PUDUCHERRY: The Digital India Week (DIW) was launched in the Union Territory here, on Thursday. The administration has enlisted a series of events to sensitise citizens about the initiatives taken and to spread awareness about the DIW which was formally launched nationwide by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, on Wednesday.
Lieutenant Governor Ajay Kumar Singh inaugurated the events in the presence of Chief Minister N Rangasamy at a function held in the Pondicherry Engineering College here on Thursday.
DigiLockers for the students, social networking media Facebook and Twitter accounts of Government of Puducherry and Local Administration Department were opened at the function.
Addressing the gathering, Lieutenant governor Ajay Kumar Singh said the DIW, launched by the Prime Minister, will take India into the 21st century and it targets to sharing of fruits of development with the citizens of the country.
He said the country has information technology talent in abundance and most of these talents are working for the development of the country and abroad. He stressed that the information technology talent has to be harnessed as this is what is going to take the country to the 21st century.
Pointing out that the country has 97 crore mobile users while there is only 30 crore Internet connections, he said there was a gap, which needed to be minimised as DIW aim to optimise the use of mobiles and Internet as the focus of Digital India would be on mobile phones.
He said the Union Territory has a bandwidth connection, which even covers the gram panchayats and added that the UT was very well placed to take maximum advantage of this.
Addressing the gathering Development Commissioner and Chief Secretary (in charge) Chandrakar Bharti, said the DIW aim to transform India into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. The idea of DIW is to make technology a key enabler for transformative change in the delivery of public services and participative governance in the country, he said.
It is based on a concept of three pillars, putting up digital infrastructure, digital services to citizens and power to empower. This is aimed at bridging the gap between the haves and have-nots, he said and added that the DIW has targeting to inform, engage and educate citizens of the country.
Pointing out that the administration has already set up digital network, Pondicherry State Wide Area Network (PSWAN) and 55 Common Service Centre (CSCs), he said it was targeted to further build on the infrastructure available with the government.
Bharti said the DigiLocker will help students to digitally store their educational qualification certificates, birth, caste certificate. And the DigiLocker is linked to Aadhaar card. Whenever needed, they can take out documents using a password provided to them without hassles and submit it to the authorities concerned, he said.He said, “DigiLocker is like e-document, which we have in the physical form are converted and stored in the media. It is a virtual document and it can be accessed anytime anywhere. There is no question of giving a wrong document by any persons. It is a very secure service.
Chandrakar Bharti said the users of the various programmes, like the social media sites, should maintain decorum. He added that the proper disposal of e-waste is also equally important.