Business Wire India

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, today announced Internet Inclusion: Advancing Solutions—India , hosted by the IEEE Internet Initiative , will take place 6 October at the ITC Maurya New Delhi and is a pre-event leading up to the Global Conference on Cyberspace 2017 (GCCS) on 23-24 November in New Delhi. GCCS promotes an inclusive Cyberspace with a focus on policies and frameworks for inclusivity, sustainability, development, security, safety and freedom, technology, and partnerships for upholding digital democracy, maximizing collaboration for strengthening security and safety, and advocating dialogue for digital diplomacy.

Morning Roundtable Discussion

At its 6 October event, IEEE will host two by-invitation sessions, including a morning roundtable discussion among high-level government officials from the Monitoring Committee of “ Digital India” and various agencies enabling the initiative, described as “a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.”

Among the topics to be addressed are defining and fulfilling the promise of internet inclusion; expansion of knowledge networks through digital inclusion; digital inclusion’s impact on business, development organizations, governments and citizens; policy responses to security threats and privacy concerns; and opportunities for making digital innovation more inclusive and scalable.

“‘Digital India’ aligns closely with the IEEE Internet Initiative’s global efforts to advance solutions for internet inclusion,” said IEEE Internet Initiative Vice-chair Deepak Maheshwari. “By coalescing around India’s particular challenges, including affordability, digital literacy, security and privacy, we are building out collaborative platforms and working groups that will further India’s progress in its digital transformation. Because ‘Digital India’ envelops so many agencies and public/private partnerships, it provides a valuable model for multi-stakeholder innovation that can be shared through IEEE in other geographies.”

Lunch Workshop Session

The 6 October afternoon session will bring together leaders from business, NGOs and government bodies, among others, to discuss the issues of internet inclusion from such perspectives as innovative business models and financing, public access and community networks, energy and connectivity, the gender divide, and digital literacy in the context of what are the needed consensus-driven outputs that can advance ideas and hasten the development, adoption and use of solutions. In the working session, invitees will identify internet inclusion challenges, prioritize them and identify potential solutions and next steps to address them.

In 2016, the IEEE Internet Initiative organized a similar event in New Delhi , where the technical community, non-governmental organizations/civil-society organizations (NGOs/CSOs), and others collaborated on expanding affordable internet access, especially in the South Asian region. The event report noted, “The effort to achieve universal, affordable connectivity depends on the shared expertise, experiences, and creativity of the global technology, technical, and policy communities in forging locally relevant solutions ... (The 2016 IEEE Internet Initiative event in New Delhi delivered) a very important milestone in the long and arduous journey of bringing the multiple stakeholders to a common platform of understanding and appreciating each other’s perspectives and priorities.”

About IEEE Internet Initiative

The IEEE Internet Initiative promotes thought leadership and innovation and advances solutions for a trustworthy and inclusive internet by contributing technology expertise and resources to the policy ecosystem and providing a collaborative development platform and community to produce action-oriented and implementable outputs. Learn more at http://internetinitiative.ieee.org/ , and follow @IEEENetPolicy on Twitter.

About IEEE

IEEE is the largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity. Through its highly cited publications, conferences, technology standards, and professional and educational activities, IEEE is the trusted voice in a wide variety of areas ranging from aerospace systems, computers, and telecommunications to biomedical engineering, electric power, and consumer electronics. Learn more at http://www.ieee.org .

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