Digital India

Digital India 

Digital India is a government of India initiative that began in 2015. It’s an umbrella initiative that encompasses a variety of facets of the country’s digital progress. The initiative has now multiplied in size and has had a significant impact on the lives of Indians and the country’s future. 

The Internet is now used by a large section of the Indian people. The Digital India program’s promotion is a much-needed boon for the country. Even the most distant villages now have access to infrastructure that connects them to the outside world. On July 1st, 2015, the current Prime Minister of India, Honorable Shri Narendra Modi, launched the Digital India movement. He established Digital India with the goal of ensuring that all Indian citizens have simple access to internet services. His main goal was to enlist the participation of the vast majority of the remote population in this effort. He wanted the people who live in tiny communities to be a big part of the campaign and the ones who would benefit the most from it.

This government campaign’s main vision may be broken down into three categories:

• All Indian people can use e-government

• To empower citizens digitally

• Providing everyone with access to a digital infrastructure

The campaign’s goal was to build a digital infrastructure, construct a large network, and bring individuals from all over the country together. When this campaign began, high-speed internet was at the top of the priority list. The government-owned Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) worked to improve internet connection and e-services.

Different ministries of the Indian government are involved in the Digital India effort. The Digital India movement primarily tries to educate the Indian public about digital capabilities, their accessibility, and their use. Various digital services have been made available to individuals at their leisure thanks to the Digital India campaign. 

Top Indian industrialists and commerce companies such as Wipro, Tata Industries, and Reliance Industries helped to make the Digital India movement possible. The primary goal was to encourage consumers to use electronic services. With the support of big IT businesses, the government targeted e-services to span more than 600 districts through the Digital India programme.

More than 1 lakh crore has been believed to have been invested in the campaign, with the sum expected to rise as the campaign progresses. The Arogya Setu app, e-health, digital locker, and National Scholarship Portal are among the many Digital India projects that are seeing significant success. Furthermore, initiatives such as Startup India have been a major success in improving the ease of doing business across the country. The use of E-Kranti for electronic service delivery and digital governance has also increased.

One of the key goals of Digital India was to build digital infrastructure in order to encourage people to use government services by creating a unique identity for each Indian resident, making online services more accessible. The programme is organised around numerous agendas. The nine pillars of digital India that provided this campaign structure are represented below.

E-governance was only digitised as a result of the Digital India programme. These digital platforms are now used by all of us for fundamental government functions such as bill paying. Other services, such as digital attendance, have made work easier for government agencies and small businesses. Personal digital help chat-bots, such as PAI, are available on internet platforms to make digital working easier for everyone.

Sundar Pichai, the CEO of Google, launched a $10 billion Google for India Digitization Fund to help India’s digital economy grow.

Overall, the effort was a huge success, as the vast majority of people in rural India now have access to the internet. We use these digital channels to make even the smallest of payments. The government officials have finally implemented e-governance.

Indians’ lives are now much simpler than they were previously. Only because of the Digital India movement was India able to survive a pandemic like COVID-19, which destroyed the world but kept it functioning. However, just as everything has a price, internet users are much more likely to be exposed to and affected by cyber risks that must be addressed.

Every human action has a significant impact on the environment in which we live. Digital India’s technology helps to reduce human impact on the environment. One of the numerous advantages that can be linked to the usage of digital platforms is the reduction of paper consumption. Furthermore, these digital channels cut down on travel and pollution.

Conclusion

The digital India initiative has had a significant impact on our country’s development. Economic, environmental, and societal repercussions are all possible. It is projected that a campaign like Digital India may boost India’s economy by one trillion dollars, and the government is now aiming to make it a five trillion dollar economy. India’s digital literacy has also improved. It has taught us how to deal with disasters such as pandemics.