The 18th Technology Sabha places the spotlight on 9 Pillars of Digital India

The 18th edition of India’s premier eGovernance forum, the Express Technology Sabha, which kicked off on 18th June at The Lalit Golf & Spa Resort, Goa, was a record-breaking gathering of key practitioners of eGovernance from all over India. The full breadth and depth of the eGovernance projects that are being undertaken in the country was represented at the event in the presence of key government officials, thought leaders and representatives of private companies.

The theme of the 18th edition of the Tech Sabha is: “9 Pillars of of Digital India.”

The event was inaugurated by the Chief Guest, Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha, in the presence of eminent dignitaries like: Mr. R Chandrashekhar, President, NASSCOM; Mr. Shankar Aggarwal, Secretary, Ministry of Labour & Employment, Govt. of India; Mr. Srivatsa Krishna, Secretary, Dept.of Information Technology, Biotechnology and Science & Technology, Government of Karnataka; Mr. Anant Goenka, Wholetime Director & Head – New Media, The Indian Express Limited.

Following the inauguration, there was an address by the Chief Guest, Mr. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who made many interesting observations on the subjects of urbanisation, Smart Cities and penetration of Internet in the country. The address was followed by the candid conversation between Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekhar and Mr. Anant Goenka.

“Currently we don’t have a comprehensive policy on IoT in India,” said Mr. Rajeev Chandrashekhar. “The government should address this issue.”

One of the highlights of the first day of the Express Technology Sabha was the panel discussion: “9 Pillars of Digital India-Ideas for Developing eGovernance”. Participating in the panel discussion were: Mr. R Chandrashekhar; Mr. Shankar Aggarwal; Mr. Srivatsa Krishna, Secretary; Mr. Amer Warsi, Director – Commercial & Public Sector, Enterprise Group, Hewlett-Packard India. The session was moderated by Mr. Akhilesh Tuteja, Partner and Head of Technology, KPMG India.

This panel discussion had the speakers exploring the entire range of benefits that the Digital India Programme could bring to the citizens of the country. They highlighted several scenarios of where the process of providing government services to citizens was becoming much more easy, efficient and transparent through the use of new technology.

The event is being supported by government organisations such as Ministry of Urban Affairs, Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY), National Informatics Centre (NIC), National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT), National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) and the Government of Goa. The three day event will end on 20th June 2015 and the departure of all the guests is on 21st June.