TECHNOLOGY usage is about bringing value to political objectives of solving problems of people, R Chandrashekhar, joint secretary, ministry of information technology & communication (MIT&C) and in-charge of the National e-Governance (NeGP) project said on Saturday.
Addressing participants in a conference on ‘e-governance’ wherein the Microsoft Corporation India Pvt Ltd entered into a multi-dimensional partnership with the UP Government for accelerating IT usage in the State, Chandrashekar said the test of e-governance would be the value of service delivered, particularly in rural pockets.
“The only problem in the IT domain is that, on the one hand, there are tech-savvy workers and managers in the Microsoft Corporation & Intel working with cutting-edge technology and, on the other hand, there are politicians and administrators who don’t understand IT usage at all. Most of us (bureaucrats) still cannot send an e-mail ourselves and ask our personal assistants to do the job for us.”
Samajwadi Party general secreatry and Uttar Pradesh Development Council chairman Amar Singh said: “The private sector has to come forward and help in UP’s development. We put 24 government co-operative sugar mills with total accumulated losses to the tune of Rs 1,000 crore for sale, but no private player came forward.”
Singh later invited the Microsoft Corporation and Intel to set up their development centres and ‘fabs’ at the Lucknow Industrial Development Authority, while saying: “I will recommend the State government to offer 100 to 150 acres of land each to both organisations at LIDA.” Surendra Arora, director, Customer Solutions Group, Intel, South Asia said the MoU would help bring affordable PCs to a large mass of people in UP. Virendra Singh, minister of state for IT (independent charge) said UP led in software exports in the country. “The State is also going to get 30,000 common service centres (CSCs) under the National e-Governance Programme (NGP) of the Union Government for delivering a wide bouquet of services to citizens.”
{{/usCountry}}Singh later invited the Microsoft Corporation and Intel to set up their development centres and ‘fabs’ at the Lucknow Industrial Development Authority, while saying: “I will recommend the State government to offer 100 to 150 acres of land each to both organisations at LIDA.” Surendra Arora, director, Customer Solutions Group, Intel, South Asia said the MoU would help bring affordable PCs to a large mass of people in UP. Virendra Singh, minister of state for IT (independent charge) said UP led in software exports in the country. “The State is also going to get 30,000 common service centres (CSCs) under the National e-Governance Programme (NGP) of the Union Government for delivering a wide bouquet of services to citizens.”
{{/usCountry}}Chief secretary R Ramani said the system of e-governance could only deliver services which the government had already been providing in the state.
State industrial development commissioner AK Gupta said the State government was making efforts to train its employees to make them part of the country’s knowledge economy.