CALCUTTA MANAGEMENT SUMMIT 2018

KOLKATA, MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 2018

KEY NOTE ADDRESS

DIGITAL INDIA
DELINEATING SYNERGIES FOR SUSTAINED GROWTH
Dr M R Anand1
It is a great honour to addresses this distinguished audience today at the
Calcutta Management Summit, 2018. The theme for the Summit is
appropriate at this point in time because the global economy is witnessing
a new wave of digital technologiesthat impactboth, the supply, and the
demand side for goods and services.
2. At the global level, we see emergence ofnew types of electronic
hardware replete with sensors, guided by artificial intelligence (AI), powered
by solar cells, wireless energy transmission, driven by software and data
hosted somewhere on the cloud. The Internet of things (IoT) is redefining
products and processes across industries and services. Technology
applications such as drones, electronic wearable, 3d printing, robotics,
virtual reality (VR), among others, which till recently, were in the realm of
science fiction,have arrived. There is increasing convergence of technologies
whereby multiple functions are getting integrated onto electronic devices.
The conventional distinction between electronic hardware and software (i.e
IT) has narrowed due to the virtualisation of hardware.Technological
convergence is now moving to higher level and altering human interface
with machines, machine interface with machines and human interface with
humans. Interestingly, international firms that were primarily in software
and net services, are now also into designing devices.
Another important change is that, almost anything to everything, is being
offered as a service rather than as an end product 2 . The shift towards
consumption-based pricing that started with software has moved to use of
hardware as well. At the enterprise level, there is a shift of expenditure
from capex to opex 3 . At the enterprise level this helps free up capital,
provide flexibility, and may reduce risk. At the macro-economiclevel, this
canchange thecomposition and magnitude of capital formationand its
financing in the economy. And is an important point to take note of.
Growth of the digital economyis synonymous with data flow (bits/bytes)
between businesses, government and citizens which is now becoming a
counterpart to the circular flow of income (oftendepicted in introductory
economic text books).The rise in computing power and the growth of digital
infrastructure has enabled harnessing data flows for big data analytics

1 Dr M.R. Anand (IES) is currently Principal Economic Adviser, Government of India, Ministry of
Communications, Department of Telecommunications. Views Expressed are personal
2 Infrastructure as a service: IaaS, Platform as a Service: PaaS, Software as a service: SaaS
3 Its mirror image is cost side. As Varian observes , “what was previously a fixed cost, (deploying and

managing a data centre capable of dealing with massive data), is now a variable cost (Hal Varian: 2013)
which is altering decision making in organisations. The capacity to remotely
access supply and demand for goods and servicesover the net and
predictive analytics has led to growth in e-commerce and marketing, and
various aggregator servicesincluding in transportation4.
3. While new digital technologies are too numerous to enumerate, there
is little doubt that this technology led revolution offersopportunities
for,they signify the emergence of new type of markets for goods and
services. But,they also pose achallenge,because, they signal the„beginning
of the end‟ of demand for many types of goods and services with
consequent impact on employment (patterns).
4. Question then is whether India is ready to ride this wave? India has
strengths that are recognised especially in IT whichwill continue to drive
growth. At the same time, given thesize, population and
diversity,Indiahasunique challenges, most importantly, the digital
dividewhichneeds to be bridged. It is imperative to ensure, that
citizens,businesses andthe governmentaredigitally ready to ride the wave
rather than be overwhelmed by it.The Digital India programme, (the subject of
my address), is, in essence, a comprehensive response for catalysing action
to enable the country to seize the multiple opportunities thrown up by
digital technologies.

5. Two points on how I propose to approach the subject:-First, Digital

India has an overarching vision which is of transforming India into a
digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. The conceptual
document outlining the pillars and the vision areas, as depicted in the
graphics, have been in public domain for some time now.

Digital India - Vision Areas

Digital
Digital Infrastructure as Governance &
Empowerment of
a Utility to Every Citizen Services on Demand Citizens
• Integrated services
• High speed internet • Digital literacy
• Availability of services
• Unique digital identity through online & • Digital resources
mobile platforms
• Mobile phone & bank • Portable Citizen • Digital resources /

account entitlements on Cloud services in Indian

• Ease of doing
• Access to a Common languages
business
Service Centre • Financial transactions • Collaborative
electronic & cashless
• Private space on Cloud digital platforms
• Geospatial Information
Systems (GIS) as DSS • No physical
• Secure cyber-space
submission of
documents

4
Eg Uber and AirBnB
 Pillars of Digital India

To economise on time, I will discuss (some) of the initiatives of Digital India

under 8 action areas viz:-
i) Digital Infrastructure,
ii) e-Governance,
iii) Digital Empowerment,
iv) Electronics manufacturing,
v) IT services
vi) Cyber Securityand
vii) Human Resources Development.
viii) R&D
Second,the initiatives under Digital India can be discussed from the
perspective of technology, legal or organisational or its
implementationaspects,or from an economic perspective. While discussing
the action areas, Itake the liberty of focusing on the economic logic and the
synergies that are possible between different initiatives for sustained
growth.I hope, this approach will be of interest to the distinguished
practitioners and experts in business and management and students
present here.

6 I) DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE: While the brick & mortar economy

depended on physical capital and labour, the digital economy rides on
digital infrastructure and the internet. As an economy becomes data
dependent, active and passive digital infrastructure Telecommunication
and broadband networks, satellites, data servers, cloud facilities, towers,
switches, routersetc.are needed to support data flows.
Economists define Public goods as non-excludable and non-rivalrous,in
that, individuals cannot be effectively excluded and where use by one
individual does not reduce availability to others. Digital infrastructure,to a
certain extent, has features of a public good(i.e. impure Public good).
Non-Excludability, can sometimes lead to the problem of underinvestment
due to free riding and also by private agents especially in low density areas,
or, at low income levels due to large irreversible investment coupled with
inadequate return,fora length of time till traffic grows. But these may well
be projects that society needs due to positive externalities they generate
bystimulating economic activity. Public free Wifi is one such example.
However, once a network is in place, and as more and more people get
connected, the valueof the network grows and there may be a tendency
towards concentration.Virtual networks are no exception and we are
witnessing these issues being actively debated and contested at the global
level.All these features necessitate a mechanism for providing a part of the
digital infrastructure foruniversal access,funded either through public
investment, or, by imposing obligations to provide universal access.
In India, Telecom networks are operated by Telecom Service Providerswho
aresubject to regulatory oversight by TRAI. The allocationof radio spectrum
through online auction has been an important measure to bring in
transparency. A measure to improve efficiency in spectrum usage has ben
of allowing spectrum sharing and trading.Telecom infrastructure is
important for the growth of 4G and the entry of 5G services. The rules for
right of way address the issue bringing in more clarity in the construction
of digital infrastructure. I will not discussing the details about spectrum
allocation, but will like to focus on how Digital India initiatives for meeting
the universal access needs especially in rural areas.

Digital Infrastructure
Data Flow Infrastructure Medium
Mobile Cell towers/ switches RF Spectrum
broadband /routers/ optic fibre/
Satellite Satellites/routers/ optic RF Spectrum
broadband fibre
Fixed Routers/servers / optic Fibre / wires /
broadband and wire cables switches

As far as providing universal access and broadband connectivity is

concerned,there are a host of initiatives under Digital India funded mainly
through the Universal Service Obligation Fund for providing backbone
infrastructure especially in rural areas5.

5
The draft National Digital Communications Policy (NDCP) brought out by the Department of Telecommunications spells
out a major objective as „Provisioning of Broadband for all‟. Rural areas are the major focus. Among the major goals
outlined in the draft policy by 2022 the following are particularly important as far as rural areas are concerned:-

a. Provide Universal broadband coverage at 50Mbps to every citizen

Bharat Net: The BharatNet programmeis major programme under Digital
India which aims at linking 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats through high speed
broadband optical fibre. Phase-I of the Project is complete with over
100,000 GPs Service Ready. Phase II of BharatNet aims to connect
remaining GPs is on. The fibre under will be the primary means for internet
backhaul and will enable provisioning of a host of services with last mile
connectivity through Wi-Fi or other broadband technology.
CSC: The Common Service Centres (CSCs)a replaying an important role
intaking public and private services to the doorstep of Citizens in rural
areas and are a part of the institutional infrastructure.Over 3 lakh CSCs
arefunctioning, of which, 2.1 lakhs are in Gram Panchayats.

Wi-Fi Choupals being are also being set up in 5,000 GPs by Common
Service Centre-Special Purpose Vehicle funded by USOF. Public Wi-Fi
hotspots are being set up by BSNL in 200 GPs and by RailTelin200 rural
railway stations and also by BSNLat its Exchanges.
For better connectivity in 10 Left Wing Extremism affected States a
project has been executed in identified locations. There is another initiative
for providing connectivity to uncovered villages of the North Eastern
Region.
The ‘National Information Infrastructure’ is an effort under the e-kranti
framework to integrate existing ICT infrastructure comprising of the
NICNET, 34 State Wide Area Network and 28 State date centres. This
infrastructure built and managed by NIC provides theinterface,
gatewaysand backend storage for delivery of 513 registered e-governance
services of Union and State Governments apart from many other
uses.There is also theNational knowledge network which provides
connectivity to 1668 higher education institutes.

Cloud: In order to harness benefits of Cloud Computing, Government

of India embarked on "GI Cloud" named as 'MeghRaj'. It escalates
delivery of e-services while optimizing ICT spending. With over 15300
Virtual Servers, all major initiatives of Government of India and over
860 applications are running on this network.

Identity:Public as well as private agencies typically require proof of

identity from individuals; be it opening a bank account, getting a phone
connection, travelling in a train, applying for school/college admission,
availing subsidised food grains etc.The most important initiativehas been

b. Provide 1Gbps connectivity to all Gram Panchayats by 2020 and 10 Gbps by 2022
c. Enable100 Mbps broadband on demand to all key development institutions;
d. Enable fixed line broadband access to 50% of households
e. Achieve „unique mobile subscriber density‟ of 55 by 2020 and 65 by 2022
f. Enable deployment of public Wi-Fi Hotspots; to reach 5 million by 2020 and 10 million by 2022
g. Ensure connectivity to all uncovered areas
the implementation of the „Aadhaar platform‟ for giving a digital identity to
every individual in the country. The Aadhaar assignment has reached 1.2
billion residents in India (close to 99 % of adult population) and is now
being leveraged for implementing various e-governance programs including
transfers to targeted beneficiaries.

The on-going investment in digital infrastructureisimportant and the

Centre and State Governments are putting in resources will continue to do
so. This is a source of continuing demand and an opportunity for
enterprises in IT services and electronics manufacturing, system
integrators.This digital infrastructure is needed for extending services,most
importantly, e-governance services, tocitizens and businesseswhich I turn
to next.
II) E-GOVERNANCE SERVICES: We often see and deal with the front end
of the government in day to day life.The quality of service delivery is a
function of processes within the so called „black box‟. It is only when
processeswork; efficiently and smoothly can the front end deliverand that
too, when the front end is user friendly.
In the context of technological change, it was been said that several horse
carriages do not make a rail road. Similarly, E-governance is not just
speeding up manual methodswith ICT, but of doing things differently. It is
holisticapplication of ICT by integrating stand-alone systems, back and
front end processes,decision making, communications and transactions for
delivery of government services in a seamless manner. E-governance
involves combining diverse data sets for efficient and well-targeted, delivery
of services, obtaining feedback, and carrying out path correction within a
policy framework. Therehas to be involvement of the citizens
andstakeholders.
From an economic perspective, it enables reducing „information
asymmetry‟. It has the potentialtoreducescope for rent seeking, corruption,
compliancecost, improve the interface between government and citizens,
the ease of doing business and thereby, enhance the competitiveness of the
economy.
With that, let me move on spelling out some of the key initiatives in the
area of e-governance under Digital India.
e-Governance Services initiatives in Digital India are within an overarching
framework called „eKranti 6 . The key principles of eKranti are
„Transformation‟ and Not Translationwith a focus on government process
reengineering and integrated service provisioning in a citizen centric
manner. In terms of technology, inter-operatability, use of cloud, mobile
platform and leveraging common ICT infrastructureare its key requisites.

6
Meity (2015) Approach and key components of e-KrantiFramwork
There are 44 mission mode projects spanning a wide range and
includecitizen centric projects, enterprise and livelihood centric projects,
government process improvements etc. I propose to give you a flavour of e-
governance applications that are not just functional but also in use.

Citizen Centric projects:Citizen centric projects range from institutional

mechanisms for delivery services as also catering to specific needs of
citizens using ICT.

The Common Service Centres (CSCs) are now a key player in the delivery of
e-governance services at locations close to the place of residence of
Citizens. These ICT enabled CSCs deliver multiple government, private and
social servicesincluding skill development, education, health & financial
services.

The Direct Benefit transfer (DBT)is major reform of re-engineering delivery

of welfare schemes through simpler and faster flow of information,
accurate targeting of beneficiaries, de-duplication,reduction of fraud with
funds components transferred to individual beneficiaries accounts.
Over433 schemes of 56 Ministries are on board7.The JAM trinity i.e. Jan
Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile are the enablers.

In the area of education, the National Scholarship Portal covers activities

from registration to disbursement of scholarships for on which students
can apply. About 52 schemes are on-boarded, 1.33 crore applications
received and Rs. 2018 crore of scholarships have been disbursed to over 65
lakhs students into their accounts in 2017-18.Another initiative at the
school level is “e-Basta” for making school books accessible in digital form.

7
https://dbtbharat.gov.in/ accessed on 11/09/2018
Records and Certificatesare needed by all citizens. The „Digital Locker‟
platform enables sharing documents securely with service providers with
digital authentication. Over 1.31 crore citizens are utilizing the Digilocker.
JeevanPramaan is an initiative for providing anAadhar based Digital Life
Certificate for pensioners.

Other areas: The e-Hospital and Online Registration System

(ORS)application (by NIC) is a Hospital Management Information System.
Similarly in the area of transportation, applications like Vahan and Sarathi
are providing end to end services. For locating missing children, a portal
called Khoya-Paya has been a remarkable initiative.

Enterprise related projects: eSign is an online electronic signature service

which can be integrated with service delivery applications to facilitate
digitally signing of a document. In business and government work it saves
cost and time and adds to convenience with security. Five e-Sign providers
have been on-boarded and more than 5.28 Crore e-Signs have been issued.

e-NAMis an online trading platform and facilitate farmers, traders and

buyer of agricultural commodities through better price discovery and
facilities for marketing of produce. More than 585 Agricultural Produce
Market Committees of 16 States/UTS have been integrated on e-NAM
platform and being utilized by more than 66 lakh farmers.
Government processes involve communications and decision making, and
procurementwhich have a bearing on not only on citizens as well as
businesses.The internal communication functions have been integrated
into an umbrella software developed by NIC called „e-Office‟ and used by
almost all ministries and department and has changed the pattern office
work. Similarly, today appraisals of officers have been moved to an
electronic platform „Sparrow‟. There are applications that have been
implemented in the area of project monitoring that are actively being used.

e-PMS (Suvidaha) for monitoring of large multi stakehold projects and e-

Samiksha for monitoring of action points of Ministries and Departments
are playing a major role in keeping the timelines in implementation.

Government e-Market Place (GeM) is a portal which offers 3.67 lakh

products/ services and is transforming the procurement process in the
Government It has now 25,098 buyers and1,27,448 sellers.

The Public Financial Management System (PFMS)is being implemented by

Ministry of Finance, CGA with NIC and handles government payment and
accounting and has over 16 lakh transactions per day.

The „Digitize India‟ platform is aimed at large scale digitization of records

and to facilitate efficient delivery of services to citizens and reduce piles of
papers in record rooms.
National Centre of Geo-informatics provides a GIS based decision support
system platform for sharing, collaborating, undertaking location based
analytics to meet the requirements of government agencies. So far, 27
applications across various domains are operational.

e-Courts: In the area of delivery of Justice there are two important

initiatives. A notable initiative is that of the „e-Courts‟ which is a Mission
Mode Pan-India Project, of the Department of Justice, for the District
Courts across the country. The Government of India (GoI), also launched
“Tele-Law”- a programme aimed at providing legal aid services in rural
areas through digital technology on 20th April, 2017.

Open Government Data (OGD) is a platform for Govt Ministries/

Departments to publish datasets, documents, services, tools and
applications collected by them for public use and to improve transparency
in the functioning of Government.

Citizen engagement: MyGov.inisa crowd sourcing platform launched for

citizens' engagement in decision making by the Government whereby they
can share their views and suggestions on key issues. A Rapid Assessment
System (RAS) has been developed for continuous feedback for e-services
delivered by Government of India and State Governments. Integrated with
1,139 e-Services of 210 departments in 33 States/UTs/Central Ministries
& Departments.

The list of e-governance initiatives is indeed long more information is

readily available in public domain. An application called e-
taal automatically aggregates of e-Transaction data on National and State
level e-Governance Projects including Mission Mode Projects. It pulls the e-
Transactions from the applications using Web Services technology and
facilitates quick analysis of transaction data. As on 19th July, 2018, 3589
no. of e-Services from 36 States/UT, 22 Mission Mode Projects and 46
Central Govt. Projects have been integrated with eTaal.

The task of developing e-governance applications is on-going. Each area

has ample scope for industry to partner with government for improving the
quality of government services and its interface with the citizens. An
important point to appreciate in the area of e-governance applications is
that meeting articulated needs is important. At the same time, it is
necessary to identify and address needs that may remain unarticulated,
but nevertheless necessary. This particularly relevant when it comes to
digital empowerment and digital inclusion, an issue, I turn to next.
III) DIGITAL INCLUSION AND EMPOWERMENTarenecessary to address
the issue of digital divide and to ensure that benefits of the digital economy
and shared and also do not reinforce pre-existing economic and social
divides or create new ones. Digital inclusion has various dimensions:
urban-rural, gender, digital access for the aged and so on. On all these
fronts we need to move beyond the aggregates.

For instance, the overall teledensity in India has been increasing and now
stands at 90 %. The overall internet penetration in the country has also
been growing rapidly and is over 494 million in 2018. While the rise in
teledensityand internet subscribers over the years is heartening, there is
sharp difference between the urban and rural areas. The urban teledensity
is around 156% and that for rural areas is 57%. Similar is the case with
the internet penetration. This gap needs to be addressed through all
possible means.
It is also worth stating that ICT in e-governance, digital infrastructure
provisioning are enablers and essentially supply side initiatives.E-
governance needs to go hand in hand with digital inclusion and
empowerment.

As there a full panel of eminent experts who will deliberate on the subject I
will limit my intervention on this subject to flagging a few key initiatives in
the area digital inclusion under the Digital India program.

The National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) followed by the„Digital

SaksharataAbhiyan‟ (DISHA) have the objective of making one person in
every household in the country e-literate. A total of 61.5 lakh persons have
been trained in digital literacy under the NDLM/DISHA

A scheme for IT Mass Literacy has the objective to provide IT training,

relevant to the need of the trainee which enables the beneficiaries to use IT
and related applications for their livelihood earning and employability has
been approved.Apart for that there are schemes of the State government.

India Languages the new Frontier: The growth of internet has been
predominantly in a few international languages, predominantly English. It
may not be wrong to say that languages are going to the new frontier of
growth. Recognising this need and opportunity, the government launched a
portal called Vikaspediato provide access to information on products and
services in diverse areas likeHealth, Education, Agriculture, social welfare
in over 23 languages and reach out the „un-reached‟ communities,
especially the poor. To facilitate use of Indian languages on the
internettheMinistry of Electronics and Information Technology launched
the e-Aksharayana desktop software for converting scanned printed Indian
Language documents into a fully editable text format in Unicode encoding
in 7 Indian languages.Under Accessible India Campaign, Government
websites are being made accessible to Divyangjan.

Let me add that addressing the digital divide is also an area of opportunity
for potential social entrepreneurs There are already numerous grass root
initiatives by non–government organisations in this area. It is also an
opportunity for device designers, manufactures and IT professionals..

IV) ELECTRONICS MANUFACTURING& V) PROMOTING IT SERVICES:

I now turn to a slightly different subject and that of electronics

manufacturing which a focus area under Digital India. I started this lecture
by highlighting some facets of global trends in electronics manufacturing
and IT. Let me add,that as of today, it is worth taking note of the fact that
„Electronics manufacture‟ is the world‟sfastest growing segment of Global
Manufacturing. Also at the global level electronics manufacturing and
design continues to remain an area where employment opportunities are
continuing to grow.

Growth in World Manufacturing Growth in production of Electronics

and Electronics Manufacturing 2015 (Q4) to 2017 By Country Groups -2015 (Q4) to 2017
15 16
14
13
12
11
10
Per cent

9 8
per cent

7 6
4
5
2
3 0
1 -2
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4
Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4

2015 2016 2017

2015 2016 2017

Global Mfg Growth Electronics Mfg growth Emerging &Developing industriral economies Industrialised economies

While we are aware that electronics manufacture is organised in global

value chains(GVCs) where value addition and return may be highest at the
R&D and design end. Actual manufacture, assembly and packaging may
take place in another countrybut geta small fraction of the return. There is
also experience of countries moving up on the value chain after starting
with assembly or electronic manufacturing services (EMS).
However, the countries (and companies) that have been successful have
honed their strategies by investing long term in R&D into future
technologies while also focussing on innovations that yield returns on a
more immediate basis. By definition, some these strategies entail risk and
have meant allowing for failure in order to succeed.
Animportant trend is that of virtualisation of hardware whereby many of
the functions and controls are now software driven. This according to some
experts is a major opportunity for India to use IT and electronics design
skills for designing and developing the next generation productsThere is
considerable depth in terms of electronics design that many of the MNCs
are already making use of from their units located in India.In the context of
the emergence of 5G based technologies which going to be the forthcoming
standard not just in telecommunication but also forIoT based devices, there
is new opportunity that is emerging for India to make an entry into
electronics manufacturing.
The International Global Value Chains VCs are now under train. The trade
frictions that are being played out internationally especially in the area of
Semiconductor is well known. Some of the major players are concerned
about over exposure and excessive dependence and may well be willing to
relocate. It is also an opportunity if India can make use of it.
India is also the fastest growing market for a range of electronic goods with
the buoyant demand driven by its demographics, high growth, and not in
the least by the investments under the Digital India program itself. At
present electronics hardware import constitute the second largest group of
imports While imports of electronics to some extent will be needed, at this
juncture, there is window of opportunity for India to leverage its own
market size and to ramp up manufacturing and also be the design
workshop for the world.
Against this backdrop let me spell out some of the initiatives being taken in
for promoting electronics manufacturing.

Program initiatives- Electronics Mfg.

Scheme Objective Type of Assistance
Electronics Manufacturing Strengthen infrastructure Fiscal as percentage of
Clusters project cost
Modified Special Incentive Promote investment in Fiscal: to Offset disabilities
Package Scheme (M-SIPS) large Scale Manufacture
Electronics Development Fund Provision of risk capital Support to fund of funds
(EDF) To foster innovation, which will invest in daughter
enrich IPR in technology funds
intensive areas
Public Procurement Order 2017 Encourage make in India Preference to
domestically manufactured
electronic products based on
domestic value addition
Phased Manufacturing Encourage make in India Differential Duty dispensation
Programme
(esp. targeting Mobiles)

Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC): Ministry of Electronics and

Information Technology notified Electronics Manufacturing Clustersscheme
in Oct 2012 to support creating of world-class infrastructure for attracting
investments in Electronics Systems Design and Manufacturing. Under
EMC Scheme, MeitY has accorded approval to 23 projects (20 Greenfield
EMCs and 3 Common Facility Centre (CFC) in Brownfield EMCs) in 15
states across the country. As of now, 16 units have commenced their
commercial production with an investment of Rs. 3839 Crore in various
verticals of electronics and have provided employment to over 7820 persons
Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (M-SIPS): The Scheme aims
to provide financial incentives to offset fiscal disadvantages and attract
investments. A total investment of Rs. 6971 Crore has been made by 126
applicants. Out of these 126 units, 108 units have commenced production.
These 108 units have generated total employment (direct and Indirect) of
67,992 and paid total taxes amounting to Rs 4863 crore to the
Government.
Electronic Development Fund (EDF) aims of enhancing flow of risk
capital to foster innovation, enrich IPR in technology intensive areas.
Support is provided to a fund of funds which will invest in daughter funds.
Twenty two daughter Funds have been selected for investment through
EDF. The cumulative commitment of EDF to these 22 Daughter Funds is
Rs 1,227 crore and the total targeted corpus of these 22 Daughter Funds is
around Rs 10,900 crore. As on date, MeitY has released Rs 51.24 crore to
EDF. EDF in turn has released Rs. 46.55 crore to six Daughter Funds,
which in turn have made investments in 46 Startups/companies.

Rationalisation of tariff structure: Several initiatives have been taken to

rationalise tariff structure for encouraging domestic electronics hardware
manufacturing.
National Centres of Excellence: To encourage R&D which is aimed at
directly supporting a base for manufacturing several National Centres have
been set up. These include, Large Area Flexible Electronics (NCFLEX) at
IIT-Kanpur, Technology on Internal Security (NCETIS) at IIT-Bombay,
Internet of Things (IoT) Bengaluru, Gurugram Vishakhapatnam &
Ahmadabad,Nano Electronics at IISc Bengaluru and IIT-Bombay, Next
Generation AMOLED Displays at IIT-Madras and Fabless Chip Design at
IIT-Hyderabad

Testing, Quality and Standardization is an important area.

TheStandards Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) has been providing
3rd party, independent Quality and Security Evaluation services for
Electronic products, Software Applications, Websites and IT Products/
Systems for more than three decades to Electronics and IT industries,
including Government and R&D organizations etc., in the country and
supporting in creation of Digital Infrastructure
Telecom: An important initiative that has been taken in the area of 5G
technology. On the telecom side, the Department of Telecommunications is
supporting a setting up of a 5G technology test bed in selected research
institution (IIT)the next big frontier the oncoming 5G technology. At the
technical level India has been an active participant in the discussions on
5G standards. The DoT has come out with a report that lays out a road
map for the roll out of 5G.
The Department of Telecommunications has brought out the draft of the
National Digital Communications Policy – 2018 which has gone through a
process of public consultation. Encouraging Local Manufacturing and
Value Addition is a important objective in the policy.

The Indian Information Technology / InformationTechnology enabled

Services (IT/ ITeS) industry hascontributed immensely in positioning the
country asa preferred investment destination amongst globalinvestors and
creating huge job opportunities in India. The industry has differentiated
itself in theglobal competition on account of consistent serviceand
guaranteed results and has also helped forgestrong bilateral ties with
nations.
BPO Promotion Scheme: Under Digital India Programme, the Government
has launched India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) for creation of
employment opportunities and promotion of BPO/ITeS operations across
the country particularly in small cities/towns including rural areas. The
scheme provides financial support in the form of Viability Gap Funding (up
to Rs 1 lakh per seat towards capital and operational expenditure along
with special incentives Around 48,300 BPO/ITeS seats have been
distributed across State(s)/UT(s). More than 40,000 seats have been
approved distributed around 115 cities in 26 States and 2 UTs under IBPS
and NEBPS.

6 VI) CYBER SECURITY: Securing digital assets (both physical 8 and

virtual), in today‟s context in an imperative to prevent subversive actions by
state and non-state actors9.As there is panel discussion of distinguished
experts on Cyber security in the afternoonI will limit myself to highlighting
a few conceptsfrom a public policy perspective and key interventions under
Digital India.
First, every Society, State, or Enterprise needs to consciously decide how
to balance three important considerations, namely, security, privacy and
transparency. All three are needed. Policy makers need be aware of this
triad and possible trade off that at times, may be value or context specific.
The Triad: Security, Privacy and Transparency

Security
Privacy
Transperancy

8
Even physical infrastructure power, rail/ roads etc. rely on digital networks.
9 Economics of Cyber security is an evolving discipline. The question of how to measure
performance in cyber security is still largely unanswered (Brangetto and Aubyn:2017)
Second, the strength of cyber security depends on laws, organisations,
technical capacityand implementation. Using these dimensions The ITU
has ranked India at 23 out of 165 nations in global cyber security index
2017. How well spread is the level of preparedness is an issue that needs
constant vigil. It is said that the strength of a chain is its weakest link,
hence there is need for all round capacity building in this area.

Institutional Dimensions

Legal/ Regulatory Technical

Framework Capacity

Implementation Organisational
Capacity building

Third, the issue of Cyber security transcends borders, since, threats

emerge from any part of the world, including, the dark internet. There is
therefore a strategic dimension where cooperation and countermeasures
may are needed even among countries that compete 10.
Strategic Dimensions

Compe Cooper
tition ation

Counter-
Measures

The economic arguments for investing in Cyber security thus rest on the
same logic as with investment in digital infrastructure. For instance each
network may not internalise cyber risks. But when there is a loss resulting
from a risk, it affects a large number of users with a negative externality11.

10
This is true, even between players within an industry (eg Banks). Most of all, cooperation is needed in
setting, and observing security standards.
11
Further the lack of investment in cyber security by one market player can negatively affect the security of
the othersBrangetto& Aubyn:2017: pp 10)
Hence the need for a legal framework as also public investment where
needed.12.

In the Digital India program, Cyber Security is a important action area.

As far as the finding a balance in terms of the TRIAD is concerned between
security, privacy and transparency, there is currently an vibrant debate
taking place in public domain especially on data privacy in light the report
of the Committee under the chairmanship of justice Sri krishna committee.
I will limit myself to the organisational efforts made under the program.

Considering its vital importance, a National Cyber Security Policy is now in

place with the stated mission to protect information and information
infrastructure in cyber space, build capabilities to respond to cyber threats,
reduce vulnerabilities and minimize damage from cyber incidents.

Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) is designated as a

National nodal agency to coordinate matters related to cyber security
incidents in the country. National Critical Information Infrastructure
Protection Centre (NCIIPC) has been setup to enhance the protection and
resilience of Nation‟s Critical information infrastructure.

The Cyber Swachhta Kendra (Botnet Cleaning and Malware Analysis

Centre has been established by CERT-In for detection of compromised
systems in India and to notify, enable cleaning and securing systems of end
users to prevent further malware infections.

CERT-In is implementing the National Cyber Coordination Centre (NCCC)

which is a situational awareness and early warning system. NCCC will
scan the cyberspace in the country at meta data level for near real time
threat assessment and situational awareness that will help in analysis and
generation of timely alerts and periodic reports The centre is working with
Banks, ISPs, Port trusts, Stock exchanges, and Financial institutions
Depositories etc. to detect malware infections in their networks and enable
remedial actions.
In the area of competency and capability building, a Cyber Surakshit
Bharat programme has been initiated to educate and enable Chief
Information Security Officers (CISO) and IT officials in Central/State
Governments, PSU Banks and PSU
As per provision of Section 79A under Information Technology Act the
Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) notified four
Central and Sate Government laboratories as an „Examiner of Electronic
Evidence‟ or Cyber Forensics.

12It is also very difficult to estimate the net benefits of investment in cyber security as investment in security
prevents losses but do not generate profits (other than firms supplying security solutions). Hence, the usual
ROI model are not useful instead the return on security investment needs to calculated taking into account
the potential loss that can be saved.
In the area of Telecommunications, The draft National Digital
Communication policy has also spelt out „ Secure India‟ as one of its
Mission areas by establishing a strong, flexible and robust Data Protection
Regime.
vii) Human resources Development: Human capital which is the prime
driving force of an economy. Recognising importance of Human Resource
Development there are specific initiatives under „Digital India‟

The Visvesvaraya PhD Scheme is major initiative to encourage high level

skills in Electronics System Design and Manufacturing (ESDM) and IT/IT
Enabled Services (IT/ITES). The objective is to have 3000 Ph.Ds to promote
innovation and development of new products. There are now 94 academic
institutions participating under the scheme with 967 Full Time, 178 Part-
Time PhD Scholars PhD enrolled.
The scheme for Skill Development in Electronic System Design and
Manufacturing aims at enhancing the capacities in the ESDM sector
through public and private sector.The target is to cover around 4.18 lakh
candidates across states and UTs.
For faculty development, seven Electronics and ICT Academies for faculty
development have been set up.

The Special Manpower Development Programme in Chips to System Design

(SMDP-C2SD),aims to develop more than 50,000 industry ready specialized
manpower in the area of Very Large- Scale Integration (VLSI) and System
level Design at PhD, Post Graduate and Graduate level over a period of 5
years. The programme is being implemented at 60 Institutions.

The Centre of Excellence for Internet of Things (IoT) at Bangalore in

collaboration with NASSCOM has been set up which has incubated 42
start-ups (5 graduated, presently 37 incubated)(till 18.07.18)and around
500+ start-ups in the extended ecosystem. 41 IPs have been applied and 7
IPs received. 239 people have been employed.

viii) Research & Development: R&D is the basis for a country to be ahead
of the curve and retain competitiveness on a sustained basis. R&D which
may be of a fundamental and overarching or long term nature may need
public funding and institutional support. There is network of public funded
labs and institutions. Evidently there are some efforts in the private sector
as well. As this subject is vast, I will limit myself to flagging a few R&D
initiatives specifically under Digital India in electronics and IT.
 Initiatives under digital India in R&D broadly span following areas
 Nanotechnology:
 Centres of Excellence in Nano-electronics: IISc, IITB & IIT Guwahati
 Electronics Systems Development & Application (ESDA)
 Medical Electronics & Health Informatics:
 Power/ Energy: Microgrid Applications, Smart Energy Meters
 Medical Waste using Microwave
 Green Technologies: eg Milk Analyzer Using
 Transportation: Vehicle Control and Train Communication Network
 Wide Band Gap semiconductor IISc Bangalore
 Tactile Graphics Software tools for the visually impaired
 IT Applications for Livelihood: CAD for Saree Design
 Gas sensors
 Navigational services: NavIC
 Special Manpower Development Programme for Chips to System Design (
 R&D in Cyber Security
 National Mission on Supercomputing.
7) Having discussed the initiatives under Digital India,I feel the need to
flag two dimensions of the emerging Digital Economy thatneed even more
attention.One is e-waste and second is metrics.
E-waste: India is one of the largest markets for electronic products. For the
regulation of e-wastes, the E-waste Management Rules, 2016 notified by
Ministry of Environment & Forestsin March 2016and provides for Extended
Producer Responsibility (EPR) that makes producers of electrical and
electronic equipment responsible for ensuring environment friendly
recycling and disposal at the end-of-life of products. While there are no
hard data, based on large scale surveys of e-waste generation in India,
some studies have also made an attempt to arrive at e-waste estimates and
recycling. A study by Assocham has estimated that e-waste in India may be
of the order of 1.7 Million tonnes, of which, only 1.5 % is recycled.This
issue will assume even greater proportions, with increase in consumption
and shortening of product life cycles.E-waste needs skilled handling,
technology solutions and business models.
The Govt of India through Meity has funded R&D projects to develop
technological solutions for e-waste management as also an e-waste
awareness program. The Ministry of Electronics has set up a R&D and
testing facility at the Centre for Materials for Electronics Technology
(CMET) for the purpose of testing and certification and also another facility
for recovery of metals from PCBs as well as other projects in collaboration
various agencies including CSIR
Green electronics and e-waste management may well be a business
opportunitiesprovided there is focussed attention of manufacturers, service
providers, industry associations and perhaps business schools as well to
come up with viable business models. In any case, it is an issue that
cannot be ignored.
Metrics: ‘Coming to Metrics‟, measurement of economic activities in the
physical world and arriving at aggregates is not easy. Nevertheless,
governments, companies and organisations are used the idea of measuring
inputs, outputs and value addition in physical or financial terms. But when
we talk of the digital economy, even its contours &boundariesare fuzzy?
The core of the digital economy is the „digital sector‟. Typically these are ICT
(IT and Electronics) firms producing digital goods and services. On top of
that we have digital platform and services both public and private which
may be providing goods or services. The third level is the use of ICTs in
other economic fields which is the „digitalised economy‟. This pertains to
penetration and use of digital technologies in areas like ranging from
agriculture, manufacturing or even mining.
The point is that if we wish to see how India‟s Digital Economy is
progressing on the ground we need metrics for all the three,as also, usage
patterns, diffusion, penetration of technologies and programme outcomes.
Only then can we judge,where lie the gaps,- ie. spacial, digital and gender
divides, resources, needed, and also the opportunities.Fortunately, Digital
India initiatives have their own dashboards with real time data. Obviously,
more needs to be done. Today‟s digital technologies provide tools for
measuring outcomes. In the area of metrics,while government has a role to
play, the industry associations with a wide membership of stakeholders
can also contribute proactively by placing more information in public
domain, especially as much of the data today rest at that end13.
Concluding observations: In conclusion I would like to emphasise that
Digital India is no doubt a major effort at transforming delivery of
governance services and its access by the citizens.At the same time, the
vision of „Digital India‟and its scope is not limited to Government led
programmes only and there isa lot of scope for initiative and action outside
the government.

From the perspective of industry,it is a major on-going opportunity to

partner in building digital infrastructure,IT applications and takeup
manufacture of electronic products. The scenario that is unfolding suggests
that the demand for these is likely to remainbuoyant. For those in the area
research, design, education, skill formation and social
entrepreneurshipalso this will remain an area of opportunity. Naturally,
future managers regardless of where they work will play the most critical
role.

From an economic perspective,what isof critical importance is to now focus

on building the synergies between the different areas of action at the

13
For instance data on electronics manufacturing.
ground level, as well as, at the institutional level, so that the supply and
the demand forces are harnessed and India builds aneco-systemfor
sustained growth of its digital economy.
In the end I would like to once again express deep appreciation for the
initiative taken by the Calcutta Management Association for organising this
flagship summit and inviting me to share my view before this distinguished
gathering.
I thank you for your kind attention.

********
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