Digital India is a campaign launched by the
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
in order to ensure that the Government's services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity or making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology. The initiative includes plans to connect
rural
In general, a rural area or a countryside is a geographic area that is located outside towns and cities. Typical rural areas have a low population density and small settlements. Agricultural areas and areas with forestry typically are describ ...
areas with
high-speed internet
Internet access is the ability of individuals and organizations to connect to the Internet using computer terminals, computers, and other devices; and to access services such as email and the World Wide Web. Internet access is sold by Internet ...
networks. It consists of three core components: the development of secure and stable digital infrastructure, delivering government services digitally, and universal
digital literacy
Digital literacy refers to an individual's ability to find, evaluate, and communicate information through typing and other media on various digital platforms. It is evaluated by an individual's grammar, composition, typing skills and ability to pro ...
.
Launched on 1 July 2015, by Indian
Prime Minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
, it is both enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as
BharatNet
BharatNet, also known as Bharat Broadband Network Limited, is a central public sector undertaking, set up by the Department of Telecommunications, a department under Ministry of Communications of the Government of India for the establishment, ...
,
Make in India
Make in India is an initiative by the Government of India to create and encourage companies to develop, manufacture and assemble products made in India and incentivize dedicated investments into manufacturing. The policy approach was to creat ...
,
Startup India
Startup India is an initiative of the Government of India. The campaign was first announced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during his speech on 15 August 2015.
The action plan of this initiative is focussing on three areas:
# Simplif ...
,
Standup India
Stand-Up India was launched by Government of India on 5 April 2016 to support entrepreneurship among women and SC & ST communities.
It is similar to but distinct from Startup India. Both are enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of In ...
,
industrial corridor An industrial corridor is a package of infrastructure spending allocated to a specific geographical area, with the intent to stimulate industrial development.
An industrial corridor aims to create an area with a cluster of manufacturing or another ...
s,
Bharatmala
The Bharatmala Pariyojna ( 'India garland project') is an ecosystem of road development which includes development of tunnels, bridges, elevated corridors, flyovers, overpass, interchanges, bypasses, ring roads etc. to provide shortest, jam f ...
and
Sagarmala
The Sagarmala Programme () is an initiative by the Government of India to enhance the performance of the country's logistics sector. The programme envisages unlocking the potential of waterways and the coastline to minimize infrastructural inv ...
.
As of 31 December 2018, India had a population of 130 crore people (1.3 billion), 123 crore (1.23 billion)
Aadhaar
Aadhaar ( hi, आधार, ādhār, lit=base, foundation, bn, আধার) is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals who have spent over 182 days in twelve ...
digital biometric identity cards, 121 crore (1.21 billion) mobile phones, 44.6 crore (446 million) smartphones, 56 crore (560 million) internet users up from 481 million people (35% of the country's total population) in December 2017, and 51 per cent growth in
e-commerce
E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain manageme ...
.
[Govt will soon make Aadhaar-driving licence linking mandatory: Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad]
Indian Express, 7 Jan 2019.
History
Digital India was launched by the Prime Minister of India
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
on 1 July 2015, with an objective of connecting rural areas with high-speed Internet networks and improving digital literacy.
The vision of Digital India programme is inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities. It is centred on three key areas – digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens.
Digital India initiative
The Government of India's entity Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) which executes the
BharatNet
BharatNet, also known as Bharat Broadband Network Limited, is a central public sector undertaking, set up by the Department of Telecommunications, a department under Ministry of Communications of the Government of India for the establishment, ...
project is the custodian of Digital India (DI) project.
New digital services
# Some of the facilities which will be provided through this initiative are Bharat, digital locker, e-education, e-health, e-sign, e-shopping and the
National Scholarship Portal
The National Scholarship Portal (NSP) is an online portal by the Government of India for applying, processing, verifying and sanction of Government scholarships to students. It aims to reduce discrepancies and provide a common, effective and trans ...
. As part of Digital India, Indian Government planned to launch Botnet cleaning centers.
*
National e-Governance Plan
The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) is an initiative of the Government of India to make all government services available to the citizens of India via electronic media. NeGP was formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Techno ...
aimed at bringing all the front-end government services online.
*
MyGov.in
MyGov (Hindi ''Merī Sarkār'') is a citizen engagement platform launched by the Government of India on 26 July 2014 to promote the active participation of Indian citizens in their country's governance and development. It is aimed at creating ...
is a platform to share inputs and ideas on matters of policy and governance. It is a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a "Discuss", "Do" and "Disseminate" approach.
**
UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is a
Government of India
The Government of India (ISO: ; often abbreviated as GoI), known as the Union Government or Central Government but often simply as the Centre, is the national government of the Republic of India, a federal democracy located in South Asia, c ...
all-in-one single unified secure multi-channel multi-platform multi-lingual multi-service
freeware
Freeware is software, most often proprietary, that is distributed at no monetary cost to the end user. There is no agreed-upon set of rights, license, or EULA that defines ''freeware'' unambiguously; every publisher defines its own rules for the f ...
mobile app
A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a phone, tablet, or watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop applications which are designed to run on d ...
for accessing over 1,200 central and state government services in
multiple Indian languages over
Android,
iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also includes ...
,
Windows
Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...
and
USSD
Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), sometimes referred to as "quick codes" or "feature codes", is a communications protocol used by GSM cellular telephones to communicate with the mobile network operator's computers. USSD can be used ...
(feature phone) devices, including services such as
AADHAAR
Aadhaar ( hi, आधार, ādhār, lit=base, foundation, bn, আধার) is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals who have spent over 182 days in twelve ...
,
DigiLocker
DigiLocker is an Indian digitization online service provided by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India under its Digital India initiative. DigiLocker provides an account in cloud to every Aadhaar holder ...
,
Bharat Bill Payment System
Bharat Bill Payment System (BBPS) is an integrated bill payment system in India offering interoperable and accessible bill payment service to customers through a network of agents of registered member as Agent Institutions (AI), enabling multipl ...
,
PAN EPFO services,
PMKVY services,
AICTE
The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) is a statutory body, and a national-level council for technical education, under the Department of Higher Education. Established in November 1945 first as an advisory body and later on in ...
,
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.
["Government unveils Umang app for citizen services."](_blank)
Economic Times, 23 Nov 2017.
** eSign framework allows citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.
**
Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app is being used by people and Government organisations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.
** eHospital application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online, etc.
** Digital attendance: attendance.gov.in was launched by
PM Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
on 1 July 2015,
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
Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...
.
* Back-end digitisation
** Black money 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.
Digital Literacy mission will cover six crore rural households.
It is planned to connect 550 farmer markets in the country through the use of technology.
* Facilities to digitally empower citizens
**
Digital Locker
A digital locker or cyberlocker is an online file or digital media storage service. Files stored include music, videos, movies, games and other media. The term was used by Microsoft as a part of its Windows Marketplace in 2004. By storing files ...
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
Aadhaar ( hi, आधार, ādhār, lit=base, foundation, bn, আধার) is a 12-digit unique identity number that can be obtained voluntarily by the citizens of India and resident foreign nationals who have spent over 182 days in twelve ...
. 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.
**
**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.
**
**
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 the English language. To connect rural India with 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. An Indian-based company, Data Xgen Technologies Pvt Ltd, has launched world's first free linguistic email address under the name ‘DATAMAIL’ which allows creating email ids in 8 Indian languages, English; and three foreign languages – Arabic, Russian and Chinese. Over the period of time, the email service in 22 languages will be offered by Data XGen Technologies.
**"The digital age is changing everything around us," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while addressing the Sydney Dialogue via video conference on Thursday. He spoke about cryptocurrencies and India's digital revolution. Here are the top 10 quotes from PM Modi's speech at the Sydney Dialogue.
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 2020. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (abbreviated as PMGDisha) is an initiative under Digital India program, approved by The Union Cabinet chaired by the PM
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
. The main objective of the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan is to make 6 crore people in rural areas across India digitally literate, reaching around 40% of rural households by covering one member from every eligible household.
Ongoing awareness campaign
Annual Digital India Summit & Awards are held.
E-Cabinet
Taking a step further in e-Governance, for the first time ever in the country,
Andhra Pradesh government
Government of Andhra Pradesh, abbreviated as, GOAP, or, Andhra Government, is the subnational government for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is an elected government with 175 MLAs elected to the Legislative Assembly of Andhra Pradesh for ...
led by Chief Minister
N. Chandrababu Naidu and his Council of Ministers had its first paperless e-Cabinet meeting by Using the app e-Cabinet a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country. The ministers accessed the entire agenda of the Cabinet meeting in electronic form by logging into the app on their laptops or Tabs. The features of the app to prevent the user from sharing it with anyone. Also, there is safety to the data as it is password-protected unlike in the conventional method where papers could easily be taken away from the member of the Cabinet by anyone.
e-Pragati
E-Pragati, the
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
State
Enterprise Architecture, is a holistic and coherent framework designed to provide 750 services to over 30 million citizens by integrating 34 departments on a single platform. Unlike computerizing one department or service in state, e-Pragati aimed to computerize all departments and services in the state. Through this, the citizens will have a seamless service experience as they no longer have to go to government offices and can access the services from anywhere in the world. With e-Pragati platform, the government is making an effort to reach every citizen and serve them effectively.
Bhudhaar
Bhudhaar
Bhudhaar is a e-governance project that is intended to assign an 11 digit unique number to every land parcel in the state of Andhra Pradesh as part of the "land hub in E-Pragati programme". Bhudhaar is the first in India to address issues in l ...
is an E-Governance project that is intended to assign an 11 Digits unique number to every land parcel in the state of
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
as part of the "land hub in
E-Pragati programme". First of this kind platform in India to addressing issues in land record management Bhuseva Authority, an inter-departmental committee was formulated to implement and monitor the progress. Eventually all land related transactions will use Bhudhaar as single source of truth to reduces land related disputes. On 20
-Feb 2019,
Andhra pradesh Assembly given its consent to the legal usage of
Bhudhaar Number in land documents.
e-Panta (crop booking)
Electronic crop booking (e- Crop booking) is an Android application launched with a local name called e-Panta, first of this kind platform designed in India to know the ground reality of the crop details and to analyse the crop pattern across the
Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Pradesh (, abbr. AP) is a state in the south-eastern coastal region of India. It is the seventh-largest state by area covering an area of and tenth-most populous state with 49,386,799 inhabitants. It is bordered by Telangana to the ...
state and to capture the standing crop in the state. Photographs as evidence in the case of crop damage and insurance are also available as the arable land in the state has been captured in latitude and longitude along with subdivision and occupancy. All field officers are trained to capture the crop details in the existing agricultural fields using tabs and to upload the crop details to the server for every crop season. The features include an online transfer of crop details to Webland (land record management website), evidence in the case of crop damage for insurance, evidence for crop loans by banks, crop pattern and water tax demand analysis, and GPS location of each land parcel across the state. The mobile app covers land use and the entire Pattadar's history of land cover.
Loan charge
Loan charge creation project of
Government of Andhra Pradesh
Government of Andhra Pradesh, abbreviated as, GOAP, or, Andhra Government, is the Subnational administrative division, subnational government for the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is an elected government with 175 Member of the Legislative ...
, first of this kind in is initially developed in India to curtail bogus and multiple loans issued to the farmers. By using this module, Bankers can verify the land details in ''adangal'' and ROR‐1B copies and also know whether any loan is taken on the same land. The financial institutions like banks, Primary Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) and Sub Registrar offices of Registration Department spread across the State of Andhra Pradesh are covered under the application. Nearly 78 lakhs of farmers, 2.25 crores people of the State are covered under the project along with 61 Major Banks, PACS and District Cooperative Central Bank (DCCBs) having 6000 branches are using this application to deliver the loans and for creating charges on the land.
Outcomes
Reception
The programme has been favoured by multiple countries including the US, Japan, South Korea, the UK, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
At the launch ceremony of Digital India Week by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
in Delhi on 1 July 2015, top CEOs from India and abroad committed to invest 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.
Leaders from
Silicon Valley
Silicon Valley is a region in Northern California that serves as a global center for high technology and innovation. Located in the southern part of the San Francisco Bay Area, it corresponds roughly to the geographical areas San Mateo County ...
,
San Jose,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
expressed their support for Digital India during
PM Narendra Modi
Narendra Damodardas Modi (; born 17 September 1950) is an Indian politician serving as the 14th and current Prime Minister of India since 2014. Modi was the Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014 and is the Member of Parliament from ...
's visit in September 2015.
Facebook
Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...
's CEO,
Mark Zuckerberg
Mark Elliot Zuckerberg (; born ) is an American business magnate, internet entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He is known for co-founding the social media website Facebook and its parent company Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook, Inc.), o ...
, 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.
Google
Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...
committed to provide broadband connectivity on 500 railway stations in India.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
agreed to provide broadband connectivity to five hundred thousand villages in India and make India its cloud hub through Indian data centres.
Qualcomm
Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, 4 ...
announced an investment of in Indian startups. Oracle plans to invest in 20 states and will work on payments and
Smart city
A smart city is a technologically modern urban area that uses different types of electronic methods and sensors to collect specific data. Information gained from that data is used to manage assets, resources and services efficiently; in return ...
initiatives. However, back 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.
''
The Statesman
A statesman or stateswoman typically is a politician who has had a long and respected political career at the national or international level.
Statesman or Statesmen may also refer to:
Newspapers United States
* ''The Statesman'' (Oregon), a n ...
'' 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." Later the Prime Minister office clarified that net neutrality will be maintained at all costs and vetoed the Basic Internet plans.
Digital India has also been influential in promoting the interests of the Indian Railways.
Criticisms
Several academic scholars have critiqued ICTs in development. Some take issue with
technological determinism
Technological determinism is a reductionist theory that assumes that a society's technology progresses by following its own internal logic of efficiency, while determining the development of the social structure and cultural values. The term is ...
, the notion that ICTs are a sure-fire antidote to the world's problems.
Instead, governments must adjust solutions to the specific political and social context of their nation.
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.
It is being thought that there needs to be more research on the actual worth of these multimillion-dollar government and ICT for development projects. For the most part, the technological revolution in India has benefited the already privileged sectors of Indians.
It is also difficult to scale up initiatives to affect all Indians, and fundamental attitudinal and institutional change is still an issue.
While much ICT research has been conducted in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat, poorer states such as Bihar and Odisha are rarely mentioned.
Digital India as a programme has been considered by some as a continuation of the long history of bias towards
RIL, which has previously manifested in the form of altering
TRAI TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) is a statutory body set up by the Government of India.
TRAI or Trai may also refer to:
People
Trai is a masculine given name which has its root in Middle English. Notable people with the name include:
...
regulations in favour of the company. Reliance
Jio
Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, doing business as Jio, is an Indian telecommunications company and a subsidiary of Jio Platforms, headquartered in Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. It operates a national LTE network with coverage across all 2 ...
has cited the Digital India initiative numerous times for its own marketing purposes.
Impact
Internet subscribers had increased to 500 million in India as of April 2017. On 28 December 2015,
Panchkula district
Panchkula district was formed as the 17th district of Haryana state in India on 15August 1995. It comprises two sub divisions and two tehsils: Panchkula and Kalka. It has 264 villages out of which twelve are un-inhabited and ten wholly merged wi ...
of
Haryana
Haryana (; ) is an Indian state located in the northern part of the country. It was carved out of the former state of East Punjab on 1 Nov 1966 on a linguistic basis. It is ranked 21st in terms of area, with less than 1.4% () of India's land ar ...
was awarded for being the best as well as top performing district in the state under the Digital India campaign.
India is now adding approximately 10 million daily active internet users monthly, which is the highest rate of addition to the internet community anywhere in the world.
See also
*
Electronics and semiconductor manufacturing industry in India
The Indian electronics industry saw growth in the early years of the 21st century, encouraged both by government policies and incentives and by international investment. Its key and most resource-intensive segment, the semiconductor industry benefi ...
*
Flexible electronics
Flexible electronics, also known as ''flex circuits'', is a technology for assembling electronic circuits by mounting electronic devices on flexible plastic substrates, such as polyimide, PEEK or transparent conductive polyester film. Additi ...
*
India.gov.in
India.gov.in is the Indian government’s web portal for citizens. It presents information resources and online services from government sources, accessible from a single point. It is also known as the National Portal of India.
This is the offi ...
*
National e-Governance Plan
The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) is an initiative of the Government of India to make all government services available to the citizens of India via electronic media. NeGP was formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Techno ...
*
Standup India
Stand-Up India was launched by Government of India on 5 April 2016 to support entrepreneurship among women and SC & ST communities.
It is similar to but distinct from Startup India. Both are enabler and beneficiary of other key Government of In ...
*
Startup India
Startup India is an initiative of the Government of India. The campaign was first announced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during his speech on 15 August 2015.
The action plan of this initiative is focussing on three areas:
# Simplif ...
References
External links
*
*
{{Government Schemes in India
2014 establishments in India
Digital India initiatives
Administration of Andhra Pradesh
Internet in India
Ministry of Communications and Information Technology (India)
Modi administration initiatives