Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched the much talked about Digital India campaign.
Among those who attended the high profile event in Delhi were senior members of Modi’s cabinet and top businessmen including the Reliance chief Mukesh Ambani, Azim Premji of Wipro and Cyrus Mistry, the chairman of Tata Group.
Mukesh Ambani announced a new start-up fund, which will create affordable devices adding that the Reliance will invest Rs 250 crore generating more than five lakh jobs as part of the Digital India campaign.
He further added, ” Normally industry moves faster than government but with Digital India campaign the government had moved faster. Our PM’s vision of Digital India has the potential to transform the lives of 1.2 billion Indians.”
Mistry too expressed Tata’s commitment to Modi’s digital India push. He said that TCS was aiming to recruit more than 60,000 staff this year in addition to the 100,000 staff who are already working in the company.
Mistry said, ” I commit Tata Group’s wholehearted participation to make this a century of India innovation.”
Premji said that digital empowerment of citizen was the need of the hour adding that it was critical to ensure the access for common people to basic services such as education, healthcare and governance at their doorsteps.
He said, ” This will democratize interactions between citizens and the government.The vision of PM for Digital India is a very powerful one. It is a first step forward to empower citizens with technology.”
Digital India week is a part of Indian government’s effort to reinvigorate an $18 billion campaign to provide fast Internet connections for all, with a “digital week” aimed at popularizing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign promise to connect 250,000 villages in India by 2019.