The second meeting of DEWG started today with inaugural session, wherein, Mr. Alkesh Kumar Sharma, Secretary, MeitY welcomed the delegates from G20 Members, invited countries, International Organisations, senior officials from MeitY, DoT, State Government and their organisations and outlined the proceedings of the event over 3 days. In his remarks, Mr. K. Rajaraman, Secretary, Telecom emphasized on the critical impact of connectivity on the GDP and Digital Economy. Union MoS of Social Justice & Empowerment, Mr. A. Narayanaswamy in his address emphasized on Digital Antyodaya approach and Accessible India campaign for achieving universal accessibility for differently abled persons in the country. In his address, Union MoS of Communications ,Sh. Devusinh Chauhan informed that public policies of Government of India have been  fundamentally inspired by the vision of Antyodaya and they have been instrumental for inclusive welfarism and development. He further said, India has covered 600 districts with 5G in less than 200 days , that is one of the fastest in the world. He added, India has 2^nd largest telecom network with the lowest data rate in the world and  development of Indigenous 4G,5G technologies  in a short span of time has surprised the world

 

As a part of the side events, DoT organised three thematic sessions. The first thematic session titled ‘High Speed Mobile Broadband and its impacts’ comprised of esteemed panellist such as Mr. Y.G.S.C. Kishore Babu, DDG-DoT-GoI (Moderator), Mr Sithuraj Ponraj, Director (International Affairs), Govt. of Singapore, Mr Arun Sharma, Sr. Digital Specialist, World Bank, Mr Rahul Shah, Director-APAC, GSMA, Mr Abhishek Singh, President & CEO, NeGD, MeitY. The panel discussed the last mile high speed connectivity, digital services in social areas (such as education, health, agriculture, etc), impact & innovation enhancement using AI, IoT, Industry 4.0, Society 5.0, etc. Taking extra measures to fill the gaps in terms of access to mobile internet, smartphones and assistance to senior citizens and people in rural areas were also discussed.

The second thematic session was held on topic titled ‘Digital Inclusion - Connecting the Unconnected’ and the panel was graced by Ms. Nur Sulyna Abdullah, Special Advisor, ITU (Moderator), Mr Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary IT, Govt. of Telangana, Ms Helani Galpaya, CEO, LIRNEasia, Mr. Mlungisi Mthimunye, Chief Director for ICT, Govt. of South Africa, and Dr. RajKumar Upadhyay, CEO, Centre for Development of Telematics, and Mr Michael Ginguld, Co-Founder, Director, Strategy and Operations, AirJaldi. The panel emphasized on connecting all persons on the planet for digital transformation. The panel discussed important aspects such as access, adoption, value creation, usage & meaningful usages, awareness, speed, affordability, infrastructure, digital skilling, content, enablement, assisted approach on adoption.

The third and the last thematic session of the day was titled ‘Sustainable Green Digital Infrastructure: Challenges and Opportunities’ and saw the discussion among experts such as Ms Shuva Raha, Head – New Initiatives, Council on Energy, Environment and Water (Moderator), Mr Avinash Shekhar, APAC Head of Energy and Water Strategy, AWS, Mr Preetam Maloor, Head, ET Division-ITU, Mr Daniel Brandão Cavalcanti, Coordinator for Digital and Telecom Policy, Govt. of Brazil and Mr Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Airtel. The panel discussed at length the digital infrastructure going green and its intersection with physical Infra of other sectors going green, Sustainable Development Goals, reduced carbon footprint, renewable energy, and reconditioning / recycling and efficient digital transformation. The global & industrial best practices were also covered.

In the second half of the day, the delegates were treated with unique digital experience and a visit to IIT, Hyderabad was organised to showcase India’s path-breaking projects and cutting-edge research in the field of digital & telecom technologies such as 5G Products, 5G base stations, 6G system prototypes, Autonomous Navigation testbed, and AI-powered RNA- electronic test kit.

The side event was streamed live at   

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(Release ID: 1917373)