I-BHARAT - 2014

One day conference over “I-Bharat -2014” was organized by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on 1st August, 2014 at FICCI Auditorium, New Delhi. Five Faculty member Mr. Brijesh Verma, Dr. S K Srivastava, Dr. Sahab Singh, Dr. Pankaj Tiwari and Mr. Mayank Srivastava represented Dronacharya Group of Institutions, Greater Noida at the event.

i-Bharat is a new initiative undertaken by FICCI in partnership with the Department of Electronics & IT, Government of India through a series of annual conferences. The conference series aims at engaging various stakeholders of ICT(Information and Communication Technology) to deliberate upon transformation of key sectors in India through effectual implementation of ICT. The above conference focused on as to how encapsulate the unmet potential of ICT in India and to advocate that various government interventions on increasing citizen access to services via technology integration result in desired outcome.

The whole program was conducted in following sessions.

1. Opening Session

2. Planery Session

3. Inaugural Session

4. Interactive Session I

5. Interactive Session II

Inaugural Session:

Dr. A Didar Singh, Secretary General , FICCI, moderated inaugural session. Dr. Jyotsna Suri welcome Chief Guest Shri Ravi Shanker Prasad, (Hon’ble Minister for Communications & IT and Law & Justice, Govt. of India) and other panelist on dias and presented bouquet to them. At this occasion Hon’ble Minister released a report on “i-City” and on his keynote he defined that i-city are smarter city which are connected through information services. During his speech he mentioned about the great concern of Prime Minister of India on the use of IT by quoting a slogan “Digital India and Skill India”. He also recalled the efforts being made by his previous Government on DTH services. He said that Govt has taken initiative on National Fibre Optic Network to connect 50000 Gram Panchayat in next year with high speed internet and referred PM’s plan to give Wi-Fi and broad band connectivity to all government offices and schools of India.

He raised the issue of poor ability of India in manufacturing of armed equipments which are having lot of electronic components and mentioned about government priority on Electronic Manufacturing Sectors by waving off duty concession on these industries in the current budget. At the end of speech he said our govt. plans are not only for declaration but for determination.

Ms. Debjani Ghosh ended inaugural session with Vote of Thanks.

Interactive Session I (i-Nagar: The Smart way for Smarter Cities):

This session was about trend of urbanization going on world wide . Cities around the world have been at the center of economic growth and technological advances. This massive urbanization provides economic and social opportunities for our citizens which could be accelerated by using best practices of ICT adoption in various functions of city management in both public and private domain. On this occasion a report on “i-city” was released by Hon’ble Minister, Shri Ravi Shanker Prasad containing recommendations to the new government on effective ICT implementation to transform India’s cities. Eminent speakers from both government and industry shared their experiences and innovative ICT solutions.

Mr. Abhaya Agarwal, Partner –Infrastructure and PPP, Government and Transaction Advisory Services , moderated session for a panelists team of Mr. Arvind Gupta, National Technology Head, BJP, Mr. Philip Moyangh, V.P. Internet of Things and General Manager Quark Solutions Divison, Intel, Mr. Ravi Prakash Gupta, Head of Information Technology Group, Delhi Integrated Multi-Modal Transit SystemLtd (DIMTS), Mr. Rahul Sharma, Partner & Executive Director, IBM global Buisness Services, India / South Asia, Mr. S. Ananthanarayan, Head-Technology Advisor, Wipro Ltd. and Mr. Sachdev Ramakrishna, Director-Marketing, Steria India.

Mr. Philip Moyangh mentioned that we are doing everything for the world while here people of India are struggling for what we give to the others. He said that different city may have different way of making city smarter. There is no standard format for smarter cities.

Mr. Rahul Sharma said that smart cities are those where citizen use technology in a smarter way and added that efficient use of economic resources by people make city more social. Smarter city should have Livability, Sustainability and Resilience. Mr. Ravi Prakash Gupta said that transportation is the backbone of city and on this occasion he gave information about the mobile apps “Next Bus” and “Puchho” developed by team of IITians under his leadership.

Mr. Arvind Gupta mentioned about PM’s vision to reduce load on current metro cities by developing 100 smart cities from green field cities. He added that Rs. 7000 crore have been assigned in current budget for this project and said that till 2020 every Indian would be digitally connected to each other and take part in development of country. Mr. Ananthnarayan defined that smarter city should be ICT enabled, Improved connectedness, improved infrastructure and robust support mechanism.

Mr. Sachdev Ramakrishna mentioned that cities are economic engine. India is a populated country and should take the benefit of that. He advocated different tax system during busy and happy hour on the road. He also quoted citizen’s feedback system of Beijing (China) for public transport to make city smarter.

Interactive Session II (ICT in Healthcare & Education- Waking up the Elephant):

This session was about key challenges like access, affordability, equity and relevance that lie in front of India’s education system. Technology can deal with a lot of these challenges - ensuring that right content is available to our youth and empowering the faculty not just with right training but also mitigating the absence of faculty in certain situations.

Considering India’s large and rapidly increasing population, the cost of healthcare- both preventive and curative is going to be a major issue. There are however various ways in which issues related to accessibility, affordability, speed as well as standardization of healthcare services can be resolved with help of ICT. If deployed effectively; technology can ensure both cost effective and last mile access of curative as well as preventive healthcare for millions of citizens.

Mr. Virat Bhatia moderated interactive session II for eminent speakers Smt. Radha Chauhan, Joint Secretary (Secondary Education ), Ministry of Human Resources Development, Government of India, Dr. Arvind Sivaramakrishnan, Chief information Officer, Apollo Hospitals, Dr. Neena Pahuja, Director General, Education & Research Network (ERNET), Mr. Arvind Seshadri, Country Manage – Cloud Consulting & IT Assurance, Hewlet Packard India and Mr. Abhishek Pandit, Director – Buisness Services, AISECT.

Ms. Neena Pahuja focused on Government steps taken for Rashtriya Shiksha Abhiyan, National Mission of Education ICT and school education and suggested for Wi-Fi in every school and college. Further she mentioned M2M system (machine to Machine) in health care for optimum use of resources.

Mr. Abhishek Pandit advocated the use of ICT for rural areas and presented an example to train people of Jamui village (Bihar) through ICT. He also requested not to regulate ICT in future. Mr. Arvind Sivaramakrishanan said that how ICT can play its role for beyond urban area through telemedicine and tele-diagnostics in healthcare sectors and added that speed in ICT brings care better and faster.

Mr. Arvind Sheshadri emphasized on the use of e-books and web links and video lectures developed by NPTEL. He also mentioned of making a network of universities in this regard for the benefit of students.

The entire conference was full of deliberations of technological knowledge based on use of Information and communication technologies in the field of education, healthcare and making city smart. It was great experience to listen to views of renowned personalities form government and industries on use of technology for the development of country.