JOIN USUnion Minister of State for Law and Justice, Electronics and Information Technology P P Choudhary told MP Nalin Kumar Kateel to submit a proposal on setting up a National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) Centre in Mangaluru.
Speaking at a programme to mark three years of Prime Minister Narendra Modi government’s at the Centre here on Wednesday, he said that if the MP moots the proposal, the ministry will consider it on priority basis. Such a centre is required for a city like Mangaluru which is considered as the educational hub of the country, he said.
He said the Union government wants to set up NIELIT in each state. Some states have more than one such centres while others do not have one. The NIELIT is engaged both in formal and non-formal education in the area of Information, Electronics and Communication Technology (IECT), besides development of industry-oriented quality education and training programmes in the state-of-the-art areas. There are 36 NIELIT centres in the country, he added.
Choudhary said if the MP submits a proposal on IT Park in Mangaluru, the ministry will consider it positively. IT hub should come up in a city like Mangaluru. Also, the Software Technology Park in Mangaluru will be strengthened, he said.
He said that all Gram Panchayats will be connected through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) to set up a network infrastructure by December 2018. This will help in overcoming the digital divide in the country, he noted.
The quality of education is poor in rural and tribal areas due to lack of teachers and infrastructure. In this background, the government is mulling over 3D animation-based textbooks under Digital India programme, he said.
In a bid to eliminate import of electronic items by 2022, the Centre has been giving a boost for domestic manufacturing of electronic goods. Robust growth in infrastructure and IT-enabled services will be a gamechanger in the future, he predicted.
Development politics will take India forward. As long as the poor and farmers are not empowered, the country will not develop. When the government has no vision, then welfare of all citizens is not possible, he said.
The minister said that all welfare schemes reach the people instantly through digital service. Prime Minister Narendra Modi took the decision to demonetise high-value currencies to unearth the black money stashed in the country and it has been giving positive results, he said.
Modi is committed to solve the problems of farmers in the next two years, Choudhary said the soil health card programme is aimed at assessing the soil health of landholdings of all farmers in the country. After the Centre introduced neem-coated urea, the country has no shortage of urea for farmers, he said.
“There was no political will power to implement GST in the past. Once the GST is rolled out, then it will increase the revenue by 25%,” he added.
Kateel said that a coconut park will come up on 100 acres of land in Bantwal through Coconut Development Board. Efforts will be made to set up a special agriculture zone in the district to promote farming.
In the last three years, the district has received a sum of Rs 1,29,365 crore for taking up various development works. This includes Rs 1,240 crore for railways, Rs 7546 crore for national highways, Rs 426 crore under 14th finance to Zilla Panchayat, Rs 300 crore NMPT, Rs 1,066 crore to MCC, Rs 5.75 crore to Pilikula, Rs 1.35 crore under Swaccha Bharath and Rs 1.18 lakh crore for high-speed road between Mangaluru and Bengaluru, he said.
DH News Service