How emerging technology can be used for effective e-governance
The Express Governance Series Jammu, placed the spotlight on emerging technologies such as cloud, big data and analytics for enabling new wave of innovation in e-governance
The first edition of Express Governance Series Jammu organised by Express Computer magazine in partnership with Microsoft, kicked off with a keynote address from Dr Pawan Kotwal, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Government of Jammu & Kashmir. Technology has changed the way things used to happen. It is an enabler of creating newer citizen centric service opportunities for the governments – this was the resounding message of Kotwal’s speech. “Combination of technology and human resources must be nurture to improve the living of the people in the country. And, better understanding and integration of emerging technologies such as cloud, virtulisation, analytics and last mile connectivity allow us to do that,” Kotwal said.
A major attraction at the event was the Microsoft demonstration of the functionalities of the Lumia smartphone. The representative from Microsoft informed that the Lumia has eliminated the complexity with its simplified model that offer something for everyone. The delegates from different department of state government asked many questions from the battery capacity to camera quality to the comparison with its nearest rival.
While speaking about the role of emerging technology such as cloud in driving productivity in government department, Sourabh Ratta, Technology Solution Specialist, Microsoft presented the broad overview of Microsoft offering and commitment to offer secure and robust cloud services for the government organisations. Emphasising on the criticality of data security, he said “We pay highest attention to data security and any data in Microsoft cloud is in safe and secure hand.”
On the other hand, Vikram Malhotra, Technology Specialist, Microsoft, informed the audience about the importance of visualization and analytics with his insightful presentation. He said, “It is important to understand the data centre. What data are there? What is important for you? How you can analyse the data for bringing more value and business to your organisation and how government organisation can use it for improving their efficiency?”
The event also hosted a power panel discussion moderated by Mohd Ujaley, Principal Correspondent, Express Computer on the topic of “Emerging Technology for Effective e-Governance”. The panel discussion saw the the participation of senior government officials including Amit Sharma, Managing Director, SIDCO; Saadut Hussain, CEO, JaKeGA; Vikram Malhotra, Technology Specialist, Microsoft. The discussion was
The panelist focused on the role of emerging technology, challenge of last mile connectivity and present status of e-governance projects. Vikram Malhotra of Microsoft was of the view that cloud, virtulisation and last mile connectivity has potential to disrupt the e-governance space in the country. “Along with emerging technologies, last mile connectivity is the key for the success of e-governance programme across the country. Agreeing with Malhotra, Amit Sharma, MD, SIDCO said that the Government of Jammu & Kashmir has taken many steps in last few years to improve the overall status of use of information technology in governance. He added that although state has been little late compare to states like Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, but now has late-comer advantage of adopting already tested technology. Presenting the view of JaKeGA, Saadut Hussain, CEO, JaKeGa said state is heavily focusing on the utlisation of technology in all the departments.
The conference also witnessed the presentation from Kavitha Babu, Sr. Attorney, Microsoft. She spoke on the topic of “Trusted Cloud for Government”. She highlighted different dimension of security and privacy and how Microsoft is ensuring for its clients including government organisations.
