Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has announced while addressing a programme at Bijapur following a meeting with the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Wednesday that six hospitals based in Uttarakhand would be selected for e-hospitals on the pattern of AIIMS. “These hospitals would be selected by a joint committee comprising Chief Minister, finance minister and some senior members of the state BJP in coming six months. After the process of selection is over the people of the State, particularly those from the hilly or remote regions, would make their registration through smart phones following which appointments would be fixed and informed on phones. National Information Centre (NIC) has been instructed to provide them with the requisite technical assistance. The new system would spare the highlanders the trouble of coming down to seek appointments. Currently, 70 hospitals spread across India have been made e-hospitals and now, six big hospitals from Uttarakhand would be added to the figure,” the Union Minister said.
He further said that while the Software Technology Park of India (STPI) is now making exports to the tune of Rs three lakh crore Uttarakhand’s share is a paltry Rs80 crore. “This would suffice to show how serious the previous government was on the matter. Now, we would expand things in the state by opening STPI at Pantnagar. CM assured that the required land would be provided. We are for involving more and more youth in the functioning of STPI,” he said.
“National Institute of Electronic Information Technology (NIElIT) being engaged in awarding degrees and franchise to private players, Almora and Haridwar would have NIElIT soon. CM has assured that in case of land not being found, the state government would provide government buildings to house them. Besides, to provide jobs in the IT sector, the government is going to open small size call centres at the village levels. As far as BPOs (Business process outsources) are concerned we have fixed a target of 48000 seats and they would be increased further as per the population. For Uttarakhand, there would be 400 seats while UP would get 8000 seats. For this, the Centre would provide Rs one lakh by way of subsidy per seat. The criteria is that if women are recruited the subsidy would be 5 percent and it would be 10 percent if the local skill is utilised. It would be 5 percent for the divyaang. In Dehradun alone, around 100 BPOs would be opened soon. Besides, 200 more would come up in a short time,” the Union minister said.
He further said that NIC would develop cloud technology in Utttarakhand which would work as data centre. “The government employees will be trained for it. As far as cyber security is concerned we have established forensic centre. CDAC has trained around 800 sub- inspectors and inspectors trained so far and in the next two years, the technology would be handed over to the state,” he said.
He assured that the scope in IT sector is huge in Dehradun , Haldwani and Srinagar. “Concerned as we are over cyber security, the banks have been asked to employ cyber auditors. The secretary IT has been asked to meet the private operators to increase connectivity across the state,” he said.
He further said that out of the country’s population of 125 crore, 108 crore are now using mobiles. “This include 35 crore using smart phones, 80 crore internet and 113 crore having Aadhar numbers. In Uttarakhand, 90 percent of the adults are having Aadhar numbers with the remaining 10 percent being enrolled,” Prasad said, adding that under Jan Dhan Yojna, the Centre has so far opened 27 crore new bank accounts which are connected with the mobile numbers of the account holders. Subsidy is being directly provided into their accounts, he said.