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Digital Edge
Goa
launches broadband network programme
Indiantelevision.com
Team
(27 December 2007 9:00 pm)
NEW DELHI: Goa has launched a broadband
network programme to connect all state government
offices up to the taluka level, later going
on to every village and household at immense
speeds.
The
project was launched by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh, who said the project was bridging
the digital divide in the State and driving
the economy.
Singh
noted that ‘to begin with, it will enable
a large number of government service functions
to be delivered on-line. This will make government
processes citizen friendly. By the end of
next year, as the lines reach each and every
home, there would be tremendous service opportunities
in new fields such as healthcare, education
and employment’.
He noted that Goa would be in a position to
provide long distance computer based education
and emergency and diagnostic healthcare facilities.
People would be able to work out of their
homes and the state could see an explosion
of knowledge based employment in call centres,
BPO centres and online services. The entire
state could benefit from low cost access to
internet telephony and video-conferencing
facilities.
Dr Singh expressed satisfaction that this
was being done on a public-private partnership
model based on a viable business model. ‘As
the programme scales up from the 10 Citizen
Service Centres today to over 200 by the end
of next year, it will generate substantial
revenues which will meet a major portion of
the costs. This is important in two ways.
Firstly, it leverages private investment for
public IT infrastructure. Secondly, the importance
of generating revenues will be an incentive
for developing innovative services which meet
the needs of users. Often, it has been the
low utility value of user-services that has
led to the under-utilisation of large government
investments in technologies of this type.
I hope the PPP model here will avoid falling
into this trap and will constantly support
innovation in user services’, he added.
