Rural India: Bits, Bytes and Broadband

The foundation stone for Digital India owes its origin to the establishment of National
Informatic Center in the year 1976 according to former Prime Minister Shri Rajiv Gandhi

Electronic is the nervous system of nations and it should evolve as the nation evolves. We
missed one bus, with the industrial revolution. We were not able to catch up in three
hundred years. Maybe, we are a bit late in boarding the bus, electronic revolution, also at
the originating terminal. He also opined, that with little effort and perseverance, we can
sure board it in the next earliest junction.

The dreams of the youngest ever Prime Minister and the hopes of the country were sniffed
by the gory assassination of Shri. Rajiv Gandhi. Since then the country witnessed political
instability and was ruled by succession of coalition governments. The priorities were guided
by compulsions of a coalition politics. Digital drive suffered a setback.

After two decades, the country voted for a stable government and National Democratic
Alliance (NDA) captured power with absolute majority under the leadership of Shri. Narendra
Modi. We saw a prime minister, who is techno savvy and is willing to drive technology to
masses.

The Digital India plan was revived and launched with a greater vision on 1 July 2015.

The Prime Minister, on launching the Digital India Program, stated that Technology
transforms peoples lives. It empowers and connects. From mitigating poverty to
simplifying processes, ending corruption to providing better services, vitality of
technology is everywhere. It is an instrument of human progress

What is Digital India?

Its a plan to connect the country digitally with focussed priority on bringing all the villages and
gram panchayats under broadband internet, promote e-governance and transform India into a
connected knowledge economy.

Digital India is an ambitious programme of Government of India projected at Rs 1,13,000

crores. This will be for preparing India for a knowledge based transformation and delivering
good governance to citizens by synchronized and coordinated engagement with both Central
Government and State Government.

Vision of Digital India:

Digital infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen

Availability of high speed internet.
Cradle to grave, unique identity, a face for all involved.
Enable digital transaction and embrace all under banking umbrella.
Enable device availability and ease data access, to ensure inclusiveness.
Governance & Services on Demand
Citizen centric integrated e-governance portals
E-governance application on mobile platforms on cloud hosting
Digitally transformed services for ease of doing business
Enable less cash economy to usher in cashless economy.

Digital Empowerment of Citizens.

Universal digital literacy
Universally available digital resources
User choice language options
Encourage e-documents in place of paper documents
Corroborative digital platforms for participatory governance

The destination digital India, is set to have nine tracks that shall converge and collaborate in
fulfilling the above objective

The structure of Digital India is on the foundation of nine pillars.

Nine Pillars of Digital India Plan Progress

Broadband Highways 2.50 lakhs Gram Panchayats More than 25000 GPs
GPs) to be connected in next connected and tested live.
three years

Universal access to mobile On priority, bring about On going programme.

connectivity 42300 villages that are not Increased network coverage
under mobile connectivity and covering gaps

Public Internet access Establish multi functional
programs Common Service Centres in
all connected GPs. Shall
have face of digital town
squares
There are close to 1,60,000
CSCs that are operational.
Gave a good fillip in Aadhaar
enrolment.

E-governance-reforming Focus on electronic delivery On going programme. Will

government of services whether it is ride on broadband highways.
education, health, agriculture, An early harvest initiative.
justice and financial inclusion.
E-Kranthi - Electronic delivery
servic
Envisages use of electronics
and connectivity: enabling e-
education,e-health, e-banking
are major thrust areas
Ongoing programme. 44
mission mode programmes
are being implemented in
various Central/State
governments on end to end
citizen centric e-governance

Information for all Online hosting of data and By product of mission mode
information to citizen ensuring programmes and digital india
open access infrastructure

Electronics Manufacturing Promote indigenous Make in India-program.

electronic product Mobile manufacturers
manufacturing-with net zero Micromax, Karbon have set
import target by 2020 up factories

IT for jobs Train people in villages for IT Work in progress. CSCs

jobs. IT/ITES in North expected to address rural
Eastern states digital literacy.

Early harvest programmes
E-mail the only mode of This is an ancillary output
government communication, infrastructure that is being
school books to be e-books, built.
SMS based weather
information and alerts. These
are few major focus areas of
the pillar

Key applications that will use the Digital India infrastructure.

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

MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance,

through a Discuss, Do and Disseminate approach. The mobile App for MyGov would
bring these features to users on a mobile phone.

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

eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar
authentication.

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.

National Scholarships Portal is a 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.
The timing for the digital push couldnt have been better. The median age of Indian
population is 27.6 years. Nearly 59% is stratified under the age group 15-54. This augurs
well for the digital literacy initiative which is basically the backbone of success of the
program.

Considering the size and scope of the program, an effective Private Public Participation
could be imperative. Major telecom towers are owned by private entrepreneurs. A well-
orchestrated collaboration between the Government, policy makers, mobile network
operators, and telecom infrastructure companies is crucial to the success of this venture.
Reliance Industries has committed Rs.2,50,000 crores and Bharti Airtel Group has
committed Rs.1,00.000 crores towards the Digital India initiative.

Indias digital economy at present is $400 million and is expected to touch $1 trillion in the
next 5-7 years (Union IT minister Shri.Ravi Shankar Prasad, in an address on 1st July 2017.)
Apart from creating business and job opportunities at its core, the program has scope for
IT/ITES enabled in the software industry.

Aadhaar Authentication services.

Software applications on maintenance of e-books for schools and universities.
Citizen centric e-governance on mobile platforms.
Aadhaar linked e-healthcare solutions
Smart applications on the lines of IBMs Dr.Watson.
HR and manpower outsourcing, for Bharath Network, Common Service Centres.
Consulting opportunities at central/state government initiatives
Establishing digital town squares on the model of town squares for recreational and
social activities.
Mobile wallets and cashless or less cash financial transaction facilitators.

The successful implementation of the Digital India initiative requires meticulous planning,
effective capital disbursement, large investments in infrastructure and greater involvement of
private players. The programmes execution within the proposed timelines is imperative for
ensuring the intended benefits to citizens.

A fundamental question, however, is whether bits, bytes and broadband will improve the lot
of the of the whole community or further widen the distance between the haves and have-
nots. A truly smart community will need to develop comprehensive plans to address, in more
depth, the issues surrounding access and education to ensure that all citizens have the
opportunity to benefit from the knowledge-based networked economy. The program
requires synergy of all stakeholder, Government, Non Government Organisations, corporate
conglomerates, IT product companies and ITES providers.

Let us keep our fingers crossed. We will be living and doing things as has never been done
before!