The 17th edition of India’s premier eGovernance forum, the Express Technology Sabha, which kicked off today in Hyderabad, saw a large 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 were represented at the event in the person of key government officials, thought leaders and representatives of private companies.
For last 9 years The Indian Express Group has been organising the Sabha twice a year. The theme of the current edition of the Sabha is: “Achieving The Vision Of Digital India.”
The event was inaugurated by J Satyanarayana, Advisor (eGovernance, Electronics & IT), Government of Andhra Pradesh, Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, Board of Governors, The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), and other eminent dignitaries.
Following the inauguration, Anant Goenka, Wholetime Director & Head – New Media, The Indian Express Limited, gave the welcome address.
The welcome address was followed by the an exclusive conversation between J Satyanarayana and Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia. The conversation moderated by Subhomoy Bhattacharjee of Indian Express was entitled “Smart Cities: The New Frontier in Digital Governance”.
Many interesting ideas about urbanisation and the issues and challenges in developing new Smart Cities in the country came to light during this conversation. As one of the key agendas of the event is to facilitate the exchange of knowledge on the subject of creating Smart Cities in the country, in the weeks running up to the event, the The Indian Express Group and PwC jointly conducted a survey which is essentially an assessment of Indian cities for Smart City Transformation.
The result of this path breaking survey, the book of eponymous name, “Assessment of Indian Cities for Smart City Transformation,” was launched at the event. The launch was followed by a presentation entitled “How Smart are Our Cities?” by NSN Murty, Associate Director – Government and Public Services, PwC India, Amod Ranade, General Manager, Data Centre Business, Schneider Electric, was the next speaker to take the stage and he gave an invigorating presentation on Smart Solutions for Digital India.
This was followed by the keynote address of J. Satyanarayana, Advisor (eGovernance, Electronics and IT), Government of Andhra Pradesh. The title of Satyanarayana’s address was the same as the theme of the event— “Achieving the Vision of Digital India.” During his visionary address, Satyanarayana explored the range of benefits that could be offered to the country through the Digital India Programme.
He highlighted several scenarios of where the process of providing government services to citizens was made 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) and National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI). PwC is the knowledge partner.