Journal Press India^®

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the ‘Digital India’ programme on Wednesday, July 1, 2015 at the  Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in  the  national capital, New  Delhi, with a purpose to create participative, transparent, and responsive government, and Ministry of Communications and IT as nodal agency to implement the  programme. Top industrialists like  RIL Chairman and Managing Director, Mukesh Ambani; Tata Group Chairman, Cyrus Mistry; Wipro Chairman, Azim Premji and many others, were  among the business honchos who shared their ideas of taking digital revolution to the masses.
It is a big step forward to transform the  country into  a digitally empowered knowledge economy. Includes various schemes worth over Rs 1 lakh crore like Digital Locker, e-eduction, e-health, e-sign, and national scholarship portal. BharatNet in 11 states and Next Generation Network (NGN), are also a part of Digital India campaign. The programme includes projects that aim to ensure that government services are  available to citizens electronically, and people get benefit of the latest information and communication technology.
National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN)
NOFN proposes seven lakh kilometers of optical fibre to be laid to connect 250,000 gram panchayats in three years.

Impact of Digital India by 2019:

1. Broadband in 2.5 lakh villages, universal phone connectivity
2. Net Zero Imports by 2020
3. 400,000 Public Internet Access Points
4. Wi-fi in 2.5 lakh schools, all universities; Public wi-fi hotspots for citizens
5. Digital Inclusion: 1.7 Cr trained for IT, Telecom and Electronics Jobs
6. Job creation: Direct 1.7 Cr. and Indirect at least 8.5 Cr.
7. e-Governance & e-Services across government
8. India to be leader in IT use in services - health, education, banking
9. Digitally empowered citizens - public cloud, internet access http://www.oneindia.com/feature/

what-is-digital-india-programme-explained-1792279.html
Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple Government Ministries and Departments. It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each  of them can be implemented as part of a larger goal. Each individual element stands on its own, but is also part of the larger picture. Digital India is to be implemented by the entire Government with overall coordination being done by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY). Digital India aims to provide the  much needed thrust to the  nine pillars of growth areas, namely, 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 and Early Harvest Programmes. Each of these areas is a complex programme in itself, and cuts across multiple Ministries and Departments. http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/programme-pillars

The Government of India on December 28, 2015 expanded its Digital India programme, launching new initiatives and broadening the scope of existing ones, to make more  services, accessible to the masses.

The 22 initiatives launched under the Digital India programme include projects in the areas of digital infrastructure, digital empowerment, on-demand government services, and promotion of industry.

Under the programme, Prime Minister Narendra Modi plans to provide government services online, expand internet connectivity to rural areas and boost manufacturing of electronic goods in the country.

“If the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government is remembered for laying down national highways, the Narendra Modi government will be known to have laid  the  digital highway of the country,” communications minister, Ravi Shankar Prasad said while launching the initiatives in New Delhi.

The services launched recently include electronic payments for government services, a geographical information system (GIS)-based decision-support system, a request for proposal for selecting private cloud service providers for government departments, the setting up of an online laboratory for students to perform virtual experiments for all Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) schools, the incubation of 10 projects in the area of chip-to-system design, and the development of a native operating system that will support text-to-speech technology for nine regional languages.
The government also announced the  start of a new data centre for the  National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Odisha entailing an investment of Rs.189 crore and eight new software technology parks with an investment of Rs.78 crore. The new centres will take the total number of such parks in India to 62.
Mr. Ravi  Shankar Prasad awarded three states and 55 districts across the  country for significant contributions towards digital inclusion and innovative solutions. “We would  want all states to study the  success of other states and emulate,” he said. He urged District Magistrates and Information Officers to cooperate at the ground level to improve e-governance. He added that the Communications Ministry is committed to the launch of the payments bank of India Post by March 2017.
The government is also working on the concept of digital villages – rural areas that will have telemedicine facilities, virtual classes and solar power-based WiFi hot spots.
Speaking at the function, information technology secretary, J.S. Deepak said digital governance is the best way to reach the remotest corners of the country. “The basic objective should be to scale, because unless services are taken to the masses, digital inclusion will not succeed as asymmetry of information leads to asymmetry of opportunity,” he remarked.
The Reserve Bank of India in August, 2015, gave initial approval to 11 entities, including India Post, to set up payments banks within a period of 18 months.
Kavery Banerjee, Secretary, Department of Posts in her address, said her department is working towards making all postal transactions real-time and rolling out citizen-centric services. She announced that the current banking customers of the postal department will have access to mobile and Internet banking by early next year.
Communications minister Prasad also announced that state-run Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd (MTNL)
will offer free roaming services for incoming calls across the country starting 1 January, 2016. http:/
/www.livemint.com/Home-Page/QgFspv8UzykQP99AukcSjI/Govt-launches-22-new-schemes-under- Digital-India-programme.html
We should feel proud that we are part of India at such a revolutionary era of digital revolution in India, and each  one of us must become  part of this development process. We would  be evaluating India’a Report Card in Global Scenario in January 2017 at XVIII Annual International Conference at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi. All of you are  welcome to join in the annual events of Divine Group of Institutions.

Rtn. Dr. Ajay Kr. Singh