Dell to support West Bengal in Digital India vision

KOLKATA , INDIA: Dell with CyberMedia Research (CMR), recently concluded the ‘Government Connect Conference’ in Kolkata.

Government Connect is Dell’s year-long outreach program themed “Future-ready IT, for future-ready government” and conducted as a joint initiative with CMR.

The programme emphasised the need for deploying future-ready IT infrastructure, thereby improving government functioning and also understand the pain-points and solutions pertaining to IT infrastructure for government stakeholders in the region.

Dell used the platform to create awareness among decision makers, IT departments and their workforce on the transformational role of IT in nation building and achieving critical governance goals.

Additionally, the conference created an opportunity to discuss the development of ICT infrastructure and solutions mandated by the Digital India initiative, future-proofing of ICT infrastructure and the National e-Governance Plan.

Upender Jit Singh, ‎Managing Director, WBEIDC & Chairman, Webel Group of Companies spoke at length about the e-Governance initiatives of Govt. of West Bengal that WEBEL was supporting in the capacity of the state’s nodal agency. He particularly emphasised the game changing potential of the national Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), ‘100 Smart Cities’ and ‘Make in India’ programmes. According to Mr. Singh, West Bengal was set to undergo a makeover with the establishment a large electronics manufacturing industrial base slated to give a big fillip to employment opportunities.

Debopam Raha, Technical Director, Infrastructure and Government Services, KPMG presented an overview on the goals and objectives of the ‘Digital India’ programme. He described the ‘Five Pillars’ of the programme as being Connectivity, Platforms, Applications, Data Centres & Cyber Security, and Emerging Technologies. Debopam further highlighted some of the key e-Governance initiatives taken by leading states such as Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal, and some of the newer initiatives such as ‘3DEXPERIENCity’, Mobile Governance and ‘Smart Village’. He stressed on the potentially transformative role of digital interventions in Education & Skill Development, Infrastructure, Livelihood and Capacity Building initiatives in rural areas, Social Media generated intelligence, Public Transportation and Revenue Administration.

Debopam closed by sharing an overview of KPMG’s Platform for the “Public Sector of the Future”, which lays stress on the need for close cooperation and collaboration between government, industry associations and consulting firms to improve all-round digital availability, accessibility and usability.

“West Bengal has shown incredible acceptance to E-governance and has been a threshold to government initiatives like Digital India and schemes implemented in tune with the NeGP. This is bound to create phenomenal change in areas such as healthcare, education, creation of employment opportunities, citizen services, etc. Dell is excited to partner Webel, to create Future Ready IT solutions for a future ready government,” stated Raman Bountra, business leader – Government Sales, Dell India.

Thomas George, senior vice president, CMR said, “We are committed to encourage debate on and adoption of scalable ICT infrastructure and solutions, to deliver ease and convenience to citizens, customers and stakeholders. We believe the coming months and years will see many transformative models emerge, as a result of successful collaboration between government organisations, India’s vast and vibrant public sector and technology vendors.”