 Welcome to the ITU Plenary Potentiary Conference 2018 here in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, where I'm very pleased to be joined in the studio today by Mr Rangurandan, who is the Deputy Director-General for International Relations of the Government of India, Minister of Communications and Department of Telecommunications. Welcome to the studio. Thank you very much. Thank you. Now, I'd like to start off by talking a little bit about the fact that there's considerable attention being placed on harnessing the power of information and communication technologies on ICTs as an enabler for good, for development, for the benefit of people, families and communities and nations, of course. And I wanted to ask you what's your perspective on this? First of all, let me thank ITU and also the host country UAE for making such a wonderful arrangements here. It is flawless. I have seen, of course, it is my first PPE attending and it is really flawless. We thank both the host government as well as ITU for making such excellent arrangements here. We are really comfortable. So, coming back to your question on ICTs, certainly ICTs do play a role in every aspect of life as you see now today. So, certainly my perspective and everybody's perspective is that ICTs definitely have encompassed and then they play a larger role in the human development as well as the communities and then sustainable development goals as we have seen that then certainly it's an accepted fact which we have to move forward and take it how best it can be used and harnessed. Now this planning potential conference is the first since the world agreed on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. I wanted to ask you what is India doing in order to try and drive sustainable development through ICTs in your country? I can just give you an example of one of the major initiatives taken by India in the use of ICTs for the sustainable development goals, especially we have done that on Chandan, Adhaar and mobile. If you see a Jam Treaty we call it in India, one of the major initiatives India has taken where Chandan means bank accounts and then Adhaar means a digital identity which India has on its own developed that digital identity related technology and policy and regulatory framework and also the mobile. So these three together, so I see the bank account and then these three together India has used it for the direct benefit transfer. So wherein you could actually use the technology for the not only for the purpose of the communication and then it is for empowerment of the people. So through this Chandan, Adhaar and mobile linking it is empowering and making the citizens who have the right to get their due, especially the subsidies and other government targeted subsidies etc, which can reach them at their own fingertips. So and then this Chandan, Adhaar mobile Trinity has actually saved the government of India of the order of nearly in terms of Indian rupees 90,000 crores and in if you say in US dollars it is around 12 to 13 billion dollars and whereas we have spent around 2 to 3 billion dollars for the whole 1 billion population, hardly some 3 billion, 3 dollars per the whole implementation part of it, it's really that and then it is really helping them to bring the below party line people and those who really require the economic assistance from the government to uplift them through the ICTs use. I must say that around 300 million bank accounts are open. This is possibly the largest initiative in the world, unique and the largest initiative in the world, which we can say that we must take it to the ITU platforms and our Honourable Minister and Vice Minister, they all on every platform it is in line with our Honourable Prime Minister's vision as part of this India. And then this is one of the major initiatives taken through the sustainable development goals. That's wonderful news and also in very much in people's minds is the fact that about half the world's people are connected to the internet, the other half is not. I wanted to find out what is India doing in terms of getting everyone connected? India has taken a certainly our Honourable Prime Minister's stresses on the Digital India project and as part of that one of the major projects again undertaken is the Bharat Net. Bharat Net is a project where we have undertaken to connect almost connecting the unconnected is a major objective of the scheme and there are 600,000 villages in India which is and this project aims to connect all the 600,000 villages at the government cost. So through a levy of certain universal service obligation fund India has adopted this methodology. Of course many nations have got many methodologies. India has adopted this methodology and then used this fund in addition to that government of India also puts its own funding on this project and then ensured that almost we are happy to say that we are half way through nearly 115,000 villages have been, cluster of villages have been already collected. That means nearly 250,000 villages have been already connected and then it is not only just connectivity the project aims to have not only connectivity coverage and holistic approach connectivity part and then the coverage and then ensuring that the solutions are also given so that government to citizen services can be also extended through this as part of this project itself. So as part of this project not only this connectivity and even the Wi-Fi millions of million of Wi-Fi hotspots is also going to be installed so that the local the communities individually can be accessed through that this access points. Sound very much like you're definitely playing your part. Now you've obviously got your finger on the pulse. I wanted to offer you now just a final opportunity to for a message here for participants to speak to them directly and also to our wider audience as well. Certainly it is. I thank you actually for giving us opportunity and as I told you my PPI team is my first opportunity. It is a great learning process here and I must thank you for this and then as far as the ICT development as I already shared, India wants to not only develop this and then wants to share its own experiences and then its own policies and regulatory frameworks to the other parts of the world through various regional initiatives. I am happy that the outcome of one of the council meetings here in PPI. The first is on 27th council has adapted establishing a local ITU local area office in India which has come through successfully through which India would like to take it forward. The many initiatives of ITU as a strong partner of ITU we believe that ITU should take it forward. So hence India has sponsored this establishment of the ITU office through which we would like to take forward all the initiatives for the inclusive development and then the digital for bridging the digital divide. Well we look forward to catching up with you again in the future and maybe from the ITU office in India and thank you very much for joining us in the studio today. Thanks a lot. We welcome you all and then we would like to definitely invite all the ITU staff concerned for this thing. We look forward.