| |
NewswireTODAY - /newswire/ -
Chandigarh, India, 2006/07/19 - The Punjab Governor and Administrator, Union Territory, Chandigarh, Gen. (Retd.) S.F. Rodrigues, PVSM VSM called upon the leading IT professionals to create special programmes and software to help in improving the lives of our people.
|
| |
To help in improving the lives of our people through modern Information and Communication Technologies.
It is a big challenge and we must make sincere and committed efforts collectively to ensure the benefits of the IT Revolution reach the masses and empower them to be equal partners in the socio-economic change Inaugurating an IT Conclave on the theme Developing a Collaborative Model for IT Enablement in Chandigarh and Regions, here today, General Rodrigues said that the time has now come for us to sit together and put in place innovative strategies, with efficient support structures, to expand our education and societal initiatives to improve our teaching and learning processes. He said that there is a need for launching holistic programmes covering various aspects aimed at developing the potential of our youth and making them competent and confident to compete successfully at the global level, in different fields of endeavour. He said that we have a huge resource bank in our 260 million people living below the poverty line and our innovative programmes must be directed at developing and nurturing their talent, instead of merely improving the condition of the middle class. He emphasized the need for collective effort of the Government and Corporate sectors to launch Human Resource Development programmes on a partnership and collaborative basis, for producing trained manpower in different spheres of activity. He emphasized that we have to create such environments and unlock the vision, capacities and capabilities of our people to make them effective instruments of change and provide them opportunities to work in our own land. He said that it was an industry imperative that IT corporate sector giants come forward with commitment, competence and new initiatives, to make India a knowledge society in the true sense, and to create the support structure needed to develop and sustain a sustained growth rate of 8%.
General Rodrigues said that we have embarked upon computer interactive programmes, in 80 Government Schools of Union Territory, with the infrastructure support of Infosys and Wipro, with the task of training our teachers and students in various computer and professional learning skills with the help of Intel trained teachers and experts. The Administration has also planned to set up smart schools for taking education to the next higher level, to enable our children to learn in a state of the art technology enabled environment. He said that the Administration has also launched Chandigarh IT reach out programmes, in collaboration with leading technology companies for empowering the youth and young children in rural areas in our 17 villages through IT technologies.
The aim of this programme is to narrow the gap and bridge the digital divide to integrate all sections of society.Referring to the successful programme of empowering the common man through the Mission – IT for Society, General Rodrigues said an elaborate private-public partnership programme of E-Jan Sampark is being launched shortly by opening 70 kiosks in different sectors to provide public utility service to the poor and downtrodden. He said that the existing e-sampark centers set up by the Administration are providing 14 services to the public. This project has been widely appreciated, as it provides citizens with single window services in the areas of Governmental services, disabled and senior citizens bus passes, electricity and water bills, traffic challans, sales tax dues, tenant registration etc, through ultra modern e-Sampark centers through out the City. General Rodrigues further said that Chandigarh is set to achieve the goal of the IT Revolution with the commissioning of Rajiv Gandhi Chandigarh IT park equipped with state of the art infrastructural facilities. We have already completed work on two phases and the Ministry of Commerce has already given SEZ status to this ambitious project.
Various international multi national companies have joined this endeavour. A hotel-cum-convention center is being set up and a Technical Habitat covering an area of 123 acres has been launched. It will comprise of about 1500 flats/ service apartments and other facilities for IT professionals. We are also developing an entrepreneurship development center equipped with a lab for research into IT related issues and a Regional Center for NASSCOM together with a center for research into cyber security. He also, suggested a collaboration to develop new applications in multi-media technology. We have also initiated the process for setting up a multi-media center-cum-film city, amusement and theme park, IT hardware park, bio-tech park, modern fruit and vegetables terminal market to cater to the needs of farmers of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. We have also coordinated our endeavour with Punjab & Haryana governments for introducing a mass rapid transit system in Chandigarh and the satellite towns of Mohali and Panchkula. We are pursuing every goal with fixed schedules through accountability, transparency and responsiveness at all levels.
Emphasizing the need for utilizing IT for the eradication of social evils like female foeticide, General Rodrigues said that Punjab is pursuing a novel model of restoring the balance by a programme coordinated by the Deputy Commissioner, Mr. Krishan Kumar in Nawanshahr which has given good results. He said that this model is being followed through out Punjab. Similarly, he said that agriculture sector has been given a new push by introducing latest technologies to achieve the diversification of cropping pattern. He said that we are on the fast track and appealed to IT professionals to help in making the various programmes successful through their vision, commitment, expertise and experience. Mr. Kiran Kanik, President NASSCOM, while speaking on the occasion appreciated the efforts of Chandigarh Administration for undertaking the process of upgradation of Chandigarh Airport to the International Level and also for improving the quality of education in Chandigarh schools. He said that Education and industry contribute significantly in creating a knowledge city and bringing about socio economic change. He emphasized the need of setting up a cyber crime laboratory and research center in Chandigarh to train our people to check cyber crime. Haryana Education Minister, Mr. Phool Chand Mullana and Principal Secretary Industries Punjab, Mr. S.C. Agarawal, who represented Punjab Government in this Seminar dwelled on the road map of IT Sector and other related fields in their respective states.
They invited the IT professionals to make investment in their states to make this Chandigarh capital region as a destination for IT and other related industries. Mr. S.K. Sandhu, Secretary Finance and IT gave an account of infrastructural facilities available in Union Territory, Chandigarh for attracting investment in IT and other areas of human resource development. Mr. Lalit Sharma, Adviser UT and other senior officers from Punjab, Haryana and UT Chandigarh were present on the occasion.
|
jkaur@abcnewsnetwork.com 
