The Digital India Transformation

In Context 

Recently ,Digital India ,a transformative programme has completed 8 years .

About Digital India Mission

• It is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
• Launched on July 1, 2015.
• Vision Areas:
  • Digital Infrastructure as a Core Utility to Every Citizen
  • Governance & Services on Demand 
  • Digital Empowerment of Citizens

Pillars of Digital India

Image Courtesy: DigitalIndia

Achievements 

• India today is home to more than 75 crore smartphones, 133 crore Aadhaar cards, more than 80 crore internet users, has 4G and is now accelerating towards 5G. 
  • Above all, it has among the lowest data tariffs in the world. 
• Digital India solved some of the most difficult problems the country had been facing for decades.
  •  Ensuring delivery of government schemes to its beneficiaries without leakage or misuse remained a herculean task. 
• The Jan-Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) trinity has ensured that the poorest receive every penny of their entitled benefits.
  • Financial benefits worth nearly Rs 23 lakh crore have been transferred using DBT technology in the last eight years. 
    • This has led to savings of Rs 2.22 lakh crore of public money.
• During pandemic
  • The digital ecosystem was also useful in tackling the challenge of the pandemic. 
  • From bulk messages to people in quarantine areas giving useful information and using digital technology for vaccination to digital education for students when schools were closed, there have been shining examples of empowerment, inclusion and opportunity.

• Land Records
  • Leveraging the power of drones and GIS technologies, SVAMITVA Yojana is providing digital land records to the rightful owners. 
  • It reduces disputes and also facilitates monetisation of land for availing bank loans and enables scientific village level planning. 
    • Nearly 2.14 crore land parcels have been digitised so far.
• Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas”
  • Digital India reflects our core philosophy of “Sabka Saath, Sabka Vishwas”.
•  Bharat Net
  • To provide high-speed broadband to all the villages, optical fibre has been laid in 1.83 lakh gram panchayats under Bharat Net. 
• Digital Payments 
  • India has emerged as the fastest-growing ecosystem for fintech innovations. 
  • India’s digital payments revolution is being appreciated globally. 
    • This was made possible due to innovative digital payment products like UPI and Aadhaar-Enabled Payment Systems (AEPS). When banks and ATMs were shut during Covid-19, AEPS-based micro-ATM at CSCs and post offices provided doorstep delivery of cash.
• Atma Nirbhar in electronics manufacturing
  • India is rapidly becoming atma nirbhar in electronics manufacturing. 

• Services to citizens made easy: Getting Driving licence, birth certificate, paying electricity bill, paying water bill, filing income tax return, have become very easy, very fast with the help of Digital India. All this is happening in villages, in Common Service Centres (CSCs) near people’s homes.
• PM WANI: Access points are being created so that rural youth can connect with high-speed internet for better services and education.
  •  Also, 5G technology will bring significant changes in the world, and India is preparing itself to make the most of this opportunity.

Challenges 

• The issues pertaining to taxation and other regulatory guidelines have proved to be roadblocks in advancing with the programme.
• Digital divide
  • Currently ,many villages remain deprived of mobile connectivity because their locations is not commercially viable for service providers,

Way Forward 

• In the last eight years, the success of Digital India only confirms that it has a robust future in India’s development.
• Digital India has played a crucial role in citizen services.
  • The movement will be taken forward by leveraging futuristic technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and blockchain.

• The government needs to look at all possibilities and go into overdrive to bridge the digital divide.
• In rural and remote areas, private sector players should be incentivised to provide last mile connectivity.

Source:IE