Digital India
| Digital India (DI) | |
|---|---|
| Motto | "Power To Empower" |
| Country | India |
| Prime Minister(s) | Narendra Damodardas Modi |
| Ministry | Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology |
| Key people | Ravi Shankar Prasad, P. P. Chaudhary |
| Launched | 1 July 2015 |
| Status | Active |
| Website | digitalindia |
| This article is part of a series on the |
| Politics of India |
|---|
 |
 India portal |
Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India to ensure that Government services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity or by making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology.[1][2] The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks. Digital India consists of three core components, (a) development of secure and stable digital infrastructure, (b) delivering government services digitally, and (c) universal digital literacy.
Launched on 1 July 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is both enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as BharatNet, Make in India, Startup India and Standup India, Industrial corridors, Bharatmala, Sagarmala, Dedicated Freight Corridors and UDAN-RCS.
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Digital India was launched by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015 with an objective of connecting rural areas with high-speed Internet networks and improving digital literacy.[3][4][5] The vision of Digital India programme is inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc. and it is centred on three key areas – Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen, Governance & Services on Demand and Digital Empowerment of Citizens.[6]
Digital India initiative
The Government of India entity Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) which executes the BharatNet project will be the custodian of Digital India (DI) project.[7][8] BharatNet will connect all the 625,000 villages of India by December 2018.
Focus areas
The Government of India specifically targets nine 'Pillars of the Digital India' as follows:
- Broadband Highway
- Universal Access to Mobile connectivity
- Public Internet Access Programme
- E-Governance, reforming Government through Technology
- E-Kranti, electronic delivery of services
- Information for All
- Electronics Manufacturing
- IT for Jobs
- Early Harvest Programmes
Implementation
New digital services
Some of the facilities which will be provided through this initiative are Digital Locker, e-education, e-health, e-sign and national scholarship portal. As the part of Digital India, Indian government planned to launch Botnet cleaning centers.[9]
- National e-Governance Plan aimed at bringing all the front-end government services online.
- MyGov.in is a platform to share inputs and ideas on matters of policy and governance.[10] It is a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a "Discuss", "Do" and "Disseminate" approach.[5]
- UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is a Government of India all-in-one single unified secure multi-channel multi-platform multi-lingual multi-service freeware mobile app for accessing over 1,200 central and state government services in multiple Indian languages over Android, iOS, Windows and USSD (feature phone) devices, including services such as AADHAR, DigiLocker, Bharat Bill Payment System, PAN, EPFO services, PMKVY services, AICTE, CBSE, tax and fee or utilities bills payments, education, job search, tax, business, health, agriculture, travel, Indian railway tickets bookings, birth certificates, e-District, e-Panchayat, police clearance, passport, other utility services from private companies and much more.[11]
- eSign framework allows citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.[5]
- Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app is being used by people and Government organisations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.[5]
- eHospital application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc.
- National Scholarship Portal is a one step solution for end to end scholarship process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of India.[5][12]
- Digital attendence: The "attendance.gov.in" is a website, launched by PM Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015[3] to keep a record of the attendance of Government employees on a real-time basis.[13] This initiative started with implementation of a common Biometric Attendance System (BAS) in the central government offices located in Delhi.[14]
- Back-end digitisation
- Blackmoney eradication: The 2016 Union budget of India announced 11 technology initiatives including the use of data analytics to nab tax evaders, creating a substantial opportunity for IT companies to build out the systems that will be required.[15] Digital Literacy mission will cover six crore rural households.[15] It is planned to connect 550 farmer markets in the country through the use of technology.[16]
- Facilities to digitally empower citizen
- Digital Locker facility will help citizens to digitally store their important documents like PAN card, passport, mark sheets and degree certificates. Digital Locker will provide secure access to Government issued documents. It uses authenticity services provided by Aadhaar. It is aimed at eliminating the use of physical documents and enables the sharing of verified electronic documents across government agencies. Three key stakeholders of DigiLocker are Citizen, Issuer and requester.[5][17][18]
- BPO and job growth: The government is planning to create 28,000 seats of BPOs in various states and set up at least one Common Service Centre in each of the gram panchayats in the state.[19]
- e-Sampark Vernacular email service: Out of 10% English speaking Indians, only 2% reside in rural areas. Rest everyone depends on their vernacular language for all living their lives. However, as of now, email addresses can only be created in English language. To connect rural India with the Digital India, the Government of India impelled email services provider giants including Gmail, office and Rediff to provide the email address in regional Languages. The email provider companies have shown positive sign and is working in the same process.[20] An Indian based company, Data Xgen Technologies Pvt Ltd, has launched world’s first free linguistic email address under the name ‘DATAMAIL’[21] which allows creating email ids in 8 Indian languages, English; and 3 foreign languages – Arabic, Russian and Chinese. Over the period of time the email service in 22 languages will be offered by Data XGen Technologies.[22]
Training
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan is being executed by PMGDisha with an outlay of Rs 2,351.38 crore with the objective of making 6 crore rural households digitally literate by March 2019.[23][24][25] Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (abbreviated as PMGDisha[26]) is an initiative under Digital India program, approved by The Union Cabinet chaired by the PM Narendra Modi.[27][28] The main objective of the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyanvis to make 6 Crore people in rural areas, across India, digitally literate, reaching to around 40% of rural households by covering one member from every eligible household.[29][30][31]
Ongoing awareness campaign
Annual Digital India Summit & Awards are held.[32]
The outcome
Reception
The programme has been favoured by multiple countries including the US, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.[33]
At the launch ceremony of Digital India Week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on 1 July 2015,[34] top CEOs from India and abroad committed to invest ₹224.5 lakh crore (US$2.7 trillion) towards this initiative. The CEOs said the investments would be utilized towards making smartphones and internet devices at an affordable price in India which would help generate jobs in India as well as reduce the cost of importing them from abroad.[35]
Leaders from Silicon Valley, San Jose, California expressed their support for Digital India during PM Narendra Modi's visit in September 2015. Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, changed his profile picture in support of Digital India and started a chain on Facebook and promised to work on WiFi Hotspots in rural area of India.[36] Google committed to provide broadband connectivity on 500 railway stations in India. Microsoft agreed to provide broadband connectivity to five hundred thousand villages in India and make India its cloud hub through Indian data centres. Qualcomm announced an investment of US$150 million in Indian startups.[37] Oracle plans to invest in 20 states and will work on payments and Smart city initiatives.[38] However back home in India, cyber experts expressed their concern over internet.org and viewed the Prime Minister's bonhomie with Zuckerberg as the government's indirect approval of the controversial initiative.[39] The Statesman reported, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chemistry with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the social media giant's headquarters in California may have been greeted enthusiastically in Silicon Valley but back home several social media enthusiasts and cyber activists are disappointed."[40] Later the Prime Minister office clarified that net neutrality will be maintained at all costs and vetoed the Basic Internet plans.[39] Digital India has also been influential in promoting the interests of the Indian Railways.[41]
Criticism
Several academic scholars have critiqued ICTs in development. Some take issue with technological determinism, the notion that ICTs are a sure-fire antidote to the world's problems.[42] Instead, governments must adjust solutions to the specific political and social context of their nation.[42] Others note that technology amplifies underlying institutional forces, so technology must be accompanied by significant changes in policy and institutions in order to have meaningful impact.[43][44]
It is being thought that there needs to be more research on the actual worth of these multi million dollar government and ICT for development projects. For the most part, the technological revolution in India has benefited the already privileged sectors of Indians.[42] It is also difficult to scale up initiatives to affect all Indians, and fundamental attitudinal and institutional change is still an issue.[45] While much ICT research has been conducted in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat, poorer states such as Bihar and Orissa are rarely mentioned.[45]
Impact
The internet subscribers have increased to 500 million in India till April 2017.[46] On 28 December 2015, Panchkula district of Haryana was awarded for being the best as well as top performing district in the state under the Digital India campaign.[47]
References
See also
- India.gov.in
- National e-Governance Plan
- Flexible electronics
- Electronics and semiconductor manufacturing industry in India
Citations
- ^ Prakash, Amit. "Digital India needs to go local". The Hindu. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ Mannathukkaren, Nissim. "The grand delusion of Digital India". The Hindu. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
- ^ a b DNA Webdesk (28 September 2015), Here's what you need to know about the Digital India initiative, Mumbai: Daily News and Analysis
- ^ "Government School in Remote Bandahalli Village Gets Inspired by make in India", The New Indian Express, 15 March 2016
- ^ a b c d e f "Digital India Week: Digital Locker, MyGov.in, and other projects that were unveiled", The Indian Express, 5 July 2015
- ^ "GST to take care of many of e-commerce firms' tax issues: IT minister", Live Mint, 21 November 2014
- ^ "About Bharat Broadband Network Limited", Bharat Broadband Network Limited
- ^ Subramaniam, Nikhil (22 March 2013), "India's 'fantastic' broadband project that you should know about", Tech2
- ^ "Government to set up botnet cleaning centers", Preview Tech, 25 May 2014
- ^ "Modi's website gets new, mobile friendly look", Business Standard, New Delhi, BS Reporter, 16 January 2016
- ^ "Government unveils Umang app for citizen services.", Economic Times, 23 Nov 2017.
- ^ "National Scholarship Portal Latest Scholarships"
- ^ "Attendance.gov.in: Modi government launches website to track attendance of government employees", The Economic Times, 7 October 2014
- ^ "Attendance.gov.in - Government offices will no longer be the same, courtesy Narendra Modi", Daily News and Analysis, 7 October 2014
- ^ a b "Budget 2016: Technology initiatives to boost Digital India drive", The Economic Times, 29 February 2016
- ^ "Government aims to give 'Digital India' benefits to farmers: PM Modi", The Times of India, 18 February 2016
- ^ "Can DigiLocker Catalyze Digital India? – Maximum Governance". maximumgovernance.com. Retrieved 8 September 2016.
- ^ "DigiLocker - Online document storage facility National Portal of India", india.gov.in, archived from the original on 15 May 2015
{{citation}}: Unknown parameter|deadurl=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ "Under the Digital India initiative: Software Technology Park of India", The Indian Express, 28 February 2016
- ^ "Vernacular Push: Govt. Wants Email Providers To Support Regional Email Addresses". Trak.in - Indian Business of Tech, Mobile & Startups. 1 August 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- ^ "DataMail: World's first free linguistic email service supports eight India languages - The Economic Times". The Economic Times. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- ^ "Data Xgen Technologies launches email address in Indian languages". www.deccanchronicle.com. 18 October 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- ^ "One of world's largest digital literacy programmes in world, 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan' cleared by Cabinet". Financial Express. 8 February 2017.
- ^ "Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan". Vikaspedia. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
- ^ "2,351 करोड़ से गांवों को डिजिटल साक्षर बनाएगी सरकार, PMGDISHA को मंजूरी" (in Hindi). Live Hindustan. 9 February 2017.
- ^ "Cabinet approves PMGDISHA under Digital India Programme". New Delhi: Business Standard. 8 February 2017.
- ^ "Cabinet nod for rural digital literacy programme". The Hindu. 9 February 2017.
- ^ "abinet approves 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan' for covering 6 crore rural households". Press Information Bureau. 8 February 2017.
- ^ "Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)". MyGov.in. Retrieved 22 May 2017.
- ^ "Digital literacy classes for unemployed". The Hans India. 2 May 2017.
- ^ Shrivastava, Shilpika (9 February 2017). "Union Cabinet approves Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan". Jagran Josh.
- ^ "Times Now and ET Now announce 2nd edition of Digital India Summit & Awards; on 22 March", The Economic Times, 19 February 2016
- ^ "Vietnam may emulate Digital India, seeks cooperation on e-governance", Hindustan Times, 28 March 2017
- ^ "PM Narendra Modi invites tech enthusiasts for a 'Digital Dialogue'", The Times of India, 4 July 2015
- ^ "Digital India: Top CEOs commit to invest Rs 4.5 trillion".
- ^ Mark Zuckerberg changes his profile picture to support 'Digital India', The Times of India, 27 September 2014
{{citation}}: Unknown parameter|agency=ignored (help) - ^ Thomas, K (27 September 2015), Modi effect: Silicon Valley giants commit to Digital India, Business Line The Hindu
- ^ "Digital India to propel economy to its best era: Oracle", Moneycontrol.com, 8 October 2015
- ^ a b "The Statesman: Digital India at the expense of Net neutrality?", The Statesman, 8 October 2015
- ^ "Clipping of The Statesman - Delhi". The Statesman. 29 September 2015.
- ^ Dipankan Bandopadhyay (14 April 2017). "Digital India and Indian Railways". Politics Now.
- ^ a b c Thomas, Pradip Ninan (11 July 2012). Digital India: Understanding Information, Communication and Social Change. SAGE Publications India. ISBN 9788132116851.
- ^ Nagarajan, Rema (20 September 2015). "To fix social problems, invest in human beings, not tech magic: Kentaro Toyama". Times of India.
- ^ Toyama, Kentaro (2015), "Geek Heresy: Rescuing Social Change from the Cult of Technology", PublicAffairs
- ^ a b Walsham, Geoff (2010). "ICTS for the Broader Development of India: An Analysis of the Literature" (PDF). The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries. 41: 1–20.
- ^ "India Internet Conference 2017: Minds meet on country's digital future", Financial Express, 6 April 2017
- ^ "Digital India campaign;Panchkula comes out on top among all districts of Haryana". The Indian Express. The Express Group. 26 December 2015. Retrieved 27 December 2017.