From tackling inflation to women's safety: What Modi will do with IT, according to BJP manifesto

With Dalal Street riding high on the prospect of an imminent Modi sarkaar here’s a look at what reforms the BJP-led NDA government wishes to bring about with Information Technology and what the ICT sector can look forward to if it comes to power.

Going by the manifesto, there are ambitious plans to curb inflation using IT by disseminating real-time data, especially to farmers - on production, prices, imports, stocks and overall availability. IT can help enable job creation and promote entrepreneurship too. Narendra Modi has been a vociferous proponent of Gujarat’s e-governance model and he would want to propagate it throughout the country if he comes to power. Countries around the world seem to be following this example with Senegal coming up last year wanting to set up a similar e-governance model for simplifying administrative procedures. On a national level, digitisation of Government records, for them, is top priority and they will want to focus on increasing the penetration and usage of broadband, especially in the rural areas. (Will the much delayed National Broadband Initiative see the light of day?)
[caption id=“attachment_83898” align=“alignleft” width=“640”]  Narendra Modi. Reuters[/caption]
The education sector can look forward to digital learning and training and schools being e-enabled. E-learning and at-home schooling will be made available to differently-abled students, claims the manifesto. Healthcare is also set to get a dose of IT - BJP plans to pursue a mission mode project under the ‘National Rural Internet and Technology Mission’ for use of telemedicine and mobile healthcare for rural healthcare delivery; use of IT for agriculture for real time information; Self Help Groups; retail trade and SMEs; and rural entrepreneurs, etc.
It also promises to promote open source and open standard software, promote mobile and e-banking for financial inclusion and set up IT driven projects for women entrepreneurs and SME infrastructure for women.

They also wish to facilitate setting up of software and hardware manufacturing units and work with the State governments to usher in the GST - something that IT companies have been looking forward to.

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In the agenda is mentioned a plan to set up a National Optical-Fibre Network up to the village level; and Wi-Fi zones in public areas and set up High-speed digital highways to unite the nation. There are also promises to set an institute of Big data and Analytics for studying the impact of big data across sectors for predictive science. Modi has underlined the need to develop an information highway through ICT to achieve the goal of “One Nation, One Vision and One Mission”. He said at a business awards function that only IT sector can “lift” up the nation to an all-round development and inclusive growth with a focus on tapping the fullest potential of the country especially youth and women. As far as setting Wi-Fi zones is concerned, the project has some activity with Modi announcing Wi-Fi hotspots in eight localities of Ahmedabad as part of Gujarat’s ’e-Nagar’ project, under which subsequently 53 towns in Gujarat will be covered in the long run.

While it is becoming clearer by the hour that the NDA is set for a landslide victory, the real test will be Narendra Modi’s - to deliver what he has promised to the nation.