Communication and IT minister Kapil Sibal stressed the need for India to manufacture low cost devices rather than import them to provide the real digital inclusion in India. “India should be known not only for its software development but also for its design and manufacturing abilities,” said Sibal. He was speaking in the 9th National Summit on Digital Society organised by Assocham on the topic ‘Empowering Inclusive Knowledge Society’ in Delhi.

"Simply reaching the gram panchayat (through NoFN) is not important. It is important to provide affordable delivery of services through low cost devices," he said. Sibal said that it is only with low cost devices that the government can make sure that the services provided are actually availed by the people.

He said that resources like spectrum should not be allocated but should be available on rent for anyone who needs them. This will provide the eco system to empower the people of the country, he added.

“We need to move beyond the internet and make it into the equinet, which will be a platform of equity for the people,” he said.

He said that the government has achieved the first milestone in low cost devices with the manufacture of Aakash. “We changed the entire discourse on tablets in the world,” he said.

However, there is a need to develop more such devices and for that there needs to be more collaboration at the political level, he added.

Along with manufacturing, Sibal asked the industry to develop more indigenous content for education and other such purposes. “Why our children should read foreign fairy tales?” he asked. He said the country needed robust content creators in the field of entertainment and games.

He said that the government has already finalised the linking of Aadhaar enables services with Aakash tablet which will provide greater utility of the device to the people.

Sibal also stressed on more participation within the industry to provide more IT solutions for the rural markets in India. “There is enough space for everyone,” he said.

He urged the civil society to pressurise the government to develop technology in the society.

Participants from the industry, Sanjay Kapoor from Bharti Airtel and Sunil Kakkad from Sai Infosystems stressed on the need for providing a viable business model for the industry to be able to tap the vast market in the rural areas.

“We need to change the meaning of ‘O’ in Universal Services Obligation Bill to Opportunity; only then we will be able to harness the full strength of the market in rural India,” he said.

Sunil Kanoria from SREI Infrastructure Finance Limited said that opportunities in the rural areas are rising and although there are challenges, the market should use these opportunities to increase internet reach in these areas.

He also talked about financial literacy and how it’s linked with the growth of banking sector in the rural areas. “Customers will only come to the bank once they understand finance; merely having a bank will not do,” he said.

Assocham National Council on Digital Society’s chairman Umang Das said that the entire project of NoFN is a game changer in terms of technology and internet in India and the project cannot achieve success without a partnership with public and private sector. “There should be an integrated stake holder approach and also a technology linked nodal point from where a range of services can be rolled out,” he said.