The Digital India program is a flagship program of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It is transformational in nature and would ensure that Government services are available to citizens electronically. It would also bring in public accountability through mandated delivery of government’s services electronically.
Vision Areas
- Digital Infrastructure as a Core Utility to Every Citizen
. Availability of high speed internet as a core utility for delivery of services to citizens
. Cradle to grave digital identity that is unique, lifelong, online and authenticable to every citizen
. Mobile phone & bank account enabling citizen participation in digital & financial space
. Easy access to a Common Service Centre
. Shareable private space on a public cloud
. Safe and secure cyberspace
- Governance and Services on Demand
. Seamlessly integrated services across departments or jurisdictions
. Availability of services in real time from online & mobile platforms
. All citizen entitlements to be portable and available on the cloud
. Digitally transformed services for improving ease of doing business
. Making financial transactions electronic & cashless
. Leveraging Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) for decision support systems & development
- Digital Empowerment of Citizens
. Universal digital literacy
. Universally accessible digital resources
. Availability of digital resources/ services in Indian languages
. Collaborative digital platforms for participative governance
. Citizens not required to physically submit Govt. documents/ certificates
Program Pillars
- Broadband Highways
. This covers three sub components, namely Broadband for All – Rural, Broadband for All – Urban and National Information Infrastructure (NII).
. NII would integrate the network and cloud infrastructure in the country to provide high speed connectivity and cloud platform to various government departments up to the panchayat level.
- Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
. This initiative focuses on network penetration and filling the gaps in connectivity in the country. There are around 55,619 villages in the country that do not have mobile coverage.
- Public Internet Access Program
. The two sub components of Public Internet Access Programme are Common Services Centres (CSCs) and Post Offices as multi-service centres.
. CSCs would be strengthened and its number would be increased to 250,000 i.e. one CSC in each Gram Panchayat.
- e-Governance
. Government process re-engineering using IT to simplify and make the government processes more efficient is critical to make the delivery of government services more effective across the various government domains.
- eKranti
. Transformation and not Translation – All project proposals in e-Kranti must involve substantial transformation in the quality, quantity and manner of delivery of services and significant enhancement in productivity and competitiveness.
- Information for All
. Open data platform facilitates proactive release of datasets in an open format by the ministries/ departments for use, reuse and redistribution. Online hosting of information & documents would facilitate open and easy access to information for citizens.
- Electronics Manufacturing
. This pillar focuses on promoting electronics manufacturing in the country with the target of net zero imports by 2020. This ambitious goal requires coordinated action on many fronts, such as taxation, incentives, economies of scale and eliminating cost disadvantages.
- IT for Jobs
. This pillar focuses on providing training to the youth in the skills required for availing employment opportunities in the IT/ITES sector.
- Early Harvest Programs
. It consists of those projects which are to be implemented within a short timeline.
