Essay on Digital India

 

IT Industry

Information technology (IT) is the use of any computers, storage, networking, and other physical devices, infrastructure, and processes to create, process, store, secure, and exchange all forms of electronic data. Typically, IT is used in the context of business operations, as opposed to the technology used for personal or entertainment purposes. The commercial use of IT encompasses both computer technology and telecommunications.

Growth of IT in India

The IT industry in India has been Growing Rapidly and this has led to Many Investments in India. The main reason for the growth of IT in India is the “Digital India” campaign launched by the government of India.

Impact of Growth of IT industry on India’s Economy

The IT Industry contributes 8% to India’s GDP and it is a Huge Industry with Many Potential. IT industry is a Part of the Tertiary Sector which itself Contributes 51% of India's GDP and it employs 24% of India’sPopulation. As the IT industry is an important Industry so the Government Launched “Digital India '' which has played a very important role in the growth of IT. 

Digital India

The “Digital India” campaign was launched by the government of India to uplift the usage of technology in India. The objective was to make the Government services easily available to the citizens electronically by improving its online infrastructure all over the country. The process would be structured to increase internet connectivity to make the country digitally empowered. It helps to reach out to the masses and encourage them to use technology in their daily lives. Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi launched the campaign on July 1, 2015. The initiative aims at connecting rural India with the help of high-speed internet connectivity.

There are three components at the core of the “Digital India” campaign.

• Creation of Digital Infrastructure

To be able to deploy various digital services across the country, it is necessary to create a strong digital infrastructure, especially in rural areas of the country. The interior regions of the country either have very little or mostly do not have any electronic network. This is the reason behind establishing a digital network across the country. Bharat Broadband Network Limited, the governmental body that is responsible for the execution of the National Optical Fiber Network project is responsible for the Digital India project as well.

• Delivery of Digital Service

A major component of the Digital India campaign is to deliver government services and other services digitally. It is easier to change the way of delivering services from physical to digital. Many services of the Government of India were digitized under the Digital India Campaign. The daily monetary transactions of people were also converted into digital mode. To ensure transparency in the transactions and curb corruption all the money transactions are being made online, and are supported by one-time passwords.

• Digital Literacy

For full participation of the people of India, the competency that they need to have is called Digital Literacy. The basic behavior, knowledge, and skills required to effectively use digital devices are mandatory. Desktop PCs, laptops, tablets, and smartphones are the digital devices used for the purpose of communicating, expressing, collaborating, and advocating. The mission of Digital Literacy will be covering over six crore rural households.

With the Digital India Programme, the Government of India is hoping to achieve an all-round growth on multiple fronts collectively. The objective of the Government is to target the nine ‘Pillars of Digital India’ that are identified as follows.

1.      Broadband Highways

2.      Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity

3.      Public Interest Access Programme

4.      E-Governance

5.      E-Kranti

6.      Global Information

7.      Electronics Manufacturing

8.      Training in Information Technology for Jobs

9.      Early Harvest Programmes

The awareness of the importance of technology has been successfully created among the masses of India by the Digital India campaign. There has been a vast growth in the usage of the internet and technology in the past few years. The Panchkula district in Haryana was awarded the best and top performing district under the Digital India campaign on the 28th of December 2015. 

Technology giants from all over the world paid attention to the Digital India campaign and are readily and happily supporting the initiative. Even Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, had changed his profile picture to support Digital India. He started a trend on Facebook and promised to get the WiFi Hotspots in rural India working. Google started on its commitment to providing broadband connectivity at 500 railway stations in India. Microsoft agreed on providing broadband connectivity to 500,000 villages in the country. Microsoft is also making India its cloud hub via the Indian data centers. Oracle planned on investing in 20 states to work on Smart City initiatives and payments.

Pillars of Digital India in Brief 

Broadband Highways

• This covers three sub-components, namely Broadband for All Rural, Broadband for All Urban, and National Information Infrastructure.

• Under Broadband for All Rural, 250 thousand village Panchayats would be covered by December 2016. DoT will be the Nodal Department and the project cost is estimated to be approximately Rs. 32,000 Cr.

• Under Broadband for All Urban, Virtual Network Operators would be leveraged for service delivery and communication infrastructure in new urban development and buildings would be mandated.

• National Information Infrastructure would integrate the networks like SWAN, NKN, and NOFN along with cloud-enabled National and State Data Centres. It will also have provision for horizontal connectivity to 100, 50, 20, and 5 government offices/ service outlets at state, district, block, and panchayat levels respectively. The deitY will be the nodal department and the project cost is estimated to be around Rs 15,686 Cr for implementation in 2 years and maintenance & support for 5 years.

Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity

• The initiative is to focus on network penetration and fill the gaps in connectivity in the country.

• All together 42,300 uncovered villages will be covered for providing universal mobile connectivity in the country.

• DoT will be the nodal department and project cost will be around Rs 16,000 Cr during FY 2014-18.

Public Internet Access Programme

• The two subcomponents of the Public Internet Access Programme are Common Service Centres and Post Offices as multi-service centers.

• Common Service Centres would be strengthened and its number would be increased from approximately 135,000 operational at present to 250,000 i.e. one CSC in each Gram Panchayat. CSCs would be made viable, multi-functional end-points for delivery of government and business services. The deitY would be the nodal department to implement the scheme.

• A total of 150,000 Post Offices are proposed to be converted into multi-service centers. The Department of Posts would be the nodal department to implement this scheme.

e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology

Government Business Process Re-engineering using IT to improve transactions is the most critical for transformation across government and therefore needs to be implemented by all ministries/ departments.

The guiding principles for reforming government through technology are:

• Form simplification and field reduction – Forms should be made simple and user-friendly and only minimum and necessary information should be collected.

• Online applications, tracking of their status, and the interface between departments should be provided.

• Use of online repositories e.g. school certificates, voter ID cards, etc. should be mandated so that citizens are not required to submit these documents in physical form.

• Integration of services and platforms, e.g. UIDAI, Payment Gateway, Mobile Platform, Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), etc. should be mandated to facilitate integrated and interoperable service delivery to citizens and businesses.

Electronic Databases – all databases and information should be electronic and not manual.

Workflow Automation Inside Government – The workflow inside government departments and agencies should be automated to enable efficient government processes and also to allow visibility of these processes to the citizens.

Public Grievance Redressal - IT should be used to automate, respond and analyze data to identify and resolve persistent problems. These would be largely processed improvements.

e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services

There are 31 Mission Mode Projects under different stages of the e-governance project lifecycle. Further, 10 new MMPs have been added to e-Kranti by the Apex Committee on National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) headed by the Cabinet Secretary in its meeting held on 18th March 2014.

Technology for Education – e-Education

• All Schools will be connected with broadband.  Free wifi will be provided in all secondary and higher secondary schools (coverage would be around 250,000 schools). A program on digital literacy would be taken up at the national level. MOOCs –Massive Online Open Courses shall be developed and leveraged for e-Education.

Technology for Health – e-Healthcare

• E-Healthcare would cover online medical consultation, online medical records, online medicine supply, pan-India exchange for patient information. Pilots shall be undertaken in 2015 and full coverage would be provided in 3 years.

Technology for Farmers

• This would facilitate farmers to get real-time price information, online ordering of inputs, and online cash, loan, and relief payment with mobile banking.

Technology for Security

• Mobile-based emergency services and disaster-related services would be provided to citizens on a real-time basis so as to take precautionary measures well in time and minimize loss of lives and properties.

Technology for Financial Inclusion

• Financial Inclusion shall be strengthened using Mobile Banking, Micro-ATM program, and CSCs/ Post Offices.

Technology for Justice

• The Interoperable Criminal Justice System shall be strengthened by leveraging e-Courts, e-Police, e-Jails, and e-Prosecution.

Technology for Planning

• National GIS Mission Mode Project would be implemented to facilitate GIS-based decision-making for project planning, conceptualization, design, and development.

Technology for Cyber Security

• The National Cyber Security Coordination Center would be set up to ensure safe and secure cyberspace within the country.

Information for All

• Open Data platform and online hosting of information & documents would facilitate open and easy access to information for citizens.

• Government shall pro-actively engage through social media and web-based platforms to inform citizens. MyGov.in has already been launched as a medium to exchange ideas/ suggestions with the Government. It will facilitate 2-way communication between citizens and the government.

• Online messaging to citizens on special occasions/programs would be facilitated through emails and SMSes.

• The above would largely utilize existing infrastructure and would need limited additional resources.

Electronics Manufacturing

Target NET ZERO Imports is a striking demonstration of intent.

This ambitious goal requires coordinated action on many fronts

• Taxation, incentives

• Economies of scale, eliminate cost disadvantages

• Focus areas – Big Ticket Items FABS, Fabless design, Set-top boxes, VSATs, Mobiles, Consumer & Medical Electronics, Smart Energy meters, Smart cards, micro-ATMs

• Incubators, clusters

• Skill development

• Government procurement

There are many ongoing programs that will be fine-tuned.

Existing structures are inadequate to handle this goal and need strengthening.

IT for Jobs

• 1 Cr students from smaller towns & villages will be trained for IT sector jobs over 5 years. The deitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

• BPOs would be set up in every north-eastern state to facilitate ICT-enabled growth in these states. The deitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

• 3 lakh service delivery agents would be trained as part of skill development to run viable businesses delivering IT services. The deitY would be the nodal department for this scheme.

• 5 lakh rural workforce would be trained by the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to cater to their own needs. Department of Telecom (DoT) would be the nodal department for this scheme.

Early Harvest Programmes

IT Platform for Messages

• A Mass Messaging Application has been developed by DeitY that will cover elected representatives and all Government employees. 1.36 Cr mobiles and 22 Lakh emails are part of the database.

Government Greetings to be e-Greetings

• Baskets of e-Greetings templates have been made available. Crowdsourcing of e-Greetings through the MyGov platform has been ensured. E-Greetings portal was made live on 14th  August 2014.

Biometric attendance

• It will cover all Central Govt. Offices in Delhi and is already operational in DeitY and has been initiated in the Department of Urban Development. On-boarding has also started in other departments.

Wi-Fi in All Universities

• All universities on the National Knowledge Network (NKN) shall be covered under this scheme. The Ministry of HRD is the nodal ministry for implementing this scheme.

Secure Email within Government

• Email would be the primary mode of communication.

• Phase-I up-gradation for 10 lakh employees has been completed. In Phase II, infrastructure would be further upgraded to cover 50 lakh employees by March 2015 at a cost of Rs 98 Cr. DeitY is the nodal department for this scheme.

Standardize Government Email Design

• Standardized templates for Government email are under preparation and would be ready by October 2014. This would be implemented by DeitY.

Public Wi-fi hotspots

• Cities with a population of over 1 million and tourist centers would be provided with public wi-fi hotspots to promote digital cities. The scheme would be implemented by DoT and MoUD.

School Books to be eBooks

• All books shall be converted into eBooks. Min. of HRD/ DeitY would be the nodal agencies for this scheme.

SMS based weather information, disaster alerts

• SMS-based weather information and disaster alerts would be provided. DeitY’s Mobile Seva Platform is already ready and available for this purpose. MoES (IMD) / MHA (NDMA) would be the nodal organizations for implementing this scheme.

Visions 

Digital Infrastructure as a Core Utility to Every Citizen

• Availability of high-speed internet as a core utility for delivery of services to citizens

• Cradle to grave digital identity that is unique, lifelong, online, and authenticable to every citizen

• Mobile phone & bank account enabling citizen participation in digital & financial space

• Easy access to a Common Service Centre

• Shareable private space on a public cloud

• Safe and secure cyberspace

Governance & Services on Demand

• Seamlessly integrated services across departments or jurisdictions

• Availability of services in real-time from online & mobile platforms

• All citizen entitlements to be portable and available on the cloud

• Digitally transformed services for improving ease of doing business

• Making financial transactions electronic & cashless

• Leveraging Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) for decision support systems & development

Digital Empowerment of Citizens

• Universal digital literacy

• Universally accessible digital resources

• Availability of digital resources/services in Indian languages

• Collaborative digital platforms for participative governance

• Citizens are not required to physically submit to the Govt. documents/certificates