SEMINAR ON CURRENT AFFAIRS
MGN329
SUBMITTED BY:
REGISTRATION NUMBER:
SUBMITTED TO: Dr. PAYAL SHARMA
DIGITAL INDIA
MOTTO: "Power To Empower"
Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India on 1 July 2015 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. Digital India consists of three core components: the development of
secure and stable digital infrastructure, delivering government services digitally,
and universal digital literacy.
The Government of India's entity Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL)
which executes the BharatNet project is the custodian of Digital India (DI) project.
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. Around 12000 post office branches in the rural areas have been linked
electronically.
2. There is an increase in electronic transactions related to e-governance.
3. Optical fiber network of 2, 74,246 km has connected over 1.15 lakh Gram
Panchayats under the Bharat Net programme.
4. 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.
5. Establishment of digital villages along with well-equipped facilities such as
solar lighting, LED assembly unit, sanitary napkin production unit and Wi-
Fi choupal.
6. Internet data is used as a major tool for the delivery of the services and the
urban internet penetration has reached 64%.
7. Presently, the number of daily active internet users has reached 300 million
from 10-15 million daily users. Also, it is estimated that the number would
double by the year 2020.
Generally, the Indian economy is benefiting from digitization. Many sectors, such
as health care and education are benefiting from being linked to the rising digital
economy. Products such as the BHIM app and platforms such as UPI-integration
are making it easier for people to transfer money.
India is also one of the leading counties when it comes to the evolution of payment
systems. Enablers such as Aadhaar, Jan Dhan, Mobile penetration and
demonetization have made it easier for many people to adopt digital payment
systems. Due to mass adoption of biometric and digital systems, India is expected
to use plastic payment systems on a large scale and have one of the most
sophisticated financial systems in the world.
ANALYSIS
Emphasizing on transparency and an efficient interface between the government
and citizens of India, the United Progressive Alliance launched the National e-
Governance Plan in 2006. As it benefited only 18% of the middle class population,
the National Democratic Alliance reinvigorated the same by addressing the major
lacunae of digital empowerment and knowledge based economy under the
umbrella program of “Digital India”. The government has tried digitizing almost
all the sectors of the economy. Increased internet accessibility, mobile
connectivity and banking facilities were brought under the ‘Digital Infrastructure’,
transforming services and making them available online on a single window under
‘Governance and e-Services on Demand’. Participative governance was
encouraged by universalizing digital literacy under ‘Digital Empowerment’.
Besides the services that will be electronically provided under e-Kranti, not only
will the information of the government functioning be accessible online but a
platform to engage citizens will also be initiated under the ‘Discuss’ and
‘Dissemination’ Approach. Coupled with making the government accountable to
the citizens, it will enable the citizens to participate in the democratic framework
of the country beyond exercising basic voting rights. The campaign for “Digital
India” unfolded on 1st July, 2015. Before the announcement of the Union Budget
2016-17, improvement was observed in mobile manufacturing from Rs. 5.4 Cr. in
2014-15 to Rs. 11 Cr. in 2015-16. To give a boost to the same, Rs. 120,294 Cr. was
allocated in the budget and duty advantage in comparison with imported goods
were given to encourage the domestic manufacturing of components.
Under Bharat Net, the world’s largest rural broadband project using optical fibre,
250,000 gram panchayats were expected to be connected by high speed digital
highway. By the end of 2016, the OFC pipe was laid from 2292 km to 124,797 km.
40 lakh people against the target of 52.5 lakh people were trained in the IT sector.
This led to generation of employment with a net addition of 2 lakh people. As
broadband connectivity, digital literacy and cashless transactions were the primary
focus, the Union Budget (2017-18) saw heightened allocations in these areas. From
the Bharat Net project being given Rs. 1000 Cr., initiatives like DigiGaon was
launched to provide tele-medicine education and skills through digital technology.
To boost digital transactions, two schemes to promote the usage of BHIM was
launched– the Referral Bonus Scheme for Individuals and Cashless Scheme for
Merchants.
200000 Common Service Centers (to provide public internet accessibility in
remote areas with poor connectivity) had employed over 500000 youth by then.
The 2018-19 Budget doubled the allocation on the Digital India program to 3073
Cr. rupees with proposals to set up five lakh Wi-Fi hotspots to provide net
connectivity to five Cr. rural citizens and development of online marketplace by
stipulating 372 specific business reform actions. The interim budget 2019-2020
released this year, praising India of leading the world in consumption of mobile
data and monthly consumption of the same increasing by 50 times over the
last five years. It has elaborated on how mobile parts manufacturing companies
have increased from 2 to more than 268 providing huge job opportunities. To
expand the unprecedented proposal of Direct Benefit Transfer, nearly 34 Cr. Jan
Dhan bank accounts were opened.
On the flipside, internet usage has been close to 15% in India and people residing
in rural areas find it difficult to afford. Although Bharat Net has been laying cables
to ensure broadband connectivity, India remains stuck at the total of 15 million
wireless users. India was ranked 20th in Mobile Data Speed with an average speed
of 0.99 mbps. Mobile networks do not ensure working networks as 42,300 villages
exist outside the reach of a mobile signal. Villagers claim of electricity
unavailability in their areas, thus questions the establishment of the Saubhagya
scheme which has been deemed successful by the government. In spite of the
booming digital literacy initiatives, nearly 33% of the Indian population is illiterate
and one-third of youth do not attend secondary education, according to the World
Economic Forum report.
With 93% of the 475 million people engaged in unorganized labor and most of
them being illiterate, how will the technology installed help them, especially
farmers, to get real time price information, online ordering of inputs and online
loan relief? When underlining electronic manufacturing as an essential component
of digital economy, it was expected that imports shall match exports by 2020.
India, today, stands to import three quarter of the $400 billion worth of electronic
products it ought to consume in the next five years, whereas, the hardware exports
are still under $10 billion. One of the major precepts of Digital India, proposes to
train over 10 million students from smaller towns and villages for IT sector jobs.
The quality of training is also largely questionable– 3 lakh service delivery agents
needs to be trained for IT services and 5 lakh rural workers need to be trained by
telecom operators.
CONCLUSION
As there are always two sides of a coin similarly every initiative has both the
positives and the negatives. Digital India campaign also has benefits as well as
criticisms.
Impact of Digital India
The Digital India plan is expected to boost GDP up to $1 trillion by 2025. It can
play a key role in macro-economic factors such as GDP growth, employment
generation, labor productivity, growth in number of businesses and revenue
leakages for the Government.
The penetration of mobile devices may be highly useful as a complementary
channel to public service delivery apart from creation of entirely new services
which may have an enormous impact on the quality of life of the users and lead to
social modernization.
According to estimates, the digital literacy in India is just 6.5% and the internet
penetration is 20.83 out of 100 population. The digital India project will be helpful
in providing real-time education and partly address the challenge of lack of
teachers in education system through smart and virtual classrooms.
Digital platforms can help farmers in know-how, context and market information .
The next generation technologies will help in lowering the carbon footprint by
reducing fuel consumption, waste management, greener workplaces and thus
leading to a greener ecosystem. The ICT sector helps in efficient management and
usage of scarce and non-renewable resources.
In these times of COVID-19 it is the digital media that has kept the things going.
THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN
With the increase in digitalization the chances of data theft has increased thus
people now days are very much concerned about the security issues related to all
the works done online.
As the technology increases, the complexity to learn the knowledge also increases
not everyone can learn fast and easily and adapt to the change.
People now a days socialize and communicate via digital devices rather than
through real life contact. Studies have suggested that lack of real life contact is
causing depression and other forms of mental illness in many people.
Therefore to conclude we can say
A digitally connected India can help in improving social and economic condition
of people through development of non-agricultural economic activities apart from
providing access to education, health and financial services. However, it is
important to note that ICT alone cannot directly lead to overall development of the
nation. The overall growth and development can be realized through supporting
and enhancing elements such as literacy, basic infrastructure, overall business
environment, regulatory environment, etc.
REFERENCE
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_India
https://iasscore.in/national-issues/digital-india-programme-importance-
and-impact
