 for the first time I think we're going to have state governments representation in this conference and then I'm going to, it's my pleasure to invite Mr. Jay Sharanjan to the stage to share his vision and views and how we can engage with government in creating social impact. Please welcome Mr. Sharanjan. Let me first of all welcome all of you to Hyderabad. This is where it all began some years ago and I'm very glad that this event has come back to Hyderabad. As Babu mentioned, our IT minister, Mr. KT Ramarao played a key role in bringing it back to Hyderabad so there is a sense of regret that he's not here right now with us. As many of you would be aware he's in the United States as a part of a, he's leading a trade delegation actually but he has conveyed his good wishes. I was with him a few days ago in San Francisco and I told him that he'll be missing out on something very important but he did ask me to convey his good wishes and also asked me to kind of give a very strong message of collaboration and cooperation between the designers community and the government of Telangana what Babu spoke about a while ago. Babu made some effort to co-opt all of you into working for the government but he made a weak effort. Basically it's a weak effort because he did not explain to you what you are signing up for. He did not explain to you to sign up for something about which you may not know much. And as the MC mentioned it is not very often that you get a chance to speak to someone from the government. So what I'll do is that in the limited time given to me, I will share about first of all this very important national initiative which is going on, which is called Digital India and then how states are transforming that national program into their own home grown models. So I'll speak a lot about Digital Telangana. So this will give you a very good understanding of what the governments are attempting today, how the national framework has been laid out and eventually how the states are translating that into action. And of course as you know India has 29 states but unfortunately not each of these 29 states is equally progressive, equally aggressive rather on this digital technologies but fortunately Telangana is and I would say that there are other 8 to 10 states also which are equally kind of gungo about the digital world. So there is a large part of India which is still kind of lagging behind but fortunately about one third of the country is very positive about the digital world and the opportunities which it presents to everyone and all of us but particularly we in Telangana strongly believe in what is called what we call a multi-stakeholder model of involvement. So it is not the government alone which can push the agenda of digital Telangana ahead. We require all stakeholders to collaborate and participate and as I speak along I'll also mention about some of the opportunities which the designer community can really utilize here in this state. So Digital India in my opinion is a very transformative initiative of our prime minister. Most of you would be aware that while today we can present a rosy picture that our economy is growing at 7.5 percent in fact Donald Trump referred to India today in his debate. He mentioned about India growing at 8 percent, China at 7 percent and then he contrasted that with the United States which is growing at less than 1 percent. So people speak about this phenomenal growth story of India and the wonderful things happening but as all of us are aware there is a lot which is yet to be achieved and there is a very serious lag in many ways in terms of our basic infrastructure, in terms of our educational achievements, in terms of our health indicators and so on and so forth. And for decades for five decades, six decades, seven decades since independence all kinds of solutions have been tried out to fix some of these areas where we are grossly underperforming but eventually I mean as all of you would be aware not much has worked really and eventually a realization has come looking at good success stories, good examples from other parts of the world that perhaps technology has an answer. And I'm sure all of you also know this that in fact this is a very significant trend that we witness these days that technology is providing answers to a lot of things which about a decade ago or two decades ago were considered to be humanly impossible to solve at least in our generation. Some of the diseases now have answers or cures in forms of technology. Some of the strongest productivity barriers in cropping, etc. have been breached due to technologies. Some of the other kind of warrants and deficiencies and deficiencies which people used to face all across the world are today being overcome using technology. So technology is providing a very, very important answer, game-changing answer to some of the problems which are confronting mankind. In fact, I remember many years ago I was a student at Harvard and we used to be taught a course called Interactable Problems of South Asia. It was believed that there are certain problems in South Asia, particularly India which can never be solved. But we don't see that kind of a pessimism today. We feel optimist that there are solutions available and it just requires our creativity, our innovation to discover those solutions or create those solutions. So Digital India wants to really piggyback on the opportunities which technology provides. But as we know, if you really want to embrace technology, people must have access to technology. So Digital India and now I'll speak about Digital Telangana because we are in a way crafting that model in a very, very direct way ourselves. So I have much more familiarity with Digital Telangana. So a program like Digital India or Digital Telangana has three pillars to it. So the first pillar of Digital Telangana is that how do you provide access to technology? If you know that technology can do wonders for people, does everyone have access to technology? And in our country today, many of you would be aware that access to internet is just about one-third, just about 30% people have access to internet. But it is also widely believed that the next billion internet users in the world, half of them will be from India. So 500 million internet users, the next lot of internet users, the next billion so to say, half of them will come from India. And many innovative efforts are being made to bring that half into the world of technology, into the fold of internet. Language is apparently a barrier. Many people feel that because all the transactions have, at least all the domain names, et cetera, are in English. Unless they are made into local languages, there'll be challenges in getting so many people on the internet. So in fact, in Hyderabad, we are organizing a major international congress next month. It's called the ICAN 57, where some very important decisions will be taken on how IPs and domain names can be in local languages. So providing access to technology, providing access to connectivity is a very important goal of a program like Digital Telangana. So we are going to be the first state in the country where broadband connectivity will be provided at the household level. We have about eight and a half million houses in this state and every house will have internet connectivity. In fact, even America does not have this. To the best of my knowledge, the only country which can today boast of house-to-house internet connectivity is New Zealand. No other country in the world can today claim that every household is network, so to say. So Telangana will be the first state in the country and obviously will be a very major landmark, the world over, when every household will get optic fiber connectivity. And it is not just a Wi-Fi or some other poor substitute of connectivity. It'll be a solid, reliable, copper-based, wire-based optic fiber connectivity. And we are doing this in a very easy way. See, when no one else has been able to do this, how are we so confident that we'll be able to do that? And why we are so confident is that our government has another very important flagship program in which pipe drinking water is going to be provided to every household. See, many of you may be aware that while we get water by turning the tap in our homes, in cities and towns, the same is not true of our villages. In fact, in the villages, you don't get water in your homes. You need to go to some kind of a common place to collect that water and fetch it to your home. And obviously, it has lots of social implications. Typically, it is the women who are required to go and fetch water. And in a hierarchy-driven, fragmented kind of villages that we have, again, there are social dynamics. There are some communities who will always be at the bottom. They'll be deprived. They will not be able to get their rightful share of water and so on. So Telangana is going to become the first state in the country where every house will get drinking water by just turning the tap. And to do that, we are actually digging close to 150,000 kilometers of trenches throughout the state. So we have seen this as an opportunity when so much of trenching is happening along with the water pipes. We are also laying our optic fiber cable pipes, our ducts, that is. And had we done this as a standalone program, almost 60 to 70% of the cost would have been spent just on this trenching. So in a very creative way, we are piggybacking on another program. And in that way, saving about 60 to 70% of the costs. And therefore, we are able to reach to every household. And in other ways also, we are providing connectivity. See, most of you would be aware now that 4G is rolling out pretty fast. In fact, Reliance Geo is one company which is pretty aggressive on 4G. So Telangana is going to be the first state which they will 100% cover. The coverage of Geo in 4G in this state is already close to 90%. And in weeks to come, they will achieve 100% coverage. And other telecoms also are pretty aggressive because we have created enabling atmosphere to do that. Some of the rules and laws that we have passed permits these companies to utilize right of way, utilize government property to lay their towers, to lay their hotspots, etc., without much difficulty. Which other states have failed to do so. So this is one state which has seen this as an opportunity to welcome telecoms for their 4G rollout. In our big cities like Hyderabad, Varangal, etc., we are also providing public Wi-Fi. So Hyderabad city, for example, in another six months, will have 3000 hotspots through which people in all the public places can access Wi-Fi for free. So in multiple ways, we are trying to provide connectivity to people across the length and breadth of the state. But we are also aware, when I said that we'll provide connectivity to every household. We are also aware of a reality. Let us say my house gets connected today. I'm not going to immediately wake up next morning and start buying some of this MacBook or some smartphones or tabs or so on. See, many households still may not consider this as a priority. Investing into a personal device may not be of necessity to me, may not be of importance to me. I may not value why we should really invest in these kind of devices. And of course, there would be many families who just won't be able to afford such a thing. I mean, their living conditions would be such that this would be somewhere way, way, way low down in the list of their priorities. But to ensure that no one still gets deprived of the wonders which technologies can offer, we are doing something again very interesting, which is to provide a public kiosk in every panchayat of the state. The state has 8,700 panchayats, village councils that is. And every village council will have a kiosk which will be run by a, which will be operated by a woman entrepreneur, which again is a first. So 8,700 women entrepreneurs will be running these kiosks. Who will all be from the local areas? And these kiosks will be connected to provide various kinds of digital services. Even if I don't invest immediately in a household device, I still can access technologies by going to this kiosk and making help of, taking help of this local woman entrepreneur, so to say. Now, but the important thing is that while we do create this kiosk, we also need to make people aware about what technologies can really do for them. So the second pillar of digital Telangana is to create a demand for these kind of technologies for people to really value connectivity, value technologies. So one very basic fundamental requirement is that people should be digitally literate. People should know what computers are, what can be done using technology. And so in Telangana, again, we have a very ambitious program of ensuring that at least one member of every household is digitally literate. As I said, there are close to 8.5 million households. And to make 8.5 million people digitally literate is again no small task. In fact, some of you would be aware that our country still does not have 100% conventional literacy. In fact, there are close to 25% or 24% people in this country who still don't know how to read and write. And many of them live in Telangana also. So people may question that when there are many people, hundreds and thousands of people who still don't know how to read and write, how can you teach computers to them? But we have found, and we have found this through experience, that even if you don't know how to read and write, you can still learn computer. And then reading and writing can come easily to you. And there are hundreds of cases which we have showed that this is possible. And for this digital literacy, our benchmarks are pretty high. See, many of you would find it pretty laughable. It will sound like a joke to you. But the goalposts of the conventional literacy programs are pretty low. In fact, to become, to be called a literate person, all you need to know is how to read and write your name. So for example, if my name is Jayesh, if I can just know how to read and write, you and sure, I can call myself a literate person. I need not know any of the remaining 30 or alphabets which are there in Hindi or Telugu. Just by learning these three alphabets, I can call myself to be a literate person, which we all know is totally farce. I mean, just by knowing three alphabets, there's nothing you can do. But in our digital literacy program, we want to do it very, very rigorously. We want to ensure that a person who claims to be digitally literate actually is literate. And the test that we have for that person is that you should be able, of course, you should know the hardware, how to open the computer and all that. But the test is that you should be able to create your own email account. You should be able to send emails and you should be able to receive emails. And we also get this audited by the Indian School of Business. Any person or any village which claims that we have become digitally literate, a team from the Indian School of Business goes, it audits. And we do it very, very seriously, so to say. For our, so of course, digital literacy is for a generation which missed out on learning computers when they were in school. And they need to be taught how to become digitally literate now. But as you know, there are hundreds and thousands of children in our schools today. And we cannot allow them to pass their schools, come out of their schools without knowing computers. So we again have a very ambitious program. Again, one of the first such large scale initiatives in our country, which is called TS class. And the idea is to, we have about 4,600 high schools in the state. And the idea is to ensure that from grade six onwards, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, ten. All your lessons are taught to you using digital classrooms. And we have already started this as a small pilot. But we'll be scaling it up in that entire, in its entirety when the next academic session begins in June 2017. So these are the ways in which we want to ensure that people become digitally literate, they start valuing technologies. The, from the government side also, we are ensuring that more and more of government services are available on a digital platform. See the state of Telangana earlier, of course, it was a part of the combined state of Andhra Pradesh. We are one of the pioneers in introducing electronic delivery of government services. So even today, more than 350 services, government services are offered electronically. And our attempt is to offer many more such services electronically and eventually create a law in which any other form of delivery, except electronic delivery, is prohibited. So if you want a certificate or if you want some document from any government office, there is no other way to access it except by doing that transaction electronically. So again, this will be one of the first states which will pass such a law in the coming in the next year, so to say. Then the third most important thing where I want all of you also to stay engaged because of course there are opportunities to engage in both the supply of infrastructure, digital infrastructure, in creating the demand for infrastructure. But this third pillar of digital Telangana is where we really want to collaborate with as many stakeholders as possible. And which is that eventually people will start valuing technology, people will start using technology. If technology is going to create a social impact, if it is going to make a difference in their day to day lives. Other speakers mentioned about it. Babu alluded to it that unless we create an impact, any technologies is going to be futile. So the idea is to find out what are the challenges which common people face in their day to day lives and how can technology help them overcome that challenge. So I'll give you a few use cases which we are rolling out in a small way to begin with, but eventually we want to scale up very, very significantly. As you know, in the entire country, there is a large population which depends upon farming. And while there are a few large farmers, progressive farmers, a majority of the farmers are small farmers, pretty uneducated, illiterate, just following some traditions intuitively without really relying too much on science, technology, knowledge, and so on and so forth. In fact, one of the biggest challenges which small farmers or any farmer for that matter faces is that he does not get real-time scientific advice when he needs it the most. So for example, I am a farmer, I am cultivating let us say cotton crop, and suddenly I find some discoloring in the cotton leaves or there is some pest kind of thing which I notice. Now I will respond to that intuitively. I mean I would recall that when I was small, my father used to face similar situation, he used to do that. My grandfather would have done that. And in an intuitive way, I would have adopted some practice, which may not be the best practice to emulate. So what we are doing in Telangana is that we are empowering our agriculture extension officers. We are giving each of them a device called a fablet. And the device will have the capability to take pictures. And there will be a software which will match what the picture is referring to. So for example, all possible pests which can infest the cotton crop, they will be stored in that device. So the moment that picture is taken, there will be a picture recognition. And immediately guidance will come that it is this pest. And there will be also sensor based weather monitoring. So the device will also be able to capture how much humidity is there in your soil, how much of humidity is there in the moisture is there in the air, how much of alkalinity is there in your soil. And looking at the pest picture and some of these soil parameters, by that parameters, it will give you a precise recommendation that this is the best solution that you need to implement to save your crop. So this is something which is very simple. I mean, the picture recognition tool has actually been developed by a startup which is incubating in T-hub. And they'll speak about startups in a while. So getting sensors and get the device captured that sensor data again is not a big challenge. So with these small interventions, today we are able to guide farmers in what exactly they need to do, what is the best possible solution to improve their productivity, to save their crops, and so on and so forth. Another very interesting example, see those of you who live here would be aware that our summer months are pretty harsh. In fact, in not so much in Hyderabad, but in the hinterland, the temperatures go beyond 45 degrees, 46 degrees. And any time the temperature crosses 45 degrees, that kind of a condition is called extreme heat wave. Now, unfortunately in the past, people have lost their lives during such extreme heat waves. In fact, the year before, more than 400 lives were lost in Telangana during the summer months due to heat wave. Now, all of you would be aware that heat wave won't emerge suddenly. It's not that you are having 30 degrees today and you wake up tomorrow morning and it is 45 degrees. Heat wave builds up over a period of time. And using a number of parameters, weather-based parameters, it is also possible to predict when is the temperature most likely to cross 45 degrees. So we did precisely that this year. We put 800 sensors in different microclimatic zones of our state. And the sensors would measure all of these eight parameters. And 15 days ahead in time, they would be able to predict when the temperature will cross 45 degrees. And with the help of the telecom companies, let us say if the prediction came that this village will get 45 degrees temperature after 15 days. All the mobile phone subscribers of that village, SMS alert, that in 15 days extreme heat wave is going to hit your village. So whatever you're doing, you kind of try to wind it up and kind of move away or take precautions or stay indoors. Similarly, the health center of that area would get an alert that in 15 days, heat wave will strike. So stalk all your, all those glucose and whatever else is needed to hydrate people, keep them safe. So I'm very happy to inform, I mean, of course, not that it is a matter of happiness, but I can still share with you that instead of 400 deaths which happened the previous year, we were able to bring it down to just about 100. Of course, to say that 100 deaths are happened and I'm very happy about it is not the right thing to say. What I meant is in a relative way, we have been able to bring it down. Eventually, even one person dying for avoidable kind of reasons is a matter of shame for everyone and we should feel ashamed that when there are technologies when it can be prevented, if we are not able to prevent it, it's a matter of collective shame. So we will be endeavoring to deepen this technology, to define this technology and ensure that even one single preventable or avoidable death does not happen. But these are examples, these are use cases of how technology can make an impact in the day-to-day lives of people. If people are in an area which is prone to heat waves, how we can help them survive, how they can, how they can avoid the harshness of a heat wave scenario. If people are working as farmers and pests and other diseases are very common for their crops, how we can guide them, how we can assist them into preventing all that. So this is the opportunity which Digital India, Digital Telangana provides of creating solutions which matter to people. Unless you are able to provide solutions to them, which benefit them in a very direct, personal way, they won't really value technology. I'm a claim to be the only state which has 9 million households connected on the internet, but nothing will come out of it. It will only reflect a false pride. So unless technology is taken to the people and help them improve whatever they are doing at the present, there will be no value of that kind of technology. And this is where we want collaboration from everyone, from the designers community, from the startups community. In fact, I mentioned about a trend in the beginning of my talk that technology is today providing solutions to practically everything. The second important trend which we notice is that most of this new generation technology, the technological breakthroughs, the transformative technologies, the disruptive technologies, they are coming from the world of startups. Not to say that the big corporations are not doing anything. I don't want to belittle them. They are also doing their bit. But the real breakthrough ones are coming from the world of startups. And again, as you know, our Prime Minister has launched a national program called Startup India, but much of it is only symbolic. The real action is happening in, again, unfortunately, only in some states. But happily, Telangana is one of the pioneering states in that. Much before the Prime Minister spoke about Startup India, we already launched the largest incubator in our country, which is called THIHUB. And today, some of you who live in Hyderabad or who follow the world of startups, they would be aware about the kind of enormous progress which we have made in embracing startups. In fact, we are the only state today which has a policy that any product or service which has been created by a startup, if it is relevant to the government system, we will bilaterally procure it. Typically, the procurement processes of the government are pretty cumbersome. First of all, the procurement is done through a bidding process. And there are pre-qualification criteria which are pretty difficult to match. You must have a track record, you must have a net worth, you have been in existence for X number of years. And obviously, startups will just not be able to match any of these requirements. So we are the only state which has mentioned that if a product of a startup is of relevance to us, we will take it bilaterally. We will do away with this procurement process. And we have done it on a number of occasions. In fact, there are certain procurements which we are handling in the government. We have put a condition that large corporations need not even apply for those procurement because we won't take their products. We will be taking the products only from the startups and so on and so forth. And very recently, just about a week ago, the other milestone that we have crossed is that we have created a outpost of T-Hub in the Silicon Valley. We call it the T-Bridge. So if there is an interesting startup which is incubating in Telangana or in Hyderabad, but it has the potential of accessing the US market in a big way, this will act as a conduit. The T-Bridge will help you move to the US markets. You will find mentors there. You will have VCs and investors who will be willing to look at you and people who will guide you on how to go to the market in the United States and so on and so forth. So of course, there is a separate panel on startups in which also I'm speaking. So I won't say much except to give you that kind of assurance that Telangana is one state where today's startups are the poster boys, so to say. So as I heard when I walked in, there are quite a few startups in the hall, so I'll be very happy to talk to them and ensure that the state is always supportive of their initiatives. The one last thing which I would like to reiterate, I already spoke about it, that of the next 1 billion internet users, potentially the next 500 million of them, that is half of them, can really come from our country. But it requires a great deal of effort to do that. It is not going to happen just by a miracle. We wake up one day and we find 500 million people ready to use the internet. That is not really going to happen. So digital India, digital Telangana and these kind of initiatives required to be supported. Technology is the only answer today in which a country like India can really leapfrog while 8% growth, et cetera, sounds good in these kind of seminars. There is another India also which is really struggling. And we really need to do our bit for that India instead of just trying to bypass everyone and jump ahead in the race in a very, very self-centered and selfish way. And this is where these kind of initiatives do matter. I mean, I'm pretty sure that many, most of you will have a very poor impression about the government. But whatever it is, and everyone needs to support these kind of digital initiatives which today has, which is the only tool today to really take India into the global league. And as I mentioned, creating applications, creating solutions, which matter to the people is one big task. And there is no boundaries in that. It is not that only government has the repository of all knowledge to create those solutions. Everyone can do that. And in fact, more than government, it is people like you who can do that, who understand what the gaps are, what are the deficits, which are the ways in which these challenges can be overcome. And we really look forward to this partnership. In fact, this is one key message which Mr. Katie Ramarow also asked me to convey. That we really expect a lot from the community, from the designers community, from the UX community. And in whichever way you want to contribute, we'll be very happy to do so. I'm available here for the next couple of hours also. And if anyone wants to speak to me offline as well, I'll be very happy to interact with you. And once again, very glad that this event has come back to Hyderabad. I'm sure that the next two days will be very, very enriching, very productive for all of you. So good wishes and thanks very much for having me here.