The Department of Information and Technology has sought the Swedish Government's technological expertise to take up e-governance in 100,000 villages by 2006.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) will be signed tomorrow in New Delhi by Union Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran and Swedish Minister for Communications and Regional Policy Ulrica Messing for setting up a joint business working group to share ideas and technology expertise in e-governance, tele-medicine, and opening up more Business Process Outsourcing units in the software industry in India, especially in Chennai.
The joint working group, Mr. Maran said, would help to further bilateral trade, especially in the small and medium sector.
The Department of Information and Technology had initiated a dialogue with multi-national companies engaged in information technology and IT- enabled services to move over to secondary cities so as to decongest the metropolitan cities. The Department had urged the States to create State-Wide Area Network funded by the Ministry with an outlay of Rs.3,300 crores.
The MoU would be an good example of the Indo-Swedish cooperation in the IT and telecom sectors, Ms. Messing said the joint working group would go a long way in furthering business ties. She would visit the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, the TIDEL Park, and some of the IT projects aimed at bridging the rural-urban digital divide, and Mamallapuram, before flying to New Delhi.
more
|
