Digital India Week faces its first technical glitch

CHANDIGARH: On Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the launch of the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) at the IGI Stadium, New Delhi, embarking on the Digital India Week from July 1 to 7. Panchayat members of village Dariya were a part of the proceedings of the event through a video conference arranged in the computer laboratory of the Government High School, Dariya.
Narendra Modi was expected to have a one-on-one conversation with the sarpanch and other panchayat members of the village via streaming 3D holographic video, showcasing the strength of the high-speed optical fibre internet connectivity at the gram panchayat level. But due to 'technical glitches', this did not happen. "The panchayat had invested around Rs50,000-60,000 in the preparations. A Delhi-based company, Encompass, had been deployed by officials of IGI Stadium to arrange the preparation for the 3-D holographic video, but the desired high definition video was not getting transmitted to Delhi, and the plan had to be dropped," said Gurpreet Singh, the village sarpanch.
The Department of Information Technology, Chandigarh Administration, as a nodal department had ensured that the optical fibre under this project was successfully laid across all the 12 gram panchayats of Chandigarh. The irony of the situation was not lost on anyone. The digital quality of the holographic image could not be reproduced at Delhi, even as this grand event marked the onset of the Digital India Programme.
Shinghara Singh, chairman, panchayat committee, UT, emphasized on PM Modi's vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. He said: "The educated and digitally empowered youth of our village are able to go to big cities and foreign countries, and with this, they will be able to communicate efficiently with people in the village. Our village panchayat too will now be able to communicate with panchayats across India, and discuss issues and solutions. People who understand this technology will have immense advantages."
The Chandigarh Administration has planned several key events during this week, which include launch of e-Stamping that will provide a hassle-free electronically generated stamp paper; e-Education that will enable online admission into colleges; and e-Communication during the academic session will take place through mobile applications. "The inauguration function was of one day, but we will celebrate the Digital India Week in our village by organizing several small functions like computer classes in schools and digital literacy programmes," said the sarpanch.
During the week, workshops on information security and education awareness will be held at government schools, digital lockers will be opened for city residents that would enable citizens to store e-documents, and also sign and share them digitally. To ease the pressure on the Registration and Licensing Authority (RLA), an app will be launched that will enable citizens to get information of services provided at RLA, like RC details, licence details, related procedures, signs and symbols, tax calculator etc). Village residents are seeing this as a major leap for their village in terms of information technology. "This initiative is a turning point in the lives of our youth, especially students, as they will get more facilities and exposure," said Urmil, a teacher in Government High School, Dariya.