INTRODUCTION

Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India to ensure the Government's
services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and
by increasing Internet connectivity or by making the country digitally empowered in the field
of technology.1 2The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet
networks. Digital India consists of three core components:

1. development of secure and stable digital infrastructure

2. delivering government services digitally
3. universal digital literacy

Launched on 1 July 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is both enabler and
beneficiary of other key Government of India schemes, such as BharatNet, Make in India,
Startup India and Standup India, industrial corridors, Bharatmala, Sagarmala, dedicated
freight corridors and UDAN-RCS.

Digital India is a large umbrella national programme that focuses at providing universal
digital literacy and universal accessibility of all digital resources for citizens. The vision is
centered on three key areas: creation of digital infrastructure, delivery of governance and
services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. Digital India program will focus
on restructuring several existing schemes to bring in a transformational impact. The vision of
the programme aims to transform India into a digitally-empowered society and knowledge
economy through infrastructural reforms such as high-speed internet in all gram panchayats,
lifelong digital identification for citizens, mobile banking for all, easy access to Common
Service Centers (CSC), shareable private spaces on an easily accessible public Cloud and
cyber-security. The programme will also ensure that all government services and information
are available anywhere, anytime, on any device that is easy-to-use, seamless, highly-available
and secured. It is one of the step by the government to motivate and connect Indian Economy
to a knowledge savvy world. The digital world that we live in today is that where every
civilian has a bright prospect to transform the lives in many ways that were hard to envision
just a couple of years ago. It is the outcome of several innovations and technology advances.
Today, every nation wants to be fully digitalized that will empower society in a better
manner. The 'Digital India' programme, an initiative of honorable Prime Minister Mr.
Narendra Modi, will emerge new progressions in every sector and generates innovative
endeavors for Next. The motive behind the concept is to build participative, transparent and
responsive system. All educational institutions and government services will soon be able to
provide I-ways round the clock. Digital India will provide all services electronically and
promote digital literacy. Digital Technologies which includes the concept of cloud computing
and mobile applications have emerged as the catalysts for express economic growth and
citizen empowerment.

1
Prakash, Amit. "Digital India needs to go local"(2017)
2
Mannathukkaren, Nissim. "The grand delusion of Digital India"(2017)

1
The world has transformed from knowledge savvy to techno knowledge savvy. The things
should be available on one click. The Digital India programme comprises of various
initiatives each targeted to prepare India for becoming a knowledge economy and for
bringing good governance to citizens through synchronized and coordinated engagement of
the entire government. Digital indicates to electronic technology which generates, stores and
processes data. It is stored in a virtual central repository that can be accessed anytime,
anywhere, through established protocols. Digital Technologies include Cloud Computing and
Mobile Applications. Digital India is one of the step by the government to motivate and
connect Indian Economy to a knowledge savvy world. The overall programme is focused to
develop India for a knowledgeable future by developing central technology for allowing
revolution which covers many departments under one umbrella programme .It is a well-
known fact that digital India is the outcome of many innovations and technological
advancements. These transform the lives of people in many ways and will empower the
society in a better manner. The 'Digital India' programme, an initiative of honorable Prime
Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, will emerge new progressions in every sector and generates
innovative endeavors for get Next. The motive behind the concept is to build participative,
transparent and responsive system. The Digital India drive is a dream project of the Indian
Government to remodel India into a knowledgeable economy and digitally empowered
society, with good governance for citizens by bringing synchronization and co- ordination in
public accountability, digitally connecting and delivering the government programs and
services to mobilize the capability of information technology across government departments.
“Digital India” is an initiative of the Central Government of India “designed to transform
India into a global digitized hub” by reviving a rundown digital sector of India with the help
of improving digital connectivity and skill enhancement and various other incentives to make
the country digitally empowered in the field of technology. This paper helps understand the
global as well as domestic challenges that might hinder the successful implementation of the
program and suggest some feasible remedies to deal with the same. Further the paper also
highlights the opportunities that would pave the way for achieving the program‟s aim of
making India the preferred choice for digital activities by both global and domestic investors
and also how far the “Digital India” model can prove to be an attraction for the investors to
invest in the sectors which are yet to achieve their full potential in India.

2
 DIGITAL INDIA INITIATIVE

The Government of India entity Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) which executes
the BharatNet project is the custodian of Digital India (DI) project.3 BharatNet will connect
all the 625,000 villages of India by December 2018.

IMPLEMENTATION

New Digital Services

Some of the facilities which will be provided through this initiative are Bharat net, Digital
Locker, e-education, e-health, e-sign, e-shopping and national scholarship portal. As the part
of Digital India, Indian Government planned to launch Botnet cleaning centers.

Article I. National e-Governance Plan aimed at bringing all the front-end

government services online.
1. MyGov.in is a platform to share inputs and ideas on matters of policy and
governance.4 It is a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a
"Discuss", "Do" and "Disseminate" approach.
2. UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is a Government of
India all-in-one single unified secure multi-channel multi-platform multi-lingual
multi-service freeware mobile app for accessing over 1,200 central and state
government services in multiple Indian languages over Android, iOS, Windows and
USSD (feature phone) devices, including services such as AADHAR, DigiLocker,
Bharat Bill Payment System, PAN, EPFO services, PMKVY services, AICTE, CBSE,
tax and fee or utilities bills payments, education, job search, tax, business, health,
agriculture, travel, Indian railway tickets bookings, birth certificates, e-District, e-
Panchayat, police clearance, passport, other utility services from private companies
and much more.5
3. eSign framework allows citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar
authentication.
4. Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app is being used by people and Government
organisations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.
5. eHospital application provides important services such as online registration, payment
of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood
online etc.
6. Digital attendance: The "attendance.gov.in" is a website, launched by PM Narendra
Modi on 1 July 2015 to keep a record of the attendance of Government employees on
a real-time basis. This initiative started with implementation of a common Biometric
Attendance System (BAS) in the central government offices located in Delhi.

3
Bharat Broadband Network Limited, "About Bharat Broadband Network Limited"
4
"Modi's website gets new, mobile friendly look", Business Standard(16-01-2016)
5
"Government unveils Umang app for citizen services.", Economic Times, 23 Nov 2017.

3
Article II. Back End Digitisation
1. Black money eradication: The 2016 Union budget of India announced 11 technology
initiatives including the use of data analytics to nab tax evaders, creating a substantial
opportunity for IT companies to build out the systems that will be required.6 Digital
Literacy mission will cover six crore rural households. It is planned to connect 550
farmer markets in the country through the use of technology.

Article III. Facilities to digitally empower citizens

1. Digital Locker facility will help citizens to digitally store their important documents
like PAN card, passport, mark sheets and degree certificates. Digital Locker will
provide secure access to Government issued documents. It uses authenticity services
provided by Aadhaar. It is aimed at eliminating the use of physical documents and
enables the sharing of verified electronic documents across government agencies.
Three key stakeholders of DigiLocker are Citizen, Issuer and requester.7
2. BPO and job growth: The government is planning to create 28,000 seats of BPOs in
various states and set up at least one Common Service Centre in each of the gram
panchayats in the state.8
3. e-Sampark Vernacular email service: Out of 10% English speaking Indians, only 2%
reside in rural areas. Rest everyone depends on their vernacular language for all living
their lives. However, as of now, email addresses can only be created in English
language. To connect rural India with the Digital India, the Government of India
impelled email services provider giants including Gmail, office and Rediff to provide
the email address in regional languages. The email provider companies have shown
positive sign and is working in the same process. An Indian-based company, Data
Xgen Technologies Pvt Ltd, has launched world‟s first free linguistic email address
under the name „DATAMAIL‟ which allows creating email ids in 8 Indian languages,
English; and 3 foreign languages – Arabic, Russian and Chinese. Over the period of
time the email service in 22 languages will be offered by Data XGen Technologies.9

Training

Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan is being executed by PMGDisha with an
outlay of Rs 2,351.38 crore with the objective of making 6 crore rural households digitally
literate by March 2019. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (abbreviated as
PMGDisha10 is an initiative under Digital India program, approved by The Union Cabinet
chaired by the PM Narendra Modi. The main objective of the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital
Saksharta Abhiyanvis to make 6 Crore people in rural areas, across India, digitally literate,
reaching to around 40% of rural households by covering one member from every eligible
household.

6
"Budget 2016: Technology initiatives to boost Digital India drive", The Economic Times, 29 February 2016
7
"Can DigiLocker Catalyze Digital India? – Maximum Governance"( 2016-09-08).
8
"Under the Digital India initiative", The Indian Express, 28 February 2016
9
"Data Xgen Technologies launches email address in Indian languages"(18-10-2016)
10
"Cabinet approves PMGDISHA under Digital India Programme"(08-02-2017)

4
 RECEPTION OF THE INITIATIVE

The programme has been favoured by multiple countries including the US, Japan, South
Korea, the UK, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.11

At the launch ceremony of Digital India Week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi on
1 July 2015,top CEOs from India and abroad committed to invest 224.5 lakh crore (US$3.1
trillion) towards this initiative. The CEOs said the investments would be utilized towards
making smartphones and internet devices at an affordable price in India which would help
generate jobs in India as well as reduce the cost of importing them from abroad.12

Leaders from [Silicon Valley], San Jose, California expressed their support for Digital India
during PM Narendra Modi's visit in September 2015. Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg,
changed his profile picture in support of Digital India and started a chain on Facebook and
promised to work on WiFi Hotspots in rural area of India. Google committed to provide
broadband connectivity on 500 railway stations in India. Microsoft agreed to provide
broadband connectivity to five hundred thousand villages in India and make India its cloud
hub through Indian data centres. Qualcomm announced an investment of US$150 million in
Indian startups.13 Oracle plans to invest in 20 states and will work on payments and Smart
city initiatives. However back home in India, cyber experts expressed their concern over
internet.org and viewed the Prime Minister's bonhomie with Zuckerberg as the government's
indirect approval of the controversial initiative. The Statesman reported, "Prime Minister
Narendra Modi's chemistry with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg at the social media giant's
headquarters in California may have been greeted enthusiastically in Silicon Valley but back
home several social media enthusiasts and cyber activists are disappointed." Later the Prime
Minister office clarified that net neutrality will be maintained at all costs and vetoed the Basic
Internet plans. Digital India has also been influential in promoting the interests of the Indian
Railways.

Internet subscribers had increased to 500 million in India as of April 2017.14 On 28 December
2015, Panchkula district of Haryana was awarded for being the best as well as top performing
district in the state under the Digital India campaign.

11
"Vietnam may emulate Digital India, seeks cooperation on e-governance"HT(28-03-2017)
12
Digital India: Top CEOs commit to invest Rs 4.5 trillion(15-10-2017)
13
Thomas, K, Modi effect(27 September 2015)
14
"India Internet Conference 2017”(06-04-2017)

5
 DIGITAL SERVICES UNDER DIGITAL INDIA INITIATIVE

1. india.gov.in

India.gov.in is the Indian government‟s web portal for citizens. It presents information
resources and online services from government sources, accessible from a single point. It is
also known as the National Portal of India.

This is the official portal of the Indian Government, designed, developed and hosted by
National Informatics Centre (NIC), an S&T Organisation of the government of India under
the aegis of the Department of Electronics and Information Technology, Ministry of
Communications & Information Technology.

The portal has been developed as a Mission Mode Project under the National E-Governance
Plan of the government. The objective is to provide a single window access to the
information and services such as passport, driving licenses, company registration etc. being
provided by the Indian government for the citizens and other stakeholders.

India.gov.in has sections for people living abroad, business persons, government employees,
senior citizens and children. The portal is also useful to foreign citizen and researchers
searching for information on India. It provides details of the people occupying high offices in
India, the work completed by ministries, press releases, demographics, tourism, and cultural
heritage.15

India.gov.in links to Union, State, District and local level official websites and is the most
comprehensive portal about the government of India with links to 6,700 government
websites. The website also has a feature that customizes the content displayed, based on a
user‟s individual profile and preferences. It is accessible by disabled people and users of
handheld devices.

The portal has an average of around eight lakh (8,00,000) website visitors per month. While
most of these visitors are from India, around 28 per cent come from outside India.

FEATURES:

The Hindi Language Portal gives the content of India.gov.in in Hindi under
india.gov.in/hi.Content Depository is a storehouse of documents, forms, contact directories,
schemes, acts, rules and websites contributed by government Ministries and Departments at
the central and state level. The contribution of such content is facilitated by a Content
Management System(CMS).

Accessibility options - English and Hindi versions of the portal are accessible to visitors
irrespective of any disability they may have or difference in the device or technology they are
using. Such features, like descriptive text for links and images, keyboard browsing and ability
to change text size enable better readability in screen readers, magnifiers and mobile phones.

15
"'India.gov.in' eGov Magazine". 2013-02-04.

6
Standardization. The portal adheres to the „Guidelines for Indian Government Websites‟. It is
also W3C compliant and is certified as a quality website by the Standardization Testing and
Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate. The Scope of Approval of this certificate covers
three ISO Standards - ISO 25051:2006 Software Engineering, ISO/IEC 9126-1:2001
Software Engineering and ISO/IEC TR 9126-2:2003 Software Engineering.

Web Ratna awards. India.gov.in has instituted the Web Ratna Awards to recognize
exemplary e-governance initiatives in the Government sector. Nominations were invited for
six categories from all units of the Indian government at the centre and state level as well as
Indian missions abroad.

2. National e-Governance Plan

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) is an initiative of the Government of India to make
all government services available to the citizens of India via electronic media. NeGP was
formulated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and
Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). The Government
approved the National e-Governance Plan, consisting of 27 "Mission Mode Projects"
(MMPs) and Ten components, on 18 May 2006. This is an enabler of Digital India initiative,
and UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) in turn is an enabler of
NeGP.16

The 11th report of the Second Administrative Reforms Commission, titled "Promoting e-
Governance - The Smart Way Forward", established the government's position that an
expansion in e-Government was necessary in India. The ARC report was submitted to the
Government of India on 20 December 2008.17 The report cited several prior initiatives as
sources of inspiration, including references to the Singapore ONE programme. To pursue this
goal, the National e-Governance Plan was formulated by the Department of Information
Technology (DIT) and Department of Administrative Reforms & Public Grievances
(DAR&PG). The program required the development of new applications to allow citizen
access to government services through Common Service Centers; it aimed to both reduce
government costs and improve access to services.

3.Flexible Electronics

Flexible electronics, also known as flex circuits, is a technology for assembling electronic
circuits by mounting electronic devices on flexible plastic substrates, such as polyimide,
PEEK or transparent conductive polyester18 film. Additionally, flex circuits can be screen

16
"Approval Details of NeGP",17 July 2014.
17
"Second Administrative Reforms Commission Preface to the Report",(20-12-2016)
18
D. Shavit: The developments of LEDs(2007)

7
printed silver circuits on polyester. Flexible electronic assemblies may be manufactured using
identical components used for rigid printed circuit boards, allowing the board to conform to a
desired shape, or to flex during its use. An alternative approach to flexible electronics
suggests various etching techniques to thin down the traditional silicon substrate to few tens
of micrometers to gain reasonable flexibility, referred to as flexible silicon (~ 5 mm bending
radius).19

(a) Advantage of FPCs

 Potential to replace multiple rigid boards or connectors

 Single-sided circuits are ideal for dynamic or high-flex applications
 Stacked FPCs in various configurations
(b) Disadvantages of FPCs

 Cost increase over rigid PCBs

 Increased risk of damage during handling or use
 More difficult assembly process
 Repair and rework is difficult or impossible
 Generally worse panel utilization resulting in increased cost

4.Electronics and semiconductor manufacturing industry in India

The Indian electronics industry is seeing growth encouraged both by government policies and
incentives and by international investment. Its key and most resource-intensive segment, the
semiconductor industry has substantial potential for growth since domestic demand is
growing briskly. Semiconductors are required by a large number of industries, including
telecommunications, information technology, industrial machinery and automation, medical
electronics, automobile, engineering, power and solar photovoltaic, defense and aerospace,
consumer electronics, and appliances. According to a NOVONOUS report, a steady and
significant spurt in the semiconductor industry will increase the domestic market size fivefold
during 2013-2020. As of 2015, however, the skill gap in Indian industry threatened progress,
with 65 to 70 per cent of the market relying on imports.20

The fast growing electronics system design manufacturing ( ESDM ) industry in India has
vibrant design capabilities with the number of units exceeding 120. As stated by the
Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), approximately 2,000 chips
are being designed in India every year with more than 200,000 engineers currently employed
to work on various aspects of IC design and verification. According to a NOVONOUS report,
the consumption of semiconductors in India, mostly import-based, is estimated to rise from
$10.02 billion in 2013 to $52.58 billion by 2020 at a dynamic CAGR of 26.72%. The report
estimates that the consumption of mobile devices will grow at a CAGR of 33.4% between

19
Ghoneim, Mohamed T. "Out-of-Plane Strain Effects on Physically Flexible FinFET CMOS",july 2016
20
Chengappa, Sangeetha (February 5, 2015).

8
2013 and 2020, driving the share of mobile devices in semiconductor revenue up from 35.4%
in 2013 to 50.7% in 2020. Moreover, the telecom segment is also expected to rise at a CAGR
of 26.8 per cent during 2013-20. The information technology and office automation segment
is estimated to grow at a CAGR of 18.2% in the same period. The consumer electronics
segment also is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.8% over the seven years. The automotive
electronics segment is expected to grow at 30.5% CAGR from 2013 to 2020. The EDSM
industry will also grow on the back of these high consumption-led industries. Currently,
almost all the semiconductor demand is met by importing from countries like the USA,
Japan, and Taiwan. In the semiconductor sector India has a significant human-capital pool
which is currently concentrated in design, in the absence of an end-to-end manufacturing
base. But the nascent ESDM segment in India is premised on competent domestic research by
Indian universities and institutes across the entire semiconductor manufacturing value chain;
namely, chip design and testing, embedded systems, process related, EDA, MEMS and
sensors, etc., which have contributed to a voluminous number of research publications.21

5.Startup India

The campaign was first announced by Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi during his 15
August 2015 address from the Red Fort, in New Delhi. The action plan of this initiative, is
based on the following three pillars:

(a) Simplification and Handholding.

(b)Funding Support and Incentives.

(c)Industry-Academia Partnership and Incubation.

An additional area of focused relating to this initiative, is to discard restrictive States

Government policies within this domain, such as License Raj, Land Permissions, Foreign
Investment Proposals, and Environmental Clearances. It was organized by The Department of
Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP). A startup defined as an entity that is headquartered
in India, which was opened less than seven years ago, and has an annual turnover less than 25
crore (US$3.5 million). Under this initiative, the government has already launched the I-
MADE program, to help Indian entrepreneurs build 1 million mobile app start-ups, and the
MUDRA Banks scheme (Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana), an initiative which aims to provide
micro-finance, low-interest rate loans to entrepreneurs from low socioeconomic
backgrounds.22 Initial capital of 200 billion (US$2.8 billion) has been allocated for this
scheme.

21
"developing Semiconductor Manufacturing Capabilities in India"
22
"Report: PM scheme generates 1.68 crore jobs in 2 years",08-09-2017

9
 VISION OF DIGITAL INDIA

The three major targets or aims of the programme are:

1.To create a digital infrastructure as a utility to every Indian citizen

This includes providing high-speed internet, mobile phone and bank account enabling
participation in digital & financial space, shareable private space on a public cloud, and
creating a safe and secure cyber space. The government is planning to provide high speed
internet connectivity to 2, 50,000 gram panchayats, which will be a core utility for digital
inclusion.

2.Digital empowerment of the citizens

This programme aims to empower citizens through digital literacy and universal access to
digital resources e.g. Mygov website for crowd sourcing ideas and will focus on finding ways
to encourage people to opt for cashless financial transactions.

3.Governance and services on demand

The initiative also aims at seamless integration across government departments/jurisdictions,

and ensuring availability of services in real time from online and mobile platforms. It will
also result in real time service delivery from online platform.

The vision of digital India is the most ambitious initiative by the Indian government. It is a
part of PM Narendra Modi‟s vision of making India a digitally empowered knowledge
economy. This initiative is an extended and transformed version of e-Governance project
which is in place since mid-1990‟s. Various e-Governance projects all over the country
encompassing all the government departments have not been able to bring desired results.
Thus the government felt the need to overhaul the present infrastructure of e-governance plan
and also include additional objectives in the new initiative.23

23
https://www.iaspaper.net/vision-of-digital-india/

10
 NINE PILLARS OF DIGITAL INDIA

Digital India aims at three thrust areas of infrastructure as a utility to every citizen,
governance and services on demand and digital empowerment of citizens. It further intends
to provide thrust through nine pillars of growth areas viz., broadband highways, universal
access to mobile connectivity, public internet access programme, e-governance by reforming
government through technology, e-kranti (NeGP 2.0) through electronic delivery of services,
information for all, electronics manufacturing with a target of net-zero imports, IT for jobs
and some early harvest programmes. The following are the nine pillars24:

1. Broadband Highways

In the rural areas, the broadband highways would be implemented through Department of
Telecommunications (DoT); with a capital expenditure of Rs. 32,000/- crores. The rural
broadband highways intend to cover 250,000 Gram Panchayats of which 50,000 would be
covered in the first year while 100,000 each would be covered in the next two years.

In the urban areas, focus would be on changing rules towards efficient development of the
respective broadband highways. This would be achieved by developing Virtual Network
Operators for service delivery along with mandating communication infrastructure in new
urban development and buildings. The National Information Infrastructure would be put
into practice within a time-frame of two years by integrating SWAN, NKN, and NOFN.
Implemented through DeitY, it would have nationwide coverage at a cost of Rs. 15,686
crores.

2. Universal Access To Mobile Connectivity

The ongoing programmes in the area of access to phones would be focused towards
increasing network penetration and coverage. Universal access to mobile connectivity
would be implemented through Department of Telecommunications (DoT); with a capital
expenditure of Rs. 16, 000/- crores and coverage of about 42,300 villages uncovered so
far.

3. Public Internet Access Programme

Here, CSCs would be made viable through multi-functional end-points for service
delivery through Gram-Panchayats. Implemented through DeitY, it would cost of Rs.
4,750 crores to increase the present reach of 130,000 to 250,000 villages.

In long run, the Post Offices would be converted into Multi-Service Centers.
Implemented through department of posts (D/o Posts), it intends to cover 150,000 post
offices within a span of two years.

2424
Mohanta, Giridhari,(2016)

11
4. E-Governance: Reforming Governance Through Technology

Government would take up Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) using IT to improve

transactions including form simplification and reduction, online applications and tracking,
developing interface between departments, use of online repositories like school
certificates and voter identity cards, integration of services and platforms like UIDAI,
payment gateway, mobile platform and EDI.

Further, all databases and information would be made through electronic medium going
away from the existing manual mode. Focus would also be on workflow automation
inside government systems. Public Grievance Redressal would be automated using IT so
as to analyse data to identify and resolve persistent problems, largely process
improvements. These measures which are critical for transformation would be
implemented across government.

5. E-Kranti: Electronic Delivery Of Services

The present ongoing programme (NeGP) would be revamped to cover various elements to
bring eKranti. This would include fostering technology in the areas of planning,
agriculture, education, health, financial inclusion, justice and security. The technology for
planning would include GIS based decision making and National GIS Mission Mode
Project.

In the domain of agriculture, development of technology for farmers would result into
real-time price information, online ordering of inputs (e.g. fertilizers) and online cash,
loans, relief-payments along with development of mobile banking. In the domain of
education, some of the measures that would be taken include connecting all schools with
broadband, free Wi-Fi in about 250,000 schools, digital literacy program and
development of pilot massive online open courses.

Bringing-in technology in the domain of health would include online medical

consultation, online medical records, online medicine supply, and pan-India exchange for
patient information; to be realized within a span of next three years. Financial inclusion
technology would include Mobile Banking, Micro-ATM program and revamping CSCs/
Post Offices. Development of technology for justice would include e-Courts, e-Police, e-
Jails and e-Prosecution while, technology in the domain of security would include
developing National Cyber Security Co-ordination Center along with Mobile Emergency
Services.

12
6. Information To All

The pillar of „information to all‟ would encompass making information online and
hosting websites and documents. This would result into an easy and open access to
information by the public in general along with development of open data platforms. As
usual, the Government would pro-actively engage through social media and web based
platforms to inform citizens. The platform „MyGov.in‟ would foster 2-way
communication between citizens and government. Also, it would enable sending online
messages to citizens on special occasions/programs.

7.Electronics Manufacture

In India, the existing structure needs strengthening in order to boost electronic

manufacturing; the target being „NET ZERO Imports‟ in this domain in the days to come.
This would be an ambitious goal which would require coordinated action on many fronts
like taxation, incentives, economies of scale, and eliminate cost disadvantages.

The areas under focus would include items like FABS, Fab-less design, Set top boxes,
VSATs, Mobiles, Consumer & Medical Electronics, Smart Energy meters, Smart cards
and micro-ATMs. At present, there are many ongoing programs in the domain of
electronic manufacturing which will be fine-tuned with measures such as development of
incubators, clusters, and focus on skill development along with measures such as
Government procurement.

The main objective is to decrease the electronics import to zero by the year 2020.

8.IT For Jobs

The objectives of this pillar is to train people in smaller towns and villages for IT sector
jobs, setting up of BPO in each of the North-East State in order to foster ICT enabled
growth, train service delivery agents to run viable businesses delivering IT services, and
to train rural workforce to cater to their own needs and hence create a telecom ready
workforce. These initiatives would be implemented mainly through DoT and DeitY.

9. Early Harvest Programmes

Some of the immediate measures which can be realised soon are covered in this pillar
of „early harvest programmes‟. These would be the measures such as
creating IT platform targeted to elected representatives along with all the Government
employees covering 1.36 Crore mobiles and 22 Lakh emails through development of
a mass messaging application. Other measures would primarily include technological
improvements such as Government greetings would now be e-Greetings,

13
 implementation of biometric attendance in all government offices, Wi-Fi in all
universities, secured emails within government, standardized government email
design, public Wi-Fi hotspots, school Books to be eBooks, SMS based weather
information, SMS based disaster alerts and a national portal for lost-&-found children.

IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH

All the initiatives, including establishing and expanding core ICT infrastructure, delivery of
services ...etc under the Digital India programme have definitive completion time targets.
Majority of the initiatives are planned to be realized within the next three years. The
initiatives planned for early completion (“Early Harvest Programmes”) and citizen
communication initiatives (“Information for All”) have already started going live and are
being completed.

The Digital India programme aims at pulling together many existing schemes. These schemes
will be restructured, revamped and re-focused and will be implemented in a synchronized
manner. Many elements are only process improvements with minimal cost implications. The
common branding of programmes as Digital India highlights their transformative impact.
While implementing this programme, there would be wider consultations across government,
industry, civil society, and citizens to discuss various issues to arrive at innovative solutions
for achieving the desired outcomes of Digital India. DeitY has already launched a digital
platform named as “myGov” (http://mygov.in/) to facilitate collaborative and participative
governance. Moreover, several consultations and workshops have been organized to discuss
the implementation approach of the vision areas of Digital India.25

25
http://digitalindia.gov.in/content/programme-pillars

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 LITERATURE REVIEW ON DIGITAL INDIA

A Study on Growth and Prospect of Digital India Campaign

The authors of this paper are Dr. Giridhari Mohanta26, Dr. Sathya Swaroop Debasish27, Dr.
Sudipta Kishore Nanda28. This paper was published in July 2017. This paper also compiled
the views of other professors and experts on the matter.

The findings from the literature are presented below:

Jain in his study concluded that some projects are under various stages of implementation
which may require some transformational process to achieve desired objectives. Sharma
made a study and described that in this project every civilian has a bright prospect to
transform the lives in many ways that were hard to envision just a couple of year‟s ego. It
was concluded that more prospects will open for the youth that will boost the nation‟s
economy. Quibria and Tschang in their study states that Governance is well recognized as an
area where IT can have a positive impact. There are two broad classes of uses of IT for
improved government functioning. First, back-office procedures can be made more efficient,
so that internal record-keeping, flows of information, and tracking of decisions and
performance can be improved. Second, when some basic information is stored in digital form,
it provides the opportunity for easier access to that information by citizens. The simplest
examples are e-mailing requests or complaints, checking regulations on a web page, or
printing out forms from the web so that a trip to pick up the forms from a physical office can
be avoided. More complicated possibilities are checking actual records, such as land
ownership or transactions. Still more complicated are cases where information is submitted
electronically by the citizen, for government action or response. The use of IT can increase
transparency and accountability, simply by requiring information, such as basic complaints,
to be logged completely and systematically. Kapur and Ramamurti in their study argue for
even broader impacts, extending to industries such as biotech, chemicals, media and
entertainment, and construction all require knowledge services that go beyond the basic
definition of IT-enabled services, and have all benefited from the change in management
approach wrought first within the IT sector.

Digital India is a dream project of the India‟s Prime Minister Narendra Modi to remodel India
into a knowledgeable economy and digitally empowered society, along with good governance
for citizens. The study could have been made empirically by taking some issues like
financial, social, political, environmental issues of both urban and rural peoples also.

26
Lecturer, P.G. Department of Business Management, Fakir Mohan University, Vyasa Vihar, Balasore
27
Reader, PG Department of Business Administration, Utkal University, Bhubaneswar
28
Lecturer, Ravenshaw University, Cuttack

15
DIGITAL INDIA-MAJOR INITIATIVES AND THEIR IMPACT: A CRITICAL
ANALYSIS

The author of this paper is Dr. Shekhar Srivastava Associate Professor International Institute
for Special Education Lucknow, India and was published on August 201729.

This paper contained the following review:

„Digital India‟ initiative has been an area of interest of numerous researches from various
disciplines because of its great significance and influence on the economy as a whole and
particularly the technological sector. Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Elon Musk researched
about Digital India and its preparedness to create jobs opportunities in the information sector.
He concluded that creating new jobs should be continued with shifting more workers into
high productivity jobs in order to provide long term push to the technological sector in India.
Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella intends to become India‟s partner in Digital India program. He
said that his company will set up low cost broadband technology services to 5lakhs villages
across the country.

Prof. Jatin Singh began with the basic overview of what Digital India entails and led a
discussion of conceptual structure of the program and examined the impact of “Digital India”
initiative on the technological sector of India. He concluded that this initiative has to be
supplemented with amendments in labor laws of India to make it a successful campaign.
Arvind Gupta intends to say that Digital India movement will play an important role in
effective delivery of services, monitoring performance, managing projects and improving
governance. An Integrated Office of Innovation & Technology to achieve the same, for
problem solving, sharing applications and knowledge management will be the key to rapid
results, given that most departments work on their own silos. Tracking and managing the
projects assumes significance because India has been busy spending money in buying
technology that we have not used effectively or in some cases not even reached
implementation stage. Sharing learning‟s and best practices across departments needs to be
driven by this Office of Technology. Gupta and Arora (2015) studied the impact of digital
India project on India‟s rural sector. The study found that many schemes have been launched
in digital India to boost agriculture sector and entrepreneurship development in rural areas.
Digital India programme has also set the stage for empowerment of rural Indian women. Rani
(2016) concluded that the digital India project provides a huge opportunity to use the latest
technology to redefine India the paradigms of service industry. It also pointed out that many
projects may require some transformational process, reengineering, refinements to achieve
the desired service level objectives. Midha (2016) concluded that digital India is a great plan
to develop India for knowledge future but its improper implementation due to inaccessibility
and inflexibility to requisite can lead to its failure. Though digital India programme is facing
number of challenges yet if properly implemented it can make the best future of every citizen.
So we Indians should work together to shape the knowledge economy.

29
Asia Pacific Journal (2017)

16
 CONCLUSION

Despite a few remarkable achievements, many more initiatives need to be undertaken. The
WEF Report is a reminder to the government in this regard, and underlines the need to realize
the positive impact of Digital India and other related programs. Public-private partnership
models must be explored for sustainable development of digital infrastructure, as has been the
case for civic infrastructure projects like roads and metro. The government should try to
make additional spectrum available to telecom service providers for deployment of high-
speed data networks. Moreover, startups need to be incentivised for the development of the
last mile infrastructure and localised services and applications.

The existing government infrastructure assets like post offices and other buildings should be
further leveraged for the provision of digital services. In rural and remote areas, private sector
players should be incentivised to provide last mile connectivity. The overall growth and
development can be realized through supporting and enhancing elements such as literacy,
basic infrastructure, overall business environment, regulatory environment, etc. India is
becoming digital due to faster adoption of technology, burgeoning youth population and
emphasis on cashless transactions. The „Digital India‟ is in infant stage, so there is enormous
unfinished agenda for India and it is an area of serious concern to address it effectively and
expeditiously.

Technology is changing fast. What is good today may become obsolete later. It is true that
private telecom players in India are doing great but they cannot be fully depended to fulfil
social commitment especially in areas where revenue potential is low. The need of the day is
to build an exclusive fully firewalled India Internet Cloud that can provide secure internet
network and connectivity for the various needs of the country. Government should have
exclusive own communication network for disaster/crisis management, administration, and
security purposes. There is urgent need to ensure that Telecom systems, Networks, Phones,
Products and Services are available, accessible and affordable to common man. All citizens
should be mentally prepared for the changes and challenges in implementing the policy, only
then it would be possible to achieve the objectives of Digital India programme.

17
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