Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, May 23: Stating that Jammu and Kashmir has to travel many miles to catch up race with other states in the field of Information Technology and Electronics, Chief Minster, Omar Abdullah said that despite being ideally located and potentially rich for these sectors the continuous law and order situation and disturbance in the State for over two decades has hampered its growth severally.
“Though with the restoration of peace we have come a long way but we have to go a long way to make the State a hub of IT and Electronics”, he said reiterating his Government’s firm resolve in this direction. He said during the last four years many new initiatives have been introduced to make e-governance rule the roost and upgrade service delivery making it prompt, transparent and hassle-free by introducing IT measures.
Inaugurating the two-day ‘Knowledge Exchange Conference Srinagar’ on e-governance theme here this afternoon organized by State Information Technology Department in collaboration with Elets Technomedia, the Chief Minister said that he wants to improve and universalize healthcare and educational facilities across the State by utilizing up-to-date and modern IT and technological interventions.
“In a given situation we are in the State presenting mosaic of geographical diversities, climatic vagaries, remoteness of areas, difficult terrains and poor accessibility, the use of IT to reach out people for attending their welfare and development needs is the need of the hour” he said.
Recognizing this requirement, he said, measures have been initiated to march ahead on road to e-governance. He referred to the measures of e-tendering, e-procurement and launch of web portals in various public service departments for public benefit.
The Chief Minister said that he has asked the Information Technology Department to move ahead in digitalizing land records and making revenue papers available to the people electronically. Highlighting the high potential of the State to produce low volume-high value products in IT and Electronic sectors, the Chief Minister said that the talent of youth and the facilities made available by the State Government for growth and development of MSMEs should be dovetailed to make necessary headway in this field.
The Chief Minister said that the unique difficulties owing to shifting of offices in the State from one capital to another annually could also be removed by introducing e-governance in the offices making them paperless.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, Dr. Kruparani Killi presented resume of the measures Union Government has taken to develop and grow IT sector. She said besides Tourism and Handicrafts potential, Jammu and Kashmir is highly rich for growth and development of IT and Electronics, adding that Union Government would provide all help to the State in the comprehensive development of this sector.
She said IT is key pillar for economic development and generation of employment for youth. She said this sector provides direct employment to 22 lakh youth and 80 lakh persons indirectly. She said by 2020 end IT sector would be providing livelihood to two crore youth directly and five crore indirectly. She said Union Government has implemented 31 mission mode projects in IT sector besides operationlizing one lakh common service centres in the country.
The conference was also addressed by Minister of State for Information Technology, Feroz Ahmad Khan.
Commissioner Secretary Information Technology, Bipul Pathak presented the resume of initiatives in pipeline for the holistic growth of IT sector in the State.
Union Secretary Department of Electronics and IT, J. Satyanarayana presented key-note address on the occasion.
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