Digital India Mission

Introduction:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Digital India campaign on 1st July 2015.
The digital India mission was undertaken by the ministry of electronics and information technology and the finance ministry.
The main theme of the launch of the Digital India Mission in India is to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
Countries that have contributed to our Digital India program are the US, Japan, Australia, South Korea, the UK, Canada, Singapore, Uzbekistan, Malaysia, and Vietnam.
Digital India is changing in nature administration framework and government organization’s services are electronically accessible to the residents. This process brings people accountability and responsibility When services are available to residents electronically.
The Digital India Mission will further help prepare India for an enlightened future and achieve that goal.

Background strength of India to implement Digital India Mission:

On international platforms, India is known as the powerhouse of software.
Sustained progress has been made through the National e-Governance Plan Mission Mode projects endorsed in 2006 and the core ICT [Information and Communications Technology] framework set up by the Government of India.
The eleventh report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission 2008, entitled Promoting e-Governance – The “Smart Way Forward” approached the public authority to grow its e-governance abilities.
The Government of India following the public-private partnerships would be favoured wherever necessary.
The rebuilding of NIC [National Informatics Center] would be embraced to reinforce the IT support to all administration departments at the centre and state levels.
The Chief Information Officer [IO] will be made in no less than 10 key ministries so the undertaking of the e-administration projects can be planned, created, and carried out speedily.
The DeitY (Department of Electronics and Information Technology) would make important top positions needed inside the department for dealing with the digital India program.
Key parts of the administration structure would comprise the cabinet committee on economic affairs [CCEA] for concurring endorsement to project a monitoring council headed by the Prime Minister.
Digital India Advisory Committee chaired by the Minister of Communications and IT.
Our Digital India Mission As an umbrella program – covering many departments, winding around together can completely transform the mission.
The program combines a large number of thoughts and considerations into a solitary, extensive vision so every one of them has all the earmarks of being important for a bigger objective, Each and every component remains on its own but at the same time is important for the bigger picture.
Financing prerequisites for individual projects for Digital India will be worked out by the separate Nodal Ministries/Departments.

The Vision of Digital India Mission:

High-speed internet should be made accessible to all the gram panchayats.
The Digital India Mission has the vision to provide each resident of India with a digital identity card.
Mobile phones and bank accounts would empower support in participation in digital and financial space on a personal level.
Easy access to a common service centre [CSC] in their area.
Private space that can be shared in the public cloud.
Safe and secure cyberspace in the country.
Departments or jurisdictions are Consistently integrated to provide easy and single-window access to all the individuals in the country.
Government organizations’ services are accessible continuously in real-time from online and mobile platforms.
Government services have been digitalized to facilitate the ease of doing business.
Doing financial transactions beyond the limit should only be done electronically and in a non-cash way.
Universal digital literacy.
Universal digital literacy and all digital resources are universally available.
All government administration documents, reports, and certificates should be accessible in the cloud.
Accessibility of Digital Resource Services in all Administration Offices should be available in all official Indian languages.

Objectives of Digital India Mission:

One of the main objectives is to create a robust digital infrastructure to reach even the most remote parts of the country.
Easy and affordable delivery of government schemes and services through e-governance.
Another significant objective is to make the population of the country digitally literate.
Digital Attendance, e-Hospital, and e-Sign are some of the other important objectives included in the Digital India scheme.
Other key targets are e-learning, e-health, digital lockers, and e-banking.
The main important objective to launch the digital India mission is minimum Government and maximum governance policy which focuses on

Open Doors for all,
Office for all, and
Participation of all.

Nine Pillars of Digital India Mission:

1. Broadband Highways:

Broadband for all rural – Coverage of 250000 Gram Panchayats with Expenditure of 32000 crores.
Broadband for all urban – Virtual network operators for Service Delivery.
National Information infrastructure – Integration of SWAN, NKN, NOFN. with Expenditure of 15686 crores.

2. Universal access to mobile connectivity:

Expanded network penetration and inclusion of gaps.

3. Public internet access Programme-National Rural internet mission:

CSCs have created viable, multifunctional endpoints for service delivery and access to government services for all GPS.
Post offices to become multi-service delivery stations.

4. e-governance, Reforming Government through Technology:

Online application and tracking interface between departments.
Use of online repositories examples: – school certificates and voter ID cards etc.
Integration of services and platforms-UIDAI, payment gateway, mobile platform, EDI.
All databases and information are to be electronic, not manual.
Workflow automation inside government.
Automatic public grievance redressal.

5. e-Kranti-electronic delivery of services :

Technology for education:

e-Education
All schools are connected with broadband.
Free Wi-Fi in all schools.
Digital literacy program.
MOOCR: Massive online open courses develop as a pilot project.

Technology for Health:

e – health care
Online medical consultation.
Online medical records.
Online medicine supply.
Pan – India exchange for patient information.

Technology for planning:

GIS-based decision-making.

Technology for farmers:

Real-time price information
Online ordering of farming inputs.
Online cash, loan, relief payment with mobile banking.

Technology for security:

Mobile emergency services
National cybersecurity coordination center.

Technology for financial inclusion:

Mobile banking.
Micro ATM programme.
CSCs / post offices.

Technology for Justice –

E courts, e-police, e-jails, e- prosecution.

6. Information for All:

Online hosting to disseminate information and documents to the public.
Government pro-activism languages through social media and web platforms to inform citizens.

7. Electronics manufacturing targets net zero imports by 2020:

Offering tax incentives to the electronic manufacturing industry.
Focused areas: FABS, Fab-less design, set-top boxes, VSATs, mobiles, consumer and medical electronics, smart energy meters, smart cards, and micro-ATMs.

8. IT for jobs:

Train people in small towns and villages for IT sector jobs targeting coverage of 1 crore students.
IT/ITES and Setting up of BPO per North-Eastern states.
Train service delivery agents to run viable businesses that provide IT services.
Train skilled VLEs and viable CSCs points.
Telecom service providers train the rural workforce to meet their own needs.

9. Early harvest programs:

IT platform for messages to all elected representatives and government employees.
Government greetings to the people through e-greetings.
Biometric attendance should available at all government offices.
Providing Wi-Fi in all universities.
Secure email within Government and it should be the primary mode of communication.
Providing Public Wi-Fi hotspots in

Cities with more than 1 million people.
Tourist centres and digital cities.

Providing school books in the form of e-books is available on the web portal.
Providing SMS-based weather information and disaster warnings to the public at the time of emergence.
Develop a national portal for missing and found children.

Digital India Initiatives:

Aadhaar Enabled Payment System [AEPS]:

AEPS is a bank-led model that allows online interoperable financial inclusion transactions at POS [micro-ATM] through any bank’s business correspondent using Aadhaar authentication.

Digi Dhan Abhiyan:

This initiative will enable citizens and traders to undertake real-time digital transactions through the DIGIDHAN Bazaar.

MYGOV:

MYGOV’s idea is to bring the government closer to the common man by using the online platform by creating an interface for a healthy exchange of healthy ideas and opinions of the general public and professionals with the ultimate goal of contributing to social and economic transformation in India.

Pradhan Mantri Gramin digital Saksharta Abhiyan [PMGDISHA]:

PMGDISHA is a scheme to convert 6 crore people in rural areas of the State / UTs into digital literates.

Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana [PMKVY]:

The objective of this skill certification scheme is to enable a large number of Indian youth to receive skills training related to the industry which will enable them to earn a better livelihood.

AGRI MARKET App:

The mobile application was developed with the aim of keeping crop prices and Farmers can get information on crop prices at markets within 50 km of their own device location.

BHIM [Bharat Interface for Money]:

It simplifies and speeds up payment transactions using the Unified Payment Interface [UPI] and instantly initiates bank payments directly from the bank and collects money using a mobile number or payment address.

Crime and criminal tracking network and Systems [CCTNS]:

CCTNS aims to make a complete and incorporated framework to upgrade the proficiency and viability of policing by taking on the rule of e-governance & making a nationwide networking organization for the development of the IT-empowered criminal investigation and crime detection.

Digital AIIMS:

Digital AIIMS creation of an effective link between AIIMS, UIDAI and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology [MEITY] and provides a unique health identification number for each patient visiting AIIMS.

E-Panchayat:

It is an e-governance initiative for the rural sector that provides a comprehensive software solution to try out gram panchayat functions.

EBIZ:

EBIZ’s vision is to improve the business environment in the country by enabling faster and more efficient access to government-to-business [G2B] services through an online portal, which will help reduce unnecessary delays in the various regulatory processes required to launch and implement the businesses.

E-PATHSHALA:

It promotes all educational e-sources including textbooks, audio, video, predicates and a variety of print and nonprint materials through the E-PATHSHALA website and mobile app.

E-PRISON:

The scope of their project is to computerize and integrate all activities related to prison and prisoner management in jail.

E-procurement portal [EPP]:

The primary objective of their portal is to provide one-point access to data of procurement collection across various central government agencies.

E-VISA:

The e-tourist visa allows the prospective visitor to apply for an Indian visa from his / her home country online without having to visit the Indian Mission and pay the visa fee online.

Good and service tax network:

The GSTN System Project is a unique and complex IT initiative. Establishing a uniform interface for taxpayers and joint and shared IT infrastructure between the Center and the States for the first time.

MRAKTKOSH:

The web-based mechanism connects all the blood banks in the states into a single network.

Shaala Darpan:

KV Shaala Darpan is an e-governance platform for kendriya Vidyalayas.

UMANG:

It envisaged nearly 200 applications and is intended to serve as a master application providing about 1200 services to various government departments of the Center and state and local bodies.

Centre for excellence for the internet of things[COE-IT]:

The main goal of the central government is to create innovative applications and domain capabilities.

Cyber Swachhta Kendra:

It aims to create secure cyber space by detecting botnet infection in India and informing end-users, cleaning and securing systems.

DIGILOKER:

It is a secure cloud platform for the issuance and verification of key lifetime documents or certificates.

DiGiTiZe India Platform:

This is an initiative of the Government of India under the Digital India Program to provide digitization services for scanned document images or physical documents for any organization.

Government e-Marketplace:

GEM is a single-window solution for the online collection of general-purpose goods and services required by various government departments, agencies and PSUs.

MEGHRAJ:

GOI has launched the ambitious initiative ‘GI Cloud’, known as “MEGH Raj” with the quote “Anytime, Anywhere-Virtual Data Center”.

OPEN FORGE:

Open Forge is a Government of India platform for open collaborative development of e-governance applications, through which the Government seeks to promote the use of open-source software and the sharing and reuse of e-governance-related source code.

PayGov India:

It is a national payment service platform; It provides citizens with an end-to-end transaction experience as well as access to various services over the Internet with a payment gateway interface for online payments.

Challenges to Implementing the Digital India Mission:

India is a developing nation and the huge project digital India program is a well-conceived plan for execution that needs huge financial assets.
Daily internet speeds, as well as Wi-Fi hotspots, are slow contrasted with other developed countries.
Many small and medium-scale enterprises have to work very hard to adapt to the new modern technology.
Lack of skilled manpower in the field of digital technology and lack of necessary technology currently available in the country.
Coordination issues between central and state government departments.
The issue of connectivity between jurisdictions is a complex one because each state has different laws regarding its implementation.
There is a cyber threat all around the world and Digital India is no special case so we really want areas of strength for an anti-cyber group to deal with the database and safeguard it nonstop.
Net Neutrality is key to the success of the Digital India program and issues such as prioritizing, throttling or blocking the web that transcends the digital mission in the country.
People have become acclimated to the same old practices over the years because people are not ready to change that idea.
The exchange of data between various government workplaces has questioned the subject of protection and security.

Way Forward:

The Government of India should focus primarily on the implementation of infrastructure that will assist in the long run in the future.
The future government needs to focus on high-speed internet access to make Digital India a success.
The government should give an opportunity to innovative people to promote innovation activities to achieve the Digital India goal.
Digital India is a huge project and those working under the project must have good commitment and hard work towards the success of Digital India.
The Government of India must adopt technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning and blockchain to achieve the goals of the Digital India Mission quickly.
For this umbrella scheme to be successful the government needs to cover more people and add them to the beneficiaries.
Access high-speed data at low prices and low-cost smartphones should be available in the country.
India is a diverse country, it needs quality and content should be available in the local language provided by the Central Government under the Digital India scheme.