Puducherry aims to be next IT and edu hub

“Puducheery has higher literacy rate, adequate availability of power and skill resources to support IT and education sector,” says the Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy

With higher literacy rate, adequate availability of power and skill resources, Puducherry aims to be the next IT and education hub in the country. While speaking at a conference, the Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said, “We have necessary level of human resource and infrastructure to support IT and education sector in Puducherry.”

With the focus on the digital transformation of the government departments, Indian Express Group in partnership with technology giant Microsoft organised a conference – Express Digital Governance Series – in Puducherry.

The Chief Minister of Puducherry, V. Narayanasamy, IT Minister, M.O.H.F. Shahjahan, secretary from different departments, experts, and IT heads of state corporations came together to discuss and deliberate about investment opportunity and digital initiatives that the state can take to bring efficiency, transparency and good governance.

The conference kicked-off with a welcome address from Mohd Ujaley, Principal Correspondent, Indian Express Group. The significance of technology intervention in government is well known. States after states are adopting modern technology to improve their efficiency—this was the resounding message of Ujaley’s speech. “Two government projects – Passport Seva Project and Aadhar have shown how integration of technology with good collaboration between government agencies and private firms can improve the delivery of government to citizen services.” he said, adding that the Digital India project has catalysed the process of technology adoption.

While delivering his inagural speech, Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy highlighted some of the transformation IT has brought in the country. He said “The work done by Microsoft in this regard is commendable.” Elaborating the government plan to focus on IT, he said, “With higher literacy rate, adequate availability of power and skill resources, Puducherry is best placed to be the next IT and education hub.”

Apprising about the meeting that he had with the representatives of Microsoft India on the sideline of the conference,  Narayanasamy said that both the government of Puducherry and Microsoft India would work together in the area of education, tourism, cyber security, and skill development.

He urged the state administration specially the senior bureaucrats to be flexible and open to newer technology adoption. He said, “The way government interact with the citizen has completely changed after the launch of government to citizen services online and hence government organisations need to be more IT friendly and open to tech adoption.”

During his half an hour address, he also pointed out that the challenges emanating in the area of cyber security needed the attention of government and security experts. He stated, “With the focus of government on technology, the issue of cybersecurity needs to be looked into more seriously.” Urging Microsoft India to help government in mitigating this challenge, he requested technology companies to look towards Puducherry for the possible investment.

Talking about the state’s future plan, the Chief Minister informed, “Puducherry is looking to use technology in different sectors to streamline the systems and improve the quality of governance. He also added that “the state government is in talk with Tamil Nadu to sigh MoU for air travel.”

Adding to the views of the Chief Minister, M.O.H.F. Shahjahan, IT ministe of Puducherry said, “Government of Puducherry recognises the need of investment and IT for ensuring prosperity, good governance and employment.” He informed that he regularly had meetings with members of tech team in the government and experts. “Most of our operation are online but we would like to completely digitised the government services in order to offer hassle-free government service delivery.”

In recent past, Puducherry has seen growth in electronic citizen services delivery. Various e-governance projects by the different departments in the state have been leveraging the advances in ICT to the benefit of common person. “Our goal is to use IT to make the administration quick, responsive, transparent, hassle-free and accessible, while reducing the inefficiencies and costs,” Shahjahan said.

On the issue of cybersecurity, he was of the view that through the creation of right kind of policy and regulations, better infrastructure and conducive environment, this challenge could be addressed.

Participating in the conference, R. Mihir Vardhan, secretary, PWD, Labour & Employment, Social Welfare, Puducherry shared his experience of jail modernisation in Goa. He was of the view that the computerisation and digitisation job is to ensure smoothness and flexibility in the system to serve the people. “Government officer and private companies should work together to bring good experience to the people.”

A major attraction at the conference was the experts presentation on the smart city and cloud for governance from Microsoft. Speaking on the topic of “Digitally Transform with ‘Smart City’,” Rahul Savdekar, National Lead- Smart City, Microsoft India said “Smart City offers a huge opportunity to meaningfully harness the data and deliver services to people which has not been done in the past.”

While in his presentation on “Intelligent Cloud for Governance,” Nagendra Balasubramanyam, Public Sector Lead- South, Microsoft presented some of the recent case study on using cloud technology in education, health and government sector.

The conference also featured a panel discussion on “Emerging Technologies for Effective e-Governance” moderated by Ujaley. The panelists discussed about various challenge faced by the Puducherry and how emerging technology like cloud, virtualisation, mobility solutions could help the state in delivering people friendly services.

Secretary, education, industries & commerce, Puducherry, Arun Lal Desai emphasised on the need to incorporate technology in transport sector in the state. He said, “There are challenges in managing the transportation and traffic. Technology intervention can help the state in automating the process.”

Replying to this, Sunil PP said, “Today, there are platforms available which can automate and digitise entire process.” By giving example of Jharkhand and Telangana, he explained how Microsoft has worked with the state governments to address some of the challenges faced by them.

Satyendra Singh Dursawat, district collector, Puducherry was of the view that there are ample technological solutions available in the market which can be used to improve the efficiency of the government agencies but willingness of the officers to use technology is key.

Being somebody who is on the front of e-governance delivery in the state, A.S. Sivakumar explained about the worked done by the IT department and its future plans. He said, “The department is creating a sustainable IT infrastructure in the state and substantial work has already been done and more initiatives would be taken.”