| Delivering the keynote address on 'Connecting rural India- a legendary vision' on day two of the Tamil Nadu's premier information and communication technology event Connect 2004, Azim Premji, chairman, Wipro Corporation, informed that the computer will consume less power than standard computers and would come bundled with a UPS. |
| The target is to undo the minimal penetration of computers in rural India, with over 700 million people living in 600,000 villages. |
| There is a need for enthusiastic individuals who will champion the drive of IT and e-governance initiatives and should be lead by someone prominent like a minister or the chief minister of the state, said Premji. |
| "The key to e-governance is execution as in the past projects have been unsuccessful as there has been both cost and time overruns. A separate programme management team is required to do end to end implementation of projects," said Premji. |
| He laid out a five-point agenda to take IT and e-governance to next level in India by bridging the digital gap that exists between IT-savvy states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. |
| "To avoid duplication of work all states must be brought under a single platform," added Premji. |
| State governments need to minimise time spent in decision making by constituting a special purpose vehicle for simple and fast decision making. |
| "E-governance will be major driver not only of efficiency of government transactions, but also in establishing external transactions between government and citizens, industry, financial institutions and funding agencies," explained Premji. |
| Commenting on India's ranking of 37th among 85 countries in a global IT report by the World Economic Forum, Premji said there should be an effort made to place India among the top ten IT countries in five years. |
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