Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad addressed the ‘Digital Bharat’ conference on Thursday at FICCI Federation House.

Making a strong pitch for Narendra Modi government’s digital outreach, the minister said, “If Atal Bihari Vajpayee govt was known for highways, Narendra Modi govt will be known for information highways.”

“Digital India is something we owe the country and is hence party and ideology neutral,” added Ravi Shankar Prasad while also informing that his government is planning to lay down 700,000 km of fibre network in three years.

The telecom minister also asked people to see how India is changing at the ground level while emphasising the importance of digital inclusion.

#DigitalBharat: Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad to deliver keynote address at FICCI Federation House.
#DigitalBharat: The conference will also see four plenaries chaired by senior government officials and the BJP Technology head. (Image: FICCI)

The conference aims at advancing meaningful dialogue between industry and government on issues that will impact growth and investment in digital economy sector, by taking innovative solutions to advance the ‘Digital India’ and ‘Make in India’ programmes.

A parliamentarians’ panel will discuss whether the “Next Generation Politicians are ready for a Digitally Empowered India?” The conference will also see four plenaries chaired by senior government officials and the BJP Technology head. These are: “Broadband Access: Connecting the Next Billion”; “Driving Digital Infrastructure through Make in India”; “M2M at the Heart of Digital India”; and “Expanding the Net Neutrality Debate”.

Speakers at the session include BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi, BJD’s Jay Panda, Congress’ Manish Tewari and JD(U) leader Pavan Kumar Varma. In addition, BJP’s National Technology head Arvind Gupta, Trai chairman Rahul Khullar, who retired on Wednesday, DoT secretary Rakesh Garg and several senior DoT officials. The conference will also see speakers form Vodafone, Ericsson, Cisco, Google, Idea, Tata Power, EY, Accenture, Hughes, Nasscom, USIBC, CMAI, COAI, Auspi, IAMAI, C-DOT, NIXI and ICA.

The Financial Express, US-India Business Council and Electronics India are supporting the conference.

Updates from the event:



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