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Shed IT's elite tag: PM

Our Bureau

NEW DELHI, July 15

EXPRESSING concern over the elitist nature of the development of information technology in the country, the Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, on Saturday made a fervent plea to make IT available to students from poor and rural families, especially to th ose from scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and OBCs.

``We must make conscious efforts to ensure that good quality IT education does not remain a preserve of the rich and the English-educated'', he said in his inaugural address at the conference of State IT ministers.

Mr. Vajpayee reminded the audience that in the Indian context, IT cannot be a barometer for reading the rising wealth of a small set of individuals.

``It must become an instrument for creating new wealth and prosperity for the nation combined with distributive justice. It must- and it can - help us in achieving our broad national objectives of eradication of poverty, removal of regional imbalances an d promotion of social and gender justice'', the Prime Minister said.

Emphasising the importance of taking IT to the masses, Mr. Vajpayee said that technology was not an end in itself. What ``we do with that technology is far more important'' than the technology itself.

A comprehensive action plan to promote IT among the masses in a big and visible way was required. This could be done by selecting some projects that have a nationwide impact such as a massive programme for rural phone connectivity, greater penetration of IT in traditional industries and agriculture and increased use of IT in governance.

The action plan should also comprise time-bound computerisation and networking of banks, computerisation of land records and judicial records, enabling all the commercial establishments including small and medium ones to conduct e-commerce and making all the civic and transportation utilities citizen-friendly with the use of IT.

Mr. Vajpayee also urged the chief ministers and IT ministers to work together to reduce the growing gap between IT-forward and IT-backward States.

Even developed nations have come to recognise India as a software superpower in the making. Apart from the tangible benefits ``in terms of our soaring software exports,'' the successes of Indian IT professionals have also brought about many intangible ga ins, one of them being a sea-change in the global image of India and Indians.

``All this is just the beginning. The best of India is yet to come. And it is our collective responsibility to ensure that it comes soon'', the Prime Minister asserted.

Pic.:The Prime Minister, Mr. A.B. Vajpayee, flanked by the Minister of Information Technology, Mr. Pramod Mahajan, and the Communications Minister, Mr. Ram Vilas Paswan, at the IT State Ministers' meet in the Capital on Saturday.