While delivering his inaugural address, on the first day of the two-day India Internet Conference (IIC) 2017 on the theme ‘Digital India 4 Sustainable Development’ organized by FICCI in association with the Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY), Government of India, PP Chaudhary, Minister of State, Ministry Law & Justice, Electronics & Information Technology, launched ‘FICCI-Indian Language Internet Alliance (FICCI-ILIA) and released its logo.
FICCI, along with founding member Google and other industry stakeholders, have created this initiative. The focus of this alliance is to bring multiple stakeholders of the industry on one platform to facilitate partnerships that help in development of local language content of internet in India. The Minister said that in the last two years, there has been a three-fold increase in the number of e-transactions and the government was aiming to connect 90 percent of India with internet services by 2018. He added that it was important to leverage technology to enhance quality of education and healthcare,
Chaudhary said that Internet could help in making quality education and healthcare accessible to the last mile and content in Indic languages could be a game changer. Highlighting the importance of cyber security,
Dr. Gulshan Rai, National Cyber Security Co-ordinator, NSCS, Government of India, said that the Government of India had approved the cyber security framework.
However, he added that though security plans were in place there was a need for active implementation of these to leverage technology and tackle with security issues. He added that sector requires IT infrastructure and the industry should play a responsible role.
Malcolm Johnson, deputy Secretary-General, ITU, said that across the globe less than half the population was connected digitally and this was due to lack of awareness about the benefits of Internet, lack of regional and relevant content and affordability. He added that there was a need to develop products with international standards to enter the global market. He added that standards should also be laid down to enable interoperability in banking sector.
Pankaj Patel, president, FICCI, said that with the dream of 'Transforming India' to a ‘New India’, the Government of India has already launched several key initiatives aiming for transformation of India into an empowered and knowledge-based society.
He said that FICCI along with Google India and other industry members are launching FICCI India Language Internet Alliance. Recognizing the immense potential and benefits of local language content, for the new set of users coming online, this alliance will focus on enhancing content and establishing standards across country. He added that ‘India Internet Conference 2017’ and ‘FICCI-ILIA’ will be significant milestones for the industry from which we will be able to continue this journey and build up its momentum to support Indian ICT sector.
Virat Bhatia, chairman, ICT & Digital Economy Committee, FICCI, said that FICCI’s ICT and Digital Economy Committee have established India Internet Conference 2017 as a global platform for the industry and government to unite, collaborate, and discuss the policies, current trends, and global best practices of the ICT sector.
He added that together industry and government must utilize the internet and ICTs as socio-economic tools for development, resonating with sustainable development goals set by United Nations in their Agenda 2030.
Anant Goenka, executive director, The Express Group, said that with huge influx of data and content, the onus was on the readers to proactively make choices of what kind of content they were accessing. He added that with local languages being incorporated in the digital sphere, the number of consumers was bound to grow.
Indic Internet
With improved connectivity and growing proliferation of smartphones in the country, India is expected to have over 650 million Indians connected to the Internet by 2020. There is an urgent need to make the internet content more useful for Indians, many of whom do not speak English. FICCI along with Google India is setting up the Indian Language Internet Alliance under FICCI. FICCI-ILIA will further proliferate Indian language Internet.
As FICCI-ILIA we aim to work with stakeholders across government, publishers and technology companies, to achieve the shared vision of furthering Indic internet. Our immediate mandate is to:
● Build capacities of Indic publishing ecosystem
● Work towards establishing standards across industry for input and discoverability
● Create a framework to support innovations in Indic ecosystem
● Awareness building about the benefits of incorporating local languages content on Internet.
