Dated October 25, 2002
The Hindu Business Line - Online Edition

The Union Communications Minister, Shri. Pramod Mahajan launched the "Simputer", India's indigenously developed low-cost handheld personal computer for the European market at the India Pavilion at SMAU 2002 in Milan.

According to an official statement, the Minister also met the Italian Minister for Innovation and Technology, Dr. Lucio Stanca, where both the Ministers agreed to identify key deliverables in the areas of eGovernance to strengthen cooperation in information technology.

During the course of the discussions, Shri. Mahajan highlighted the initiatives undertaken by the Government of India to facilitate eGovernance in the country.

The stamps registration software developed by C-DAC involved BOT model where the Government had least investment, limited only to sponsoring development, whereas private entrepreneurs invested in capital at the sub-registrar offices across the states, managed the registration operation offering an efficient service of registering a stamped document in less than 25 minutes using the software developed by C-DAC.

The Minister touched upon the Community Information Centre initiative by the Department of Information Technology in the North-eastern region to highlight the Government's efforts in reaching out to the people in far flung areas.

Shri. Mahajan also gave an in-depth overview of the policy initiative of the Government to bridge the digital divide by promoting value-added accessibility and services to the people in the IT and telecom sector. He also touched upon the initiatives of the Government, focusing on the Information Technology Act passed by Parliament, which legalized the electronic transaction process in India.

The statement notes that areas identified for cooperation in the ICT sector has been mainly due to recent initiatives taken by Italy in the sector. The current re-structuring of Italian business is greatly impacting the development of the market. Italian companies are increasingly investing in ICT technologies, which are recognized as a means of strategic innovation in order to implement business process re-engineering, improve communications and expand clientele, information systems are being upgraded or substituted in order to adopt the most innovative solutions from networking and Internet/Intranet based applications to eCommerce applications.