In a move to support Prime Minister Narendra Modi's digital movement and spread digital communication throughout the country, the NDA Government has invited leading corporate honchos for a mega digital show which will be held on July 1. The Government plans to unveil a set of online services on health, education segment - e-basta or online syllabi of all educational books, tele-medicine, e-hospitals and other services alike, especially for the people of remotest belt of the country.
"The Digital India programme will be a stepping stone for the Government to spread digital communication throughout the country. In order to support the Government's long-dreamt initiative, we have invited some leading corporate giants from the country and abroad to make it successful. Reliance's Mukesh Ambani, Tata's Cyrus Mistry, Wipro's Asim Premzi, American business magnate Bill Gates among few will be present on the occasion," a top official in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) told The Pioneer.
The Prime Minister will launch several online initiatives on health and education services to promote digital programmes in India. "The Government will unveil a set of online services including e-basta, tele-medicine, e-hospital for those who are always deprived of these services, especially for the rural belt of the country," the official said.
As far as tele-medicine and e-hospital services are concerned, sources, however, said the Government plans to set up more than 60,000 common health service centres for patients who can avail such services without any difficulties and the treatment would be done through online platforms by certified doctors in the country.
According to the Government, e-healthcare, online medical consultation, online medical records, online medicine supply, Pan-India exchange for patient information are the parts of e-hospital services. The Government will start this pilot project in 2015 and will cover fully in 3 years. "The Government has already tied up with big health majors like Apollo Hospital and others for such services," the official said.
For e-basta services (or an online service for the syllabi of all educational books, periodicals, journals), the Government is planning to avail them in this digital platform. The Government said all schools will be connected with broadband, free wi-fi in over 250,000 schools in the country. Digital literacy programme and development of pilot massive online open courses will be the part of the programme.
"Everybody, be a scholar, student or person of any field will be able to avail his/her study materials by downloading at any time in any part of India. Our aim to reach out the people in every nook and corner of the country," added the official.
However, sources said that Ambassadors of leading countries have been invited to be part of the event, while over dozen Cabinet Ministers would also be present on the occasion. Minister for Communication & IT Ravi Shankar Prasad will also brief the media on 'Digital India Week' at a curtain raiser function in this regard on Saturday.
"The proposed event has been planned at Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium to accommodate the huge crowd for the function. It is expected that more than 400 chief executive officers (CEOs) all over the country and abroad will attend the mega event," sources added.