Vice President Naidu Calls Upon Govts, IT Professionals To Work Towards Bridging Language Digital Divide

Bhopal: If the benefit of digital technology and e-governance is to reach the last man, it has to be in Indian languages, said Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu on Saturday. He was addressing students and teachers of Pandit Dwarka Prasad Mishra Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design & Manufacturing (PDPM IIITDM), Jabalpur.

He said youngsters should come up with ideas on best usage of technology for easing people’s lives and bring transparency in governance. Naidu called for sustained efforts to increase digital literacy with special focus at the school and college level.

Naidu underlined the need of creating more digital content in Indian languages for social good. He urged the students and academia to work for creating more digital content in Indian languages, terming it as their ‘Digital Social Responsibility’ towards the society and nation, report various media organisations.

He expressed concern over low levels of digital literacy, especially in rural parts of the country. “We should gradually move towards education and research in (our) mother tongue,” he said.

Currently, most digital content is in English, he said.

“However, a KPMG report suggested that nine out of every 10 new internet users in India are likely to be Indian language users,” he said.

“Therefore, I call upon governments, private sector, professionals and the academic institutions like IIITDM to work towards bridging this language digital divide,” he said.

“The Bharatnet project was launched with an aim to connect each and every Gram Panchayat with high speed broadband. Under this program, over four lakh kilometers of Optical Fiber Cables (OFCs) have been laid in close to 1.5 lakh Gram Panchayats. The OFC has been connected and equipment has been installed in 1.35 lakh Gram Panchayats,” he said.

“This last mile digital connectivity will be crucial in delivery of e-governance and online services,” he said.