India is a diverse country in terms of everything like its people, languages, places, climate, religion. You will find uniqueness in every element. India is a densely populated country with 132.42 crores people as of 2016 census. It is the world’s second largest populated country after China. India has been into the phase of development for a long time now. When Narendra Modi came to power in 2014, he was determined to give a new face to India. And in 2015, he launched Digital India programme that aimed at making all the mechanisms in the country digital and automated. You must be wondering how the real digital India will look like and what is the scenario right now?
Digital India is based on three basic aspects:
- Automated Governance
- Cutting edge digital services
- Empowering citizens digitally
This movement is one of the signature movements initiated by Narendra Modi. After demonetization in October 2016, the digital India movement really picked up momentum. It has been difficult for the government as well to make the people understand how simplified the processes will be once the project gets deployed fully. The people in India were initially very rigid to accept the facts. But now as they are seeing how seamless everything has become, they have started to use it.
Right from the banking to getting a gas cylinder, you can do everything sitting at home. In India, now there are more than 120.88 million broadband users and there are 1.052 billion telephone connections.
If we look at the future scenario, then the coming generation is going to reap the benefits of this movement. The current generation these days now talk only about online channels like websites and apps and how the things are now simplifying with the help of internet. Even if you go to the banks, you will only find people of age group of 50 to 70 years. You can hardly find young people there because all of them are already making use of internet banking. So this is the change that has been seen from past 3 years.
Urban Development
Increased employment opportunities
Now that the things are going digital, there are a lot of employment opportunities available that can be done sitting right in one place. Now that a country like India is connecting globally, the youths are now finding many opportunities to work with the people from other countries.
The jobs like online content writing, freelancing, digital marketing, online consultation etc are in demand now. And people from India are actively participating in such opportunities. The digital India movement was also launched with one more calculation in mind. It was “IT (Information Technology)+IT (India Today) = IT (India Tomorrow)”.
Also, the jobs in IT sector are going to be in demand where the job seekers can apply. In India, it has been seen that a lot of youth prefers migrating to other countries for better career opportunities. So in order to stop that, the government is coming up with various tactics so that the quality crowd and the skilled labor stays in the country.
Better infrastructure
Providing high internet service is the vital aim, but maintaining consistency is important. Under the Smart City Project, the cities are now getting equipped with all the facilities like high-speed internet, social benefits, digital financial assistance to name a few. In order to provide all of this, 12 more programmes have been launched under Digital India programme.
1. Digi Locker
This digital service will help the citizens to keep all of their confidential documents like PAN card, Aadhar card, Voter ID card, education qualification certificates etc all in one place. This is basically a cloud-based service, and you can use it on mobile and desktop both.
2. MyGov.in
This portal does the work of engaging the citizens of the country in various activities. The portal arranges meetups, invite internships, holds discussions on various issues. So basically it has an approach of “Discuss”, “Do” and ” Disseminate”.
3. eSign Framework
This will help the citizens to make digital signatures on any documents with the help of using Aadhar card authentication online.
4. Swach Bharat Mission mobile app
The very famous Swach Bharat Mission now has its mobile application. With this application, the citizens and organizations can have access to the cleanliness drive in their respective areas. If any work is not done, they can also register a complaint through the application.
5. National Scholarship Portal
Earlier the students were really struggling through the whole scholarship process. A lot of paperwork they were doing which used to be tedious. With the portal, the scholarship process becomes easy. The application, verification, sanction processes, all can be done with the help of this portal.
6. eHospital
Under this portal, the government has collaborated with many hospitals. So with this, the people will be able to take online appointments, registration of the patient, feed payment etc from one place. You can also check the availability of the blood from this portal.
7. Digitize India Platform
This initiative is going to take care of all the data and records digitally in order to make the data accessible to everyone whenever needed.
8. BharatNet
This initiative involves a digital highway through which it is going to connect all 250000-gram panchayats from all over the country. This project is considered as one of the largest broadband projects that are going to make use of optical fiber.
9. Wifi Hotspots
Under this initiative, the major areas in every city will be connected with wifi hotspots which will make the citizens at ease as they can make use of the internet at any place. Major cities like Mumbai, Banglore, Kolkata, Delhi have started off with Wifi Hotspot and soon it will be deployed in every city.
10. Next generation network
BSNL launched this initiative. It aims to replace the telephone service of those more than 30 years in order to implement services like voice, data, multimedia and other types of communications.
11. Electronics development fund
This initiative is in regard to support the manufacturers of electric products. It will help in creating new employment opportunities in this sector and it will reduce the number of imports that take place. The electronic development fund will encourage new techniques, research, and development of new products in order to come up with a new resource pool in the country itself.
12. Center of Excellence for the Internet of Things (IoT)
An IoT center was being set up in partnership with NASSCOM, DeitY, and ERNET in Bangalore. IoT technology will help the citizens in services like transport system, parking, electricity, waste management, water management, women’s safety etc. This is going to play an important role in the Smart City Project.
Rural Development
When we say rural development, India is kind of a country where there were not even electric connections. But with the Digital India project, the government aims to connect all the villages with the cities with e-Kranti and e-Panchayat services. According to Financial Express, now the rural population is getting well acquainted with the internet and 48% of the online population will be from villages by 2020.
The rural population was facing a real hard time at the time of demonetization, but now with time, rural India will reap the fruits of digital India project. In the near future, the digital movement will reduce all the physical burden on everyone and make the processes hassle-free.
This is going to help in reducing the digital divide across socio-economic strata. And with this, many employment and education opportunities will be generating for the youth of the rural area in the coming days.
Conclusion
Digital India project is in full swing and now that we can see the processes are getting stable, India will see a bigger picture in the near future. Now that all the banking processes, internet services etc are becoming advanced, people are at real ease while doing any chores. This is the age of plastic money as today we do not even care whether we have cash in our pockets or not. And in the coming days, the digital will be the only things that everyone will talk about.
