DIGITAL INDIA PROGRAMME

 Right from the day of assuming power, Digital India and Make in India have been two big USPs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The first steps were taken with the launch of MyGov.in portal. Only a couple of weeks ago, Narendra Modi launch a mobile app to connect further with the netizens. Over the last one year, several initiatives have been taken for introduction of Information Technology to empower people in the areas relating to health,education, labour and employment,commerce ect. Digital India week has been launched with an aim to impart knowledge to people and to empower themselves through the Digital India Programme of Government of India.

The Programme Structure

Digital India comprises of various initiatives under the single programme each targeted to prepare India for becoming a knowledge economy and for bringing good governance to citizens through synchronized and coordinated engagement of the entire Government.This programme has been envisaged and coordinated my the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (Deit Y) in collaboration with various Central Ministries/ Departments and State Governments.The prime Minister as the chairman of Monitoring committee on Digital India, activities under the Digital India initiative is being carefully monitored.All the existing and ongoing e-Governance initiatives have been revamped to align them with the principal of Digital India.

Vision of Digital India

The vision of Digital India programme aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronics services,products,manufacturing and job opportunity ect.

It is centred on three key areas:

1. Digital infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen

2. Governance & services on Demand, and 

3. Digital Empowerment of citizens

With the above vision, the Digital India programme aims to provide Broadband Highway, Universal access to mobile connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme, E-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology,eKranti- Electronic Delivery of services, Information for All, Electronics Manufacturing: Target Net Zero Imports, IT for Jobs and Early Harvest Programmes.

Key Projects of Digital India Programme

Several projects/ products have already launched or ready to be launched as indicated below:

1. Digital Locker system-: aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online.

2. MyGov.in-: has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement ine'governance, through a ''Discuss'' , ''Do'' and ''Disseminat' aproach. The mobile App for MyGov would bring these features to users on a mobile phone.

3. Sachh Bharat Mision (SBM) Mobile app-: would be used by people and Government organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.

4. eSign Framework-: would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.

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

6. National Scholarship Portal-: is a one stop solution for end to end scholorship process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of India.

7. Deit Y has undertaken an initiative namely Digital India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to India.

8. The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of the country. This would be the world's largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.

9. BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 years old exchanges, which is an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia /video and other types of packet switched communication services.

Policy Initiatives

The policy initiatives has also been undertaken (by DeitY) in the e-Governance domain like e-Kranti  Framework, policy on Adoption of Open Source Software in e-Government of India,Framework for Adoption Source Software in e-Governane systems, Policy on Open Application Programming interfaces (APIs) for Government of India, Policy on Use of IT Resources of Government of India, Policy on collaborative Application Development & Re-Engineering Guidlines for Cloud Ready Applications.

1. BPO policy has been approved to create BPO centres in different North Eastern states and also in smaller/ mofussil towns of other states.

2. Electronics Development Fund (EDF) Policy 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 Ventures Funds.

3. National centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE) isan initiative of Government of India to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of Flexible Electronics. 

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

Impact

The estimated impact of Digital India by 2019 would be cross-cutting, ranging from broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-Fi hotspots. The programme will generate huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs, both directly and indirectly. Success of this programme will make India Digitally empowered and the leader in usage of IT in delivery of services related to various domains such as health, education, agriculture, banking, etc.