An INITIATIVE OF SHIVNANDANI INDUSTRIES PVT LTD AND Jagdamb Janaki nawal Janaki SOciety

Digital India

Compiled by Col Mukteshwar Prasad(Retd), MTech,CE(I),FIE(I),FIETE,FISLE,FInstOD,AMCSIContact -9007224278, e-mail –muktesh_prasad@yahoo.co.in for book ”Decoding Services Selection Board” and SSB guidance and training at Shivnandani Edu and Defence Academy

9/28/2015

Digital India

Digital Technologies which include Cloud Computing and Mobile Applications have emerged as catalysts for rapid economic growth and citizen empowerment across the globe. Digital technologies are being increasingly used by us in everyday lives from retail stores to government offices. They help us to connect with each other and also to share information on issues and concerns faced by us. In some cases they also enable resolution of those issues in near real time.

The objective of the Digital India Group is to come out with innovative ideas and practical solutions to realise Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a digital India. Prime Minister Modi envisions transforming our nation and creating opportunities for all citizens by harnessing digital technologies. His vision is to empower every citizen with access to digital services, knowledge and information.

Moving ahead on yet another pet project, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the 'Digital India' campaign on 01 Jul 2015 along with Digital India week, aimed at creating a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

The 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 co-ordinated engagement of the entire government.

The vision of Digital India programme also aims at inclusive growth in areas of electronic services, products, manufacturing and job opportunities etc. The vision of Digital India is centred on three key

areas -

(i) Digital Infrastructure as a utility to every citizen

(ii) Governance & services on demand

(iii) Digital Empowerment of citizens

The Digital India programme aims to provide broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public internet access programme, e-governance: Reforming government through technology, eKranti - Electronic delivery of services, Information for all, Electronics manufacturing: Target net zero imports, IT for jobs and early harvest programmes.

In line with these objectives, the government has launched some inititaives. Others are being readied for launch. We take a look at some of

1.Digital Locker System aims to minimize the usage of physical documents and enable sharing of e-documents across agencies. The sharing of the e-documents will be done through registered repositories thereby ensuring the authenticity of the documents online, says the government.

2. MyGov.in has been implemented as a platform for citizen engagement in governance, through a "Discuss", "Do" and "Disseminate" approach. The mobile app for MyGov would bring these features to users on a mobile phone.

3. Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile app would be used by people and Government organizations for achieving the goals of Swachh Bharat Mission.

4. eSign framework would allow citizens to digitally sign a document online using Aadhaar authentication. 5. The Online Registration System (ORS) under the eHospital application has been introduced. This application provides important services such as online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring availability of blood online etc, the government claims.

6. National Scholarships Portal is said to be a one stop solution for end to end scholarship process right from submission of student application, verification, sanction and disbursal to end beneficiary for all the scholarships provided by the Government of India.

7. DeitY has undertaken an initiative namely Digitize India Platform (DIP) for large scale digitization of records in the country that would facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.

8. The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high speed digital highway

to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of country. This would be the world's largest rural broadband connectivity project using optical fibre.

9. Policy initiatives have also been undertaken by DeitY in the e-Governance domain like e-Kranti Framework, Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India, Framework for Adoption of Open Source Software in e-Governance Systems, Policy on Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Government of India, E-mail Policy of Government of India, Policy on Use of IT Resources of Government of India, Policy on Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications, Application Development & Re-Engineering Guidelines for Cloud Ready Applications

10. BSNL has introduced Next Generation Network (NGN), to replace 30 year old exchanges, which is an IP based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia/ video and other types of packet switched communication services.

11. BSNL has undertaken large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country. The user can latch on the BSNL Wi-Fi network through their mobile devices.

12. BPO Policy has been approved to create BPO centres in different North Eastern states and also in smaller / mofussil towns of other states.

13. Electronics Development Fund (EDF) Policy aims to promote Innovation, R&D, and Product Development and to create a resource pool of IP within the country to create a self-sustaining eco-system of Venture Funds.

14. National Centre for Flexible Electronics (NCFlexE) is an initiative of Government of India to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of Flexible Electronics.

15. Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT) is a joint initiative of Department of Electronics & Information Technology (DeitY), ERNET and NASSCOM.

"The estimated impact of Digital India by 2019 would be cross cutting, ranging from broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-Fihotspots. The programme will generate huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs, both directly and indirectly. Success of this programme will make India Digitally empowered and the leader in usage of

IT in delivery of services related to various domains such as health, education, agriculture, banking, etc,"

the government claims. INTRODUCTION

The Digital India programme is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

E-governance initiatives in India took a broader dimension in the mid 1990s for wider sectoral applications with emphasis on citizen-centric services. The major ICT initiatives of the Government included, inter alia, some major projects such as railway computerization, land record computerization, etc. which focused mainly on the development of information systems. Later on, many states started ambitious individual e-governance projects aimed at providing electronic services to citizens.Though these e-governance projects were citizen-centric, they could make less than the desired impact due to their limited features. The isolated and less interactive systems revealed major gaps that were thwarting the successful adoption of e-governance along the entire spectrum of governance. They clearly pointed towards the need for a more comprehensive planning and implementation for the infrastructure required to be put in place, interoperability issues to be addressed, etc. to establish a more connected government.

e-Kranti : National e-Governance Plan 2.0The national level e-Governance programme called National e-Governance Plan was initiaited in 2006. There were 31 Mission Mode Projects under National e-Governance Plan covering a wide range of domains, viz. agriculture, land records, health, education, passports, police, courts, municipalities, commercial taxes, treasuries etc. 24 Mission Mode Projects have been implemented and started delivering either full or partial range of envisaged services.Considering the shortcomings in National e-Governance Plan that included lack of integration amongst Government applications and databases, low degree of government process reengineering, scope for leveraging emerging technologies like mobile, cloud…etc, Government of India has approved the e-Kranti programme recently with the vision of “Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance”.All new and on-going eGovernance projects as well as the existing projects, which are being revamped, should now follow the key principles of e-Kranti namely ‘Transformation and not Translation’, ‘Integrated Services and not Individual Services’, ‘Government Process Reengineering (GPR) to be mandatory in every MMP’, ‘ICT Infrastructure on Demand’, ‘Cloud by Default’, ‘Mobile First’, ‘Fast Tracking Approvals’, ‘Mandating Standards and Protocols’, ‘Language Localization’, ‘National GIS (Geo-Spatial Information System)’, ‘Security and Electronic Data Preservation’.The portfolio of Mission Mode Projects has increased from 31 to 44 MMPs. Many new social sector projects namely Women and Child Development, Social Benefits, Financial Inclusion, Urban Governance, eBhasha…etc have been added as new MMPs under e-Kranti.

Vision of Digital India

The vision of Digital India programme is to transform India into a digitally

empowered society and knowledge economy.

Vision Areas of Digital India

The Digital India programme is centred on three key vision areas:

Digital Infrastructure as a Core Utility to Every Citizen

 

Governance and Services on Demand

 

Digital Empowerment of Citizens

Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen

Availability of high speed internet as a core utility for delivery of services to citizens Cradle to grave digital identity that is unique, lifelong, online and authenticable to every citizen Mobile phone & bank account enabling citizen participation in digital & financial space Easy access to a Common Service Centre Shareable private space on a public cloud Safe and secure cyber-space

Governance & Services on Demand

Seamlessly integrated services across departments or jurisdictions Availability of services in real time from online & mobile platforms All citizen entitlements to be portable and available on the cloud Digitally transformed services for improving ease of doing business Making financial transactions electronic & cashless Leveraging Geospatial Information Systems (GIS) for decision support systems & development

Digital Empowerment of Citizens

Universal digital literacy Universally accessible digital resources Availability of digital resources / services in Indian languages Collaborative digital platforms for participative governance Citizens not required to physically submit Govt. documents / certificates

 

Vision Area 1: Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen

Focus Area Intended Outcome

Broadband for rural areas Coverage for 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) by 2016-17

Broadband for urban areas Virtual Network Operators for service delivery;Mandatory communication infrastructure in new urban settlements and buildings

National Information Infrastructure  

Integration of all core ICT infrastructure built under National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) for greater efficiency and synergy;Nationwide coverage by March 2017

Universal access to mobile connectivity

Greater network penetration;Coverage for 55,619 uncovered villages by 2018

Public Internet Access Programme under National Rural Internet Mission

Coverage for 2,50,000 GPs by 2016-17 through Common Services Centers (CSCs);Recasting of 1,50,000 post offices as multi-service centres by 2015-16

What is in it for the citizens?

Current scenario for a villager without easy access to a CSC

Inadequate access to government services and internet.Changed scenario

Internet connectivity is available through the CSC. The neighbourhood CSC is a convenient and friendly place to know and avail G2C

services, banking services (including loans) and also to learn about suitable agricultural practices.

Several B2C services are available too in the CSC. Family members can learn computer skills at the CSC and also undergo vocational

trainings for better family income.

Digital Locker to Citizens – A Game Changer

Current Scenario:

Citizens need to submit paper documents to avail government services.How Digital India initiative will impact:

Government of India would provide a digital private space, i.e. Digital Locker, to every citizen.

The ‘Digital Locker’ would enable citizens to securely store all their important documents and credential.

The electronic documents can be shared with public agencies or others without the need to physically submit them.

Such a ‘digital locker’ will greatly improve citizen convenience and usher in paperless transactions across the entire ecosystem of public services.

In a situation of disaster, e.g. flood, storm, fire, etc, when citizens may loose paper documents, documents in the digital repository would be accessible for them anytime, anywhere to avail government or private services.

Vision Area 2: Governance and services on demand

Changing the Life of Citizens through Internet & Mobile connectivity

Current scenario:

Difficulty in availing government services due to lack of internet connectivity.

Changed scenario:

Use of mobile phone or laptop would help in checking the status of entitlements, bank account details, etc.

Access to internet and focus on digital literacy will also help citizens aspire for better jobs and improved quality of life.

Text books will be available in the form of e-books which can be downloaded on laptops. Citizens may avail government and private services from home by accessing the software

applications through internet.

The e-Biz project provides integrated services across various central and state departments/ agencies through a single window mechanism to all businesses and investors for setting up a commercial enterprise.

The ‘MCA21’ MMP aims at providing electronic services for statutory requirements and other business related services.

The e-Trade MMP facilitates foreign trade in India by promoting effective and efficient delivery of services by various regulatory/ facilitating agencies involved in foreign trade, to enable traders to avail online services from these agencies.

Vision Area 3: Digital empowerment of citizens

Universally Accessible Digital Resources: Making government documents accessible to citizens anytime, anywhere!

Current scenario:

Government documents are not easily accessible.Changed scenario:

Citizen related documents would be available electronically. Government departments may access the documents issued by collateral government

agencies. Documents issued to the citizens would be available to them anywhere anytime, in a

standard format which can be shared with an authorized entity. The documents may be available in local language as well. Documents would be accessible to citizens through web portals and mobile applications.

Approach and Methodology for Digital India Programme are:

1. Ministries / Departments / States would fully leverage the Common and Support ICT

Infrastructure established by GoI. DeitY would also evolve/ lay down standards and policy

guidelines, provide technical and handholding support, undertake capacity building, R&D,

etc.

2. The existing/ ongoing e-Governance initiatives would be suitably revamped to align them

with the principles of Digital India. Scope enhancement, Process Reengineering, use of

integrated & interoperable systems and deployment of emerging technologies like cloud &

mobile would be undertaken to enhance the delivery of Government services to citizens.

3. States would be given flexibility to identify for inclusion additional state-specific projects,

which are relevant for their socio-economic needs.

4. e-Governance would be promoted through a centralised initiative to the extent necessary,

to ensure citizen centric service orientation, interoperability of various e-Governance

applications and optimal utilisation of ICT infrastructure/ resources, while adopting a

decentralised implementation model.

5. Successes would be identified and their replication promoted proactively with the required

productization and customisation wherever needed.

6. Public Private Partnerships would be preferred wherever feasible to implement e-

Governance projects with adequate management and strategic control.

7. Adoption of Unique ID would be promoted to facilitate identification, authentication and

delivery of benefits.

8. Restructuring of NIC would be undertaken to strengthen the IT support to all government

departments at Centre and State levels.

9. The positions of Chief Information Officers (CIO) would be created in at least 10 key

Ministries so that various e-Governance projects could be designed, developed and

implemented faster. CIO positions will be at Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary level with

over-riding powers on IT in the respective Ministry.

Programme Management Structure for Digital India Programme

The Programme management structure for the Digital India prorgamme as endorsed by the Union Cabinet is as follow:

1. For effective management of the Digital India programme, the programme management

structure would consists of a Monitoring Committee on Digital India headed by the Prime

Minister, a Digital India Advisory Group chaired by the Minister of Communications and IT

and an Apex Committee chaired by the Cabinet Secretary.  The structure has the needed

secretarial/ monitoring/ technical support and appropriate decentralization of power and

responsibility to ensure effective execution of the various projects/ components by the

implementing departments/ teams.

2. Key components of the Programme Management structure would be as follows:

a. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for programme level policy

decisions.

b. A Monitoring Committee on Digital India under the Chairpersonship of Prime Minister which will be constituted with representation drawn from relevant Ministries/

Departments to provide leadership, prescribe deliverables and milestones, and monitor

periodically the implementation of the Digital India Programme.

c. A Digital India Advisory Group headed by the Minister of Communications and IT 

to solicit views of external stakeholders and to provide inputs to the Monitoring

Committee on Digital India, advise the Government on policy issues and strategic

interventions necessary for accelerating the implementation of the Digital India

Programme across Central and State Government Ministries/Departments. The

composition of the Advisory Group would include representation from the Planning

Commission and 8 to 9 representatives from States/UTs and other Line

Ministries/Departments on a rotational basis.

d. An Apex Committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary would be overseeing the

programme and providing policy and strategic directions for its implementation and

resolving inter-ministerial issues. In addition it would harmonize and integrate diverse

initiatives and aspects related to integration of services, end to end process re-

engineering and service levels of MMPs and other initiatives under the Digital India

Programme, wherever required.

e. Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC)/Committee on Non Plan Expenditure (CNE)

to financially appraise/ approve projects as per existing delegation of financial powers.

The EFC/ CNE headed by Secretary Expenditure would also be recommending to the

CCEA the manner in which MMPs/ eGovernance initiatives are to be implemented, as

well as the financial terms of participation for States. A representative of the Planning

Commission would also be included in both the EFC and CNE.

f. A Council of Mission Leaders on Digital India headed by Secretary, DeitY would be

established as a platform to share the best practices in various existing and new eGov

initiatives under Digital India and also to sensitize various government departments

about ICT projects of DeitY. While the inter-departmental, integration and interoperable

issues of integrated projects / eGovernance initiatives would be resolved by the Apex

Committee on Digital India headed by Cabinet Secretary, the technical issues of

integrated projects would be resolved by the Council of Mission Leaders.

g. Further, considering the scope of the Digital India Programme and the need to look at

issues such as overall technology architecture, framework, standards, security policy,

funding strategy, service delivery mechanism, sharing of common infrastructure etc. at a

programme level, it is proposed that the technical appraisal of all Digital India projects be

done by DeitY, prior to a project being placed before the EFC/ CNE. This appraisal

would cover issues relating to inclusion of adoption of Standards, utilization of Cloud and

mobile platforms, consideration of security aspects, etc. The Secretary, DeitY or his

representative may also be included as a standing special invitee to all EFC/CNE

meetings, which are appraising/approving MMPs. It may be mentioned that the DeitY

has already set up a Programme Management Unit, namely National eGovernance

Division (NeGD) to provide support to departments in conceptualizing, developing,

appraising, implementing and monitoring respective MMPs / eGovernance Initiatives.

h. Institutional mechanism of Digital India at State level would be headed by State Committee on Digital India by the Chief Minister. State/UT Apex Committees on Digital India headed by Chief Secretaries would be constituted at State/UT level to

allocate required resources, set priority amongst projects and resolve inter-departmental

issues at State level.

3. For effective monitoring of Digital India, usage of Project Management Information System

would be mandatory in each new and existing Mission Mode Projects to capture the real or

near real time details about the progress of the project. This tool should be proficient

enough to capture the parameters for each stage of project namely, conceptualization and

development, implementation and post implementation. The parameters could be decided

in consultation with various line Ministries / Departments and DeitY.

4. Since the “e-Kranti: National eGovernance Plan 2.0” is already integrated with Digital India

Programme, the existing programme management structure established for National

eGovernance Plan at both national and state level has also been decided to be integrated

appropriately with the programme management structure being envisaged for Digital India

Programme at national and State/UT level.

Institutional Mechanism at National Level

Current StatusThe Apex Committee on the Digital India programme headed by the Cabinet Secretary and the Digital India Advisory Group chaired by the Minister of Communications and Information Techology has been constituted.The first meeting of the Apex Committee on the Digital India programme was held on 26.11.2014. The second meeting of the Apex Committee on the Digital India programme was held on 09.02.2015. The actions on decisons made by the Apex Committee are being worked out. 

Industry hails 'Digital India' move, top CEOs commit to invest Rs 4.5 trillionIndia's top industrialists including Cyrus Mistry, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Sunil Bharti Mittal applauded the government's Rs 1.13-lakh-crore Digital India programme, saying it had the potential to bridge the digital divide and benefit billions of people through digital solutions in education, healthcare and irrigation sectors.

At the unveiling of the Digital India Week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India's top billionaires pledged around Rs

4.5 lakh crore to projects related to Digital India, which could generate employments for some 18 lakh people. "Digital India will help India to create a knowledgeable society and will provide government services within a short time," said Cyrus Mistry, chairman of Tata Sons.

He said Tata Consultancy Services, which is majority owned by the Tata Group, has been an active contributor to e-governance programmes and the company will hire 60,000 IT professionals this year. Reliance IndustriesBSE 0.92 % Chairman Mukesh Ambani said his company would invest Rs 2.5 lakh crore across different Digital India heads, which have the potential to create employment for over five lakh people. "Normally, industry moves faster than government but with Digital India it is different. I have no hesitation in saying that government has moved faster," he said. He also announced setting up of the 'Jio Digital India Start Up Fund' to encourage young entrepreneurs who are setting up who are setting up businesses focused around the Digital India initiative.

The Rs 1.13-lakh-crore Digital India project is aimed at broadening digital access for all Indians and making sure that government functions and services are available online to citizens.

"I dream of Digital India where 1.2 billion connected Indians drive the nation," said the Prime Minister at the launch of the Digital India Week, which will take technology to the villages and block levels over the course of the next week.

Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, which owns telecom company Idea CellularBSE 1.29 %, said it would leverage its network of 165 million subscribers across 350,000 towns and villages in India to provide mobile-based healthcare and education services as well as weather forecasting advisories and 'mandi' prices to over one million farmers.

The company will also launch a mobile wallet and payment bank as well as invest over $2 billion in the next five years in areas such as electronic manufacturing, energy storage, Internet of Things and development of smart cities.

"We are launching a new initiative to partner with and mentor entrepreneurs to commercialise their digitally-enabled product or service. This will provide an opportunity over the next five years to more than 10,000 entrepreneurs, potentially creating over a million new jobs," said Birla.