Sunday 28 February 2016

Digital India

Digital India



Digital India (DI)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the stage for Digital India Dinner.jpg
Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressing the Digital India dinner in San Jose, California; 26 September 2015
Motto Power To Empower
Country India
Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Ministry Ministry of Communications and Information Technology
Key people Ravi Shankar Prasad
Launched 1 July 2015; 7 months ago
Current status Active
Website digitalindia.gov.in
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Narendra Modi
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Prime Minister of India
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Signature of Narendra Modi.svg
Prime Minister of India
Digital India is an initiative by the Government of India to ensure that Government services are made available to citizens electronically by improving online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity. It was launched on 1 July 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.[1] The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks. Digital India has three core components. These include:[2]
  • The creation of digital infrastructure
  • Delivering services digitally
  • Digital literacy

Project

Broadband in 2 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 Job created for IT, Telecom and Electronics Jobs creation 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. The Government of India entity Bharat Broadband Network Limited which executes the National Optical Fibre Network project will be the custodian of Digital India (DI) project.[3][4] BBNL had ordered United Telecoms Limited to connect 250,000 villages through GPON to ensure FTTH based broadband. This will provide the first basic setup to achieve towards Digital India and is expected to be completed by 2017. Optical fibre cables have been laid out in more than 68000 village panchayats.[5]
On 28 December 2015, the Panchkula district of Haryana was awarded for being the top performing district in the state under the Digital India campaign.[6]

Pillars

The Government of India hopes to achieve growth on multiple fronts with the Digital India Programme. Specifically, the government aims to target nine 'Pillars of Digital India' that they identify as being: [7]
  1. Broadband Highways
  2. Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
  3. Public Internet Access Programme
  4. e-Governance – Reforming Government through Technology
  5. eKranti - Electronic delivery of services
  6. Information for All
  7. Electronics Manufacturing
  8. IT for Jobs
  9. Early Harvest Programmes

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.[8]

DigiLocker

Main article: DigiLocker
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 sharing of verified electronic documents across government agencies.[9][10][11]

Attendance.gov.in

Attendance.gov.in is a website, launched by PM Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015[1] to keep a record of the attendance of Government employees on a real-time basis.[12] This initiative started with implementation of a common Biometric Attendance System (BAS) in the central government offices located in Delhi.[13]

MyGov.in

Main article: MyGov.in
MyGov.in is a platform to share inputs and ideas on matters of policy and governance.[14]

Partnerships

Digital India Week

At the launch ceremony of Digital India Week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top CEOs from India and abroad committed to invest ₹4.5 lakh crore (US$66 billion) towards this initiative. The CEOs said the investments would be utilitized 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.[15]
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani said his company would invest ₹2.5 lakh crore (US$37 billion) across different Digital India heads, which have the potential to create employment for over five lakh people. He also announced setting up of the 'Jio Digital India Start Up Fund' to encourage young entrepreneurs who are setting up businesses focused around the Digital India initiative.[15] Bharti Group chief Sunil Mittal committed investments of more than ₹1 lakh crore (US$15 billion) in the next five years to create deeper infrastructure in rural and urban India in the areas of e-health and e-education.[16]

Silicon Valley

Giants 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.[17] 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.[18] Oracle plans to invest in 20 states and will work on payments and Smart city initiatives.[19] 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.[20] Saket Suman, in his report in The Statesman mentioned, "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."[21] Later the Prime Minister office clarified that net neutrality will be maintained at all costs and vetoed the Basic Internet plans.[20]

Vision

It is planned to connect 550 farmer markets in the country through the use of technology, Modi said while formally launching the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana at a farmers' rally in Sherpur in Sihore district of Madhya Pradesh.[22] With the demand for electronic hardware expected to rise rapidly to US$400 billion by 2020, India has the potential to become an electronic manufacturing hub.[23]

See also

References

  1. DNA Webdesk (28 September 2015), Here's what you need to know about the Digital India initiative, Mumbai: Daily News and Analysis
  2. "GST to take care of many of e-commerce firms’ tax issues: IT minister", Live Mint, 21 November 2014
  3. "About Bharat Broadband Network Limited". Bharat Broadband Network Limited. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  4. Subramaniam, Nikhil (22 Mar 2013). "India's 'fantastic' broadband project that you should know about". Tech2. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  5. "Digital India: Broadband Fibre Laid in 68,000 Village Panchayats", Satyameva Jayate, 18 September 2015
  6. "Digital India campaign: Panchkula comes out on top among all districts of Haryana". The Indian Express. 26 December 2015.
  7. Programme Pillars, Government of India
  8. "Government to set up botnet cleaning centers", Preview Tech, 25 May 2014
  9. "DigiLocker: Free, Secure, Flexible and easy-to-use application", DigiLocker
  10. "Inside India's Digital Locker: What Is DIGILocker and How Does It Work?", Gadgets360 (NDTV), 2 July 2015
  11. "DigiLocker - Online document storage facility National Portal of India", india.gov.in
  12. "Attendance.gov.in: Modi government launches website to track attendance of government employees", The Economic Times, 7 October 2014
  13. Attendance.gov.in - Sarkaari offices will no longer be the same, courtesy Narendra Modi
  14. Business Standard (New Delhi), BS Reporter, 16 January 2016 http://wap.business-standard.com/article/politics/modi-s-new-mobile-friendly-website-launched-116011500919_1.html Missing or empty |title= (help)
  15. "Digital India: Top CEOs commit to invest Rs 4.5 trillion". Retrieved 1 July 2015.
  16. Digital India Week: Industry pledges Rs 4.5 lakh crore, New Delhi: The Financial Express, FE Bureau, 2 July 2015
  17. TNN (27 September 2014), Mark Zuckerberg changes his profile picture to support 'Digital India', The Times of India
  18. Thomas, K (27 September 2015), Modi effect: Silicon Valley giants commit to Digital India, Business Line The Hindu
  19. Digital India to propel economy to its best era: Oracle, Moneycontrol.com, 8 October 2015
  20. "The Statesman: Digital India at the expense of Net neutrality?".
  21. "Clipping of The Statesman - Delhi - The Statesman".
  22. "Government aims to give 'Digital India' benefits to farmers: PM Modi", The Times of India, 18 February 2016
  23. "Digital India Initiative To Transform Country, Says Ravi Shankar Prasad", NDTV, 15 February 2016

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