“Tell me what on earth is ‘Digi India’?” – shouts my exhasperated sister, appearing from under the mountains of her CLAT books, “Is Modi coming up with these things just to make the life of examinees tough?! – Every week there is something!”
I hear you lil sister, as do I hear the collective groan of hundred others obsessing over ‘current affairs’ – does it feel like the new Government is giving us extra homework with all these schemes?! ;)
Well – anyway – this brings us to our new-est ‘currently-making-news’ topic :–
I hear you lil sister, as do I hear the collective groan of hundred others obsessing over ‘current affairs’ – does it feel like the new Government is giving us extra homework with all these schemes?! ;)
Well – anyway – this brings us to our new-est ‘currently-making-news’ topic :–
‘Digital India’
Prime Minister Modi’s vision … The Department of Electronics and Information Technology of the Government of India’s pet project … Old Generation’s bane … and the Next Generation’s boon - we present to to you – Deegee Indiah! (I hope that was dramatic enough…drumrolls and all!)As put in words by the Ministry, Digi India “is a programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.”
When we think of Digi India key words like broadband, digital, e-Courts, mobile, banking, e-Police etc should come to mind … these are the unique selling points of the whole thing!
So,
What is Digi India?
We know the basic premises of Digital India – India finally going 21st Century with informations technology (IT).It is nothing but India’s coming of age – where IT will be in the daily lives of common people and not only of the IT people of Silicon Valley (Bangalore!).
Imagine everything online! Everything happening at the touch of your keypad and click of your mouse – with broadband speed – imagine government services being rendered to you like that – and that dear friends is the vision of Digital India.
Laying down all the specs:-
Very important for the ‘current affairs’ … so high speed specifications coming up …take note …- Project proposed to be completed by 2019. It is a top priority project.
- Every Indian to have a smartphone by 2019 – I hear ya!
- Slogan going around these days – IT + IT = IT; which means India Today + Information Technology = India Tomorrow.
- Expected to generate more than 5 crore jobs!
- The project’s estimated cost – minimum – is 1 lakh crores … !
- The three D’s – digital services, digital infrastructure and digital literacy.
A little elaboration is warranted here –
The aim of this ginormous project
is to bring the whole of India under the IT umbrella and provide all government
services through the internet – for which there will be massive need for an IT
infrastructure covering the whole of India (rural India being the most
important area for immediate development) and encouraging the masses to utilize
and embrace these changes by educating them about the technology, its benefits,
the processes etc.
Services/ USPs can be listed as follows:
- High Speed Internet to all and everywhere – which means rural India too.
- All Banking services – by all banks – via the internet.
- All Government serves – by all Government Departments – via the cyber space – less paperwork – no queues or lesser of those anyways!
- All citizen documents – details – apart from the usual PAN/ AADHAR etc – to be available online.
Nine Pillars of Digital India movement:
(1) Broadband Highways – rural, urban – by 2017.
(2) Universal Access to Phones – mainly to get the rural people on the loop – 42300 villages are still uncovered – est time of completion 2018 – integration of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) and National Knowledge Networks (NKNs) …
(3) Public Internet Access Programme – National Rural Internet Mission – with Post Offices becoming multi-services centres.
(4) E-Governance – all Government services routed through the internet – no or lesser paperwork – all processes within the Government automated – records will be held in databases and not in physical dusty files! – easy and simple user interface to government portals etc.
(5) E-Kranti – delivery of services electronically – if you are patient you can get your health reports and insurance coverage informations online – if you are a farmer you can get your queries, market prices and trends online, payment making, ordering of inputs etc all online – for students – free wifi in ALL schools (erm…ok!) – also we have – e-Police, e-Courts, e-Prosecution and e-Jails in perfect e-order!
(6) Information for all – two way communication between government and people and like it says – information far all.
(7) Electronics manufacturing in India – Make in India + empowernemnt of domestic manufaturing units = zero imports by 2020! (Team India all the way!)
(8) Jobs = jobs = jobs = India really needs this one!
(9) Early harvest programmes … huh? …this one is actually … well it means getting some 9-10 particular programmes/ initiatives quickly done and delivered to the people – early harvest! (Mentioned below)
What I’ve put up here in this article is just the facts of the Digi India Programme that anyone ought to know of the top of their head.
This topic should be on your finger tips
But there are a lot more information to cover on this one and I’ll follow it up with another articles giving the numbers and some more facts and some current developments etc.
(2) Universal Access to Phones – mainly to get the rural people on the loop – 42300 villages are still uncovered – est time of completion 2018 – integration of State Wide Area Networks (SWANs) and National Knowledge Networks (NKNs) …
(3) Public Internet Access Programme – National Rural Internet Mission – with Post Offices becoming multi-services centres.
(4) E-Governance – all Government services routed through the internet – no or lesser paperwork – all processes within the Government automated – records will be held in databases and not in physical dusty files! – easy and simple user interface to government portals etc.
(5) E-Kranti – delivery of services electronically – if you are patient you can get your health reports and insurance coverage informations online – if you are a farmer you can get your queries, market prices and trends online, payment making, ordering of inputs etc all online – for students – free wifi in ALL schools (erm…ok!) – also we have – e-Police, e-Courts, e-Prosecution and e-Jails in perfect e-order!
(6) Information for all – two way communication between government and people and like it says – information far all.
(7) Electronics manufacturing in India – Make in India + empowernemnt of domestic manufaturing units = zero imports by 2020! (Team India all the way!)
(8) Jobs = jobs = jobs = India really needs this one!
(9) Early harvest programmes … huh? …this one is actually … well it means getting some 9-10 particular programmes/ initiatives quickly done and delivered to the people – early harvest! (Mentioned below)
Services required for Digital India
- First one is get the mass messaging application ready and working, so that the Government can reach people via emails.
- Second one is to ready the e-Greeting templates done – Governemnt’s personalise greeting cards to the common man!
- Third is secured inter-Government, inter-Government Department e-mail system designing of common Government template – this is important too.
- Fourth one is bio-metric attendance counter for all Government employees – you know finger print access … running of the card keys before entering offices – all very high tech!
- Fifth is to get the Universities and Colleges to have WiFis – I ask where was Modi in my time?!
- Sixth is public Wifi hotspots – seriously where was Modi in my time?!
- Seventh is to have all school books converted into PDFs! That is to have ‘e-books’, so that any student from anywhere can access any book.
- Eigth is to have e-weather reports and national natural calamities alert messages.
- Ninth is to have an online portal for lost and found children – this I vehemently support!
What I’ve put up here in this article is just the facts of the Digi India Programme that anyone ought to know of the top of their head.
This topic should be on your finger tips
But there are a lot more information to cover on this one and I’ll follow it up with another articles giving the numbers and some more facts and some current developments etc.
All the computer hardware and software companies Intel, Microsoft, Adobe and Google are going to play a big role to make "Digital India" a reality.
So keep the feedbacks pouring in with questions and stuff…as of now have a good Sunday!
Continue the discussion on twitter with hashtag #DigitalIndia
