[kictanet] PRESIDENTS ADDRESS AT THE INAUGURATION OF COMMONWEALTH CONNECTS: INTERNATIONAL E-PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT, 23RD MARCH 2007, NEW DELHI

[Harry Hare]

Dear Colleagues, 
 
Below is President Dr Abdul Kalami's speech when inaugurating the first
commonwealth connects International ePartnership Summit in New Delhi India
last Friday. It is important to note that the President did not just read
his speech, but he used a PowerPoint presentation to visualize his ideas. It
was quite a trip for those who were there.
 
Kindest Regards
Harry  

 
PRESIDENTS ADDRESS AT THE INAUGURATION OF COMMONWEALTH CONNECTS:
INTERNATIONAL E-PARTNERSHIP SUMMIT, NEW DELHI 
  _____  


 
 
 

Following is the text of the President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalami's Address at
the Inauguration of Commonwealth Connects: International E-Partnership
Summit here today: Evolution of Commonwealth Knowledge Grid "Connectivity
enriches the societies"
 
I am indeed delighted to participate in the inauguration of Commonwealth
Connects: International e-Partnership Summit. I am happy that the summit is
aiming to promote effective global partnerships between public and private
sectors in developing and implementing strategies which will bridge the
digital divide across the 53 countries of the Commonwealth. My greetings to
the ICT Ministers of the Commonwealth, CEOs, Managing Directors, Government
Officials and Senior Representatives from Civil Society. Today when I am
with you, I would like to share with you some of the Indian experience in
connectivity for achieving the societal transformation. This along with the
experiences of other participating Commonwealth countries can lead to
evolution of a multi-lateral connectivity between and among nations. Hence,
I would like to discuss with you on the topic "Evolution of Commonwealth
Knowledge Grid". 
 
Broadband economy for prosperity
 
The telecom revolution in India has opened multiple windows of opportunities
and the benefits of this revolution are in the process of percolating to the
vast majority of our villages. It is through this network that people living
in the villages would be able to access modern education, healthcare
services and employment opportunities. And I believe, this would be true for
many countries in the Commonwealth spectrum. Broadband connectivity is key
to realizing the stated socio-economic goals. Large scale utilization of
local languages would enable people of the Commonwealth to create content
with ease and authenticity which, when shared, would have a positive effect
in the growth of economy of all the countries of Commonwealth through the
benefits of telecom revolution and related Internet and multimedia tools. 
 
Bandwidth is demolisher of imbalance: The bandwidth is the demolisher of
imbalances and a great leveler in the knowledge society. Making the
bandwidth available is like the Government laying the roads. Movement of
materials through these roads creates wealth in the industrial economy and
the government recovers more than the investment on the roads by way of
taxes and enhanced prosperity to its people. In the modern digital economy
driven by knowledge products, bits and bytes traverse the network and create
wealth and this will recover the cost of investments in the bandwidth. Thus,
a singular action of making the bandwidth available to all our people will
bridge the perceived divide. The free bandwidth will make economic sense if
we appropriately cost the services offered using the bandwidth. We have the
fiber infrastructure ready up to block level, last mile wireless
technologies are being implemented and the VSAT technologies for the
unreachable are in place in the form of Satellite services. Hence, we are
well on course to bridge the digital gap. We are in the midst of convergence
of digital technologies. 
 
The total installed bandwidth capacity in India, is in the range of 19-20
Terra bytes and lit-up capacity is progressively increasing with enhanced
economic activity. 
 
Empowerment through Connectivity
 
The total land area of India is around 3.3 million square kilometers with
7000 kilometers of coast line. The entire area is spread into deserts,
hilltops, mountains, sea shores, islands, valleys and plains. Out of the
billion plus population in the country 70% live in six hundred thousand
villages. We are in the process of a societal transformation towards
sustainable development for our growth. This we propose to realize in a time
bound manner through a knowledge society for empowering the entire nation.
Electronic and knowledge connectivity is the key to realize this goal.
Connecting a billion people gives multiple challenges. Now, I would like to
discuss about societal transformation. 
 
In the proposed model, the inter-connectivity among the three sectors of the
economy is brought about by four grids: namely, Knowledge Grid, Health Grid,
e-Governance Grid and the Rural Grid,. Each grid is a system of multiple
portals. This system of grid will bring prosperity to 700 million people in
the rural areas and 300 million plus people in the urban areas. In the
process, it will ensure that the lives of 220 million people are transformed
from below the poverty line. First let me discuss about knowledge grid.
 
Knowledge Grid
 
The endeavor is indeed to build and transform an information society into a
knowledge society. The knowledge society will be a society producing,
marketing and using products and services that are rich in both explicit and
tacit knowledge, thus creating value-added products for national and
international consumption. In the knowledge economy, the objective of a
society changes from fulfilling the basic needs of all-round development to
empowerment. The education system instead of going by textbook teaching will
be promoted by creative, interactive self learning ? formal and informal
with focus on values, merit and quality. The workers instead of being
skilled or semi-skilled will be knowledgeable, self- empowered and flexibly
skilled. We have rich knowledge institutions but what we have to add is
connectivity. This connectivity today is technologically possible but would
need creation of high bandwidth reliable network infrastructure to the
extent of minimum 10 Gigabits per second all through the country to provide
uniform access of knowledge in different regions leading to the creation of
Knowledge GRID. Now, I would like to discuss on establishing the next
network in the system of GRIDs across the country, namely Health Grid. 
 
Health Grid
 
The mission of telemedicine with healthcare Grid is gaining momentum and it
will spread to all the equipped Primary Health Centres in the country,
medical colleges and research institutions. Connectivity between 35 urban
super-specialty hospitals with 165 remotely located Healthcare Centres has
been established through Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
telemedicine grid. This will enable unique case studies and experiences to
be exchanged between the super specialists through this health grid. It will
also be possible to conduct Conferences of specialist doctors from multi
centers to discuss the critical disease patterns and provide treatment. Now
I would like to take up e-Governance Grid.
 
Connectivity for E-Governance
 
Good governance is being recognized as an important goal by many countries
across the world. They have taken up specific initiatives for open and
transparent governance. Freedom of information is being redefined and
supported by detailed guidelines. The internet revolution has proved to be a
powerful tool for good governance initiatives. An important dimension of the
internet potential is the possibility of providing services any time
anywhere. Along with this there is a conscious effort to put the citizen as
the centre of focus of the governance. Citizens are being perceived as
customers and clients. E-governance has to be citizen friendly. Delivery of
services to citizens is considered as a primary function of the government.
Particularly in a democratic nation of a billion people like India,
e-Governance should enable seamless access to information and seamless flow
of information across the state and central government in the federal setup
crossing the inter-departmental barriers. 
 
Typical scenario: I visualize an election scenario, where a candidate files
his nomination from a particular constituency. Immediately the election
officer verifies his/her authenticity from the national citizen ID database
through multifactor authentication, through a multipurpose Citizen ID card.
 
The education credentials of the candidate come from the university records.
Candidate's track record of employment comes from various employers with
whom the candidate had worked. His or her income and wealth resources come
from the income-tax department, and other sources. Candidate's property
record comes from the registration of land authority across the country.
Candidate's credit history comes form various credit institutions like
banks. Candidate's civic consciousness and citizenship behaviour comes from
the police crime record. 
 
Candidate's legal track records come from the judicial system. 
 
All the details arrive at the computer terminal of the election officer
within few seconds automatically by the act of e-Governance software agents
which crawls across the various state and central government web services
directories through the network GRID and collects the information
automatically and presents the facts in real-time without any bias.
Artificial intelligence software analyses the credentials of the candidate
and gives a rating on how successful he or she will be as a politician.
Election officer sitting at the remote block of the country decides on the
spot and the election process starts. All the voters vote from their home
through virtual polling booths. If we consider the breakthroughs and
expansion in telecommunication and internet in the last five years, this
visualization is no longer a dream and is possible to be achieved by many
nations. 
 
To establish a system what I have visualized, we need a high bandwidth
broadband connectivity across the many Government departments such as State
and District Administration, Election commission, Universities, Banks,
Home/Police Departments, Insurance companies etc., This scenario requires
vertical and horizontal e-Governance grid established across various
institutions and the Government. Hence, we can draw information and feed
information from these GRIDs for seamless flow of data to achieve the goal
of good governance. Now let me discuss the significance of the sustainable
development through establishing Rural Grid. 
 
Rural Grid
 
India with six hundred thousand villages and seven hundred million people
living in the rural areas needs an unique rural development model called
PURA. PURA envisages provision of three connectivities namely physical
connectivity, electronic connectivity and knowledge connectivity leading to
economic connectivity. For providing the knowledge connectivity to the PURA
(Providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) complexes, Village Knowledge
Centers will act as frontline delivery system. The Village Knowledge Centre
should provide the essential data required for the targeted population such
as farmers, fishermen, craftsmen, traders, businessmen, entrepreneurs,
unemployed youth and the students. Now the Ministry of Communication and
Information Technology is in the process of establishing 100,000 Common
Service Centre (CSC?s) across the country through public-private partnership
model. 
 
We have so far discussed all the four connectivities at the national level
required for the societal transformation leading to empowerment. Now, I
would like to share with you the experience of establishing a Pan African
e-Network for providing connectivity among 53 African nations. 
 
Pan African e-Network
 
During the year 2003-04, I visited African countries such as Sudan,
Tanzania, Zanzibar and South Africa. I addressed the Pan African Parliament
on 16 Sept 2004, at Johannesburg, South Africa which was attended by Heads
of 53 member countries of the African Union. Based on my study of the
communication, healthcare and education needs of the African countries, I
proposed the concept of Pan African e-Network for providing seamless and
integrated satellite, fiber optics and wireless network connecting 53
African countries. 
 
The Pan-African e-Network project is estimated to cost around US$100
million. As part of the project 12 universities (7 from India and 5 from
Africa), 17 Super Specialty Hospitals (12 from India and 5 from Africa), 53
tele-medicine centers and 53 tele-education centres in Africa will be
connected. The pilot project on tele-education and tele-medicine in Ethiopia
has already been commissioned. One of our Indian Universities has taken up
the MBA Course for 34 Ethiopian students of Addis Ababa and Harmaya
Universities. As regards, tele-medicine, the specialists from CARE Hospital,
Hyderabad are providing one-hour live tele-consultation to doctors in Black
Lion Hospital, Addis Ababa in Cardiology and Radiology since November 2006.
The Pan African e-Network will primarily provide Tele-Education,
Tele-Medicine, Internet, videoconferencing and VOIP services. It also
supports e-Governance, e-Commerce, infotainment, resource mapping and
meteorological services. Each remote location will be able to access the
Internet through the network by linking the HUB to Internet backbone. Using
this network the Heads of the State in all the 53 countries will be
connected for instant communication. The network is designed to have 169
terminals and a central hub to deliver tele-education and tele-medicine
services. The proposed network will utilize state-of-the-art technology and
can be integrated with the latest broadband technologies like Wi-Fi and
Wi-Max. The network is scalable to support different applications catering
to increased number of users. I am happy to inform you that 22 countries
will be connected in the first half of 2007 and the rest will be
operationalized by early 2008. 
 
RB Multimedia Studio
 
Now, I would like to share with you another experience when I delivered 2006
Phillip Tobias Lecture on 27th September 2006 from Rashtrapati Bhavan
Multimedia studio using Multimedia tele-conferencing. After the lecture, I
was interacting with Prof Tobias and his team at Durban, Johannesburg in
South Africa and Sanfrancisco in USA. This experience made me realize the
power of technology as an integrator of minds leading to a borderless world
without geographical barriers ? a symbol of universalisation. Based on these
interactions, I have suggested one of our leading scientific institutions to
collaborate with specialists in South Africa in Anthropology for promoting
conservation of certain types of endangered species. 
 
I am sure many Commonwealth countries participating in today?s summit have
several experiences to share and Commonwealth connects programme can
formulate a plan to integrate the core-competence of nations for mutual
benefit. This power of networking can definitely be used by Commonwealth
countries for sharing their core competencies and building a knowledge
platform for serving the development aspirations of the individual nations
through collective wisdom. 
Suggestions
 
I would like to give few suggestions for the consideration of the
Commonwealth Connects 2007: International e-Partnership Summit.

1. Evolving guidelines for common telecommunication policy to share
resources, network, infrastructure, without any barrier and facilitate
implementation through a Commonwealth co-ordination centre.

2. Evolving guidelines for Common Information Security policy in IT. 
 
3. Modernizing education through state of the art skill development
programmes among the Commonwealth nations leading to skill certification and
acceptance among the countries for global employment opportunities. 
 
4. Undertaking study of e-governance implementations across the Commonwealth
nations and suggest the best practices for the G2G and G2C implementations. 
 
5. Creating a mechanism which will facilitate pooling of core competence of
nations for developing knowledge products and systems for serving the global
market in education, healthcare and e- governance. 

6. Identifying gaps in educational standards of IT professionals in the
Global business scenario in IT, ITES and BPO services and creating
institutional mechanisms for training, accreditation and grading based on
performance. Creating a common web portal for sharing information and
knowledge among Commonwealth countries. 
 
7. Creating a Commonwealth Connects Fund and Institute a Commonwealth
committee to address the above mentioned suggestions. 
Conclusion
 
The 53 countries of Commonwealth constitute a population of 2 billion i.e.
one third of the population of the Planet. This network of independent
nations in the past has taken up many initiatives for interconnecting their
heritage in art, culture, science and technology, history, sports and way of
living. Such a strong base of relationship and the core competence of the
countries can be further integrated into a very useful partnership by
providing connectivity through the Evolution of a Commonwealth Knowledge
Grid. This can address many common challenges for development such as
developing a knowledge society through quality education, providing
affordable quality healthcare to all, sustainable rural development through
cluster approach, providing transparent people-friendly-governance and above
all evolution of an enlightened society for improving the National
Prosperity Index of all the partner countries. The model developed by the
Commonwealth Nations will have the potential to be extended to the entire
Planet. 
 
With these words, I inaugurate the Commonwealth Connects: International
e-Partnership Summit. My best wishes to all the participants of the Summit
for success in their mission of creating a productive e-Partnership between
and amongst all the Commonwealth countries. 

May God bless you. 
 
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