Interesting facts about Digital India

In an order to create participative, transparent and responsive government, the government of India launched the much ambitious 'Digital India' programme on July 1, 2015 at the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium in the national capital by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

What is Digital India?

With the launch of Digital India programme, the government is taking a big step forward to transform the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy. Includes various schemes worth over Rs 1 lakh crore like Digital Locker, e-eduction, e-health, e-sign and national scholarship portal. BharatNet in 11 states and Next Generation Network (NGN), are also a part of Digital India campaign. The programme includes projects that aim to ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically and people get benefit of the latest information and communication technology. The Ministry of Communications and IT is the nodal agency to implement the programme.

Vision Of Digital India

• Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen
• Governance & Services on Demand
• Digital Empowerment of Citizens

Pillars Of Digital India

• Broadband Highways
• Universal Access to Phones
• Public Internet Access Programme
• e-Governance - Reforming governance through Technology
• e-Kranti - Electronic delivery of services
• Information for All
• Electronics Manufacturing - Target NET ZERO Imports
• IT for Jobs
• Early Harvest Programmes

Impact of Digital India by 2019

• Broadband in 2.5 lakh villages, universal phone connectivity Net Zero Imports by 2020
• 400,000 Public Internet Access Points
• Wi-fi in 2.5 lakh schools, all universities; Public wi-fi hotspots for citizens
• Digital Inclusion: 1.7 Cr trained for IT, Telecom and Electronics Jobs Job creation: Direct 1.7 Cr. and Indirect at least 8.5 Cr.
• e-Governance & eServices: Across government
• India to be leader in IT use in services - health, education, banking Digitally empowered citizens - public cloud, internet access

Key elements

Digital Locker

Digital Locker facility will help citizens to digitally store their important documents like PAN card, passport, mark sheets and degree certificates. It 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 sharing of verified electronic documents across government agencies. Digital Locker provides a dedicated personal storage space in the cloud to citizens, linked to citizens Aadhaar number. Digital Locker will reduce the administrative overhead of government departments and agencies created due to paper work. It will also make it easy for the residents to receive services by saving time and effort as their documents will now be available anytime, anywhere and can be shared electronically. To sign-up for your Digital Locker, one needs an Aadhaar card and a Mobile number that is linked to that Aadhaar card Number.

National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN)

NOFN proposes seven lakh kilometers of optical fibre to be laid to connect 250 gram panchayats in three years. Public Wi-fi spots will be provided around the clusters after that and all villages will be provided with internet connectivity.

Esign

An initiative to eradicate forgery and fraudulent signature,the eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication.

E-health

This initiative aims at providing timely, effective and economical healthcare services to all, especially to the ones that have little access to healthcare services. This service too will be linked to Aadhaar numbers, and will make getting lab reports and OPD appointments easier. The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has also been introduced.

This application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, inquiring availability of blood online etc, the government claims.With this initiative, one can skip the hassles of registration and other formalities at hospitals by merely identifying self through the Aadhaar Number, select hospital and department, select date of appointment and get the same through SMS