterprise arm of Vodafone, provides total telecom- munication solutions across both mobility and wire-line platforms and enables global enterprises, national corporates, SMEs and government segments to communicate, collaborate and connect. One of our key service offerings could be partnering with the State Government for Smart Cities, which will leverage our IT and Telecommunication infrastructure. A key element of the ecosystem would be ‘connected homes and workplace’ based on the Internet of Things (IoT). Vodafone in UP West and the country is a market leader in M2M technology and we are constantly working towards meet- ing the newer and advanced M2M needs of our customers.

There will also be high bandwidth MPLS connectivity required in network enterprises as well as solutions around enterprise mobility, unified communications, cloud-based services and hosting services. VBS is actively engaged to bring our global best practices around these products and services to the State.

What is your observation about the smart governance model of Uttarakhand?

eGovernance is transitioning into mGovernance leveraging the omnipresence of mobile devices. As with businesses, the interactions between Government and Citizens are becoming a real-time two-way street.

Definitive strides are being made by the Uttarakhand Government towards creating a better and more technologically advanced State with citizens in mind.

As a global leader in mobility and having worked with governments in many parts of the world, Vodafone understands the eGovernance and mGovernance space deeply and is adequately poised to enable the ‘Digital India’ vision. We are looking forward to playing a larger role in supporting the State through smart solutions and smart governance. We can help leverage the power of mobility platforms and can lead the transformation from eGovernance to mGovernance. Be it IoT, mobile-based payments, location-based services or managed mobility – Vodafone can support it all.

"Exciting news! Elets eGov is now on WhatsApp Channels 🚀 Subscribe today by clicking the link and stay updated with the latest insights!" Click here!
Be a part of Elets Collaborative Initiatives. Join Us for Upcoming Events and explore business opportunities. Like us on Facebook , connect with us on LinkedIn and follow us on Twitter , Instagram.