President Pranab Mukherjee said ICT will play a crucial role in the ways of working of the new government as it will be used to drive re-engineering of government processes to improve service delivery and program implementation.
While addressing the joint session of Parliament and laying out the Narendra Modi government’s plan for the next five years, Mukherjee said:”E-governance brings empowerment, equity and efficiency. The backbone of my government’s new ways of working will be a Digital India…We will strive to provide Wi-Fi zones in critical public areas in the next five years.”
In the ICT sector, broadband, spectrum, FDI, e-governance, content, e-library, digitization, cyber threats, among others will be the key focus areas. Transparent policies will be announced for allocation of natural resources like spectrum.
The National e-governance plan will be expanded to cover every government office from the centre to the panchayat; to provide a wide variety of services to citizens. Emerging technologies like social media will be used as a tool for participative governance, he said.
In the education sector, the government will launch broadband highway to reach every nook and corner of the country and will make schools e-enabled in a phased manner. It will launch a national mission “e-Bhasha” to develop digital vernacular content and disseminate classic literature in different languages. Besides, a national e-library will be set up to empower school teachers and students.
The government will also launch a National Multi-skill Mission for training of students.
On the taxation front, rationalization and simplification of the tax regime is the key agenda for the government to make it non-adversarial and conducive to investment, enterprise and growth. The government will make every effort to introduce the GST while addressing the concerns of states.
He mentioned that through the use of technology the government will transform Employment Exchanges into Career Centres that will help youth to get job opportunities in a transparent and effective manner.
The government will build world class research centers in the fields of nanotechnology, material sciences, thorium technology, brain research, stem cells, etc and the states will be assisted for modernizing police infrastructure and equipment to cope up with the new forms of terrorism including narco terrorism and cyber threats.
With readily available skilled human resource, India can emerge as a global platform for defence manufacturing including software, which will strengthen defence force and spur industrial development as well as exports.
The government will revive Brand India riding on 5T’s- tradition, talent, tourism, trade and technology.