Union minister for electronics, IT and Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad asked corporates to adopt Digital Villages as part of their corporate social responsibility where the government can pitch-in by “god-fathering” them.
The government has set a target of setting up 1,00,000 digital villages out of which 700-800 have already become operational.
“I see these villages having a different identity where there is digital education, digital healthcare, digital skilling etc… Let the corporates adopt 500 of these villages as part of their CSR activities and we will godfather them,” said Prasad while speaking during an interactive session with officers of the department of telecom where a dashboard was also launched.
Prasad asked the young officers to become “thinkers” instead of just “officers” and help in the country’s drive towards innovation and technology led growth. He also asked the government officers to create patents and think of ways in which BharatNet can be taken to the last mile or how corprorates can be part of the Digital Village programme. He also asked the department to constitute an award for officers who come up with different ideas and a separate award for women officers who come up with ideas on how technology can solve women related issues.
Prasad also asked for better coordination between the department of telecom and IT and said that government’s aim of having a $1 trillion digital economy includes ecommerce, electronics manufacturing, and delivery through new services such as artificial intelligence.
