Rajasthan DigiFest

Chief Minister Smt Vasundhara Raje has said that the ‘Generation Y’, youth of Rajasthan, have the potential, skills and energy to take the state and the country to new heights. Expressing her confidence in the young people she said that they had skill and zeal, all they needed was to join hands with the older generation to work for prosperity and development of the state.

Smt. Raje was addressing the concluding session of Rajasthan DigiFest 2017 at Kota on Friday. She said that the state government and the start-up firms would partner with each other to take Rajasthan ahead on path of progress. For this, she said, digital infrastructure is being created statewide and incubators and techno hubs are being developed for promotion of start-ups. The first Bhamashah Techno Hub was being established in Jaipur, she said.

The CM said that after implementation of a new Start Up Policy, the start-up ecosystem is being strengthened in the state. She said that after creating facilities like E-mitras and RajNet, various government schemes were being successfully extended through digital initiatives like Bhamashah scheme, Rajasthan Sampark, Sampark Helpline and distribution of PDS entitlements through PoS machines. She said that a start up promotion fund worth Rs. 500 crore was being created. Over 600 start ups were already operational in the state and 23 of these had received investment funds worth 14 crore US dollars. This was a proof of Rajasthan being a friendly state for investment, she added.

During the event the CM launched a unique initiative to provide free e-Mail and e-Vault facility to every citizen of the state. Rajasthan is the first state in the country to offer such a facility to have free new-age email service for communication and e-Vault for storage of documents. For this, she handed over DigiKits to two female beneficiaries Rehanna Bano and Rajesh Gaur as a token. These kits would be utilized to have two more e-services RajSign and SSO as well.

She further inaugurated a new start up platform called I-Start, which would serve as a single point for registration, functioning, support and hand-holding for the start up firms as well as Angel funding groups and venture capital institutes. She also dedicated another portal named Rajasthan Stack to the public and stated that all these things would add to a positive healthy competitive environment in the state. She invited the youth to accept the Challenge for Change, an initiative through which the state government would offer direct work orders worth upto Rs. 1 crore to the young minds who share new ideas with the government, suggest innovations for improvement in service delivery or offer ideal and smart solutions to public grievances.

The Chief Minister also dedicated the Kota Clean Energy Network to the city. She said that with this Kota had become the first city of Rajasthan to have piped supply of domestic gas. Through this energy network, 3,000 domestic gas connections, 9 commercial and 24 industrial connections had been issued in the city, she told.

Smt. Raje also laid the foundation stone of an auditorium at the State Institute of Agriculture Management (SIAM). This facility having sitting capacity of 700 persons would have a construction cost of over Rs. 16 crore. The CM also gave prizes to the winners of Rajasthan Hackathon Kota organized during the DigiFest.

After this, she visited an exhibition where new IT solutions for public service delivery and marketing products of different IT companies were showcased. She then distributed scooties to 45 girl students of ST community under MADA scheme.

During her Kota visit, later in the day, Chief Minister inaugurated the Abhay Command Centre at Hemu Kalani Bhawan. This Centre the first at Division level, after one was opened at the state-level in Jaipur in March this year. The CM said that Abhay Command Centre was a unique smart initiative which would help in smart policing, control of crime, management of traffic and maintenance of law & order. She also flagged-off 58 rider policewomen riding 29 scooties to respond to women in distress needing police help.

Agriculture Minister Shri Prabhu Lal Saini, Minister of State Shri Surendra Pal Singh, Home Minister Shri Gulab Chand Kataria, Members of Parliament Shri Om Birla and Shri Dushyant Singh, local MLAs, public representatives, Police IG Kota Range Shri Vishal Basal, Principal Secretary IT Shri Akhil Arora, Secretaries of various departments, other senior officials were present on this occasion.

Jaipur/Kota, 18th August 2018