Right from the day of assuming power in the previous term, Digital India and Make in India have been two big USPs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Over the last few years, several initiatives have been taken for introduction of Information Technology to empower people in areas relating to health, education, labour and employment, commerce etc.
Digital India comprises of various initiatives under the single programme each targeted to prepare India for becoming a knowledge economy and for bringing good governance to citizens through synchronized and co-ordinated engagement of the entire Government.
This programme has been envisaged and coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) in collaboration with various Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments. The Prime Minister as the Chairman of Monitoring Committee on Digital India, activities under the Digital India initiative is being carefully monitored. All the existing and ongoing e-Governance initiatives have been revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India.
Digital India 2.0
The central government will launch the next phase of its ambitious plan – Digital India – as it moves ahead to a target of making the country $1 trillion digital economy by 2022.
‘Digital India 2.0’ will usher in a new India, which will increase the digital economy 3.5 times from currently Rs 20 lakh crore to Rs 70 lakh crore by 2022.
This envisages digital payments industry growing to Rs 35 lakh crore, software products and services industry to Rs 21 lakh crore, electronics industry to Rs 7 lakh crore and telecom to Rs 7 lakh crore, according to a presentation by Ministry of Electronics and IT.
Under the next phase, a national programme for reskilling one million people in IT will also be formulated by December this year. Standards deployment in digital technologies will be strengthened as well by next year, where National Entrance Screening Test (NEST) will be upgraded just like National Institute of Science and Technology.
Under an existing programme DISHA, six crore people are already being trained in various digital services.
Over the last two years, Digital India has made significant progress and it’s time to move to the next phase, a senior ministry official told DNA Money. The pillars of Digital India -- broadband, e-governance, Make in India, e-Kranti, information for all, public internet programme and others have to be strengthened and scaled up further as the government aims to make India fully digitally literate.
“Digital India 2.0 will make way for new technologies for better and faster implementation. It will also outline the way ahead for New India,” the official said. Over the last two years, Digital India has laid a robust foundation for India to embark on a digital transformation. Jandhan, Aadhaar and Mobile have been the foundation of this,” the presentation said.
As part of the strategy, BHIM will be made a full functionality application which will allow utility payments, mobile/wallet recharge and other related payments. It can be deployed by all the banks in the same form or with minor tweaking. Also, partners to drive rapid adoption – Uber, Ola, PatyTm, Reliance Retail, Flipkart, Amazon, Google and others.
“BHIM merchant app will support Bharat QR for all categories of merchants. Besides, mobile phones to come pre-loaded with BHIM app,” as per the presentation.
All this is part of the strategy to move the country towards a fully digital society, the foundation of which was laid down in the first phase of Digital India, the official from the ministry said. A meeting to discuss the measures required and prepare an action plan was taken by the minister of electronics and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad last month.
Digital economy which includes social media, mobile analytics, cloud services, will be a significant contributor towards the $1 trillion target. China is the global leader in this segment. The plan is to make India a leader in Data Analytics and cloud computing, wherein all policy decisions required will be taken by the government as part of the second phase of Digital India, where the ambitious programme of the government -- Make in India will also be given a special emphasis.
The Digital India programme focuses on providing broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public internet access, e-governance through technology and electronic delivery of services, among others.
TECHTONIC SHIFT
- This envisages digital payments industry growing to Rs 35 lakh crore, software products and services industry to Rs 21 lakh crore.
- It plans to grow the electronics industry to Rs 7 lakh crore and telecom to Rs 7 lakh crore.
- A national programme for reskilling one million people in IT will also be formulated by December this year.
Sources- https://yourstory.com , https://www.dnaindia.com
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