“We are computerizing age old processes left by British Raj and calling it e-Governance”. This was stated by Sam Pitroda, Advisor to the Prime Minister during CII conference on Financial Inclusion in New Delhi.

Pitroda mentioned that multiple platforms like broadband, UID, GIS, Security, Application, Payment were needed to achieve a true inclusion. He mentioned that government is trying to rope in Dr. Kasturiranjan to evolve the GIS platform.

Pitroda said that government is trying to connect the 2,50,000 village panchayats through broadband and highlighted that since majority of the content flowing to panchayats will be in form of videos, it will require a bandwidth as high as 100 mpbs. He mentioned that over 2500 municipalities also need to be connected.

Taking a jibe at the recent e-governance meeting under Cabinet Secretary, Pitorda said that, “Somebody in the meeting said that the government has given over 10-20 smart cards to citizens which ranged from driving license to pan card to a bank card”.