Digital India has bridged the digital divide between urban and rural India : Union IT Minister

As a part of the on-going Indian Science Congress, 2019, Science Communicators’ Meet was inaugurated on 5th January by the Union Minister for Law & Justice and Electronics & Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad at Lovely Professional University in Jalandhar.

While inaugurating the Meet, Ravi Shankar Prasad was delighted to inform that India’s ranking in global innovation index has jumped from 81^st  in 2015 to 60^th in 2017. He also informed that India is now at the 6^th position in scientific publications and 10^th in patent filing. “India is now 3^rd most attractive investment destination for technology transactions and it is the best time to do science in India”, said the IT Minister

While applauding the role of innovations in communication technology, the Minister informed that digital payments have surged to 8 folds in the last five years to 2070 crores. There has been 2048% growth in Aadhar Enabled Payment System transactions while transactions in UPI grew 1500 times in the last 24 months.

Ravi Shankar Prasad showcased how Digital India has bridged the digital divide between urban and rural India.”India missed the industrial revolution, India missed the entrepreneurial revolution but India does not want to miss the digital revolution “, said the Union Minister.

The aim of the Science Communicators’ Meet is to cultivate and build up a more closely knit science communicatio9n community in the country responsible for disseminating science information to all stakeholders.  The specific objective of the meet is to bring different science communicators together to discuss the development and optimum utilization of existing & new media and arenas in order to strengthen the dialogue between the research community and the society.

The Communicators’ meet will provide opportunities for practitioners of science communication to discuss communication strategies receive critical feedback and spread the scientific way of thinking among people and make science accessible to them. 

Science Communicators’ Meet is held every year at the ISC for understanding and promoting effective communication of science to diverse audiences.  It provides an opportunity to academicians, science journalists, activists, filmmakers, scientists and other communicators from all over the world to meet, deliberate and exchange their views on how to develop science communication.  The aim of the Science Communicator’s Meet is to bring together different interest groups in the field of science promotion and communication.  This year the Science Communicators’ Meet is being held from 5^th to 6^th January at the Indian Science Congress, 2019.