New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) From planning the smart cities and other important aspects of our emerging urban lives to reducing poverty, adoption of digital technology is necessary for sustainable socio-economic outcomes, experts said at the ongoing The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) digital libraries conference here.
The fifth edition of the four-day International Conference on Digital Libraries (ICDL) 2016 that started on Tuesday is aimed at creating a roadmap for a "smart future" and also outline how to prepare ourselves for new challenges and opportunities in this transformative digital age.
"There is a need to bridge the digital knowledge gap across the globe. This can also help in achieving the goal of eradicating poverty," said Donna Scheeder, President of International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) & Deputy Chief Information Officer of Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, US.
With five billion more people set to join the virtual world, digital connectivity is set to expand further and very rapidly. With this, it is expected to usher in gains in productivity, health, education, quality of life, and economic productivity, among others.
"The core objective of ICDL 2016 conference is to discuss perspectives on how planning for smart cities and other important aspects of our emerging urban lives must factor in the increasingly crucial role played by sophisticated and appropriate ICT tools and software services to intelligently manage, analyse and predict, how our smart future could look like," Ajay Mathur, Director-General of TERI, said.
"This will ensure how countries and their institutions plan and build entirely new ecosystems in areas such as public security, air quality and pollution, public health environmental sustainability, socioeconomic innovation, participatory governance, better public services, planning and collaborative decision-making," Mathur pointed out.
A total of 120 speakers from 22 countries are participating in more than 30 sessions during the summit, according to the organisers.
