The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Swedish help sought to usher in e-governance in villages

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Sep 27, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Swedish help sought to usher in e-governance in villages

Special Correspondent

Agreement will be signed tomorrow for setting up a joint working group

CONSTRUCTIVE COOPERATION: Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran and his Swedish counterpart Ulrica Messing in Chennai on Monday. — Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

CHENNAI: : The Department of Information and Technology has sought the Swedish Government's technological expertise to take up e-governance in 100,000 villages by 2006.

A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed on Wednesday in New Delhi by Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran and Swedish Minister for Communications and Regional Policy Ulrica Messing for setting up a joint business working group to share ideas and technology expertise in e-governance, tele-medicine, and opening up more Business Process Outsourcing units in the software industry in India, especially in Chennai.

Addressing a press conference here on Monday after holding discussions with an eight-member Swedish delegation, Mr. Maran said the details of the Swedish model of e-governance had been sought so that the Indian Government could understand better the difficulties faced by Sweden.

The joint working group, Mr. Maran said, would help to further bilateral trade, especially in the small and medium sector.

The Department of Information and Technology had initiated a dialogue with multi-national companies engaged in information technology and IT- enabled services to move over to secondary cities so as to decongest the metropolitan cities. The Department had urged the States to create State-Wide Area Network funded by the Ministry with an outlay of Rs.3,300 crores.

"I am showcasing Chennai as one of the favoured destinations for the IT and ITES sectors. And with Chennai ranking fourth after Bangalore, Noida, Pune and Hyderabad, the Ministry is currently engaged in de-congesting the growth in the IT sector," Mr. Maran said.

Ms. Messing said this was her maiden visit to India. At a meeting on June 29, Mr. Maran had invited her to the country for exploring the possibilities of strengthening bilateral cooperation in communications and information technology.

The MoU would be an good example of the Indo-Swedish cooperation in the IT and telecom sectors, Ms. Messing said the joint working group would go a long way in furthering business ties. She would visit the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, the TIDEL Park, and some of the IT projects aimed at bridging the rural-urban digital divide, and Mamallapuram, before flying to New Delhi.

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