What are the advantages and disadvantages of the Digital India initiative?

What is Digital India?

• Digital India is an initiative by the Government of India to ensure that Government services are made available to citizens electronically by improving online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity. It was launched on 1 July 2015 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high speed internet networks. Digital India has three core components. These include:

• The creation of digital infrastructure
• Delivering services digitally
• Digital Literacy

Now lets move on to the Major Advantages:

1. Creation of Digital Infrastructure and Electronic Manufacturing in Native India.
2. Digital Empowerment of Native Indian People.
3. Delivery of all Government Services electronically (E-Governance).
4. A Digital Identification which will verify the end user.
5. A Mobile for worldwide access to all services.
6. A Bank account for Immediate Benefit Transfers of subsidies and payments.
7. The program also aims to eliminate all electronics imports from foreign countries by 2020 and make India a electronics manufacturing super power.

Other Advantages :

• It will help in decreasing crime if applied on whole.
• It will help in getting things done easily.
• It will help in decreasing documentation.
• Some of the services which will be provided through this desire effort are Digital Locker, e-education, e-health, e-sign and nationwide scholarship portal.
• It will ostensibly create a lot of jobs.
• It will be a boost to industry; both large and small enterprises.

Digital India without a doubt is a very commendable project and deserves full support. As far no disadvantages could be noticed as its a initiative we are talking about. However, the initiative also lacks many crucial components including lack of legal framework, absence of privacy  and data protection laws, civil liberties abuse possibilities, lack of parliamentary oversight for e-surveillance in India,  lack of intelligence related reforms in India, insecure Indian cyberspace, etc.

But there are some questions that might trouble a critic mind :

• Will the initiative be genuinely inclusive?
• Who will the vendors be?
• How will corporates recover their costs? Will the promised investments end up as bad loans from banks?
• Will the initiative give the govt a tool to conduct mass surveillance?

Will the proposed digital lockers for official documentation be reliable?

Well lets keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best. Looking over the advantages I would say its a very visionary Initiative by Modi. #Jai Hind

Thanks :)