New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS) BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi Friday took a dig at the Congress-led government, saying the 2G scam affected the growth of the information and communication technology (ICT) industry in the country.
“The speed at which India was progressing in the ICT field was badly hurt by this incident. It is a challenge to recover from this,” Modi said at an ICT Business Awards ceremony organised by Cyber Media here.
“The industry which showed progress in the highest speed got the biggest jolt because of this incident,” he said.
On the development of science and technology in India, the Gujarat chief minister said: “We need to innovate according to the needs of the country, then only we can go hand in hand with the world.”
He said during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, a lot of initiatives were taken in the ICT field, including the formation of an IT ministry.
“Unfortunately in the last one decade, specifically because of the 2G scam, it got a jolt,” he said.
The ICT industry can change the perception of India from a “snake charmer” country to that of a progressive one, Modi said.
Talking about the economy of the country, Modi said Finance Minister P. Chidambaram put a curb on the gold import to arrest the current account deficit of the country but that is only leading to increased gold smuggling into the nation.
He emphasised on the need to develop more IT hardware in the country and that will help bring back the good brains of the country who have gone elsewhere to work.
Modi said it is very important to have proper rural telephony. “I have heard that Rs.28,000 crore is lying idle in government coffers. If that was utilised in rural teledensity, we would have progressed.”
He said ICT network is going to uplift the country in global arena.
Modi said “information highway” is the only way to achieve the goal of – “one mission, one vision and one nation”.
Earlier in the evening, he met 35-40 ICT honchos in a closed door meeting, where he asked them about the industry’s expectations from the government. According to industry sources, Modi asked them for suggestions to develop the ICT industry.
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New Delhi, Jan 18 (IANS) Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for human resource, was hospitalised after he complained of chest pain early Saturday, a day after his wife Sunanda Pushkar was found dead in a hotel here.
Tharoor who was initially admitted to the ICU was later shifted to a ward at the All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS).
Tharoor is now stable, an AIIMS official said.
“Everything is normal. The chest pain was normal now and his condition is stable,” AIIMS PRO M.C. Mishra told IANS.
Tharoor complained of chest pain late Friday night following which he was taken to AIIMS.
His wife Sunanda Pushkar, 52, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in a suite at The Leela Palace hotel in south Delhi.
There was speculation over their relationship after the two declared they were “happily married” following public airing of tweets that hinted about an extra-marital relationship and alleged involvement of a Pakistani woman.
