In a recent event, the Prime Minister of India opened Digital India Week 2022 under the umbrella of the Digital India Programme. The purpose of this initiative is to fortify both the Ease of Doing Business and Ease of Living. This year’s theme, ‘Catalyzing New India’s Techade,’ speaks to the overarching ambition to transform India into a digitally enabled society with a thriving knowledge economy.
During the programme, the Prime Minister introduced several digital initiatives aimed at improving technology accessibility, enhancing service delivery, ensuring ease of living, and giving startups a much-needed boost.
Digital Initiatives Unveiled
Many innovative digital initiatives were launched during the programme. Noteworthy among these is Digital India Bhashini, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) led language translation platform. This platform will provide AI and Natural Language Processing resources to Medium, Small and Micro Enterprises, Startups, and individual innovators in the public domain.
Digital India GENESIS, also known as Gen-next Support for Innovative Startups, aims to support startups in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of India. Another initiative called My Scheme serves as a service discovery platform, offering users access to Government Schemes they qualify for.
Meri Pehchaan offers a National Single Sign On (NSSO) for One Citizen Login, providing a single set of credentials that grant access to multiple online applications or services.
The Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme is designed to nurture specialized manpower in semiconductor chip design at various education levels. It also seeks to stimulate growth for startups involved in semiconductor design in the country.
Another initiative, Indiastack global, acts as a worldwide repository of key projects implemented under India Stack like Aadhaar, UPI, Digilocker, Cowin Vaccination Platform, Government e MarketPlace, DIKSHA Platform, and Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission. This initiative will help position India as a global leader in large-scale digital transformation projects.
The Digital India Programme
Launched in 2015, the Digital India Programme has supported significant government schemes like BharatNet, Make in India, Startup India and Standup India, and various industrial corridors.
The vision for the programme includes providing digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. The objectives of the program center around preparing India for a knowledge-based future, realizing that Indian Talent + Information Technology equates to India Tomorrow, making technology central to change, and creating an umbrella program encompassing many departments.
Achievements of the Digital India Programme
Since its inception in 2014, the Digital India Programme has facilitated the transfer of over Rs 23 lakh crore to beneficiaries through Direct Benefit Transfers or DBT. Platforms like Aadhaar, UPI, Cowin, and Digilocker have contributed significantly to the “ease of living” by enabling citizens to access services online without the need to visit government offices or deal with intermediaries.
Thanks to the programme, the government has reached the doorsteps and mobile phones of citizens. More than 1.25 lakh Common Service Centres (CSC) and Grameen Stores are currently taking e-commerce into rural India. Technological advances also mean rural properties now have their property documents provided to them digitally.
By implementing the One Nation One Ration Card (ONORC) initiative, free ration was ensured to over 80 crore countrymen. India has also conducted the world’s largest and most efficient covid vaccination and covid relief program through the Co-WIN Platform.
Future Prospects
The digital revolution in India is expected to cause a paradigm shift for both the country and its economy. With a combination of public and private partnerships, favorable government policies, innovative reforms, demographic advantage, rising incomes and the burgeoning of India’s startup culture, the country is poised to become the fastest-growing digital economy.
The digital revolution has already fortified the Indian economy against change. In the future, the digital economy is expected to help India meet its goal of becoming a USD 5 trillion economy.
