While delivering his inaugural address, on the first day of the two-day India Internet Conference (IIC) 2017 on the theme ‘Digital India 4 Sustainable Development’ organized by FICCI in association with the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Government of India, Mr. P.P. Chaudhary, Minister of State, Ministry Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology, launched ‘FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance (FICCI-ILIA) and released its logo. FICCI, along with founding member Google and other industry stakeholders, have created this initiative. The focus of this alliance is to bring multiple stakeholders of the industry on one platform to facilitate partnerships that help in development of local language content of internet in India.
Speaking on the occasion, the Minister said that in the last two years, there has been a three-fold increase in the number of e-transactions and the government was aiming to connect 90 per cent of India with internet services by 2018. He also said that it was important to leverage technology to enhance quality of education and healthcare, Mr. Chaudhary said that internet could help in making quality education and healthcare accessible to the last mile and content in Indic languages could be a game changer.
Highlighting the importance of cybersecurity, Dr. Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator, NSCS, Government of India, said that the Government of India had approved the cyber security framework. However, he added that though security plans were in place there was a need for active implementation of these to leverage technology and tackle with security issues. He added that sector requires IT infrastructure and the industry should play a responsible role.
In his special address, Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Deputy Secretary-General, International Telecommunication Union, said that across the globe less than half the population was connected digitally and this was due to lack of awareness about the benefits of internet, lack of regional and relevant content and affordability. He further added that there was a need to develop products with international standards to enter the global market. He added that standards should also be laid down to enable interoperability in banking sector.
