What we need to know about the Digital India Initiative

Digital Infrastructure as a Core Utility to every citizen - The Indian government wants the Internet to be an integral part of every citizen’s life

Governance and Services on Demand - The initiative hopes to integrate departments across the government to make it more accessible to citizens

Digital empowerment of Citizens - The government will make available various resources for citizens and help educate people about the internet

All Indians under the Aadhar system will be given a lifelong ‘Cradle-To-Grave Online Unique Identity Number’ which will distinguish them from others.

Google will be providing broadband connections to 500 railway stations and Microsoft has agreed to provide the same to 5 lakh villages and Qualcomm (an American Wireless Telecomm Company) will be investing $150 million in Indian start ups.

Digital India hopes to have Broadband internet in 2.5 lakh villages, universal phone connectivity, wi-fi in 2.5 lakh schools and all universities, public wi-fi hot spots for citizens and also hopes to create millions of jobs in the digital sectors.

The initiative hopes to create a digital locker for citizens where they can store digital versions of their pan card, passport and mark sheets. This will help citizens to share their documents easily.

Through the Digital India initiative, the government hopes to include India’s diversity by facilitating ‘human-machine interaction’ in different languages. The aim is to facilitate larger representation of Indian languages in future technology.

The government will also connect panchayats with high speed broadband in a bid to improve connectivity across the country. It will also commit to provide connectivity with over 1900 government departments and agencies across the country through mobile platforms.

All government services to facilitate businesses will be made digital in order to improve the ‘Ease of Doing Business’ in the country.

All financial transactions above a certain amount will be made electronic to eliminate the need for middlemen. Even the payment of fees for various government services will be made available through the internet, so as to enable transparency in the procedure.

Kiosks or stands with Information and Technology services will be made available in villages which will connect people to government, financial, social and private sector services in the areas of agriculture, health, education, entertainment, banking, insurance, pension, utility payments, etc.

The initiative is aiming to make ‘high speed internet as a core utility’ by using ‘fibre optic technology’ and information and communications which is reliable and cheap.

Data related to a particular location of a person (Geographic Information System) will be used for various e-governance initiatives.

States will be allowed to add ‘state-specific’ projects that could help improve their socio-economic conditions.