India, Sweden in telemedicine deal

India and Sweden have decided to forge alliances in key areas of IT, namely e-governance, telemedicine and in improving software usage by small and medium businesses, Union Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said on Monday.

Addressing a joint press meet along with his Swedish counterpart Ulrica Messing, who is leading a eight-member ministerial delegation to India, Maran said MoUs in these areas will be signed in Delhi on Wednesday, after finalising various details.

He said Sweden, which ranks third in the world in computer penetration, has agreed to share the best practices and its experiences to India in its ambitious plan to link 100,000 villages across the country through e-governance by the year 2006.

"Sweden is highly advanced in telemedicine and e-governance. I have also asked the minister to support us financially in the telemedicine projects," Maran said.

Already, Swedish telecom equipment majors, including Ericsson, were expanding their operations in India, he said.

Messing, who is the minister of infrastructure (which includes IT & telecom), said stronger relations between Sweden and India would help both the countries in learning from each other in frontline technologies.

Messing, who is also in charge of tourism, would visit Mahabalipuram, about 60 km from here, to explore its tourism potential.

Messing said her government welcomed more tourists from India to visit Sweden.

"India is a country of one billion people. We see this as a great market and opportunity to promote our tourism sector," she said.

On e-governance projects, Maran said the department of IT had already spent Rs 3300 crore (Rs 33 billion) on state-wide area network. Through the cooperation with Sweden and other countries like the UK, the department was also looking at standardising the e-governance projects of various states like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and West Bengal, he said.

Maran said public-private partnership would be encouraged for e-governance, telemedicine and SMB initiatives.

On the telecom front, he said various MNC equipment manufacturers were expanding in India. Stating that the government was focused on increasing the voice penetration in the country, he said the target was to hike the teledensity from 9.97 per cent to 22 per cent next year.

India and Sweden discussed various issues on identifying mutually beneficial ICT areas and forging collaboration to further strengthen bilateral activities within governments, industries and academia of both the countries, a statement released to the press said.

"The importance of ICT for sustained economic growth as well as its significance for qualitative and improved health care, public administration and education were highlighted during the discussions," he said.

The Swedish delegation will also visit Indian Institute of Technology - Madras, the Tidel Park and the Confederation of Indian Industry office on Thuesday. The delegation will also visit the projects of IIT Prof Ashok Jhunjunwala, who is taking various initiatives to help the rural populace in Tamil Nadu to benefit from IT.