Digital revolution has impacted 33 percent of the global economy, according to a study conducted by Accenture. The annual study report Accenture Technology Vision 2016 says that 85 percent of the survey respondents believe that the pace of technology change will increase at a rapid or unprecedented rate over the next three years. The survey identifies five technolog
Optical fibres network, under government’s NOFN (National Optical Fibre Network) programme, may have reached more than 45,000 villages, but only 4,000 villages are linked to it as of now, says, telecom secretary Rakesh Garg. As per the programme, one lakh panchayats will be covered in phase one out of 2,50,000 total panchayats in the country. “The ducts
Soon the disabled will not have to carry piles of documents and certificates to government offices while applying for various benefits. The ministry of social justice and empowerment plans to issue a universal ID number to persons with disabilities and create a central database. Scheduled for launch in March, the department of empowerment of persons with disabilities (DEPwD), the ministry`s nod
The early January Pathankot terrorist attack in which seven soldiers lost their lives once again puts a question mark on the anti-terror preparedness of the Indian security establishment. A slew of measures were taken after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008, including putting in place a national counter-terrorism centre (NCTC) and creation of national intelligence grid (NATGRID). The government
As the Asia Pacific head of the technology at HDS, De Luca is responsible for developing insight into the customer needs and business directions in the region, and combining it with the economic and technological trends to develop innovations that can meet customer needs. In an interaction with Shubhendu Parth, he talked about the impact of changing computing era and heterogeneous device en
It’s the beginning of a new calendar year and as is customary, I’m engaging in a bit of crystal ball gazing, though with an active disclaimer that I’m no scryer. Looking back, 2015 was a landmark year from an e-governance standpoint even for one simple reason that it saw the unveiling of the Digital India project in July, followed by the Digital India w
Indian information technology industry body NASSCOM has urged the nation’s telecom regulator not to allow internet service providers and internet platforms to be the gatekeepers and sought an independent board on differential pricing. NASSCOM president R Chandrasekhar has said that the consumer should have unfettered access to the internet and any differential pricing which
The telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) has so far received 18.72 lakh responses to its consultation paper on differential pricing for data services. However, a majority of these responses –around 14 lakh – did not provide any answer to the questions posed by the regulator, and supported Free Basics. Around 8.9 lakh responses were sent thr
Mozilla Corporation has come out strongly against the differential pricing, which gives rise to ‘anti-competition and anti-innovation effects’. In its response to TRAI on consultation paper on differential pricing for data services, Mozilla said that the core principles of net neutrality have created a level playing field that has been critical to the internet’s success
Responding to the requests from the stakeholders, the Telecom Operator Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the deadline to submit comments on its consultation papers on differential pricing for data services to January 7, said an official releas
With the exponential rise in government and citizen data, particularly a flood of unstructured data and imaging data, how sustainable you think are the traditional hosted and on-premise IT delivery models? Are cloud-hosted models the way to go? The recession of 2008 has taught many lessons, and one of them is moving towards ‘asset light models, keeping our heads lo
By Deepak Kumar & Shubhendu Parth The cloud has the potential to transform the way the government functions internally or provides services externally, to citizens. It brings in the agility and flexibility to become more responsive to needs of both citizens and businesses. The paradigm completely shifts from asset ownership to using managed services that are
With the Digital India programme underway, the relevance of cloud in government has increased significantly. Which would be the key application areas in your view? For any government application where public money, citizen convenience, non-discriminatory and non-proprietary delivery platforms are the key and paramount factors, cloud technology offers the right answer. It
How important a role do you see cloud playing while the government looks to transform IT as a means towards goals like Digital India? Traditional models of IT delivery are not in tune with changing times, especially when India is looking ways to go paperless and digital. In such a dynamic environment, seamless and timely flow of information is the need of the hour, which
The net neutrality debate has perplexed layman and policy experts alike. For a developing country like India, where a majority of the population doesn’t have access to internet, whether government should stick to the core principles or should it allow flexibility in network management practices to operators is still not clear yet. Whether India should go for an overarching, prophylactic r
Under the ambitious smart city mission, cities are scrambling to put together their plans to transform themselves into smart cities. The smart cities programme is a key initiative of the government that aims to make Indian cities more efficient, livable and vibrant and to infuse economic activity in the country. The smart city plan (SCP) needs to have these two primary component
India’s urban citizens need many improvements to make their cities better and more livable. A complete list would include livelihood opportunities, law and order ensuring safety, good urban mobility and transport, health and education, robust IT connectivity, good affordable housing with 24X7 water and electricity, solid waste management, and good governance from the city government and o
With the list for 100 smart cities mostly in, the stage 1 of Smart Cities Mission is over and the cities are readying for the challenge round as part of stage 2. At this first milestone, it may do the project some good to check if we are on the right track and if any course correction could be useful. First thing first: is the state-wise distribution of cities on the list reading
If things go as planned, India will have a set of clean and livable urban localities in the coming five years. These localities will be small islands of excellence in cities. They will have assured water and power supply, smart waste management, walkway, security of women and children and electronic governance, among others. Thanks to ministry of urban development’s (MoUD) `48,000 crore s
Sudhir Krishna is the chairman of the sectional committee appointed by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) on setting standards for smartcities. The committee is likely to submit its first draft by March. Krishna was previously secretary of the ministry of urban development (MoUD), the nodal ministry for smart cities mission. What are t
