Sibal Inaugurates 5th IFIP WITFOR; Promises electronic delivery of public services within 5 years

Minister of Communications & IT Sh. Kapil Sibal inaugurated the 5th IFIP World IT Forum recently. He said that we are committed to ensure the Electronic Delivery of all possible public Services "in less than five years," a move that would help ramp up transparency and accountability in governance. This would be enabled by the Electronics Delivery of Public Services Bill which was introduced in the Lok Sabha in the previous winter session of Parliament.

"We have asked the State Governments to provide us with a list of public services that they can make available to the public electronically. Some of the services that we are looking at are payment of electricity and water bills, passport delivery, and birth and death registrations. This will go a long way in curbing corruption and bringing in transparency and accountability," said Sibal.

Providing insights into how India was leveraging ICT for inclusive growth, he said, "The government is in the process of setting up ten data centres in various locations. Once ready, these data centres will give a big push to government-to-government, government-to-citizen and government-to-business services."

Among other e-governance initiatives, the government was planning to roll out a fibre optic network up to the level of 2,50,000 gram panchayats. Also, The National Knowledge Network is connecting 604 universities and 35,000 colleges across the country for seamless flow of information across this educational network.

Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Communications & IT, Sachin Pilot, revealed, "We are setting up 1,00,000 common service centres in rural areas. Besides, the IT literary programme is now available in all 22 Indian languages. As the deadline for the 2015 Millennium Development Goals is approaching, ICT can help bridge the gap in achieving these goals. This forum provides a good platform for deliberating on issues such as regulation, privacy, digital inequality and literacy."

The World IT Forum is organised by the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP), with a focus on the tangible impact of technology on development. This year's edition is being held in partnership with the Department of IT, and with 9.9 Media. The overarching goal of the Forum is to assist developing countries in formulating and implementing sustainable strategies for the application of ICT and to share experiences that can help bridge the digital divide and improve the overall quality of life.