Zilla Panchayat Chief Executive Officer M R Ravi on Thursday said the success of Digital India is still a long way to go as the country is facing many challenges in this field. However, it can be a success only when certain issues are addressed in an effective manner, he felt.

Speaking at ‘CANCON 2017’ Ammembal Subbarao Pai Memorial UGC sponsored two-day national conference on Digital India organised by Centre for Advanced Studies in Commerce and Management, Canara College, in association with Mangalore University Commerce Teachers’ Association (MUCTA), Ravi cited the example of Dakshina Kannada district alone which has many challenges in converting informal banking into formal banking with digital touch.

Of the total 20 and odd lakh people in the district, half of the people are urban centric and the remaining folks are scattered in rural areas, coming under 230 gram panchayats. While one could blindly assume that the urban population have easy access to mobile phones and Internet connection that forms the base of digital services, it could be exactly opposite in the case of rural folks, he said.

It is not just about acquiring computer and Internet connectivity as the very psyche of the people has to be changed to adopt digital ways by addressing their socio-psychological issues. The country is still facing challenges on other fronts too to ensure hygienic society and provide potable water to the society, he observed.

Ravi appealed to the participants of the conference, that included both students and faculty, to throw light on such connected issues and try to find out solutions to them.

He also complimented the college authorities for thinking of the emerging concept towards digitisation, much before the government takes note of it, by forwarding a proposal in this regard to UGC one-and-a-half years ago. Achal Krishna, co-founder and CEO, Smartcache Networks Pvt Ltd, delivered keynote address.