IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Much hype and excitement surrounds India’s plan to build 100 smart cities, with 20 already selected in the first, competitive round. The government plans to invest Rs. 50,802 crore ($7.6 billion) in these cities with more funding to be raised from private companies and through monetization of services. The second round of the smart cities program starts in April.

Each of the selected cities has identified discrete areas that will serve as prototypes for other regions. They include solid waste management, security, health care, traffic management, parking and even crowd management during festivities. Running themes across the projects are the use of IT connectivity, e-governance and citizen participation.

Prime Minister Narendar Modi today said he wanted India to emerge as a innovation hub” where the next big ideas emerge, driven by the power of technology, and promised to do everything possible to make enterprise and innovation easier.

“We have covered substantial ground in the last 14 months and want to do more in the future,” the Prime Minister said in response to the various questions regarding digitisation received through the day on a specially-created platform on social media.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Digital India Initiative on July 1 last year, with the aim to make all citizens of the country digitally literate and bring e-governance and internet to all sections of the society.

Additionally, it also aimed at inclusive growth of electronic services, products, manufacturing, job opportunities, etc.

Thus, the vision of Digital India was centred on three key areas-

• Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen.
• Governance and services on demand
• Digital empowerment of citizens.

The reason for delay is basically seen as a space crunch in network for the implementation. Despite the delay, many corporate telecom services have taken forward the need for WiMAX services in the Indian grounds; enabling better coverage, capacity, high spectral efficiency, low latency, better QOS, high reliability and security.

The government has set a target of achieving 100 million broadband subscribers by 2014 as against 8.59 million users by the end of February 2010.

However, of later, there have been some salutary developments. 3G and WIMAX auctions will pave the way for driving up the broadband usage. The country’s WIMAX subscriber base is expected to reach 19 million by 2012. It represents enormous business opportunities. A recent study shows India’s WIMAX subscriber base hitting 14 million by 2013 and growing annually at nearly 130%. It means that in the next four years, about 20% of the global WIMAX users will be in India, making it a $13-billion market.

How dentsu India’s Indeed Smart City project will play a role in building better infrastructure in India

• Dentsu India’s Indeed Smart City project aims to provide smart technological solutions to government bodies and private entities.
• Two of dentsu India’s projects are already up and running.
• We catch up with Ajay Singh as the Vice President of Smart City, dentsu India and Haresh Nayak, COO, dentsu international, Media Brands to find out all about it.

The aim would be to ensure transparency in decision-making, enable service delivery and dilute corruption.

For India, AI holds an enormous potential to result in social and financial transformation. The Authorities of India has introduced its ‘Accountable AI for Social Empowerment (rAIse)’ summit in Delhi on April 11 and 12.

Over the past couple of years, Synthetic Intelligence (AI) has modified from a expertise with potential to an instrument of nationwide significance the world over. The primary demonstration of purposes of AI has occurred within the client area and vital financial worth has been created, primarily via focused promoting by web giants within the USA and China.

The report - ‘Government Connectivity, Citizen Engagement and Economic Impact in Asia Pacific’ - was commissioned by Cisco Systems, and surveyed over 100 selected senior officials across Australia, Malaysia, India and Singapore.

"The e-Delivery of Public Services Development Policy Loan, approved today, will support NeGP’s countrywide plans of increasing online services for citizens in their locality. Projects which have been identified for such online computerized services on a priority basis – also known as e-services – include birth and death registration, tax filing, land records, driver’s licenses and vehicle registration, passports and visas, agricultural extension services, and a wide range of municipal and panchayat (local government) level services. It will also enable e-services for a number of critical private sector services such as banking, insurance, and trade," World Bank said.

The World Bank has approved USD 150 million in loan for India to accelerate implementation of its National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), which is aimed at transforming the service delivery system across the country.

While this World Bank loan will not target specific services per se, it will initiate policy and institutional actions that will impact all the services.

World Bank lead informatics specialist Robert Schware said at a seminar on e-governance, held as part of the IT.Com event, that only 110 of the 200 e-governance pilot projects underway were scalable.

The World Economic Forum has selected 36 cities out of 22 countries and six continents for pioneering a new global policy roadmap for the smart cities that are developed by the G20 Global smart Cities Alliance.

The four Indian cities- Indore, Faridabad, Bengaluru, and Hyderabad, figured among the 36 cities all over the world that have agreed to pioneer a roadmap for safely adopting new technology as part of the G20 Global Smart Cities Alliance.

Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have emerged among the top five e-governed states in India in 2008-09. Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Haryana have secured second and third positions.

Interestingly, Delhi has slipped two ranks from No 1 last year whereas, small states like Himachal Pradesh and Haryana were positioned well this year.

The controversial programme aims to scan the eyes and take the fingerprints of most of the population over the next decade.

Each person will then be given a 12-digit number. They will be able to use the number - which serves as a key to their biometric data - to prove their identity and access India's sprawling welfare state.

With cyber security worrying the world, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today asked the Indian IT industry to innovate solutions to counter the global menace as well as work on pathbreaking ideas like 'cloud godowns' and 'cloud lockers' to help keep data secure. "The whole world is concerned. Since I have become the Prime Minister, I have met around 50 world and political leaders and out of that, almost 25-30 have said cyber security is a concern. Can Indian youth work on solutions for cyber security?" Modi said at a Nasscom event.

The Income Tax department will set up a Taxpayers’ Lounge at the India International Trade Fair (IITF) here to provide services such as accepting PAN applications and e-filing of returns.

“The theme of the Taxpayers’ Lounge this year would follow the theme of IITF 2015, i.e. ‘Make in India’, and aims to generate awareness in the public about various taxpayer-friendly initiatives taken by the department,” a finance ministry statement said.

The Indian Government has since pledged continued support to Zambia’s quest to ensure that ICT is made available and affordable to the general population of the country.

Communication and Transport Minister Professor Geoffrey Lungwangwa said it was Government’s intention to ensure that the citizenry including those in rural areas were brought into the orbit of ICT as this was key to stimulating socio-economic development.