NASSCOM Foundation organised a national-level consultation on ICT for Development involving civil society bodies, IT industry, government agencies and academicians on 23 & 24 November 2006 in New Delhi. The Consultation entitled “Building ICT Capacities @ the Grassroots” explored the role that ICT plays in social and economic development of the country and the impact it has created so far.

The focus of the consultation has been on the following:
1. ICT for development projects with a special emphasis on knowledge centers
2. Cross-sectoral linkages and public private partnerships focusing on the Common Service Centres scheme of Department of Information Technology (GoI) and the role of Panchayati Raj Institutions
3. Content and services required by rural communities
4. Path to sustainability for community based knowledge centres
5. Role of ICT in building HIV/AIDS awareness
6. Synergies between IT Industry's CSR initiatives and the ICT for development sector and how these two sectors can collaborate to provide crucial and much-needed services to under-served populations in the country

Speakers present at the event were
1. Dr. Maxine Olson (United Nations Resident Coordinator and United Nations Development Programme Resident Representative to India),
2. Mr. Saurabh Srivastava (Chairman - NASSCOM FOUNDATION), Dr. Ramki (Director General - CDAC)
3. Dr. Ramaraju (Principal Scientist, Media Lab Asia)
4. Dr. Chetan Sharma (Founder, Datamation Foundation)
5. Mr. Santanu Sengupta (CEO – GRASSO),
6. Mr. Sriram Bharatam (CEO & Founder - Cause & Effect Foundation)
7. Ms. Vikas Goswami (Corporate Affairs Manager, Microsoft India)
8. America India Foundation
9. NIIT
10.Qualcomm and various Government bodies, etc.

Partnering with the Grassroots Practitioners
Cause an Effect, Iridium Interactive and Nasscom Foundation have partnered to build capacities at the grassroots, i.e. training of knowledge centre coordinators which is the crucial to the success of any community-based projects. The same also held true for consultations; without the participation and inputs from grassroots practitioners, no consultation would be complete