Rural India is hungry for digital tools
First e-Naga Summit was organized on 27th of May, 2015, in Kohima, Nagaland.
Internet is directly connected to the economy of the state and country. It is opening new doors by way of revolutionizing access to information and knowledge. And awareness is enabling re-orientation in the thinking process.
Hence, aspirations of the youth are changing in Nagaland. But there are many hurdles that are restricting the way forward, such as-
- Basic internet infrastructure
- Big companies do not want to come because of instable political situation.
- E-commerce is still not considered to be a serious industry.
- Lack of skillful human resource.
However, Nagaland also has many advantages, such as-
- High literacy rate
- Strong English speaking young population
The e-Naga Summit was held to address the shortfalls and leverage on advantages from four perspectives-
- The role of quality technical institutes in building solid foundation for the growth of IT in North-Eastern Region.
- The challenges and opportunities for Entrepreneurs in NE Region- Special focus on empowering Women through IT & e-governance.
- Creating infrastructure and nurturing an efficient IT Ecosystem for promotion of investment in NE Region.
- Can North-East become the next BPO hub of the world?
North-East has the potential of being the next IT hub. But there are not enough technical institutes based in this region. And that is not providing enough impetus to the young population to consider IT as a serious career option. Besides, 70% of North-East resides in the villages. Hence, it is important to digitally empower people at the grassroots level.
The trend in entrepreneurship the world over is inclined towards IT. The success stories such as Facebook and Flipkart have re-written the dynamics in the way entrepreneurship is being perceived.
Women are the driving force of North-East. Hence, they need to be drawn towards entrepreneurship. And this could only be aided by digital literacy. Common Service Centers (CSE) are already working towards empowering women. But there other social models as well that can be adopted to expedite this process. Digital Empowerment Foundation has over 170 Community Information Resource Centers (CIRCs) across the country, which are working as incubation and training centers to digitally empower grassroots communities. And women are especially benefiting from these centers. This model can be adopted in Nagaland.
Another social model that can be adopted is Wireless for Community (W4C).
W4C helped the weaving clusters in Chanderi go online and improve the sales of their products through e-commerce.
Development is directly proportional to IT. A ‘Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)’ was signed between Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) and Department of Information Technology & Communication to start a Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) in Dimapur to facilitate in augmenting employment in the state.
The dream of making Nagaland the land of e-governance has begun.
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