Hon’ble Union Minister appreciates winners, guides towards innovations and making India a centre of data analytics
National Informatics Centre (NIC) hosted the fifth edition of Digital India Awards at Stein Auditorium, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi on 22nd February 2019. The event was inaugurated by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice, along with Shri Ajay Sawhney, IAS, Secretary, Dr. Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Coordinator, Smt. Kiran Soni Gupta, Additional Secretary and Financial Advisor, Ministry of Electronics & IT and Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Smt. Simmi Chaudhary, Economic Advisor and Group Coordinator, MeitY, Dr. Neeta Verma, Director General, NIC, Shri R.S. Mani, DDG, NIC and Smt. Alka Mishra, DDG, NIC. The event was attended by officers from MeitY, other Ministries, State Government and NIC and people from industry & media.
In her welcome address, Smt. Alka Mishra underscored the instrumental role played by NIC in supporting the Digital India initiative of the government and gave an overview of the Digital India Awards.
Highlighting the changing landscape of the digital age, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, in his address, said, “Whenever I reflect upon the IT ecosystem of the world, I find three things. One is innovation, the second is empowerment, and third, a new kind of digital activity happening around the globe. But, there are two types of player encouraging this IT ecospace in the world, one, who are talked about, others, those who are the silent workers. Whenever I talk about Digital Inclusion, my idea about this has been that unless those who are working silently on the ground are recognised, appreciated and rewarded, Digital Inclusion will not become a success. And, your presence today, and the Awards being given today are a recognition.” The Hon’ble Minister encouraged officers to come with innovative ideas as to how to make India’s data a real asset whereby India emerges as a big centre of data analytics.
In her address, Dr. Neeta Verma said, “NIC has been constantly striving to provide state-of-the-art infrastructure to the government and is the first to introduce technologies such as VSAT in the government.” She further added, “Our pan India infrastructure not only connects every government institution in the country, but all the G2G communication happens through this network working at the backbone.”
Smt. Kiran Soni Gupta said, “Technology has become so central in our lives. We see in today’s world, the boundaries of the digital world are ever expanding. Digital India, the silent revolution initiated by NIC few decades ago is in full bloom today. Besides creating a lot of opportunities, Digital India does have challenges as well. But, it has transformed our lives. Right from our personal to professional lives, we have seen that how the interface between government and citizens have changed over the years.”
Dr. Gulshan Rai also addressed the gathering. He expressed, “I fully appreciate the initiatives and products, which are going to be announced and released. The Hon’ble Prime Minister has said in various forums that this country is going to be Five Trillion-Dollar Economy and recently, the Hon’ble Minister has also released a report on Trillion-Dollar Digital Economy. These are very realistic figures, and if we convert into this, we are aiming for a 20% digital economy. Our digital economy is somewhere around 8.7% of the Indian GDP. We are almost going 1.5 times faster than the global digital economic growth.”
Shri Ajay Sawhney said, “We have gathered here to acknowledge the efforts put in by large number of teams across the length and breadth of increasingly Digital India, and to celebrate many of the successes that we have achieved during this period. The task that Digital India sets for itself is a humongous task. We have seen projects growing from isolated examples to cover full states and the entire country.”
Digital India Awards, a biennial event, have been institutionalised under the ambit of the National Portal of India to promote a culture of innovation and digitalisation within government departments that strive for making services accessible to citizens. Recognising a number of e-Governance initiatives taken by the State Governments and Central Ministries to improve the delivery of services, the fifth edition witnessed the conferring of Awards in eight categories i.e., Emerging Technology, Best Mobile App, Exemplary Online Service, Open Data Champion, Web Ratna – Ministry/Department, Web Ratna – State/UT, Web Ratna – District, and Outstanding Digital Initiative by a Local Body. The nominations underwent a multi-tier evaluation process and they were screened by IIT Delhi. Thereafter, they were placed in front of an esteemed jury, which was chaired by Shri Ajay Sawhney and comprised of senior government officials, academia & industry experts.
Two Jury Choice Awards as well as Special Mention Awards for the Northeast, in line with the government’s Act East Policy to encourage digital initiatives in the North-east, were also selected by the jury.
On the occasion, the following releases were also made by the Hon’ble Minister:
••Digital India Coffee Table Book ••Digital India Awards Compendium ••STQC Accessibility Certification ••Scheme ••Unified Messaging Platform ••Public DNS Service ••Cyber Crisis Management Plan 2019 ••(CCMP) and Guidance Framework for ••the CCMP Concluding the ceremony, Smt. Alka Mishra delivered the Vote of Thanks.