Wednesday, 10 March 2010 14:27
One of the two videos of the study visit of the African Delegates organised by CTA in the Indian provinces of Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal and Delhi from 29 November 2009 to 8 December.
Supported by the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), the ground-breaking initiative, whose theme is “Social and Economic Development using Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs)”, aimed at enhancing participants’ knowledge on how India has harnessed ICT to promote its overall growth.
The last day of the visit to India by a high-level Africa delegation concluded in New Delhi on December 8, 2009. The delegation not only acquired a first hand knowledge about ICT initiatives put in place by various provincial governments by visiting CSCs in the Indian provinces of Kerala, Karnataka and West Bengal, but also had an opportunity to interact with a wide range of policy makers, civil society leaders and officials of public and private enterprises, including those who spearhead the telecentre movement in the country.
The high-level African delegation, which is on its last leg of its India study visit, on Monday participated in seminar which deliberated upon the role of government in ICT for development. The seminar opened with the introductory remarks of Mr Koda Traoré, ICT4D Programme Coordinator, on behalf of Dr Hansjörg Neun, Director, Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA). In his address, Mr Traoré said that African Leaders, within the framework of the New Partnership of Development of Africa (NEPAD are in the process of harmonising their Policy and Regulatory Framework and are working toward investing in ICT infrastructure for better Governance and improved socio-economic performances.
The African delegation had a rare opportunity of listening to a foremost disaster management expert on Sunday, when Prof N Vinod Chandra Menon, member of India’s statutory National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) shared his views on exploiting advances in ICT for disaster communication.
The West Bengal leg of the study tour by the African delegation came to a conclusion on Saturday with an inspiring address by the state’s Panchayat and Rural Development Special Secretary Ranjit Kumar Maiti.
The high-level delegation from 14 African countries on Thursday visited two Common Service Centres (CSCs) in rural parts of Eastern Indian state of West Bengal.
The African delegation, which is on a study tour of India, spent its third day on Wednesday by studying e-governance activities in southern Indian province of Karnataka. During the day, the delegates visited an integrated citizen service centre in the provincial capital city of Bengaluru.
The high-level African delegation rounded off the first leg of their Indian visit – to the southern Indian state of Kerala – on Tuesday with a visit to an e-services centre located in the urban locality in Kozhikode city. Popularly known as FRIENDS, or Fast, Reliable, Instant and Efficient Network for Disbursement of Services, it is a one-stop integrated citizen service centre set up by the Government of Kerala.
igh-level African delegation to India commenced on Monday 30 November in Kozhikode in the southern Indian province of Kerala. The team comprising ICT professionals from 15 countries was briefed by Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) Director Mr. Rathan U Kelkar about tremendous progress made by the province in reaching the benefits of ICT technologies to people through a concerted effort. Currently, Kerala, which is one of the smaller provinces in India, has more than 2,200 Common Service Centres (CSCs) and these centres, set up through public-private partnerships offer a variety of services in wide spectrum of areas such as agriculture, e-governance, education, and e-payment. He said the provincial state government plans to increase the total number of centres to 3,150.