Recognising that we are increasingly a nation of a connected billion people , this Government is committed to democratising information and building a unique public information infrastructure in the country. This infrastructurewill leverage ICT to revolutionise our current governance and service delivery paradigm. Networks such as the National Knowledge Network,which connects Universities and Research Institutions,and the Rural Broadband Network, which connects Panchayats,will emerge as the new highways for connecting ideas and disseminating knowledge. Initiatives such as Aadhaar and the National GIS will enhance policy planning to make it more efficient and effective, and numerous applications riding on this ICT infrastructure will unleash unforeseen innovation at all levels of the citizenry. As and when this new infrastructure becomes ubiquitous, connecting people and ideas in an ever faster manner, we will witness a generational change in our current processes towards openness, accessibility, transparency, accountability and decentralisation – essentially ‘democratisation of information’. And this democratisation of information will challenge established structures of power built on the premise of information control to change towards a new paradigm of a more transparent and accountable society.