They assembled, they deliberated and they lightened the eGovernance path! That precisely is the story of 10th edition of the India’s premier ICT event, christened eINDIA 2014. Elets New Network’s Nayana Singh and Kartik Sharma have more…
2014 proved to be quite a significant year, especially with regard to the eGovernance domain, with lot many changes taking place around us. The most introspected occurrence of the year happened in the month of May when Prime Minister Narendra Modi took over the reins of NDA Government. The new government spelt out its agenda for reforms in governance, with the Digital India vision being one of its prime focus areas.
In alignment with the Prime Minister’s Digital India vision, the 10th Anniversary edition of one of India’s biggest ICT events — eINDIA 2014 — was organised on the 14th and 15th of November, 2014. The two-day Summit, held in association with the Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala, took place in the exquisite location of The Leela at Kovalam, Kerala. It saw an enormous participation of nearly 400 delegates from all across India.
Shri PK Kunhalikutty, Hon’ble Minister for Industries and Information Technology, Government of Kerala, inaugurated the Summit and played a key role by extending his active support towards the meet. In his keynote address, he highlighted the course eGovernance had charted in Kerala and gave his message for the mega event, saying “I wish that eINDIA 2014 turns out to be a good opportunity for the people to understand our state and the country better, visualise the future roadmap for development and find opportunities of participation in it. The state looks forward to good outcomes from the event.”
Shri Ramesh Chennithala, Hon’ble Minister for Home and Vigilance, Government of Kerala, attending the conference said, “This is the 10th year for e-India Summit. For the last 10 years, I have been informed about the positive changes that have taken place in various states after the e-India event took place in those states. Now e-India is happening in Kerala… This conference will give new direction to our state as well as we are also focussed towards eGovernance.”
Addressing the gathering, R Chandrasekar, President, Nasscom remarked, “All of us have seen the journey of eGovernance in India from different angles, different snapshots and different perspectives…be it from the perspective of a particular state, a particular ministry or a particular slice of time when we happened to be associated to it. We have made considerable progress with respect to e-Goverance but not significant enough. We need to look not just at the technology and solution but also the process for the deployment of technology.”
The scale of the event was also highlighted by the fact that eINDIA 2014 saw delegates and speakers coming from as many as 20 states, including Maharashtra, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Telangana, Haryana, Meghalaya, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, New Delhi and Puducherry.
The themes of discussions were based on the adoption of eGovernance in various domains of public governance, the role that technology is playing in improving education at various levels and e-Health initiatives that are being adopted in Kerala and elsewhere in the country, among several others. Yet another major theme of eINDIA 2014 was Financial Inclusion and the role that policymakers and banks are playing towards achieving the goal of comprehensive financial inclusion in the country.
Rita Teaotia, Special Secretary, Department of Telecom, Government of India is one of the key officers who have played a significant role in shaping the eGovernance ecosystem of the country. Addressing the elite gathering at eINDIA 2014 Summit, Ms Teaotia said, “The Digital India mission states that we would ensure nationwide digital transformation through application of ICT in various sectors of the economy, empowerment of people and delivery of government services electronically to the citizens and businesses through re-engineered processes integrated and inter-operable systems and multi-delivery channels.”
IT majors like Vodafone, CA Technologies, Akamai, Microsoft, HP, Accenture, Wipro, Samsung, Adobe, Cannon, Hitachi and many others took part in the mega event. Through deliberations at the conference and exhibition, they showcased their products and services.
eINDIA Awards, an integral part of the annual Summit, felicitated 52 individuals and institutions active in the eGovernance space. We bring to you a detailed coverage of the Summit, along with the recommendations made by the Speakers. Hope it makes a meaningfully pleasant reading.