Digital India Movement

Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India in order to ensure

the Government's services are made available to citizens electronically by improved
online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity or making the country
digitally empowered in the field of technology. The initiative includes plans to
connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks.It consists of three core
components: the development of secure and stable digital infrastructure, delivering
government services digitally, and universal digital literacy.
Launched on 1 July 2015, by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is both enabler
and beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such
as BharatNet, Make in India, Startup India and Standup India, industrial
corridors, Bharatmala, Sagarmala .

History:-
Digital India was launched by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi on 1 July
2015, with an objective of connecting rural areas with high-speed Internet networks
and improving digital literacy. The vision of Digital India programme is inclusive
growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities.
It is centred on three key areas – digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen,
governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens.

Digital India Initiative :-

The Government of India's entity Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) which
executes the BharatNet project is the custodian of Digital India (DI) project.

New Digital Service

1. Some of the facilities which will be provided through this initiative are Bharat ,
digital locker, e-education, e-health, e-sign, e-shopping and national
scholarship portal. As part of Digital India, Indian Government planned to
launch Botnet cleaning centers.

• National e-Governance Plan aimed at bringing all the front-end

government services online.
• MyGov.in is a platform to share inputs and ideas on matters of policy and
governance. It is a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through
a "Discuss", "Do" and "Disseminate" approach.
• UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is
a Government of India all-in-one single unified secure multi-channel multi-
platform multi-lingual multi-service freeware mobile app for accessing over
1,200 central and state government services in multiple Indian
languages over Android, iOS, Windows and USSD (feature phone)
devices, including services such as AADHAAR, DigiLocker, Bharat Bill
Payment System, PAN EPFO services, PMKVY services, AICTE, CBSE,
tax and fee or utilities bills payments, education, job search, tax, business,
health, agriculture, travel, Indian railway tickets bookings, birth certificates,
e-District, e-Panchayat, police clearance, passport, other utility services
from private companies and much more.
• eSign framework allows citizens to digitally sign a document online using
Aadhaar authentication.
• Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app is being used by people and
Government organisations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat
Mission.
• eHospital application provides important services such as online
registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports,
enquiring availability of blood online, etc.
• eHospital application provides important services such as online
registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports,
enquiring availability of blood online, etc.
 • Digital attendance: attendance.gov.in was launched by PM Narendra
Modi on 1 July 2015,[5] to keep a record of the attendance of Government
employees on a real-time basis.[18] This initiative started with
implementation of a common Biometric Attendance System (BAS) in the
central Government offices located in Delhi.

2. Back-end digitisation
Black money eradication: The 2016, Union budget of India announced 11
technology initiatives including the use of data analytics to nab tax evaders,
creating a substantial opportunity for IT companies to build out the systems
that will be required. Digital Literacy mission will cover six crore rural
households. It is planned to connect 550 farmer markets in the country through
the use of technology.

3. Facilities to digitally empower citizens

• Digital Locker facility will help citizens to digitally store their important
documents like PAN card, Passport, mark sheets and degree
certificates. Digital Locker will provide secure access to Government-
issued documents. It uses authenticity services provided by Aadhaar. It
is aimed at eliminating the use of physical documents and enables the
sharing of verified electronic documents across Government agencies.
Three key stakeholders of DigiLocker are Citizen, Issuer and requester.

• BPO and job growth: The government is planning to create 28,000

seats of BPOs in various states and set up at least one Common
Service Centre in each of the gram panchayats in the state.

• e-Sampark Vernacular email service: Out of 10% English speaking

Indians, only 2% reside in rural areas. Rest everyone depends on their
vernacular language for all living their lives. However, as of now, email
addresses can only be created in the English language. To connect
rural India with Digital India, the Government of India impelled email
services provider giants including Gmail, office, and Rediff to provide
the email address in regional languages. An Indian-based company,
Data Xgen Technologies Pvt Ltd, has launched world's first free
linguistic email address under the name ‘DATAMAIL which allows
creating email ids in 8 Indian languages, English; and three foreign
languages – Arabic, Russian and Chinese.

• BHIM – Bharat Interface for Money is an app that makes payment transactions
simple, easy and quick using Unified Payments Interface (UPI)

Training :-
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan is being executed by PMGDisha
with an outlay of Rs 2,351.38 crore with the objective of making 6 crore rural
households digitally literate by March 2020. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital
Saksharta Abhiyan (abbreviated as PMGDisha[31]) is an initiative under Digital India
program, approved by The Union Cabinet chaired by the PM Narendra
Modi.[32][33] The main objective of the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta
Abhiyan is to make 6 crore people in rural areas across India digitally literate,
reaching around 40% of rural households by covering one member from every
eligible household.

E-Cabinet :-
Taking a step further in e-Governance, for the first time[38] ever in the country, Andhra Pradesh
government led by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his Council of Ministers had its first
paperless e-Cabinet meeting by Using the app e-Cabinet a first-of-its-kind initiative in the
country. The ministers accessed the entire agenda of the Cabinet meeting in electronic form by
logging into the app on their laptops or Tabs.[39] The features of the app to prevent the user from
sharing it with anyone. Also, there is safety to the data as it is password-protected unlike in the
conventional method where papers could easily be taken away from the member of the Cabinet
by anyone.

E-Pragati
E-Pragati, the Andhra Pradesh State Enterprise Architecture, is a holistic and coherent
framework designed[40] to provide 750 services to over 30 million citizens by integrating 34
departments on a single platform. Unlike computerizing one department or service in state, e-
Pragati aimed to computerize all departments and services in the state. Through this, the citizens
will have a seamless service experience as they no longer have to go to government offices and
can access the services from anywhere in the world. With e-Pragati platform, the government is
making an effort to reach every citizen and serve them effectively.

Bhudhaar
Bhudhaar is an E-Governance project that is intended to assign a 11 Digits unique number[41] to
every land parcel in the state of Andhra Pradesh[42] as part of the "land hub in E-Pragati
programme".[43] First of this kind platform in India to addressing issues in land record
management Bhuseva Authority, an inter-departmental committee was formulated to implement
and monitor the progress.[44] Eventually all land related transactions will use Bhudhaar as single
source of truth to reduces land related disputes. On 18-Feb 2019, Andhra pradesh
Assembly given its consent to the legal usage of Bhudhaar Number in land documents.

E-panta
Electronic crop booking (e- Crop booking) is an Android application launched[45] with a local name
called e-Panta, first of this kind platform designed in India to know the ground reality of the crop
details and to analyse the crop pattern across the Andhra Pradesh state and to capture the
standing crop in the state. Photographs as evidence in the case of crop damage and insurance
are also available as the arable land in the state has been captured in latitude and longitude
along with subdivision and occupancy. All field officers are trained to capture the crop details in
the existing agricultural fields using tabs and to upload the crop details to the server for every
crop season.[46] The features include an online transfer of crop details to Webland (land record
management website), evidence in the case of crop damage for insurance, evidence for crop
loans by banks, crop pattern and water tax demand analysis, and GPS location of each land
parcel across the state. The mobile app covers land use and the entire Pattadar's history of land
cover.

Loan Charge
Loan charge creation project of Government of Andhra Pradesh, first of this kind in is initially
developed in India to curtail bogus and multiple loans issued[48] to the farmers. By using this
module, Bankers can verify the land details in adangal and ROR‐1B copies and also know
whether any loan is taken on the same land. The financial institutions like banks, Primary
Agricultural Cooperative Societies (PACS) and Sub Registrar offices of Registration Department
spread across the State of Andhra Pradesh are covered under the application. Nearly 78 lakhs of
farmers, 2.25 crores people of the State are covered under the project along with 61 Major
Banks, PACS and District Cooperative Central Bank (DCCBs) having 6000 branches are
using[49] this application to deliver the loans and for creating charges on the land.

Outcomes :-
Reception
The programme has been favoured by multiple countries including the US, Japan,
South Korea, the UK, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Uzbekistan and
Vietnam.[50]
At the launch ceremony of Digital India Week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in
Delhi on 1 July 2015,[51] top CEOs from India and abroad committed to invest ₹224.5
lakh crore (US$3.1 trillion) towards this initiative. The CEOs said the investments
would be utilized towards making smartphones and internet devices at an affordable
price in India which would help generate jobs in India as well as reduce the cost of
importing them from abroad.[52]
Leaders from Silicon Valley, San Jose, California expressed their support for Digital
India during PM Narendra Modi's visit in September 2015. Facebook's CEO, Mark
Zuckerberg, changed his profile picture in support of Digital India and started a chain
on Facebook and promised to work on WiFi Hotspots in rural area of
India.[53] Google committed to provide broadband connectivity on 500 railway
stations in India. Microsoft agreed to provide broadband connectivity to five hundred
thousand villages in India and make India its cloud hub through Indian data
centres. Qualcomm announced an investment of US$150 million in Indian
startups.[54] Oracle plans to invest in 20 states and will work on payments and Smart
city initiatives.[55] However, back in India, cyber experts expressed their concern over
internet.org and viewed the Prime Minister's bonhomie with Zuckerberg as the
government's indirect approval of the controversial initiative.[56] The
Statesman reported, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi's chemistry with Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg at the social media giant's headquarters in California may have
been greeted enthusiastically in Silicon Valley but back home several social media
enthusiasts and cyber activists are disappointed."[57] Later the Prime Minister office
clarified that net neutrality will be maintained at all costs and vetoed the Basic
Internet plans.[56] Digital India has also been influential in promoting the interests of
the Indian Railways.

Criticisms
Several academic scholars have critiqued ICTs in development. Some take issue
with technological determinism, the notion that ICTs are a sure-fire antidote to the
world's problems.[59] Instead, governments must adjust solutions to the specific
political and social context of their nation.[59] Others note that technology amplifies
underlying institutional forces, so technology must be accompanied by significant
changes in policy and institutions in order to have meaningful impact.[60][61]
It is being thought that there needs to be more research on the actual worth of these
multimillion-dollar government and ICT for development projects. For the most part,
the technological revolution in India has benefited the already privileged sectors of
Indians.[59] It is also difficult to scale up initiatives to affect all Indians, and
fundamental attitudinal and institutional change is still an issue.[62] While much ICT
research has been conducted in Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, and Gujarat, poorer states
such as Bihar and Odisha are rarely mentioned.[62]
Digital India as a programme has been considered by some as a continuation of the
long history of bias towards RIL, which has previously manifested in the form of
altering TRAI regulations in favour of the company. Reliance Jio has cited the Digital
India initiative numerous times for its own marketing purposes.[63]

Impact
Internet subscribers had increased to 500 million in India as of April 2017.[64] On 28
December 2015, Panchkula district of Haryana was awarded for being the best as
well as top performing district in the state under the Digital India campaign. [65]
India is now adding approximately 10 million daily active internet users monthly,
which is the highest rate of addition to the internet community anywhere in the
world.[66]
Since its launch in 2015, the Digital India campaign has left its impact in various
fields:

• Around 12000 post office branches in the rural areas have been linked
electronically.
• The Make in India initiative has improved the electronic manufacturing sector
in India
• Digital India plan could boost GDP up to $1 trillion by 2025
 • Healthcare and education sector has also seen a boost
• Improvement in online infrastructure will enhance the economy of the country

Advantages of Digital India Mission

Digital India Mission is an initiative that encompasses plans to connect the rural areas of the
country with high-speed internet networks. On the platform of digital adoption, India ranks
amongst the top 2 countries globally and the digital economy of India is likely to cross $1 trillion
by the year 2022.
Some of the advantages of Digital India are:

1. There is an increase in electronic transactions related to e-governance.

2. An optical fiber network of 2, 74,246 km has connected over 1.15 lakh Gram Panchayats
under the Bharat Net programme.
3. A Common Service Center (CSC) is created under the National e-Governance Project of
the Indian government which provides access for information and communication
technology (ICT). Through computer and Internet access, the CSCs provide multimedia
content related to e-governance, education, health, telemedicine, entertainment, and
other government and private services.
4. Establishment of digital villages along with well-equipped facilities such as solar lighting,
LED assembly unit, sanitary napkin production unit, and Wi-Fi choupal.
5. Internet data is used as a major tool for the delivery of the services and the urban internet
penetration has reached 64%.

Objectives of Digital India

The motto of the Digital India Mission is ‘Power to Empower’. There are three core components
to the Digital India initiative. They are digital infrastructure creation, digital delivery of services,
and digital literacy.
The major objectives of this initiative are listed below:

1. To provide high-speed internet in all gram panchayats.

2. To provide easy access to Common Service Centre (CSC) in all the locality.
3. Digital India is an initiative that combines a large number of ideas and thoughts into a
single, comprehensive vision so that each of them is seen as part of a larger goal.
4. The Digital India Programme also focuses on restructuring many existing schemes that
can be implemented in a synchronized manner.

Challenges of Digital India

The government of India has taken an initiative through the Digital India Mission to connect the
rural areas of the country with high-speed internet networks. Apart from the various initiatives
taken by Digital India, there are several challenges faced by it.
Some of the challenges and drawbacks of Digital Mission are mentioned below:

1. The daily internet speed, as well as the Wi-Fi hotspots, are slow as compared to other
developed nations.
 2. Most of the small and medium scale industry has to struggle a lot for adapting to the
new modern technology.
3. Limited capability of entry-level smartphones for smooth internet access.
4. Lack of skilled manpower in the field of digital technology.
5. To look for about one million cybersecurity experts to check and monitor the growing
menace of digital crime.
6. Lack of user education.

Nine Pillars Digital India Mission

▪ 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
▪
Broadband Highways
▪ There include three components of broadband highways namely Rural
Broadband, Urban Broadband and National Information Infrastructure.
Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
▪ This includes to increase mobile network penetration in the country and spread
the connectivity to all uncovered villages.
Public Internet Access Programme
▪ This includes establishments of Common Service Centres and Post Offices as
multi-service centers.
▪ The government plans to establish around 2.5 Lakh Common Service Centres i.e.
one in each Gram Panchayat. Further, all the 1.5 Lakh post offices are to be
converted into multi-service centers.
E-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology
▪ It encompasses the development and modification of governance by means of
digital knowledge.
 ▪ This contains popularization of forms, utilization of online platforms like a Sales
quote software to acquire elementary government documents and services,
incorporation and managing of services such as UIDAI, Payment Gateway, Mobile
Platform, Electronic Data Interchange etc. use of records rather than paper-built
guides and registers; mechanization of workflow within the government, and
protest redressal through IT infrastructure
E-Kranti
▪ 10 more missions were supplemented with NeGP to demand it E-Kranti. It is a
significant support of the Digital India programme. Some of these are:
▪ E-Education
▪ E-Healthcare
▪ Technology for Farmers
▪ Technology for Security
▪ Technology for Financial Inclusion
▪ Technology for Justice
▪ Technology for Planning
▪ Technology for Cyber Security
▪ One of the highlights of Digital India is to intensify the way into information for
countries by endorsing pen data stages and open basis programmes and
applications.
Electronics Manufacturing
▪ This includes making efforts in the direction of reaching remaining zero imports
in electronics items for example FABS, Set Top Boxes, VSATs, Mobiles, Consumer
electronics and so on. Government support includes subsidies, tax sops, and
funds mobility for incubators, start-ups, clusters, skill development etc.
IT for Jobs
▪ It facilitates the training of individuals from smaller towns and villages for IT
sector jobs.
Early Harvest Programmes
▪ This comprises numerous programmes including mass messaging platforms and
apps for broadening information with respect of government programmes, E-
greetings to substitute the government greetings, biometric attendances in
government offices, Wi-Fi in all universities, public Wi-Fi spots, replacing books
by E-Books, SMS -built disaster alerts, a national gateway for Lost and Found
children etc.
Information for All
▪ The development of an open data platform was initiated by the Government in
order to offer various projects and related data to all common people through
the internet platform (data.gov.in).
▪ MyGov.in, a website launched by the government to engage citizens to get their
suggestions and ideas over the online platform.
▪ As a part of this initiative, the Government planned to engage with citizens
through social media and the above-mentioned website.