Modi Announces 450,000 Crore Investment In IT Sector

By M.Santhiran NEW DELHI, July 2 (Bernama) -- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi assured that 1.8 million new jobs will be created once local and foreign investors, who have pledged investments worth 450,000 crore (about US$70.5 billion) in the information technology sector, takes off. The "Digital India" initiative is aimed at creating jobs within the next few years with government agencies gearing up to provide more services accessible via online even in the remote areas of the country, Modi said at the launch of the ambitious plan on Wednesday attended by nearly 10,000 people mostly key players in the IT sector. Optimistic that the government's 15 initiatives would transform a majority of its citizens to become IT savy, he said it would also reduce redtape in private and public sectors. Modi stressed that the full potential of Indians, especially youths, should be explored further as the country needed more indigenously developed technologies and products. "Design in India is very important. Just like 'Make in India' is important. The talent of our youths must be utilised. "And, we must focus on designing in India," said Modi who was under heavy critism from the opposition who alleged his government was slow in bringing about progress and foreign investments. The prime minister also said India had to move from electronic-governance to mobile-governance. "I dream of a digital India where the government is open and governance is transparent," he added. He pointed out that India needed to minimise the digital divide for real development to take place and to eliminate corruption. Modi anticipated that people, in the near future, would settle down only at places within optical fibre network. "I dream of a digital India where high-speed digital highways unite the nation, where 1.2 billion connected Indians drive innovation," he said. Modi also announced several initiatives including the Bharat Net programe as a high-speed digital highway to connect all 250,000 villages in India, the world's largest rural broadband project using optical fibre. -- BERNAMA