NEW DELHI, JANUARY: In what was described by the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission Mr Pranab Kumar Mukherjee as a milestone in the joint efforts of government-business relationships, the Federation of the Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and NIC signed a Memorandum of Understanding for long-term co-operation in the field of business informatics on January 3, 1992.
On the occasion, the Deputy Chairman pointed out that 80 per cent of the information available with the Government could be declassified and released for dissemination. For this purpose, NIC and FICCI will set up terminals in regional and local chambers of commerce and industrial associations so that the data available could be shared, and businessmen even in the remotest areas could take advantage of this facility. These terminals will be hooked up with NICNET. The 500 and odd affiliated chambers and industrial associations will be the nodal points in disseminating the information to the interested parties. The cost of sharing information through NIC-FICCI terminals will work out to be very economical, and will be within the reach of small-scale industries. Information-based monitoring will cut down time and cost over-runs to a considerable extent.
Primary information available through NICNET could be then processed and passed over to the public as value-added information. This could be in the form of analyses, tables and statements which are industry specific.