VISION OF DIGITAL INDIA- POWER TO

EMPOWER: OPPERTUNITIES, IMPACT

AND CHALLENGES

By
Dr. S. Vijay Kumar
Head
Department of Economics (Retd.), Kakatiya Government
(UG&PG) College (NAAC “A” Grade), Ex - Member of Board of
Studies, Kakatiya University,
Warangal – 506 009
(Telangana State)
Digital India was launched by Shri Narendra Modi, Prime
Minister of India on 2nd July 2015.
Objectives of the Study:
1. Scope of digital India
2. Aims of the vision of digital India initiative
3. Approach of digital India
4. Program Management Structure
5. Nine pillars of digital India
6. Policy initiatives
7. Key Projects of digital India and Key factors affecting Digital
Entrepreneurship
8. Opportunities of digital India for entrepreneurs
9. Impact of digital India
10. Challenges of digital India
11. Future of digital India
12. Suggestions
 Methodology & Scope of digital India
• Methodology: The Study is based on Secondary data collected from
Journals, News Papers, Internet and Government Websites etc.
• Scope of digital India:
• To prepare India for a knowledge future
• Making technology central to enabling change
• Nine pillars of digital India
• Broadband Highways
• Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
• Public Internet Access Programme
• e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology
• e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services
• Information for all
• Electronics Manufacturing
• IT for Jobs
• Early Harvest Programmes
 Nine Pillars of Digital India

• Broadband Highways (Pillar 1): Broadband for All - Rural, Urban and National Information
Infrastructure.
• Public Internet Access Programme (Pillar 2): Common Service Centres and Post Offices as
multi-service centres.
• Information for every one (Pillar 3): Open Data platform, online information,
documents easy access, 2 way communication between citizens and Government.
• Early Harvest Programmes (Pillar 4): IT Platform for Messages - Biometric attendance - Wi-Fi
in All Universities etc.
• Universal Access (Pillar 5): Network penetration - All together 42,300 uncovered villages will
be covered for providing universal mobile connectivity - DoT will be the nodal department.
• IT for Jobs (Pillar 6): 1 Cr students from smaller towns & villages will be trained for IT sector
jobs over 5 years. 5 lakh rural work force would be trained by the Telecom Service
Providers.
• e – Kranti (Pillar 7): e-Education, e-Healthcare, Technology for Farmers, for Planning, for
Financial inclusion, for Cyber Security etc.
• e – Governance (Pillar 8): Form simplification and field reduction – User friendly - Online
applications, Use of online repositories e.g. school certificates, voter ID cards, etc.
• Electronic Manufacturing (Pillar 9): The government is focusing on zero imports of
electronics by 2020.
 Program Management Structure of Digital India
The programme management structure for Digital India consists of a Monitoring
Committee on Digital India headed by the Prime Minister, a Digital India Advisory
Group chaired by the Minister of Communications & IT and an Apex Committee
chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.
Key Projects of Digital India
 Social impact
• Modern ICT makes it easier for people to obtain access
to services and resources.
• The penetration of mobile devices are highly useful
have an enormous impact on the quality of life of the
users and lead to social modernization.
• Digital Technologies which include Cloud Computing
(the practice of using a network of remote servers
hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process
data, rather than a local server or a personal computer)
and Mobile Applications have emerged as catalysts for
rapid economic growth and citizen empowerment.
• Digital technologies are being increasingly used by us
in everyday lives from retail stores to government
offices. They help us to connect with each other and
also to share information on issues and concerns
faced by us.
 Environmental impact
• Telepresence helps in creating a virtual environment for face to face
conversations and minimizes the need for travel.
• Flexible work environment where work from home and bring-your-own-
device (BYOD) are permitted, can significantly reduce their carbon
footprint and operational costs by not only reducing the electronic waste
in the form of laptops, desktops, etc. but also by reducing the need of
large fixed office space for businesses.
• A program in the UK found that an employee can save 1,175 driving miles
each year, amounting to a 364.5kg reduction in carbon emissions when he
works from home 1.5 days per week. M2M enabled devices and
technologies like smart meter, smart grid, smart logistics and smart building
help in many different ways by efficient energy management. Cloud
computing technology minimizes carbon emissions by improving mobility
and flexibility.
• The energy consumption can be decreased from 201.8 terawatt hour
(TWh) in 2010 to 139.8 TWh in 2020 by higher adoption of cloud data
centers causing a 28% reduction in carbon footprint from 2010 levels.
• Digital media for paper intensive services such as governance, ticketing,
newspaper, etc. could not only result in efficient delivery of services but at
the same time would lower the use of paper, thus preventing
deforestation.
 Other Impacts
• Seamlessly integrated services across departments or jurisdictions.
• Availability of services in real time from online & mobile platforms.
• Digitally transformed services for improving ease of doing business.
• Making financial transactions electronic & cashless.
• Leveraging Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) for decision support systems &
development.
• Reduces paper work by minimizing the usage of physical documents as well as
enabling e-sharing through registered repositories.
• It is an effective online platform which may engage people in governance through
various approaches like “Discuss, Do and Disseminate”.
• It ensures the achievement of various online goals set by the government.
• It makes possible for people to submit their documents and certificates online
from anywhere which reduces physical work.
• Through e-Sign framework citizens may digitally sign their documents online.
• It may ease the important health care services through e-Hospital system such as
online registration, taking doctor appointments, fee payment, online diagnostic
tests, blood check-up, etc.
• It provides benefits to the beneficiaries through National Scholarship Portal by
allowing submission of application, verification process, sanction and then
disbursal.
• It is a big platform which facilitates an efficient delivery of government or private
services all over the country to its citizens.
 Challenges of digital India
• Speed: The technology is growing at a tremendous speed. Keeping up with this
speed, it is becoming increasingly difficult as factors like globalization, changing
stakeholder expectations and increasing customer demands add to the
complexity of the issue.
• Global Competition: Increasing market demands for continuous improvement, and
integration of various disciplines like content, graphics, technology, services,
relationships, etc. all together has led to increased global competition which is
difficult to cope up with without having the right skill-set and appropriate
technology at the right time. There is an underlying need for constant innovation
for all netpreneurs, without which they face the threat of extinction or being out
casted by competition.
• Need for Collaboration, Experimentation and Adaptability: The netpreneurs
should be willing to collaborate with other firms in order to grow on a larger
scale. They should keep experimenting with the latest technologies and should try
to adapt their product with changing customer needs. All netpreneurs should
develop the habit of rapidly responding to changes as and when they occur.
• Maintenance of Distribution Channels: In order to sustain success, the
netpreneurs should ensure maintenance of right distribution channels.
• High cost of implementation: Approximate cost of implementing this mammoth
project is Rs. 1.13 trillion (including ongoing and new schemes).
• Time overrun: National Optical Fibre Network(NOFN) project which is the back
bone of the Digital India project has been delayed several times and is suffering
time overrun. The delayed project may lead to delay in other dependent projects
and meeting the budget limit will be difficult.
 Challenges of digital India
• Lack of coordination among departments: It is an umbrella project involving participation of
several departments and demanding commitment & effort. Hence, strong leadership and
timely support of all the involved entities will play a vital role.
• Poor private participation: To achieve timely completion of the projects extensive private
participation is necessary. The private participation in the government projects in India is
poor because of long and complex regulatory processes.
• Uniform and fast adoption of Internet: About 4 billion people in the world do not have
Internet connection and India comprises of 25% of them. India is the 4th largest smart
phone market with almost 111 million smart phone users. Average monthly cost of 500MB
mobile data plan on prepaid is $3.4 in India against $35.8 in Brazil, $15.5 in China and $17 in
Russia. Despite lowest data tariffs in the world, adoption of internet in India is not
encouraging. Faster adoption of Internet will be difficult due to illiteracy, affordability and
availability of mobile devices and data tariffs, lack of local language content, lack of
regionally relevant Apps. Still the use of Internet is low because of high data tariffs.
• Infrastructure: Though the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) project is aiming to build a
nationwide high speed broadband by the end of the year 2016 - 17 there are other
supporting infrastructure deficits, such as lack of robust and large data centers to hold the
data of entire country. In addition, the last mile connectivity and the physical infrastructure
at customer premises are unaffordable by most of the rural Indians. Infrastructure
fulfillment is necessary with the NOFN project.
• Cyber Security: According to National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) Report there is rapid
increase in cybercrime in India by 50% from 2012 to 2013. There have been several
incidences of cybercrime on corporate and individual level in the past few years. Putting
the data of 1.2 billion people on the cloud could be risky and could threaten the security of
individuals and the nation. Hence, the Digital India project demands very strong network
security at all levels of operation.
 Future of digital India
• Digital India is a programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge
economy. According to analysts, the Digital India plan could boost GDP up to $1 trillion by 2025.
• Empower citizens of India with data and information that is available with government across all
departments. Information to be digitized with government services that are accessible online
anytime, anywhere on any device.
• India with its diversity and geographical layout will need to work with the technologies like cloud-
computing (a concept where the infrastructure is converged and services are shared. The resources
which include application/software, platform, infrastructure (also in the form of an API) and also
business processes can be shared with multiple users and is dynamically allocated on
demand),mobility (web-based approach), analytics, social and security in a very well-coordinated and
organized structure.
• By 2019, 2.5 lakh villages will have broadband connection , with added feature of phone connectivity.
• India will have a staggering 400,000 Public Internet Access Points.
• Over 2.5 lakh educational institutions including schools and universities will have Wi-Fi facility.
• The most telling impact will be on increasing skills and job prospects. It is estimated that by 2019,
about 1.7 crore young Indians will have proper training in IT , telecom and electronics.
• 1.7 crore jobs directly and the resultant economic upsurge will add another 8.5 crore jobs.
• The total impact will be more than 10 crore jobs for Indian youths in about 4 years from now.
• India will become a world leader in IT interface with e governance and e-services getting maximum
exposure. Indian firms will gain internationally with their expertise in IT use in services like health,
education and banking.
 Suggestions
• Provide adequate spectrum at reasonable prices: A clear road-map of spectrum
availability with a rational pricing structure needs to be developed.
• Rationalize taxes and levies: Taxes and levies on telecom services should be
rationalized to ensure overall growth and financial viability of the sector.
• Provide uniform policies for deploying telecom infrastructure: There should be
uniform Right of Way (RoW) policy across all states with a uniform and reasonable
cost structure. Moreover, a single window mechanism should be provided for
granting RoW permissions. Also, the private sector needs to be incentivized to
provide last mile connectivity in rural areas.
• Provide a fillip (boost) to manufacturing ecosystem: There is a need to strengthen
the telecom equipment and handset manufacturing ecosystem in India through
incentives, and rationalization of taxes and levies.
• Establish robust standards for security and privacy: Clear rules relating to security
standards should be set to help reduce uncertainty for equipment providers, and
service providers. The Government, industry and related global standards bodies
should coordinate to establish protocols for standardization, interoperability and
performance of connected devices.
• Address security and governance issues of internet: A principles-based approach
to surveillance is required, so that trust among internet community is not lost.
• Establish policy framework to boost emerging services of cloud and M2M: There
should be a single nation-wide policy on data centers for providing cloud services,
avoiding regional/state-wise difference in regulations.
 Suggestions
• Digital literacy in regional languages is the need of hour.
• Internet Penetration, Internet Commerce, Internet Advertising: In Internet penetration we are about
seven years behind China. Hence, it is suggested to strengthen the internet services in India.
E-Commerce: It is still in nascent stage in India, hence it is to be strengthened.
• Electronics Manufacturing Hub: The intention of government is to bring down net electronics imports
to zero by 2020, from about $100 billion now, a move which will help the country control its current-
account deficit. As things stand, net annual electronics imports could rise to $400 billion by 2020,
outgrowing oil imports. “The PM is absolutely focused on making India the manufacturing hub and we
see massive potential in electronic manufacturing," It should become reality.
• Mobile for Banking & Financial Services: Not only IT/ITeS, telecom, electronics manufacturing sectors
would be benefited from Digital India, but "we would see positive impact on other industry sectors as
well, like Power Sector and Banking and Financial Services. Hence, mobile baking and financial
services should be expedited.”
• Health Care: If hospitals are part of the network providing medical advice through telemedicine, quality
healthcare can reach people living in remote areas for which Digital India can come in handy. Hence,
Government should plan to use Digital India initiative effectively improving medicare.
• Make Language Independent for Digital India: Another area of focus for Google as a part of supporting
the Digital India initiative is to build the non-English internet user base. Hence, along with English,
Indian languages to build the non-English internet so that internet becomes very helpful”.
• Coordination among the State and Central bodies: There should be coordination between the state and
central bodies, other-wise the cost and maintenance of the services will increase.
• Digitizing Governance: Efficient governance is a necessary step for empowering citizens in a country.
The e-Governance project depends upon the success of broadband highway and mobile penetration.
 Conclusion
According to experts the world has only begun to exploit the
potential of the digital technology and we have successfully
achieved only 1% digital connectivity till now. There has been a
huge shift in technological trends across the globe and as a
result, the world is witnessing a rapidly growing digital economy.
Easy access and availability of information and communication
technologies such as cloud computing, mobile solutions, growth
of social media and data analytics has increased the range of new
business opportunities for the entrepreneurs. These technologies
are influential tools which hold the power to reshape entire
industries, reduce entry barriers, redefine value chains, increase
market intelligence and provide opportunities for growth and
innovation. If exploited correctly, these technologies hold
enormous potential to create vast business value for the budding
entrepreneurs. Increased usage of advanced digital technologies
by new business enterprises can accelerate growth and increase
employment opportunities as there is enormous scope of
innovation in this sector. Hence, there is a huge underlying
potential for digital India to grow.
Thank You