Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will address the ‘Digital Bharat’ conference on Thursday at FICCI Federation House.
The objectives of the conference include the acceleration of investments by enabling a faster buildout of India’s digital infrastructure through exchange of ideas, unlocking the potential of India’s ICT sector by turning ideas into action and using innovation in business and technologies to engage investors, influencers and policy makers.
‘Digital House’ aims to maximise the impact of the discussion by collaborating across the digital economy sector and stakeholders, by taking innovative solutions to the ICT space to advance the “Digital India” and “Make in India” programmes.
A parliamentarians’ panel will discuss whether the “Next Generation Politicians are ready for a Digitally Empowered India?” Those speaking at the session include BJP’s Meenakshi Lekhi, BJD’s Jay Panda, INC’s Manish Tewari and JD(U) leader Pavan Kumar Varma. In addition, BJP’s National Technology head Arvind Gupta, Trai chairman Rahul Khullar, who retired on Wednesday, DoT secretary Rakesh Garg and several senior DoT officials.
The conference will see four plenaries chaired by senior government officials and the BJP Technology head. These are: “Broadband Access: Connecting the Next Billion”; “Driving Digital Infrastructure through Make in India”; “M2M at the Heart of Digital India”; and “Expanding the Net Neutrality Debate”.
‘Digital Bharat’ is expected to be attended by nearly 200 delegates representing business, industry associations and the government.
The conference will also see speakers form Vodafone, Ericsson, Cisco, Google, Idea, Tata Power, EY, Accenture, Hughes, Nasscom, USIBC, CMAI, COAI, Auspi, IAMAI, C-DOT, NIXI and ICA.
EY will release a report titled “Speeding Ahead on the Telecom and Digital Economy Highway” at the conference.
The Financial Express, US-India Business Council and Electronics India are supporting the conference.