CSDMS rolls out ‘eINDIA 2009’: A Global Confluence on knowledge sharing in various domains of ICT for development

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CSDMS rolls out ‘eINDIA 2009’: A Global Confluence on knowledge sharing in various domains of ICT for development

• Ms.D Purandeswari, Honorable Minister of State for Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource & Development, Government of India, and a host of many others bureaucrats along with prominent people from national and international agencies were present for the inauguration
• More than 1200 delegates and 3500 people attended

Hyderabad, India, August 25, 2009 – India’s largest Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) conference ‘eINDIA 2009’ started today at HICC (Hyderabad International Convention Center). This most reputed ICT conference of India was inaugurated by Ms.D Purandeswari, Honorable Minister of State for Higher Education, Ministry of Human Resource & Development, Government of India.

After the welcome address by Dr. M P Narayanan, President, Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), the opening addresses were given by Mr.S R Rao, Additional Secretary, Department of IT, Ministry of Communication & IT, Government of India and Mr.Subhash C Khuntia, Joint Secretary, Ministry of HRD, Government of India.

There was a keynote address by Mr.Charles Clarke, Honorable Member of Parliament & Former Education Minister and Former Education & Home Secretary, United Kingdom and Prof V N Rajashekhar Pillai, Vice Chancellor, Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU). Mr.Reshan Dewapura, COO, Information & Communication Technology Agency (ICTA), Sri Lanka was the guest of honor.

Ms.D Purundeswari thereafter, inaugurated the ‘eINDIA 2009 Exhibition’ in which around 100 exhibitors from professional service providers, technology vendors, consulting firms, government agencies and national and International development organizations are exhibiting their latest e-solutions, services, initiatives and case studies from across India and beyond.

The event allows people and organisations working in apparently isolated domains of ICTD, to engage in mutual experience sharing and enable them to build an understanding of convergent issues in development. This most reputed event on ICT in India is providing the platform to around 3000 experts from over 40 countries. The cross-country sharing of experiences and regional specificities has always ensured that new and possible collaborations are discussed and forged.

‘eINDIA 2009’ through its five seminal conferences namely

- ‘e-GOV India’
- ‘Digital Learning India’
- ‘Indian Telecenter Forum’
- ‘eHealth India’
- ‘eAgriculture India’

focuses on five emerging application domains of ICT for Development - e-Government, ICT in Education, ICT and Rural Development and ICT enabled Health services.

According to Dr. M P Narayanan, President, Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), “Hyderabad is witnessing the biggest ICT event in the country where professionals from different fields can network and be preview to and interact on a host of technologies, developments that will shape the world of tomorrow”.

The first day of ‘eINDIA 2009’ witnessed various sessions and keynotes by prominent bureaucrats and senior management of various corporate and government agencies under the seminal tracks.

• e-GOV India 2009

- Keynote on Enterprise Approach for e-Governance - Providing a Paradigm Shift

Among the various panelists, Mr. Sanjay Jaju, Commissioner, Department of Food, Civil, Supplies & Consumer Affairs, Govt of AP and the implementer of e-Seva in Andhra Pradesh pointed out that the mass is very critical for any e-Governance project to succeed. Mass appeal and acceptability provides the sustainability to any project and the success of e-Seva is one of the classic examples of the same. He also discussed the Iris based ration card project of Andhra Pradesh. The importance of citizen database is evident is in the fact that the civil supply database is used for all official and governmental purposes.

The emphasis of the session by Siddharth, Principal Secretary IT, Government of West Bengal was on the transformational approach to the e-Governance application rather than the much used implemental approach. To increase the efficiency of the application, reliable, enduring and integrated solutions and services should be the approach.

• Digital Learning India 2009

- Session on ICT Applications in Managing change

Terry Wason, Country Manager for India, SMART Technologies was one of the speakers at the session and he emphasized the importance of the involvement of students, teachers, parents, community and government and educational system. He discussed the importance of ICT whiteboards to be included in the educational process. The change will be paved out with the positive combination of integrated approach to support education and the application to provide skills to the students.

• eHealth India 2009

Opportunities and best practices in ehealth adoption – A multi stakeholder perspective

The keynote address by Babu A, CEO, Arogyasri, Health Care Trust, Govt. of AP conferred various aspects of healthcare insurance procedures and practices in India. It talked at length about the flawed claiming processes results in the failure of insurance schemes. The official insurable population figure being projected by the government is 17 million. Digitalization of the process and use of IT is the need of the hour. Technical data feeding work has been taken off from doctors and a separate department has been created to forward the information to the government database for the usage of doctors and insurance companies. This will be helpful to review and then bring the transparency in the claiming process. He also spoke on the new age media being used in various projects like referral data capture scheme, cashless facility and the issuance of the health card.

• Internet Society and Public Policy Workshop by ISOC

Multilingualism on the Internet
Tulika Pandey, Additional Director, Department of IT, GOI

The speaker addressed to the problems being faced by the non-English Literates on the internet. In spite of being a high usage medium, internet is still at bay for many non-English speaker literates. Multilingualisation is the only way out of the situation, where access to information is not restricted by the linguistic barriers.

About ‘eINDIA’:

Starting from eINDIA 2005 through eINDIA 2008, the forum has always provided a stimulating and invigorating environment allowing different stakeholders to learn from peers and experts representing different sectors. eINDIA 2008 apart from being co-organised by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, Ministry of Urban Development, Government of India and UN GAID, also received overwhelming support from key ministries namely the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Panchayati Raj. It saw 320 speakers across 7 thematic tracks and a participation of around 1500 delegates from more than 35 countries.

The Forum has also been extended to different Asian regions and has been hosted by different Asian countries along with CSDMS. eASIA 2008 organised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, eASIA2007 organised in Putrajaya, Malaysia, and eASIA2006 held in Bangkok, Thailand witnessed interactive sessions with an interesting mix of participants leading to knowledge exchange, collaborations and refinement of perspectives.

For more information on the event visit, http://www.eindia.net.in/2009
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