NEW DELHI, June 27: M
any of Digital India initiatives have now reached a stage where awareness on the part of potential users and their active participation is necessary for digital technology to be successful. Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad stating that today said that the Prime Minister Narendra Modi would launch the Digital India Week on July 1 with a view to empower the people of the country through the Digital India Programme.
This programme has been designed to be a game changer. The Government of India has been under taking a series of initiatives for developing various applications and portals that would go a long way in making the lives of the citizens better. The Digital India Week to be launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 1, 2015 aims at encouraging people’s involvement and creating awareness among them, he added.
The government is expecting investments to the tune of billions of dollars during the Digital India week which will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 1.
"As per estimates are concerned, we expect billions of dollars investment (in Digital India week)," Prasad told reporters here while announcing details of the event.
Business leaders like Airbus India CEO Peter Gutsmiedl, RIL Chairman and MD Mukesh Ambani, Tata Group Chairman Cyrus Mistry, Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, Wipro Chairman Azim Premji, Reliance Group Chairman Anil Ambani, Sterlite Technologies Chairman Anil Agarwal, Adiya Birla Group Chairman Kumaramangalam Birla have confirmed their participation in the programme.
Foreign firm Nidec Corporation Vice Chairman Mikio Katayama, Delta Electronics CEO Ping Cheng have also confirmed to participate in the programme.
Modi will present the government's roadmap for digitising India at the event that is expected to be attended by 10,000 guests.
The Prime Minister will also unveil various government schemes under the Digital India programme like Digital Locker, e-eduction and e-health during the event.
Last year, the government had approved the programme comprising various projects worth over Rs 1 lakh crore to transform the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy.
Prasad added that the ministry also reached out to Microsoft's Bill Gates and CEO Satya Nadella along with Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy, but they will not be able to attend due to other engagements.
"We have invited people from the field of technology, people working for common service centres, students and IT ministers from across the country. The huge crowd that we expect to be there will be a miniature representation of technical empowerment of people," Prasad said.
The Digital India programme includes projects that aim to ensure government services are available to citizens electronically so that people get benefit of the latest information and communication technology.
This programme has been envisaged and coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) in collaboration with various Central Ministries/Departments and State Governments. The Prime Minister as the Chairman of Monitoring Committee on Digital India, activities under the Digital India initiative is being carefully monitored. All the existing and ongoing e-Governance initiatives have been revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India.
The vision of Digital India programme also aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc. The vision of Digital India is centred on three key areas -
- Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen
- Governance & Services on Demand and
- Digital Empowerment of Citizens
With the above vision, the Digital India programme aims to provide Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme, E-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology, eKranti - Electronic Delivery of Services,Information for All, Electronics Manufacturing: Target Net Zero Imports, IT for Jobs and Early Harvest Programmes. Several projects/products have already been launched or ready to be launched as indicated below:
- Digital Locker System aims to minimise the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online.
- MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a “Discuss”, “Do” and “Disseminate” approach. The mobile App for MyGov would bring these features to users on a mobile phone.
- Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) mobile app would be used by people and government organisations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.
- eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.
- The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has been introduced. This application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc.
- National Scholarships Portal is a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of India.
- DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitisation of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.
- The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.
- BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year old exchanges, which is an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other types of packet switched communication services.
- BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. The user can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile devices.
- To deliver citizen services electronically and improve the way citizens and authorities transact with each other, it is imperative to have ubiquitous connectivity. The government also realises this need as reflected by including ‘broadband highways’ as one of the pillars of Digital India. While connectivity is one criterion, enabling and providing technologies to facilitate delivery of services to citizens forms the other.
The estimated impact of Digital India by 2019 would be cross cutting, ranging from broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-Fi hotspots. The programme will generate huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs, both directly and indirectly. Success of this programme will make India Digitally empowered and the leader in usage of IT in delivery of services related to various domains such as health, education, agriculture, banking, etc.
With inputs from PTI
