Initiatives under the Digital India Scheme

The Digital India Scheme has been undertaken by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, as an initiative of the Government of India, with the vision to digitally empower the society and knowledge economy of India.

It has been strategically planned to revolutionize the entire ecosystem of public services through the use of information technology, and achieve the desired effect of e-governance, replacing its failures.

It is centered on the following areas:

• Digital Infrastructure as a Utility for every Citizen:

The Digital India Scheme aims at giving access to high speed internet connectivity to all the citizens of the country. It aspires in creating safe and secure cyber space, and giving a digital identity to India.

• Governance and Services on Demand:

It intends to make governments services more accessible, by digitizing their implementation. One of its objectives is to make all citizen entitlements portable and on cloud server.

• Digital Empowerment of Citizens:

The Digital India Scheme seeks to achieve digital literacy in the country, and to enable all the citizens to avail the digital resources, in the Indian languages. It has envisioned collaborative digital platforms for government performance, so that citizens are no longer required to physically hand over documents.

Pillars of the Scheme:

It is an umbrella program implemented by many Government Ministries together, in order to achieve the common goal of digitized India.

There are Nine Pillars which depict the objectives of this scheme: They are:

1. Broadband Highways
2. Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
3. Public Internet Access Program – National Rural Internet Mission
4. eGovernance: Reforming Government through Technology
5. eKranti: Electronic Delivery of Services
6. Information for All (mygov.in)
7. Electronics Manufacturing: Target NET ZERO IMPORTS by 2020
8. IT for Jobs
9. Early Harvest Programs

Initiatives under the Scheme:

In furtherance of the aforementioned objectives of this Scheme, various initiatives have been undertaken by our Government. They are:

1. Digital North East 2022:

This policy was brought forth to transform the lives of the people in the 8 North-Eastern States viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, by bringing fast-track implementation of the scheme and ensuring sustainable growth and development of the state.

One of the major steps taken by the Government is the North East BPO Promotion Scheme (NEBPS), which seeks to endorse employment opportunities, and bring in investment for the youth of the eight statesinthe IT Sector.

2. Digi Locker:

Digi-Locker is a secure cloud platform for storing, verifying and sharing documents and certificates. It aspires to attain paperless governance. Digi-Locker recognizes as many as 210 documents such as the CBSE Certificate, etc. It is very secure as it gets synced with the Aadhar (UIDAI) Cards, and gets documents from issuers of such certificates, and share documents with requesters who ask for it. The requesters then verify such certificates.

Therefore, such certificates are very convenient as they could be e-signed; this whole system has made it easier to validate the authenticity of documents as they are issued directly.

3. UMANG App.:

The Umang (Unified Mobile Application for New-Age Governance) is an application launched by Ministry ofElectronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and National e-Governance Division (NeGD) to drive mobile governance in India.

It provides a single platform for all Indian citizens to access major pan-India e-Gov services offered by the Central and Local Government bodies. It offers as many as 272 services, by way of 62 smaller apps incorporated in it, but is only available in 14 states for now.

It has a rich multimedia interface, so it can be accessed from various media platforms like the mobile, tablet, etc.

4. GOVERNMENT E-MARKETPLACE

The Government E-Marketplace is an application launched which offers various products/services from multiple sellers. It also has the option of direct purchase by way of bidding/IRA. It has incorporated an Integrated Payment System and a comprehensive podium on which buyers/sellers have to register online and can do market comparison for their desired product or service. It facilitates in online contract generation between two parties.

It is presently offering more than 3,93,000 products for sale offered by 1,32,403 sellers/service providers and 25,710 buyer organizations have registered on it.

The top product categories tendered at this marketplace are Automobiles, Computers, Bath and Body, Office Furniture and Duplicating Machines. Whereas, the top service categories proffered here are namely, Human Resource, Transport, Security, Scanning and Digitization, and Cleaning and Sanitization Maintenance.

5. Digi Dhan:

The initiative plans to enable citizens and merchants to undertake real time digital transactions through the DIGI-DHAN Bazaar. Through its implementation across the country, it aims to handhold users in downloading, installing and using various digital payment systems for carrying out digital transactions

Therefore the Digi-Dhan Abhiyan aims to make India a cashless economy by transacting through the mode of online payments.

By way of this system, one can make payments through various modes such as USSD, UPI, E-wallet, Cards/POS, and by linking to the Aadhar Card.

Other Initiatives include the launch of the Nirbhaya application, an emergency app specifically designed for the safety of women, which sends distress calls or messages to listed contacts by the user in the event of a mishap or emergency.

Henceforth, the conjoint efforts of various initiatives of the Digital India Scheme has steered our nation toward digital and equitable growth from all sectors, and has started to contribute to help achieve its desired goals.