Guwahati: Heeding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to hold Digital India Week, Assam Don Bosco University (ADBU), though in summer vacation, organized a program July 4.
Some 200 students and other groups of young people from northeastern India undergoing various computer courses participated at the two hour program consisting of speeches and digital presentations at Don Bosco Institute of Management, Kharguli, a constituent institution of the Salesian university.
Introducing the program, Pro Vice Chancellor Fr Joseph Nellanattu highlighted the importance ADBU gives to bridge the digital divide especially by making Free and Open Source Software accessible through easy to learn Spoken Tutorials promoted by Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.
“Digital IT is power to share and collaborate,” said chief guest Dinesh Pegu, managing director Assam Electronics Development Corporation speaking on the government’s point of view.
Anwar Shirpurwala, executive director, Manufacturers Association for Information Technology spoke on collaborating with the Digital India Mission. He called on students to come forward and become part of the Research Unit of Digital India Action Group.
Vjiay Prasad, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science & Engineering & IT, Assam Don Bosco University gave a presentation on practical learning aspects of Spoken Tutorial in helping students learn several Free Open Source Software.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Digital India Week on July 1 with a view to transform the country into a digitally-empowered knowledge economy.
The Digital India project, a campaign promises broadband connectivity in all panchayats (village councils), wi-fi in all schools and universities and public wi-fi hotspots in all important cities by 2019.
The entire Digital India plan will offer five products including Digitizing India Platform, digital locker, a national scholarship portal, e-Hospital and e-Sign. To help people associate with government initiatives the program will have four apps like Digital India Portal and Mobile app, MyGov Mobile app, Swachh Bharat Mission app and an updated Aadhaar Mobile app.
The telecom ministry’s projects to create BharatNet in eleven States, set up Wi-Fi hot spots across the country, and lay the foundation for the next generation network, also form a part of the government’s plan.
It will be deployed in delivering services in areas like health, education, agriculture and banking.
Mining giant Vedanta Resources Plc, is the non-executive chairman of Sterlite Technologies Ltd (STL) which is involved majorly in laying the optical fiber network to connect 250,000 village councils in the country.
As a part of the launch, 10 village panchayats in Indore will be connected to high-speed internet service, while work on connecting 335 others is almost complete, according to a BSNL official.
END