e-Naga Summit aims to make Nagaland the next IT hub

[caption id="attachment_220923" align="alignnone" width="550"] State governor PB Acharya along with other dignitaries during the fourth e-Naga Summit 2018 in Kohima on November 30. (EM Images)[/caption] Kohima, Nov. 30 (EMN): The fourth edition of e-Naga Summit 2018 in collaboration with the e-Governance Academy of Estonia was held at the NBCC Convention Centre, Kohima, on November 30 on the theme ‘Building information technology (IT) infrastructure to make the state of Nagaland the next IT hub of South-East Asia.’ On the occasion, a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between the e-Governance Academy of Estonia and e-Governance Academy of Nagaland. The memorandum was signed by Arvo Ott representing the former and KD Vizo, state commissioner and secretary, marking the first of its kind in the country. It aimed at catering to the needs to all the Northeast states as well as to the neighbouring countries like Bhutan, Nepal, and Myanmar etc. In his welcome and keynote address, Mmhonlumo Kikon, advisor of Information Technology and Communication (IT and C), announced that “the world is now looking up to India to drive the global economic growth adding India is looking towards east to open eastern corridors towards South East Asia to promote economic growth. He stated that the state government is fully aware to make Nagaland as the ‘next IT hub in the South East Asia’ at the right time through extensive use of e-governance and ICT based technologies. He stated that the department has a vision to take care of variety of important issues such as encouraging employment of youth, entrepreneurship, poverty elevation, promotion of higher education, and such. “A national or regional progress depends upon how its people think and how their thoughts are transformed into actions. Now it is time for every state to think and allow the young minds to blossom with full confidence to compete with the rest of the country in all spheres of human development,” said Kikon. He added that the youths of Nagaland can be the innovators, creators, builders, and leaders of the future with the right kind of policies in place. Kikon was positive that Nagaland will also join the rest of India to enjoy the benefits of ‘IT industrial revolution.’ He said the state government is doing every possible means to meet the changes of times and to modernise the state through IT intervention. “Some of our efforts are already bearing fruits and recognised even during the recent North East Techno Sabha Awards 2018,” he eulogised. According to Kikon, the department of IT and C is currently playing a key role to transform Nagaland into a modern state by way of improving transparency, efficiency, and ensuring cost-effective public service delivery to citizens. He said that the state of Nagaland has already brought out its own vision. In his inaugural speech, state governor PB Acharya expressed his contentment towards the resource persons who were present to enlighten the people about e- governance models prevailing elsewhere in the world and to help motivate to adopt the digital technology wherever it is feasible. “The world today is depending on information technology for easier access to information and services. The e-Naga Summit can be the right platform in bringing together experts in the IT field from different countries, industries, central and state government officials, and through them (resource persons). “The state can build a knowledge based society which would ultimately help in providing good governance,” assured Acharya. According to him, young people can not only be innovators and creators, but be the leaders of the future if they acquire right kind of skills and equip themselves to take up the opportunities for job and wealth creation. He was of the view that with the right policies in place and through extensive investments in human capital, one could empower young people to drive socio-economic development and increase capabilities for wealth creation to the society and state. “We must invest in skill development of youths in order to realise their full potential and also to make an effort to bring them back to make their state economically strong,” he asserted. “Entrepreneurship is the need of the hour and our graduates coming out of the Universities should be entrepreneurs with the financial backing from Mudra Bank,” he suggested. Furthermore, he said that the government of India is extending all required help to the IT industry, even to the extent of bringing out a separate ‘Digital India policy.’ “The government of Nagaland will also be providing all required support to meet the challenges of changing times,” he added. Acharya affirmed that during his last two years of his initiative, Raj Bhavan has been able to introduce 32 schools with e-learning with support from Wockchart, a company from Mumbai. The event was divided into two sessions. The first session focused about ‘policy making – government role in building effective IT infrastructure’ while the second session was about ‘IT services, artificial intelligence (AI), energy conservation, smart city, and security of citizens.’ In the first session, special advisor to United Nations University, Portugal, Sara Fernandes spoke on the topic ‘e-government and smart city.’ She stated that the ultimate goal of the digital government was to establish its presence in the digital world and to improve the internal spacing. Arvo Ott spoke on the topic ‘e-government coordination and policy making; while joint secretary of department of Development of North Eastern Region, SN Pradhan, elaborated about ‘government initiative for promotion of technology in Northeast region;’ and programme director of e-Governance Academy Estonia, Annela Kiirats, spoke about ‘identity management and e-government services.’