Mumbai: Victorinox, maker of the original Swiss army knife, welcomed the India Deaf Cricket Association Team to their Gute Reise Store in the national capital to wish them luck before they proceeded to Sharjah for the World Cup 2024.
A tour of the store included a stop at the history wall, where all the players were fascinated to discover the 140-year-old legacy of Victorinox, a fourth-generation family-run company. Fun and camaraderie presided over high tea, hearty laughter, and huge smiles.
Victorinox India chief marketing officer – brand & country head – watch Debraj Sengupta, presented the IDCA Team with personalized Swiss Army Knives to be prepared for any circumstance and outfitted the players with suitcases for their journey.
Present on the occasion at the store along with the team were:
Victorinox India CMO Debraj Sengupta
Victorinox India VP PR communication Priyanka Sippy
IDCA president Sumit Jain
IDCA patron Reena Jain Malhotra
IDCA CEO & brand custodian Roma Balwani
IDCA vice chairman Vineet Malhotra
IDCA secretary Ajay Kumar
Victorinox India chief marketing officer – brand & country head – watch Debraj Sengupta said, “Victorinox is very honoured to welcome the IDCA Team to the Gute Reise Store at Worldmark, Aerocity, New Delhi. We hope our products empower them on their journey and we wish them the absolute best for the World Cup!”
On the occasion, IDCA CEO & brand custodian Roma Balwani said, “IDCA India team is delighted to collaborate with Victorinox India as our support partner for the IDCA India team participating in the DICC T 20 World Cup 2024, UAE in Sharjah. The teams are very thankful for the opportunity to visit to their store at Worldmark, Aerocity. It was a special occasion as the leadership team felicitated our national team with their signature Swiss knife engraved with their names & also gifted all players suitcases which they will all carry during their travel to Sharjah.”
She added, “We hope to have a long-term collaboration with the brand, which will motivate our teams and help promote diversity and inclusion for disability sport specially cricket.”
The Indian Deaf Cricket team will participate in the Deaf International Cricket Council (DICC) T20 Champions Trophy 2024 to be held in Sharjah (UAE) from 6 to 12 March 2024. Teams from six countries — India, Australia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, South Africa and Sri Lanka — will compete at Vision Cricket Center, Sharjah, UAE to win the title of world champion.
Mumbai: The union minister for information & broadcasting and sports & youth affairs Anurag Thakur, launched the new national Hindi news channel, The tagline of the channel is “Vision of new India!”
Speaking at the launch event on Sunday, Thakur wished all the best to the team. “I congratulate Dr Jagdeesh Chandra and the entire team of Bharat24 on this new venture. The media is the fourth pillar of democracy and should work as a bridge between the government and the public and I am sure Bharat24 will execute this responsibility with utmost seriousness,” he said.
Bharat24 CEO and editor-in-chief Dr Jagdeesh Chandra commented, “We assure the minister that Bharat24 will reflect the aspirations of the youth, the multi-polarity of emerging India and will work as a bridge between our audience and the government.”
Bharat24 managing editor Ajay Kumar, Bharat24 chief business officer & strategic partner to the board Manoj Jagyasi, Bharat24 senior editor Syed Umar, Bharat24 senior anchors Mimansa Malik, Sachin Arora, Naina Yadav and Poornima Mishra, editorial consultant Shashikant Sharma, political editor Aditi Nagar, and others were present during the launch.
Kumar said, “The union government of India, various state governments, multilateral agencies, and international partners of India, all together, have come a long way in building the New India. We, Bharat 24, believe that a positive connection between the governments, state policies & the people at large is the need of the hour.”
Adding to this, Jagyasi commented, “With bureaus in all states, Bharat 24, will set a benchmark for news reporting and branding. It is a matter of pride that on the first day of launch, the channel has opened with many credible advertisers and we shall only grow bigger and better as time goes on,” he added.
Bharat24 will be available on all major DTH & cable platforms, including Tata Play – 531, Dish TV – 667, D2H – 750, Airtel DTH – 373, DEN – 318, Radiant – 308, RM Network – 109, Siti Network – 312, Hathway – 217, ICNCL WB – 175, Digiana Cable – 308, Haldwani Digital Services – 110.
NEW DELHI: The year 2020 saw a number of news outlets either going through a revamp, shutting down operations, or embarking on a path of vigorous growth. All this led to a substantial to and fro of personnel in the industry. Here’s the first part of the year-end series on people’s movements in the India’s news industry:
On new roads
The year saw a number of prominent names hopping channels and taking up new roles and responsibilities. While some moved within the industry, some veered off on alternate career paths. And there were some who entered the news world from completely different universes.
Senior journalist Nidhi Razdan decided to move on from NDTV and started afresh as an educator at Harvard University.
Some personal and professional news: after 21 years at NDTV, I am changing direction and moving on. Later this year, I start as an Associate Professor teaching journalism as part of Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences 1/n
Senior journalist Bhupendra Chaubey, who was associated with CNN News18 for nearly 15 years, parted ways with the organisation in April this year to join Andhra Prabha Publications as group-editor-in-chief and CEO. He has shouldered the responsibility of leading the group’s foray in the world of broadcasting. He is currently managing 12 editions of the newspaper and the English language news channel India Ahead.
— bhupendra chaubey (@bhupendrachaube) July 29, 2020
A close aide of Chaubey from CNN News18, Sudip Mukhiya preceded his entry at India Ahead. He joined as group president – newsroom and editorial strategies. Senior journalist Jacob Mathew also came onboard as director news.
Amit Goel, who has earlier worked with print publications like The Economic Times and The Pioneer, came in as India Ahead president – national editorial affairs. Producer and filmmaker Arjun Pandey joined the team as president – sales, marketing and strategies. Broadcaster and publisher Sudha Sadanand came onboard as president – editorial affairs. A former senior editor from The Economic Times, Rishi Joshi was also hired by the channel.
Zee Entertainment executive cluster head – innovation studio & custom content Raktim Das joined TV9 Network as COO – Studio 9.
Another senior journalist, Ajay Kumar ended his association with News Nation as managing editor and went to India TV as a consulting editor. The channel also brought in DB Star – Dainik Bhaskar, Bhopal editor Anand Pandey as editor – research and planning. Further, it welcomed Jayprakash Singh back after a gap of two years as chief of bureau – Mumbai.
BBC India’s digital editor Milind Khandekar stepped down from his post after a short stint of one-and-a-half years and joined TV Today Network Ltd as managing editor of Tak Channels.
Milind Khandekar
TV9 Network, in line with its agenda to revamp its digital businesses, found the editor and business head for business content vertical in Rakesh Khar, who bid adieu to his company of six years, Network18. Additionally, the organisation also got on board Amit Tripathi, yet another resource from Network18, as its chief revenue officer. It also welcomed Zee Media Corporation’s former SVP Manish Seth as its EVP.
Earlier this year, Network18 (IBN7) deputy managing editor Sumit Awasthi exited the channel to join ABP Network as VP – news and production.
Zee Hindustan hired Shamsher Singh as its managing editor. He has worked with networks like TV Today, India TV and Republic Bharat in the past.
Sun TV Network got News18 Tamil Nadu’s M Gunasekaran as its new editor-in-chief. He was instrumental in commissioning the launch of News18 Tamil Nadu, right from setting up an office in Chennai to building up a robust team of top journalists and reporters.
Erstwhile India TV political editor Jayanta Ghoshal left the news outlet after a brief stint of one year and was appointed by the West Bengal government to liaise with the central government.
Jayanta Ghoshal
Sahara News Network group editor Manoj Manu stepped down to join India News Network as executive editor. Sunita Rajan left CNN as SVP -advertising sales to enter Bloomberg Media as MD for media sales and marketing in APAC. Rajesh Kalra moved on from the post of chief editor at Times Internet and joined Asianet News Media and Entertainment Pvt Ltd (AMEL) as executive chairman.
Times Now executive editor and head of output Vivek Narayan quit to head Network18’s regional language network in south India as the managing editor. India Today roped in senior journalist Prabhu Chawla as an editorial consultant for TVTN while he also continued his association with The New Indian Express.
PopXO’s former head of engineering, Piyush Yadav joined ScoopWhoop Media as head of technology. Warner Media’s former associate director – sales Pooja Madan went to Republic Media Network to take up the position of sales director – north & east.
Additionally, SonyLIV Sports head of monetisation Maruti Indoria joined Network 18 as business head for CricketNext in March this year. Zee Innovation Studio’s national vertical head Gaurav Mehra ended the association and flitted to TV9 Network as VP of its TV and digital convergence specialist unit TV9.
Disney India’s Pawan Sharma, who was the national head – revenue (branded content and Bindass), joined News18 Network as sales head – focus, Hindi, and language cluster.
Pawan Sharma
CNN News 18’s Utkarsh Anand moved to Hindustan Times as its legal editor.
On the other hand, Pradip Khatri left India TV as a general manager and head of marketing to join DigiVidyapeeth Learning.
Vikatan VP and vertical head – print Sunder Thiyagarajan, and head – business development and brand marketing Prakash Sankaranarayanan also quit this year. While Thiyagarajan co-founded The Idea Factory and is also acting as its COO, Sanjaranarayanan has yet to share his next move.
Mathrubhumi TV and Kappa TV CEO Mohan Nair too ended his over nine-year-long stint with the network this year. He hasn’t disclosed his plans for the future yet.
Mohan Nair
Before the shutting down of Mint, its editor-in-chief Vinay Kamat and managing editor Anil Padmanabhan resigned. They are yet to announce their next. Kamat was replaced by Sruthijith KK.
The Hindu Business Line editor R Srinivasan announced his retirement as well. The senior journalist was with the newspaper for the last nine years. He was earlier associated with media houses like BCCL, Business Standard, Ananda Bazar Patrika Limited, HT Media and Mail Today.
MUMBAI: India TV has appointed experienced professionals at three key positions. Ajay Kumar has been appointed as consulting editor, Anand Pandey will be editor- research and planning and Jaya Prakash Singh has joined as chief of bureau, Mumbai.
Kumar has 27 years of experience in television journalism. He has been the managing editor of News Nation channel for the last four and a half years. During the nineties, he worked as special correspondent and anchor for Aaj Tak and Newstrack for seven years, after which he worked in Star News as editor and anchor for four years. He returned to Aaj Tak as executive editor in 2007 and worked for more than five years in his second stint. In 2016, he joined News Nation as part of its core launch team. Kumar has interviewed several national and international personalities, anchored popular TV shows and did live reporting during major news events in India and abroad.
Pandey has 25 years of experience in print media. Starting as a cub reporter for Dainik Bhaskar in Indore in 1995, he later worked for the national political bureau of the newspaper in Delhi. He had a three-year stint at Zee News in Delhi and was resident editor for Nai Dunia in Jabalpur. He later worked as resident editor for the Indore and Bhopal editions of Dainik Bhaskar. He worked for three years as group editor for Nai Dunia-Dainik Jagaran newspaper group. For the last two years, he has been editor of DB Star, Dainik Bhaskar, Bhopal.
Singh returns to India TV as Mumbai bureau chief after a gap of two years. Earlier, he had worked for India TV as Mumbai bureau chief for six years. He has 26 years of experience in print and television journalism, and had earlier stints in Sahara Samay and IBN7, before joining India TV. A livewire, hardworking reporter, he was among the first TV reporters to reach Taj Hotel on the fateful night of 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks.
India TV managing director Ritu Dhawan said: “For television viewers among various TG groups, India TV has become synonymous with ‘television news’ during the current Covid2019 and India-China LAC standoff crisis. The induction of these three experienced professionals will surely work as a stimulus to India TV’s leap to the next big level. I extend my congratulations to the new appointees and wish them success in their new endeavour.”
MUMBAI: Question Hour ,the flagship show of News Nation is turning 5 years old. Over last five years the show has covered various developments in political, social, international, sports and variety of other arenas. With the beginning of 2018 the show has undergone a major revamp. The change not only reflects in the format of the show but also the kind of news and reports it serves to the audience. Speaking on the development Editor in Chief , Mr. Sanjay Kulshrestha said “ Question Hour has continued to be with us since the inception of the channel ,it’s a matter of pride that it has been able to create a brand space amongst our viewers”.
The show which goes on air in prime time of 21:00-22:00 Hrs. (Mon-Fri) is one of the top performing slots of the channel. Over last 13 Wks (Wk39-51’17) it has garnered around 41 Million Gross Impressions in the HSM market. Managing Editor and host of the show Mr. Ajay Kumar said “ We believe in creating value proposition for our viewers and this show since its beginning has strived to provide news as it is to them, the new format is a step towards further strengthening this cause”.
The show is further supported by marketing actives across trade mediums , social platforms , audience interaction and cross channel promotions . Mr. Sanjay Kulshrestha further added “ You can understand differentiation of Question Hour show from its peers through the tag line – Kyounki Khabar Yanhi hai (because news is here)”
NEW DELHI: Electronics and Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said the National Informatics Centre is the “technological bridge of India and is best placed to lead the way for a Digital India”
He urged the District Information Officers (DIOs) to be innovative and proactive. NIC must adopt a transformative approach to make a difference at the grassroots level. He appealed to the NIC to connect with the Common Service Centres (CSCs), who have successfully provided training on digital payment systems to over 19.6 million of rural citizens and 6,15,000 merchants.”
He was speaking at an event where the NIC kicked off the National Meet on Grassroot Informatics – VIVID: Weaving a Digital India here.
The inauguration of the three-day event was also attended Minister of State P P Chaudhary, Secretary Ms Aruna Sundararajan, Additional Secretary Ajay Kumar, NIC DG Ms Neeta Verma, and Deputy DG Ms Rama Nagpal.
Prasad announced the Government’s plan to set up a Government Security Operation Centre and a Data Centre for Cloud in Bhopal. He also announced that the Government is going to enhance the infrastructure of district NIC offices to international standards. As a pilot project, 150 District NIC offices would be upgraded during the period 2017-18, while rest will follow soon.
He instructed the ministry to develop a training module for the NIC officials to keep pace with the ever evolving technologies. He also announced the introduction of annual awards for the DIOs of the NIC for taking up exemplary innovative approach in their respective districts. The top three best innovators will get a reward of Rs 2,00,000, Rs 1,00,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.
Chaudhary said, “The threshold of the year 2017 will always be remembered for heralding in several transformative changes to benefit the economy as well to the citizens, amongst them the Digital India initiative has been the most significant one. I must congratulate NIC and DIOs for playing a pivotal role in preparing the country for a successful Digital transformation of our ecosystem.
NIC also introduced two new portals – District Collector’s Dashboard and NIC Service Desk, which were launched by Prasad and Chaudhary respectively.
The National Meet on Grassroots Informatics is aimed at showcasing the various initiatives of NIC in creating and enhancing the Digital Infrastructure in the country. Some of these are – setting up of ICT infrastructure, developing state of the art products to enable the government and empower the citizens, its initiatives at state and district level along the lines of Digital India initiatives along with the various awareness campaigns on Digital Payment Systems encompassing DBT, PFMS, Cashless Payment, Aadhaar etc.
The individual sessions during these three days would throw lights on NIC’s journey so far, the best practices it follows, the Digital India programme, Digital India initiatives from NIC State Units, success stories from the districts, Financial Inclusion, its technology awareness programmes and ICT Infrastructure being provided by NIC.
NEW DELHI: Electronics and Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said the National Informatics Centre is the “technological bridge of India and is best placed to lead the way for a Digital India”
He urged the District Information Officers (DIOs) to be innovative and proactive. NIC must adopt a transformative approach to make a difference at the grassroots level. He appealed to the NIC to connect with the Common Service Centres (CSCs), who have successfully provided training on digital payment systems to over 19.6 million of rural citizens and 6,15,000 merchants.”
He was speaking at an event where the NIC kicked off the National Meet on Grassroot Informatics – VIVID: Weaving a Digital India here.
The inauguration of the three-day event was also attended Minister of State P P Chaudhary, Secretary Ms Aruna Sundararajan, Additional Secretary Ajay Kumar, NIC DG Ms Neeta Verma, and Deputy DG Ms Rama Nagpal.
Prasad announced the Government’s plan to set up a Government Security Operation Centre and a Data Centre for Cloud in Bhopal. He also announced that the Government is going to enhance the infrastructure of district NIC offices to international standards. As a pilot project, 150 District NIC offices would be upgraded during the period 2017-18, while rest will follow soon.
He instructed the ministry to develop a training module for the NIC officials to keep pace with the ever evolving technologies. He also announced the introduction of annual awards for the DIOs of the NIC for taking up exemplary innovative approach in their respective districts. The top three best innovators will get a reward of Rs 2,00,000, Rs 1,00,000 and Rs 50,000 respectively.
Chaudhary said, “The threshold of the year 2017 will always be remembered for heralding in several transformative changes to benefit the economy as well to the citizens, amongst them the Digital India initiative has been the most significant one. I must congratulate NIC and DIOs for playing a pivotal role in preparing the country for a successful Digital transformation of our ecosystem.
NIC also introduced two new portals – District Collector’s Dashboard and NIC Service Desk, which were launched by Prasad and Chaudhary respectively.
The National Meet on Grassroots Informatics is aimed at showcasing the various initiatives of NIC in creating and enhancing the Digital Infrastructure in the country. Some of these are – setting up of ICT infrastructure, developing state of the art products to enable the government and empower the citizens, its initiatives at state and district level along the lines of Digital India initiatives along with the various awareness campaigns on Digital Payment Systems encompassing DBT, PFMS, Cashless Payment, Aadhaar etc.
The individual sessions during these three days would throw lights on NIC’s journey so far, the best practices it follows, the Digital India programme, Digital India initiatives from NIC State Units, success stories from the districts, Financial Inclusion, its technology awareness programmes and ICT Infrastructure being provided by NIC.
NEW DELHI: MyGov website has won the Platinum Award for the Most Innovative Citizen Engagement while the Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System (OMMAS) for Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana (PMGSY) won the Gold Award.
The Silver Award was won by Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation. The Jury Choice was given to IT Initiatives of SimhasthKumbh, Ujjain.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad presented the first “Digital India Awards” as part of the Government’s ambitious programme of “Digital India” on its axiom of “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance”.
The awards are for those who facilitate the Government’s efforts to promote and uphold the use of World Wide Web for enhancing efficiency and transparency of Government Machinery and encouraging its speedy transition towards Digital India.
The first edition of the awards was organized by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the ambit of India Portal (http://india.gov.in).
Digital innovation along with E-Governance initiatives of Government Ministries and Departments across India were evaluated under various categories. Three awards Platinum, Gold and Silver were presented in each category to the winners shortlisted from the nominations received under each category.
The categories included Exemplary Online Service, Open Data Champion, Most Innovative Citizen Engagement, Outstanding Digital Initiative by Local body, Best Mobile App, Web Ratna – Ministry/ Department, Web Ratna – State/ UT, Web Ratna-District.
In the Outstanding Digital Initiative by Local Body Platinum Award was bagged by Surat Municipal Corporation, followed by Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and Web and Mobile based Integrated Complaint Logging and Resolution Tracking System – Madurai Corporation winning the Gold and Silver award respectively.
The Jury Choice was given e-NagarSewaUP – Electronic Workflow based Reform for ULBs in Uttar Pradesh.
In the Exemplary Online Service Category Platinum Award was bagged by VYAS- VarnijYakar Automation System for Department of Commercial Taxes, Uttar Pradesh, followed by E-permit, Commercial tax department, Gujarat and One Stop Clearance System, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion winning the Gold and Silver award respectively.
In the Open Data Champion Category Platinum Award was won by Office of the Registrar General, India. The Health and Family Welfare and Directorate of Marketing & Inspection won the Gold Award. The Silver award was bagged by the Rajya Sabha and National Crime Records Bureau.
For Best Mobile App, Citizen Cop Mobile App Chattisgarh won the Platinum Award. Mid-Day Meal Mobile App, Himachal Pradesh won the Gold Award. The Silver Award was won by GARV – GrameenVidyutikaran App Ministry of Power.
For Web Ratna – Ministry / Department category, the Platinum was bagged by Human Resource Development Ministry, Gold by Health & Family Welfare Ministry, and Silver by External Affairs Ministry.
For Web Ratna – State/ UT category the Platinum award has been won by Rajasthan followed by Tamil Nadu and Haryana in the Gold and Silver section respectively. For Web Ratna – District category the Platinum award has been won by Website of Collectorate, North Goa, followed by e-Governance friendly website & Initiatives of District Kupwara, J&K and district administration Udham Singh Nagar website, Uttarakhand in the Gold and Silver section respectively.
A Compendium for Digital India Awards 2016 was also released on this occasion. A comprehensive government services portal was also launched by the Shri P. P. Chaudhary on this occasion.
Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology P P Chaudhary; Electronics & Information Technology|(MeitY) Secretary Aruna Sundarrajan, Principal Scientific Advisor R Chidambaram; MeitY Additional Secretary Ajay Kumar, NIC DG Neeta Verma, and Senior officials from (MeitY), NIC, state and Central Senior dignitaries were also present.
Digital India Awards plays a major role in recognizing the noteworthy and sustainable initiatives in the realm of e-Governance for better delivery of information and services. At the same time Digital India Awards have re-established itself as an important platform to disseminate information about such path breaking initiatives, encouraging others to customize and replicate the successful solutions. The Awards through its unique initiative has contributed to the overall increase in quality and quantity of web presence of various government departments across the country. Most importantly, it has created an atmosphere for further innovation in the web based services sphere promoting and encouraging Government Departments/Ministries and States to come out with their best.
NEW DELHI: MyGov website has won the Platinum Award for the Most Innovative Citizen Engagement while the Online Management, Monitoring and Accounting System (OMMAS) for Pradhan Mantri Gram SadakYojana (PMGSY) won the Gold Award.
The Silver Award was won by Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation. The Jury Choice was given to IT Initiatives of SimhasthKumbh, Ujjain.
Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad presented the first “Digital India Awards” as part of the Government’s ambitious programme of “Digital India” on its axiom of “Minimum Government and Maximum Governance”.
The awards are for those who facilitate the Government’s efforts to promote and uphold the use of World Wide Web for enhancing efficiency and transparency of Government Machinery and encouraging its speedy transition towards Digital India.
The first edition of the awards was organized by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) under the ambit of India Portal (http://india.gov.in).
Digital innovation along with E-Governance initiatives of Government Ministries and Departments across India were evaluated under various categories. Three awards Platinum, Gold and Silver were presented in each category to the winners shortlisted from the nominations received under each category.
The categories included Exemplary Online Service, Open Data Champion, Most Innovative Citizen Engagement, Outstanding Digital Initiative by Local body, Best Mobile App, Web Ratna – Ministry/ Department, Web Ratna – State/ UT, Web Ratna-District.
In the Outstanding Digital Initiative by Local Body Platinum Award was bagged by Surat Municipal Corporation, followed by Greater Visakhapatnam Municipal Corporation and Web and Mobile based Integrated Complaint Logging and Resolution Tracking System – Madurai Corporation winning the Gold and Silver award respectively.
The Jury Choice was given e-NagarSewaUP – Electronic Workflow based Reform for ULBs in Uttar Pradesh.
In the Exemplary Online Service Category Platinum Award was bagged by VYAS- VarnijYakar Automation System for Department of Commercial Taxes, Uttar Pradesh, followed by E-permit, Commercial tax department, Gujarat and One Stop Clearance System, Punjab Bureau of Investment Promotion winning the Gold and Silver award respectively.
In the Open Data Champion Category Platinum Award was won by Office of the Registrar General, India. The Health and Family Welfare and Directorate of Marketing & Inspection won the Gold Award. The Silver award was bagged by the Rajya Sabha and National Crime Records Bureau.
For Best Mobile App, Citizen Cop Mobile App Chattisgarh won the Platinum Award. Mid-Day Meal Mobile App, Himachal Pradesh won the Gold Award. The Silver Award was won by GARV – GrameenVidyutikaran App Ministry of Power.
For Web Ratna – Ministry / Department category, the Platinum was bagged by Human Resource Development Ministry, Gold by Health & Family Welfare Ministry, and Silver by External Affairs Ministry.
For Web Ratna – State/ UT category the Platinum award has been won by Rajasthan followed by Tamil Nadu and Haryana in the Gold and Silver section respectively. For Web Ratna – District category the Platinum award has been won by Website of Collectorate, North Goa, followed by e-Governance friendly website & Initiatives of District Kupwara, J&K and district administration Udham Singh Nagar website, Uttarakhand in the Gold and Silver section respectively.
A Compendium for Digital India Awards 2016 was also released on this occasion. A comprehensive government services portal was also launched by the Shri P. P. Chaudhary on this occasion.
Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology P P Chaudhary; Electronics & Information Technology|(MeitY) Secretary Aruna Sundarrajan, Principal Scientific Advisor R Chidambaram; MeitY Additional Secretary Ajay Kumar, NIC DG Neeta Verma, and Senior officials from (MeitY), NIC, state and Central Senior dignitaries were also present.
Digital India Awards plays a major role in recognizing the noteworthy and sustainable initiatives in the realm of e-Governance for better delivery of information and services. At the same time Digital India Awards have re-established itself as an important platform to disseminate information about such path breaking initiatives, encouraging others to customize and replicate the successful solutions. The Awards through its unique initiative has contributed to the overall increase in quality and quantity of web presence of various government departments across the country. Most importantly, it has created an atmosphere for further innovation in the web based services sphere promoting and encouraging Government Departments/Ministries and States to come out with their best.
NEW DELHI: More than 50 multi-national companies as well as Indian business houses had come forward with proposals to set up manufacturing units for electronic goods including set top boxes after the government announced relaxations to promote the ‘Make in India’ policy.
Taking part in the section on Electronic Manufacturing at the Times Television’s Digital Summit here, Communications and Information Technology joint secretary Ajay Kumar said that the whole process will mean recreating the IT industry and changing the eco-system as Indians had got used to importing cheap equipment from overseas.
However, he said that the IT industry was on the verge of ‘explosive growth’ because it had huge brain power, demographic profile, and a government determined to promote the ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’ programmes.
Kumar claimed that the government was giving several incentives including a 25 per cent incentive in the manufacturing sector for electronic goods. Training programmes had been created for in-house human resources and there was focus on innovation and research and development.
However, Manufacturers’ Association for Information Technology (MAIT) vice president Nitin Kunkdienker said, “The government’s policies are still not helpful to the growth of the sector. A mere announcement of a national policy is not enough if states do not encourage to collaborate on various issues.”
He said even the central ministries did not talk to each other, referring specifically to the IT Ministry, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the Home Ministry, the Finance Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry.
In many states, the Chief Ministers had no control over the affairs relating to the industry. There was also need for process improvement such as customs etc. and the government should be able to optimize its advantages. It should also bring in the educational institutions on the programmes to create a system that sets standards.
Amar Babu R K of Lenovo referred to a general mistrust between the government and the industry.
