By now, you must have heard about the super-popular “Digital India” campaign that was launched by our Government in 2015.
Initiated on 1st July 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the sole objective of Digital India (DI) was to connect rural areas with high-speed internet & enhancing digital literacy.
To give you guys a better perspective, we have decided to dedicate a new series in our blogs which will be entirely based on the various schemes of the government initiated under Digital India.
What were the objectives behind Digital India?
The sole purpose as discussed earlier was obviously connecting rural areas with high-speed internet & making India digitally empowered.
Other than that there were some other components which definitely contributed to Digital India:
- To develop a secure & stable infrastructure
- Delivering government services digitally
- Universal digital literacy
The main areas DI focused on electronic services, products, manufacturing & job opportunities.
What were the main focus areas of Digital India?
Digital India has been introduced to ensure placid implementation of e-governance in the country and help transform public services through the use of information technology.
The key focus includes:
- Broadband Highways
- Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
- Public Internet Access Programme
- E-Governance
- Information for All
- IT for Jobs
- Early Harvest Programmes
Now, let’s talk about some of the major initiatives takes by the government in Digital India.
BharatNet
BharatNet is a project of national importance to establish, by 2017, a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis, to provide on-demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on-demand capacity to all institutions, to realize the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.
The entire project is being funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country.
Make In India
Launched in 2014, it was one of the earlier campaigns within Digital India by the government.
A swadeshi movement covered almost 25 sectors of the Indian economy including automobiles, biotechnology, construction, IT, chemicals, defense, media, thermal, textiles & so on.
What are the main aims of Make in India?
Look, Make in India is a national program designed to transform India into a global manufacturing hub.
Their main objectives:
- To increase the domestic manufacturing industry, thereby, causing the growth of GDP.
- Increasing the number of available jobs, and thereby decreasing unemployment.
- To decrease Trade Deficit thereby, increasing Forex reserves and gaining financial security.
Startup India
This campaign was first announced by The Prime Minister, during his 15 August 2015 address from the Red Fort, in New Delhi.
It is mainly intended to build a strong eco-system for nurturing unique startups in the country that has the potential to derive substantial economic growth & generate large scale employment opportunities.
The plan three components:
1. Simplification and Handholding.
2. Funding Support and Incentives.
3. Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation.
Government e-Marketplace (GEM)
A digital marketplace, it is a single place for procurement of common use of goods & services required by various government departments, organizations.
It was a very bold step for the government with the aim to transform the way in which procurement of goods and services is done by the Government Ministries and Departments.
It has- listing of products, comparisons, buying facilities for all the buyers. The sellers have direct access to all Government departments; it is a one-stop-shop for marketing with minimal efforts.
BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money)
It is probably the most common & popular initiative by Digital India that we use on a regular basis.
Online payment has never been this easy!
BHIM allows users to send or receive money to or from UPI payment addresses, or to non-UPI based accounts.
It is named after the architect of the Indian Constitution Dr. B.R Ambedkar, this app lets you make simple, easy and quick transactions using Unified Payments Interface (UPI).
You can send money, request for money, scan & pay through QR codes, make transactions, link your bank accounts & so on.
DigiLocker
A very important online service, yet another part of Digital India!
DigiLocker provides an account in the cloud to every Indian citizen to access authentic documents/certificates such as driving license, vehicle registration, and academic mark list in digital format from the original issuers of these certificates. It also provides 1GB storage space to each account to upload scanned copies of legacy documents.
The only requirement for a DigiLocker is Aadhar Card!
This was a part of the cybersecurity plan of Digital India.
Apart from these plans Digital India also has schemes like National Supercomputing Mission. The mission has been conceptualized and evolved keeping in view the ever-increasing computing demand of the scientific and academic community in the country.
Also, schemes like Bharatmala, BPO scheme, My Gov, CSC 2.0 & many numerous plans have been initiated by the government under Digital India.
If you want to know more about Digital India, check out their website for more.
However, we will be discussing these schemes in a more detailed & comprehensive way in our next blogs. So stay tuned for those!
And if you inspired by Digital India initiative & want to connect your business with the digital world? Connect with Skyram Technologies! We will provide you with a customized digital plan suited just for your business! Contact us here!
Have you checked out some of our other blog series yet? If not, then have a look here! We promise you won’t regret it.
