Ahead of President Barack Obama’s India visit next week, the two countries have agreed to collaborate on implementation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious Digital India initiative that is projected to cost a whopping Rs1.13 lakh crore. A meeting of the US-India Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Working Group held here this week decided to continue exploring areas for collaboration on the Digital India programme that aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
The programme, approved by the Union Cabinet last August, proposes to enhance digital infrastructure, deploy e-governance and e-services, and expand the diffusion and use of ICT to expand economic opportunity, boost productivity, create jobs and empower citizens. Indian and US officials held extensive discussions on ICT and telecommunication policy issues, focusing on accelerating broadband deployment, aligning spectrum policy for the mobile era and exchanging views on Internet governance and best practices in ICT and telecommunications regulatory policy, said a joint statement after the two-day meeting.
A panel of non-government experts also shared insights on strategies to help India achieve the goals outlined in the Make in India and Digital India initiatives. The statement spoke of broad agreement on the importance of policies to promote innovation in the ICT sector, facilitate the flow of data across borders, and foster the global and open nature of the Internet as a platform for economic growth.
leading the American side at the talks was Ambassador Daniel A Sepulveda, Coordinator for International Communications and Information Policy at the Department of State. The Indian side was led by RS Sharma, Secretary of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. In the course of discussions, India brought up its long-standing concerns over the H-1B visas affecting the mobility of skilled Indian professionals, while the American side raised concerns relating to equipment testing and certification in India. It was agreed that the two governments will continue to engage on these issues.
The joint government-and-industry discussions included panels on promoting manufacturing and investment, IT and telecom policy developments, Internet governance, mobility of skilled professionals and other issues related to trade, investment and the ease of doing business. In a video message to the conference, Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad invited American investments in a big way under the Digital India and Make in India programmes, remarking: “India today is a happening place.”