CII launches the National Mission on Digital India

In sync with the Digital India Initiative of the Government, CII has launched the National Mission on Digital India at New Delhi. Addressing the First Steering Committee Meeting on Digital India, Aruna Sundararajan, Administrator, USOF and CMD, BBNL said that an apex industry body like CII should look at focused, time-bound and transformational initiatives that can become a game changer for the country. “We also need to create an institutional mechanisms focusing on joint interoperability in the sectors of education, skilling and healthcare to ensure that the rollout of the Digital India campaign comes to fruition,” said Sundararajan. A N Rai, CMD, BSNL in his remarks said that it is critical for the industry to come up with viable and scalable business models for the success of Digital India. Kiran Karnik, Chairman of the CII National Mission on Digital India, in his opening remarks said that the Digital India initiative is opportune and presents exciting opportunities to the industry. The objective of the Mission is to bring in thought leadership to prioritize, plan and put in place demonstrable strategies and models to roll out the digital implementation plan. Elaborating on the importance of eGovernance and deployment of citizen-centric services, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Past President, CII and Chairman, CII Innovation and Entrepreneurship Council said that standardization of citizen-centric services is imperative to create a robust ecosystem. Bhaskar Pramanik, Chairman, CII National Committee on IT, ITeS and eCommere and Chairman, Microsoft India, in his remarks said that the Digital India program should be seen as a citizen program. The objective of the Mission is to prioritize the activities with the collective wisdom of all the members. Industry members from the ICT sector – infrastructure providers, service providers, operators, software companies, hardware companies, equipment and device manufacturers, and applications and content providers – are part of the Steering Committee on Digital India. The Mission comprises of representatives from Bharti Airtel, Cisco India, Corning India, Dell India, Ericssion India, Facebook India, Google India, HP India, IBM India, Idea Cellular, Infosys, Intel India, Microsoft India, Samsung India, Spice Global, Telstra, Tata Teleservices, TCS, Vodafone India, Wipro Infotech and Oracle amongst others.