The three day long "Digital India Conference of State IT Ministers" began on 1^st October 2022 and concluded here yesterday.

On the first day, the detailed discussions on key priority areas of Digital India initiatives were held with States and Union Territories under the chairmanship of the Minister for Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Railways, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw. It was graced by Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology and Skill Development & Entrepreneurship, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar and Minister of state for Communications, Shri Devusinh Chauhan and IT Ministers from 12 States and UTs, namely Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Manipur, Uttarakhand, Telangana, Mizoram, Sikkim, and Puducherry. 

In his concluding remarks, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw stated that the connectivity is vital for the Digital India and its reach to every corner of the country. He announced that Rs 26,000 crore has been approved to install new 25,000 towers in next 500 days. He congratulated all States and UTs for their speedy onboarding at PM Gati Shakti. He also shared that the special assistance to States for capital expenditure worth Rs 2000 Crore has been supported. He encouraged the States to be proactive and make business friendly policies to attract businesses in their States. Emphasizing on the motto of Sabka Saath and Sabka Vikas, he stated that the commitments from all States and UTs, large as well as small States, are vital in taking Digital India to higher level and in realizing the AatmaNirbhar Bharat and Trillion Dollar Digital Economy.

On the second day i.e., 2^nd October 2022, MeitY organized three sessions on important aspects like ‘IT Rules, Online Gaming and Data Governance’, ‘Digital India Bhashini & Digital Payment’, and ‘MyScheme and Meri Pehchaan’. The demo on eligibility / profile  based service discovery at MyScheme was shown. In the concluding remarks, the Secretary, MeitY, Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma encouraged the States and UTs to align their policies in sync with the policies published and in-making by the Central Government. He also said that States and UTs should leverage the latest initiatives of Central Government for improving the citizen centric and business centric services, resulting in further ease of living and ease of doing business.

On the third day, MeitY organized five panel discussions titled ‘Attracting Startups to Tier 2 Cities and Sustaining Them’, ‘Use of Emerging Tech in Public Services’, ‘Making India Talent Nation’, ‘Realization of Digital Government in States’, and ‘Make-in-India for the Globe – India as Semiconductor Nation’. The keynote speakers included Shri Rohan Verma, CEO, MapMyIndia, Shri Prakash Kumar, CEO, Wadhwani, Ms. Debjani Ghosh, President, NASSCOM, Shri Tanmoy Chakravarty, Senior Government Affairs Officer, Tata Sons and Shri Santhosh Kumar, MD, Texas Instruments. The panel discussion was moderated by Senior Officers from MeitY, and panel consisted of Senior officers from State Governments.

In the concluding remarks, the Secretary, MeitY, Shri Alkesh Kumar Sharma congratulated all States and UTs for sharing the latest progress of Digital India initiatives in their States. He also appreciated the contributions of Industry representative for sharing Industry perspectives and global best practices. He said that Government of India is committed to promote technology startups beyond tier-1 cities. He emphasized on collaboration, start-up friendly policies and incentives at state level for creating a thriving start-up ecosystem. On emerging technology, he emphasized on data driven decision making and data & process driven innovations using AI, Blockchain, Drone, IoT etc. He stated that India is the destination of first choice for getting highly skilled resource at competitive price.

Team India - Government, Industry and Academia should work together to constantly train/retrain youths and professionals on deep technologies for making them future ready and for establishing India as Talent Nation. He mentioned that ‘Digital By Default’ approach and principles of Presence-less, Contact-less, Paperless, Anytime, Anywhere and Invite less services are vital to improve and deliver personalised and proactive services. He said that a big opportunity is to be tapped in terms of establishing semiconductor manufacturing ecosystem in the country and thereby generate employment and accelerate value addition to digital economy. He also mentioned that, in addition to incentives announced by the Central Government, State level friendly policies and financial incentives would be the guiding force for attracting companies that will generate jobs and revenue.

The conference ended with a vote of thanks from Shri Shushil Pal, Joint Secretary, MeitY.

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RKJ/BK