A overlook of PM’s Digital India programme

Digital India started with the aim to change India into an empowered society and knowledge economy. Over the last one year a lot of initiatives have been taken to make people empowered on various factors like health, education, labour and employment, commerce etc. Its goal is to impart knowledge and empower people through the Digital India Programme of Government of India.

Launched by Narendra Modi, the 1.13 Lakh Crore initiatives, is one stop shop for all the government services making mobile phone the backbone of the delivery mechanism.

In an interview with ET, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants every citizen of India to carry a smartphone by 2019.

“We want to ensure that all the services can be provided through a mobile handset, especially, health, education, various government services and retail,” Prasad said. “We want it (handset) to be used as a tool for empowerment. We will need to incentivise its usage in order to promote the social and the economic objectives of the government.”

The main structure of the program

It comprises of a lot of initiatives to make India digitally connected people. This programme has been envisaged and coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) in collaboration with various Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments. The activities of The Prime Minister as the Chairman of Monitoring Committee on Digital India is under strict eyes to carefully monitor it. All the existing and ongoing e-Governance initiatives have been revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India.

The vision

The vision of Digital India are centered on 3 keys areas

1. Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen

1. High speed internet
2. To give a digital identity which will be unique, life long, online authenticable.
3. Participation of mobile and banks in the digital and financial space.
4. Easy access to a Common Service Centre
5. Shareable private space on a public cloud
6. Safe and secure Cyber-space

2. Governance & Services on Demand

1. integrated across departments or jurisdictions
2. the services are available in the real time from online and offline platform
3. All citizen entitlements to be available on the cloud
4. Services digitally transformed for improving Ease of Doing Business
5. Making financial transactions electronic & cashless
6. Leveraging GIS for decision support systems & development

3. Digital Empowerment of Citizens

1. Universal Digital Literacy
2. Universally accessible digital resources
3. All documents/ certificates to be available on cloud
4. Availability of digital resources / services in Indian languages
5. Collaborative digital platforms for participative governance
6. Portability of all entitlements through cloud

The projects of Digital Programme

Digital locker system: this is to ensure sharing of e-document across agencies and minimizing the usage of physical documents. The sharing of the e –document will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online.

MyGov.in: it is platform where can citizen can with the government through a “Discuss”, “Do” and “Disseminate” approach. It also has a mobile application where we can participate through your mobile.

Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app: the application is launched for mobile to achieve the goal of Swachh Bharat Mission.

eSign framework: it allows citizen to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.

Online Registration System (ORS): This has been introduced under the eHospital application. It provides services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc.

National Scholarships Portal: it is a one stop 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.

Digitize India Platform (DIP): it has been undertaken by DeitY. It is for the large scale digitization of the country that would enhance efficient delivery of services to the citizens.

Bharat Net: it is a high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 Lakh Gram Panchayats of country.

Next Generation Network (NGN): This has been introduced by the government of India. This network is created to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other types of packet switched communication services.

Policy Initiatives

BPO Policy: This is to create approved BPO centers in different North Eastern states and also in smaller towns in other state.

Electronics Development Fund (EDF): It aims to promote Innovation, R&D, and Product Development and to create a resource pool of IP within the country to create a self-sustaining eco-system of Venture Funds.

National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE): It is an initiative of Government of India to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of Flexible Electronics.

Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT): It is a joint initiative of Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), ERNET and NASSCOM.

Impact of Digital India by 2019

• Broadband in 2.5 lakh villages, universal phone connectivity
• Net Zero Imports by 2020
• 400,000 Public Internet Access Points
• Wi-fi in 2.5 Lakh schools, all universities; Public wi-fi hotspots for citizens
• Digital Inclusion: 1.7 Cr trained for IT, Telecom and Electronics Jobs
• Job creation: Direct 1.7 Cr. and Indirect at least 8.5 Cr.
• e-Governance & eServices: Across government
• India to be leader in IT use in services – health, education, banking
• Digitally empowered citizens – public cloud, internet access