Promoting IT to make lives easier: Akhil Arora

Information Technology (IT) is the major focus of Raje government. It’s promoting IT to make lives of citizens easier. Akhil Arora, Commissioner and Principal Secretary, IT has his own style of working. In last three years, he has created a brand name for technological innovations, skill development and startup drive – Rajasthan IT Day – which is accelerating the growth of IT-enabled services and creating right ecosystem for startup. The third edition 4-day long IT fest, Rajasthan IT Day, is scheduled from 18-21 March. Rangoli Agrawal speaks with him exclusively to understand the changed IT scenario in the state. Excerpts:  

What are the expectations of government for the third session of IT day?

We expect people at large should be benefitted from this endevour. There are take-away for everyone, whether in form of know-how, job opportunities or startup funding avenues. At the same time, we also expect that when such huge pool of human resources comes at a single point over a spread of four days, there has to be simulating and stimulating discussions generating new ideas to work upon. Our chief minister wants people to contribute towards decision making and bringing new ideas on table.

What were the outcomes of previous editions of IT Day?

From the previous IT days as well as the Digi fests, startup ecosystem has been created in the state. There has been improvement in the IT environment on all the parameters, especially the number of successful and feasible startups has increased. Similarly, if we talk about using IT in public utilities, there are around one million odd transactions on our public portals every day. IT day has helped common man actually see the benefits accruing out of online transaction platforms, and reap them. The understanding of our citizen interface like Bhamashah, Rajasthan Sampark helpline, has increased.

How do you gauge the success of these fests?

Our first IT Day had three components. We have only added more features while retaining them. The first component was Startup fest, second was hackathon, which is also an extension of startup movement. The third was expo. So these have been part of first IT day, the numbers have exponentially grown. Our first hackathon had 380 participations, the number swell to1,800 in the second edition and now the number is slated to be in anything excess of  5,000.

Do you think events like these are promoting IT in the state?

Definitely. Events like these push the environment in total. They bring forth the policy initiatives by government. Visionary decisions taken by the chief minister get shared with all the IT majors and captains of industries. But at the same time, the most important investment, especially in technological sector, is human capital. When any state is able to showcase they have this capital in abundance, then it’s become easier for companies to take investment decision.

Do you think Rajasthan is able to draw IT companies and create job opportunities here?

The kind of e-governance initiatives we are taking in Rajasthan, entrepreneurs from our state who had gone to IT hubs like Pune and Bangalore are thinking of investing in Jaipur.

We are also encouraging startups and help them global business connections. But we would be able to support only Rajasthan based startups. We encourage and facilitate them to connect with global companies, may be based in US or in other foreign soil through our network to participate in events and events and fests.

What are the new projects planned for DoIT, apart from startups?

One major thing is, we are going to be the only state to have our own Security and Service Operation Centre in the country.

In terms of startups, there are several budget announcements like Bhamashah Techno Fund and Bhamashah Techno Hub. We will be setting up incubators in Kota, Udaipur and Jodhpur. We will be having IT-enabled 3500 RO plants in rural areas. On the e-governance side, we are coming up with a disaster recovery data centre in Jodhpur.