Digital Inclusion will Bring Real Social Inclusion – Yugal Kishore Sharma, CEO, ONEOTT iNTERTAINMENT Limited

At his address at the 3^rd edition of Voice&Data TLF 5G Conference “5G for Delivering Transformation”, Yugal Kishore Sharma, CEO, ONEOTT iNTERTAINMENT Limited, said that India's true social inclusion will come with digital inclusion.

Digital Inclusion Important for India

Referring to the rural India as “Bharat”, YKS, as he is fondly called, said that two-thirds of the country remains unconnected. He expressed the need to connect India with high-speed broadband to ensure digital inclusion. To make his point, Sharma showed a short clip, centered around a former runaway child, called Jameel.

The clip depicted how Jameel made making shoes his livelihood by first learning to make them on the internet, and then selling the shoes on the internet, as well.

Pointing to the rural connectivity, and the lack thereof, he said that the government and the telecom sector is moving towards ensuring digital inclusion in the country. Furthermore, he said that till now, the sector has sorted out India’s voice and mobile internet problems. He said that 5G will make the digital inclusion even better.

However, he said that the country now needs fiberized internet in every village. Pointing to the BharatNet project, Sharma added that the government is looking to connect every village with fiber by 2024. He likened the transformation in the transport sector and widespread electrification of the late 20^th century to the fiberization, calling the fiber “the information superhighway”.

He said that the Hinduja Group has been working on connecting the unconnected in India. He concluded by saying that, “internet for every villager will be the reason for their transformation”, calling to the applications and services related to rural areas.