Digital India - Objectives and Challenges

sponsored links

Digital India

Overview

• Vision of Digital India.
• Aims of this programme.
• Challenges of this programme.
• The overall scope of Digital India.
• Appreciated by the global investors.

The vision of Digital India is to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It would ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically. This programme was launch on 2nd July, 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks and improving digital literacy.

This progromme will be implemented in phases till 2018. This programme has been envisaged by Depai tinent of Electronics and Information Technology (DEITY) with the active participation of Ministry of Communications and IT, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Health. 

Right from the day of its launch, the programme has managed to garner praises from across the different sectors and is considered to play an important role in the transformation of India's digital infrastructure. It will act as a catalyst for the investment in the information technology sector and thus, generate employment. 

Digital India programmes is centered on three key vision areas viz., infrastructure as utility to every citizen, Governance and services on demand and digital empowerment of citizens. 

1. Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen includes high speed internet as a core utility shall be made available in all Gram Panchayats. Cradle to given digital identity, unique, lifelong, online and authenticable. Mobile phone and bank account would enable participation in digital and financial space at individual level. Easy access to Common Service Centre within their locality. Shareable private space on a public cloud. Safe and secure cyber-space in the country.
2. Governance and services on demand includes government services available in real time from online and mobile platforms. All citizen entitlements to be available on the cloud to ensure easy access. Government services digitally transformed for improving ease of doing business. Making financial transactions above a threshold, electronic and cashless, Leveraging Global Information System (GIS) for decision support systems and development. 
3. Digital empowerment of citizens includes universal digital literacy. All digital resources universally accessible. All government documents/certificates to be available on the cloud. Availability of digital resources/services in Indian languages. Collaborative digital platforms for participative governance. Portability of all entitlements for individuals through the cloud. 

In lieu of the vision of a Digital India, the government aims to provide high-speed internet connectivity as a utility to every citizen, ensure fast delivery of public services utilising the online platform and build digital literacy among the masses. The programme aims at connecting India's cities, towns and villages via high speed broadband, along with a system of networks and data centres called the National Information Centre. 

Some of the facilities which will be provided through this initiative are 

Government launched a digital locker under the name DigiLocker'. DigitalLocker System aims to minimise the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. 

e-hospital portal will help the citizens to avail health services online by issuing a Unique Health Identification number. Attendance.gov.in is a website to keep a record of the attendance of government employees on a real-time basis. This initiative started with implementation of a common Biometric Attendance System (BAS) in the Central Government offices located in Delhi.

My.Gov.in is a platform to share inputs and ideas on matters and governance. It is a platform for citizen endorsement in governance, through a 'Discuss', 'Do' and 'Disseminate' approach. Early harvest programmes aim at developing an IT platform for mass messaging and biometric attendance for all the government employees. It also aims at setting up Wi-Fi facilities in all the universities. e-Kranti programmers will be helpful for electronic delivery of services such as health care, education, iustice, educating farmers etc. 

National scholarship portal is 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 Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile APP is being used by people and Government organisations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.

The aim of Digital india programme is to achieve zero imports of electronics by 2020 through increased level of manufacturing of electronic items such as consumer and medical electronics.

With the help of smart cards, efforts will be made to provide clarity on incentives, skill development, government procurement and taxation. The programme also intends to train one crore people in towns and villages in five years. The digital platform is expected to serve nine verticals namely, e-Governance, e-Kranti, public internet access programme, broadband highway, information access for all, mobile connectivity, early harvest programme, IT for jobs and electronic manufacturing. 

As a utility, the internet has a tangible value and should be helpful in reducing the leakages in the welfare scheme and provide huge economic benefits by enabling better decision making. The citizen portal mygovin acts as a connecting link between the citizens and the government. 

The challenges of 'Digital India' project are 

• In order to accommodate, such a vast amount of data, India will require massive data centres with mirroring. Data mirroring means backing up the data at alternate sites. 
• This would require a large amount of investment in order to set-up the state of art facilities in different parts of the country. These data centres have to be technically robust in order to prevent any failures. 
• The biggest challenge of Digital India is the cyber security. In order to safeguard the data, the government needs to place robust security mechanism into the picture. 
• The cyber laws of the country need to be strengthened and updated according to the international standards. 

The overall scope of Digital India is to prepare India for a knowledge future. On being transformative that is to realise IT (India Talent) + IT (Information Technology) is equal to IT (India Tomorrow). Making technology central to enabling change. On being an umbrella programme covering many depai talents. Each individual element stands on its own but it is also part of the larger picture. The weaving together makes the mission transformative in totality. 

The global investors have applauded the Digital India programme. Many of them have come forward to support this initiative. If the government is successful in implementing the Digital India programme, it will play an important role in the development of economy and stabilising its position in the international market. 

Difficult Words with Meanings :

• Empower to give somebody the power or authority to do something
• Cradle the place where something important began
• Cyber-space the imaginary place where electronic messages etc exist while they are being sent between computers
• Leverage to get as much advantage or profit as possible from something that you have
• Collaborative done by several people or groups of people working together
• Portability the quality of easy to carry or more
• Tangible that can be clearly seen to exist
• Applaud show strong approval of (a person or action); praise.

shared by Nisheeta Mirchandani 

sponsored links