While the jury may still be out on deciding whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India is a success or not, beyond India's borders, it is not just being marvelled at, but also emulated.
Kazakhstan in Central Asia recently launched Digital Kazakhstan, and its Deputy Prime Minister, Askar Zhumagaliyev, is in India, seeking collaboration from both the public and private sector in India to held develop Kazakhstan's digital governance and digital economy.
Zhumagaliyev, while interacting with a small media group on Thursday, said that Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev would be visiting India in early 2019. “We are therefore preparing grounds for joint projects and agreements,'' Zhumagaliyev said.
He said while the two nations had a good partnership in mining, oil and gas sectors, it was time now to have partnerships in the IT sector, where India has an established lead. The Kazakh delegation met IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and invited him to attend the Astana Hub launch on November 5.
The Astana Hub will be an IT park in Astana, which will be given tax incentives to set up operations. Kazakhstan wants to provide broadband connections to all parts of the country by 2021 and thus, says there is good opportunity for IT firms in building partnerships.
The Kazakh delegation was impressed with the Indian advancements in IT. “We saw India has good experience in implementation of new technologies and in fields like cyber security, blockchain, internet of things, and biometrics. We are interested in building partnerships in both software and hardware sections,” the official said. On Friday, the Kazakh delegation will be in Bengaluru, India's IT city.
