Digital Empowerment
Assignment
Name : Utkarsh
College : Hindu College, University of Delhi
Department : Economics
Roll No. : 1010
Group : Section B
Submitted to : Divya Ma’am
Make a project on digital India and explain in detail any
five digital initiatives by the Government of India in the
following sectors:
1. Education
2. Health
3. Agriculture
4. Banking
5. Women
Choose any one sector and cover five initiatives.
DIGITAL INDIA
Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of
India to make its services available to citizens electronically
via improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet
connectivity. The initiative includes plans to connect rural
areas with high-speed internet networks. It consists of three
core components: developing 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 both uses and supports other Government of India
schemes, such as BharatNet, Make in India, Startup India,
Standup India, industrial corridors, Bharatmala Sagarmala and
Amrit Bharat Station Scheme.
As of 31 December 2018, India had a population of 130 crore
people (1.3 billion), 130 crores (1.3 billion) Aadhaar digital
biometric identity cards, 150 crores (1.5 billion) mobile
phones, 100.6 crore (446 million) smartphones, 130 crores
(1.3 billion) internet users up from 481 million people (80%
of the country's total population) in December 2017, and 71
percent growth in e-commerce.
The Digital India program aimed to promote inclusive growth
in the areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing,
and job opportunities. It is centered on three key areas –
digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen, governance,
and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens.
The plan also attempted to expand access to the Internet in
rural areas through the implementation of the Netcare System
program.
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 the 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.
Advantages of Digital India:
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 Centre (CSC) is created under the
National e-Governance Project of the Indian government
which provides access to 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.
5) Internet data is used as a major tool for the delivery of
the services and the urban internet penetration has
reached 64%.
Challenges to Digital India:
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 to adapt 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.
Digital India Initiatives:
1) Digi Lockers – This flagship initiative aims at ‘Digital
Empowerment’ of the citizen by providing access to
authentic digital documents to citizen’s digital document
wallet
2) E-Hospitals – It is a Hospital Management Information
System (HMIS) which is a one-stop solution for
connecting patients, hospitals, and doctors through a
single digital platform. Till February 2021, as many as
420 e-Hospitals had been established under the Digital
India campaign
3) E-Pathshala – Developed by NCERT, e-Pathshala
showcases and disseminates all educational e-resources
including textbooks, audio, video, periodicals and a
variety of other print and non-print materials through the
website and mobile app
4) BHIM – Bharat Interface for Money is an app that makes
payment transactions simple, easy, and quick using
Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
DIGITAL INDIA INITIATIVES
EDUCATION
1) E-Pathshala
2) DIKSHA
3) PM e-VIDYA
4) ICT Curriculum
5) NISHTHA
E-Pathshala:
The digital India campaigns have promoted extensive use of
ICTs in the teaching-learning process. The ePathshala, a joint
initiative of the Ministry of Human Resource Development
(MHRD), Govt. of India, and the National Council of
Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was developed
in November 2015 for showcasing and disseminating all
educational e-resources including textbooks, audio, video,
periodicals, and a variety of other print and non-print
materials.
Students, Teachers, Educators, and Parents can access eBooks
through multiple technology platforms that as mobile phones
and tablets (as epub) and from the web through laptops and
desktops (as Flipbook). ePathshala also allows user to carry as
many books as their device supports. Features of these books
allow users to pinch, select, zoom, bookmark, highlight,
navigate,share and make notes digitally.
DIKSHA:
DIKSHA (Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing) is a
national platform for school education, an initiative of
National Council for Educational Research and Training
(NCERT), under the aegis of the Ministry of Education
(MoE), GoI. Launched in 2017 by the Honourable Vice
President of India – Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu, DIKSHA has
been adopted by almost all the States, Union Territories, and
central autonomous bodies/boards. DIKSHA can be accessed
by learners and teachers across the country and currently
supports 36 Indian languages.
Each State/UT leverages the DIKSHA platform in its own
way, as it has the freedom and choice to use the varied
capabilities and solutions of the platform to design and run
programs for teachers, learners, and administrators. DIKSHA
policies and tools make it possible for the education
ecosystem to participate, contribute, and leverage a common
platform to achieve learning goals at scale for the country.
Under the PM eVidya initiative of the GoI, which was
declared as part of the Atma Nirbhar Bharat, DIKSHA has
been declared as ‘One Nation, One Digital Platform’.
PM e-VIDYA:
PMeVidya is an innovative and unique initiative by the
Ministry of Education, Government of India to sustain
education by leveraging ICT and to facilitate learning and
teaching at school level. It offers multifarious educational
resources in multi-platform mode viz. digital/online through
12 DTH TV Channels, community radio, content for
Divyangs (CwSNs), podcast etc. Takes advantage of the
several streaming platforms available across the country to
telecast educational content in audio/video mediums.
The benefits of the PM eVidya program are as follows:
• A channel dedicated to education on TV will help
students who do not have access to the Internet.
• A special radio podcast will be arranged for blind and
impaired students.
• Students can study through e-content at the comfort of
their homes.
ICT Curriculum:
The Indian education system has long struggled with unequal
access to technology which was aggravated by the school shut
down during the pandemic. In an attempt to bridge India's
digital divide, 10,778 Information Communication
Technology (ICT) labs and 42,311 smart classrooms were
approved at the cost of Rs 1,003.8 crore in 2020-21 and Rs
956.8 crore in 2021-22.
There are a total of 65,356 ICT labs and 29,178 digital
classrooms in India, and 1,19,581 schools have internet
facilities, the education ministry informed the Lok Sabha. The
central government has given the highest financial approval to
Assam of Rs 155 crore for 1,859 ICT labs, followed by Tamil
Nadu of Rs 149 crore for 1,893 labs.
Further, the central government has offered the highest
financial approval to Odisha worth Rs 107 crore to set up
4,471 smart classrooms, followed by Gujarat of Rs 104 crore
for 4,335 smart classrooms.
NISHTHA:
The Department of School Education and Literacy has
launched a National Mission to improve learning outcomes at
the elementary level through an Integrated Teacher Training
Programme called NISHTHA under the Centrally Sponsored
Scheme of Samagra Shiksha in 2019-20. NISHTHA (National
Mission to improve learning outcomes at the elementary
level) is a capacity building programme for "Improving
Quality of School Education through Integrated Teacher
Training". It aims to build competencies among all the
teachers and school principals at the elementary stage.
NISHTHA is the world's largest teachers' training programme
of its kind.The basic objective of this massive training
programme is to motivate and equip teachers to encourage
and foster critical thinking in students. The initiative is first of
its kind wherein standardized training modules are developed
at national level for all States and UTs.
