 Welcome to the Well Summit on the Information Society 2017. I am delighted to be joined by Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Telecommunication and IT Government of India. Thank you for joining us. Thank you Charlotte, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you. So you have ambitious targets for India to become a digital society by 2022. How far advanced are you to deliver this target? Well, first of all, let me say what the vision of the Government of India is. For India, digital technologies are absolutely key. One, because we have a very youthful demography. We have fully 65% of Indians being below the age of 35. So it's an aspirational society. Second, we have large access deficits and service deficits, which we have to address. There's a lack of traditional infrastructure, whether it's healthcare services, whether it's educational services. So both infrastructure and services, there's lots to be done. And digital technologies are vital for us because they provide us the most scalable way of providing these services at optimal cost. So that is the objective of the digital vision of the Government of India. Now how far are we advanced? Well, in the last three years, ever since we launched the Digital India program, there's an umbrella program, which involves both the federal government and regional governments. I'd say that we've had a fair measure of success in terms of one access. We today have one billion people who have access to the mobile phone, which is large. Second, we have one billion people who have digital identities called Aadhar. So that enables everyone to join the digital economy and transact with the digital economy. And third, we now have one billion people on digital payment systems. So I think that in short, and we have 450 million people who today have access to the internet, which we want to take up to 750 million. So I'd say that there's been a fair amount of progress. So why do you believe that being a digital society will help create a more equal and fairer India? As I mentioned, India has already seen the benefit of digital technologies. It's been the number one job creator in the economy. It's been the growth engine that has driven India's growth for the last 15 years, both the telecom industry and the ICT industry, which is we today export 110 billion USD of software. So for us, ICTs are a great leveler. You know, it's a tool of empowerment because for the first time, there's a promise that we can deliver quality healthcare, quality education, quality governance, and we can give voices to people who have never been able to be heard. You know, before we had Aadhar, the digital identity, fully 500 million Indians, you know, were denied access either to financial services or other government services. For the first time, all of them are now able to transact. So I think that is probably the best indicator that we have, that digital technologies indeed hold the promise of a fairer and more equitable society for us. And can you give us some specific and practical examples of projects or programs where you have linked ICT and SDGs? Well, first of all, you know, one of the biggest problems in India has been, you know, the fact that we have so many people in poverty, right, and financial inclusion and the lack of access to credit and services, which is so essential to livelihoods. This has been one of the key problems. In the last three years, 280 million people have become financially included because of the project that we call Jan Dhan Yojana. This is a very practical example of how, you know, we've been able to bring in people. The second example that I want to give you is the direct benefit transfer program that we've launched through ICTs. So because of ICTs, you can actually get your entitlement transferred into your bank account. Today, we have 340 million people who earlier had to go through layers of government bureaucracy to get their entitlements, and they often didn't get it. You know, the leakage was expected to be anywhere upwards of 50, 60% of the money was being taken away by the intermediaries. So I think these are two big examples that I can give you of how, you know, ICTs have really started helping people come out of poverty. Aruna Sundara Rajan, thank you very much. Thank you Charlotte, it's been a pleasure. Thank you.