GUWAHATI: Releasing ‘Digital North East Vision 2022’ here on Saturday Union Minister for Electronics & Information Technology and Law and Justice, Ravi Shankar Prasad on Saturday urged all the chief minister of the region to focus on electronic manufacturing which, he said, would be the key component of development in days to come.
He informed that in 2014 there were only two mobile manufacturing factories and now there are 127 mobile factories all over the country. He urged all the Chief Ministers of the region to give emphasis towards electronics manufacturing.
“We are bridging the Digital Divide through this attempt. Digital India is a mass revolution that is designed to become a mass movement. The Prime Minister of India has, after coming into power, ensured that Delhi come closer to NE in terms of bringing all opportunities to this region,” the Union minister said.
Reiterating that the North East would become the growth engine for the country in view of the Act East Policy, the Union Minister informed that the Government of India has been able to save 90000 Crore Rupees during these years by eliminating middlemen by promoting digital payment.
Digital North East Vision 2022 was released in the presence of Chief Ministers of Assam, Meghalaya and Tripura, IT Ministers of NE States and Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications, Secretary, Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region and senior officers from Government of India and State Governments of NE States.
Talking about the BPO centers in the country, Prasad said, “Till now, India’s BPO centers were all in big cities, but now we have transformed small towns into BPO hubs. There are BPO centers in Kohima, Guwahati and Dibrugarh now which has opened multiple job opportunities for the youth.” He also urged the Chief Ministers present in the event to give the BPO sector a boost in their respective states.
The Union Minister also said that e-Pragati will be available in all the NE States through Digital India. There will be e-classroom facilities in the medical colleges of Shillong, Guwahati, Dibrugarh, Dimapur, Agartala and Imphal. “We are making India a digital superpower, digital is the future.” he added.
The minister also announced that 50,000 state government employees of the North East will be trained in digital technology with capacity building in GST.
As part of the Digital North East Vision 2022, a cloud hub for north east will be created at Guwahati. Capacity building for 50,000 State Government employees will be taken up in use of digital technologies including GST and digital payments. The number of seats planned for BPOs in North East States will be doubled from 5,000 to 10,000. Network of Common Service Centers (CSCs) will be expanded to cover all villages. High speed broadband connectivity to all gram panchayats or equivalent bodies and mobile connectivity in all uncovered villages in the North Eastern Region shall be provided.
‘Digital North East’ is envisioned as an integral part of the Digital India programme. The Vision Document emphasizes leveraging digital technologies to transform lives of people of the north east and enhance the ease of living. The Document identifies eight digital thrust areas namely, Digital Infrastructure, Digital services, Digital empowerment, Promotion of Electronics Manufacturing, Promotion of IT and ITes including BPOs, Digital Payments, Innovation and Startups and Cyber security. State-wise roadmaps for implementing digital initiatives in the North East States have been developed.
During the event for release of Digital North East Vision 2022, several projects were launched covering all NE States. Foundation stone was laid for four NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology) permanent centres in Guwahati, Shillong, Lunglei and Gangtok. NIC (National Informatics Centre) launched the Secure, Scalable and Sugamya Website as a Service (SwaaS) websites for Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura. To take participative governance to last mile citizen, State MyGov portals were launched for Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura. STPI (Software Technology Park of India) incubation facility was inaugurated in Agartala, Aizawl and Shillong. A BPO centre under the North East BPO Promotion Scheme (NEBPS) was inaugurated in Majuli, Assam. Manipur State Data Centre (SDC) was migrated to the Cloud Platform. ERNET (National Research and Education Network) India is enabling virtual classroom facility in Tripura. Digital Locker was being integrated with Secondary Education Board Assam and with Nagaland e-District. A comprehensive GIS based Decision Support System for North East States and North Eastern District Resource Plan Geo-Portal (NEDRP) was also launched.