Hailing from Karungal in Kanyakumari district, Mano Thangaraj is well aware of the grassroot problems. His connect with politics comes from his college days when he served as the students’ union chairman. Since then, he has been voicing for the welfare of the people. He served as the district panchayat chairman from 1996 to 2006 and since 2016 he has been elected as the Member of the Legislative Assembly from Padmanabhapuram. As the Minister for Information and Technology and Digital Services, he feels that several of the societal problems can be addressed using technology.
After a busy day of promoting the Umagine Chennai, a technology, entrepreneurship and skills summit that is to happen, Minister Mano Thangaraj sat for an interview with Industrial Economist, and highlighted on how IT can be used to elevate different sectors.
“In a visit to Finland, I was surprised to see that there was not even a single police man to regulate traffic. There was neither a violator nor a regulator. Everything was automated. But here, our policemen stand in scorching heat and pollution. I am sure that with technology we can solve such problems to make lives of our people easy,” said Thangaraj.
Digitalisation and automation penetration are very low across India. There are several hurdles to achieve them. During the pandemic, while schools in the cities easily adopted to digital education, rural schools faced the brunt. “I am very happy to say that this situation will change in another six months. Through BharatNet more than 12,500 villages in the state will get access to 1 Gbps speed internet connectivity that will be secure and reliable. This will not only help in e-education but also to effectively deliver government schemes at village level,” said Thangaraj proudly.
Taking The IT revolution Inroads
Setting up the TIDEL Park more than two decades ago, marked the starting point of the IT revolution in the state. Tamil Nadu has achieved 18 per cent CAGR in software exports this year and ranked third in the country with a contribution of Rs 100,238 crore through SEZ software export. To continue with this momentum, the state plans to expand TIDEL Park to tier-2 and tier-3 cities to tap into the talent pool and infrastructure. The government is planning to allocate about 6.15 lakh sqft space across the state: of this more than 2 lakh sqft space would be allocated in Chennai and the rest in the tier 2 and tier 3 cities. “We are poised to strengthen and work diligently with an objective to achieve USD 100 billion as a department, contributing ten percent to the CM’s vision of one trillion-dollar economy,” added the IT Minister.
“Under the leadership of Chief Minister, M K Stalin, we are working to make Chennai and Tamil Nadu the preferred destination for Information Technology. We have a stable government, conducive policy and good leadership. Added to this, is the existing ecosystem along with a strong talent hub. By projecting these strengths, we are sure to further attract IT investments to the state,” said Mr Thangaraj confidently.
Umagine Chennai – Asia’s Largest Tech Summit
As the first step towards that, the Department of IT and digital Services is to launch the Umagine Chennai, a technology, entrepreneurship and skills summit on 23-25 March, 2023. The theme of the conference is ‘leave the future behind.’ Organised at a scale of being Asia’s largest summit, this first edition will feature more than 250 speakers in over 130 sessions. The speakers from a wide array of sectors include Sethuraman Panchanathan, Director, National Science Foundation(USA), Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Former Chief Scientist of World Health Organisation, Satyakam Arya, MD and CEO of Daimler India Commercial Vehicles, Sunil Kumar, Centre Head of The World Bank Group in Chennai, amongst others. Countries like France, Israel, Australia, UK have come onboard as partners. The summit will discuss deep technologies like AI, quantum computing, space tech, climate tech, fintech, edutech, biotech, etc… It will bring together different stakeholders including, MNCs, startups, bankers, angel investors, investment capitalists, onto one stage.
A pitching session by startups for the coveted Blue Ocean Award which was founded in France will happen at the Umagine stage. “The summit is being structured and planned based on best practices from global events and I am sure that it will put Tamil Nadu on the global stage. This will provide startups the opportunity to make global connections,” highlighted the Minister. The summit is expected to facilitate exchange of ideas along with collaboration among research facilities and universities.
“I believe that technology is a horizontal intervention that helps to link different sectors by addressing the the issues in them. For eg, fintech, agritech, climate tech are all solutions to the challenges in the respective sectors. I will work to make technology available for all and my mission is to reach tech to the common man,” concluded the Minister.
