Ravi Shankar Prasad Inaugurated NIELIT Bhavan, to Empower Skill Development and Capacity Building

NEW DELHI: Union Electronics & Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT) should strive to ensure that it has presence through at least one own Centre in each state.

Inaugurating NIELIT Bhawan, a new state of the art green building at Dwarka, Mr Prasad said, “There is no aspect of human life which is untouched by advances in Information Technology and Electronics. NIELIT has endeavored to lead by example and is empowering youth through Skill Development and Capacity Building initiatives.”

In his keynote address, Mr Prasad said, “In addition to Digital Literacy the demands for skilling in basic Cyber Security concepts has also increased manifold, and NIELIT is equitably poised to address this challenge. For effective implementation of skill development programmes including Government of India’s initiatives at PAN India level, NIELIT should strive to ensure that it has presence through at least one own Centre in each state.” “We are working towards transforming India into a digitally empowered nation, and imparting digital literacy to the last mile of rural India holds the key here.

The Common Services Centres (CSCs) have so far done a great job in this direction; our target is to provide training on digital literacy to 6 crore citizens, which will be certified by NIELIT,” he said. “I appeal NIELIT as well as all functionaries concerned to take this project on a mission mode and contribute to the larger goal as envisaged by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. We would like to see all government services, both at central and state level, to be digitally available to the every citizen of this country,” added Mr Prasad.

On the occasion, Union MoS for Electronics & IT, Law & Justice P P Chaudhary congratulated NIELIT for institutionalising the newly constructed NIELIT Bhawan and said, “The Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has also been delegated with the responsibility of promotion of Digital Transactions including Digital Payments. In this regard, there is a need for concerted efforts by all stakeholders for promotion of digital payments to move towards a less cash economy and NIELIT together with other organisations is also contributing towards this vision.”