Union minister for Law & Justice, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said technology should be designed to make life easier and simpler. Inaugurating the 2nd Edition of NIC TechConclave 2020, organized by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), at New Delhi, he said data is going to drive technology and governance. He stressed on the need for 5 corners in mind while handling data – data availability, data utility, data innovation, data anonymity and data privacy and maintained that India should become a big centre for data refining process. NIC, he said, should work in that direction. He also advised technocrats to start dreaming big and trying hard to concretize that dream into a reality.
Prasad said technology should be low cost, developmental and inclusive and coined a new slogan ‘Digital India means technology from the classes to technology for the masses’. Digital India has to be a transformational program, he adding and this has to be a bridge closing digital divide of haves and have-nots.
Stating that more and more rural empowering missions must be thought of as a model of governance, he said NIC has helped monitoring the Swachch Bharat Campaign in the country. Technology should be designed to fulfill the aspirations of the people, he added.
Ajay Sawhney, secretary – MeitY, Sameer Garde, president, CISCO (India and SAARC) and Dr Neeta Verme, director general, NIC and other dignitaries were present on the occasion.
