"We are building public information infrastructure to democratise information and thereby making our society more accountable, more efficient, more transparent and more productive.
"We are also building a national knowledge network to connect 1,500 nodes with 40 mega byte bandwidth, connecting 2.5 lakh panchayats to optical fibres," said Pitroda, who is also an Advisor to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations.
Addressing at the 150th birth anniversary celebrations of Swami Vivekananda here, he said "in addition, we are building various platforms which includes the unique identification done by Nandan Nilekani, Geographic Information System (GIS) and cyber security. All of these would cost Rs one lakh crore and 10,000 software professionals are working on it."
Reiterating the need for the country to have a growth of 8 to 10 per cent in next 25 years, he said "if we don't grow upto 8-10 per cent within 25 years, there is no way to reduce poverty. The whole idea is to create a whole new design for India in 21st century."
He said women in a society should be respected "not because of what had happened recently but if you can't respect women and can't take care of them you can't take care of yourself, your country and can't concentrate on your work."