Kerala Leads In Digital Awareness And Technology Literacy: Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan

“Nowhere in India will you get such a digitally aware and technologically literate population as you can here across the length and breadth of the state.” Said Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister of Kerala at the second edition of Envision – Digital Transformation Conclave.

BW Businessworld hosted Envision – Digital Transformation Conclave 2019 in Kovalam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala on 26th September 2019. Several industry leaders and key officials from the government of Kerala, including the Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan graced the event.

“We live in an age where technology forbids all facets of life. Existing ways of doing things are being replaced by new innovations faceted by technology right from the lives of the common man on the streets to visionaries who run big businesses. In this context, the fact that BW has chosen Kerala as a base for the second edition of Envision Digital Transformation Conclave gives us immense pride and pleasure.” 

Kerala is unique in many ways. While Kerala is commonly known to some for Aayurveda and spices industries, CM Vijayan spoke about Kerala’s digital developments in all sectors including education. “The state has achieved high standard of Human Development which is comparable to many western nations. Nowhere in India will you find such a digitally aware and technologically literate population as you can find here across the length and breadth of the state. However, this presents unique challenges for e-governance as well. As expectations and awareness of people are very high, e-governance applications have to be a degree higher here in terms of its standard. Kerala government has been doing a lot of system interventions like Kerala Fiber Optic Network and Skill Delivery Platform Kerala (SDPK) to augment governance as well as human capital, along with the evolution of technology.”

Kerala CM Vijayan acknowledged that digital transformation is highly essential and it is the way forward for new Indian and new Kerala. Among its many initiatives, he mentioned a few such as availability of internet. “We have declared that access to internet will be ensured as a right to citizens to enable the entire society of Kerala to reap the benefits of the digital disruption.” 

The CM stated that the government kept its promise of free Wi-Fi spots which have been setup in close to 2000 public spaces including government offices and parks across the state. “We are leaving no stone unturned in our efforts in building a digital society and knowledge based economy. A majority of government services in Kerala from applying for financial aid under the CMDRO or obtaining permission for setting up industries are now available on the internet.”

He concluded by speaking for the common man, “Development is not only about boosting the national income; it is also about making sure that the benefits of growth make a qualitative improvement in the rise of the common man. This is what we are trying to do in Kerala. Technology innovations both on governmental and corporate side need to be stressed on this space to find out answers on how improvements can be made in such aspects for the common man. I welcome all the administrations, corporates, startups, NPOs in this space to try out their technology innovations in Kerala.”