India @75: Digital India

Since 15th August 1947 our beloved Bharat ; popularly known as the India, is evolving and becoming ‘Sone ki Chidiya’ (golden bird) via Digital India. Invention and Technology has always altered the way humans live, work and play permanently. Just 120 years ago, application of petrol and diesel engines transformed the transport industry. Similarly, fast speed Internet has radically changed our lives. From enabling studying, shopping, watching movies online; work from home; digital payment transfers etc. we as a race our compelled to reshape our lives. Almost 1.4 bn people have come a long way. The platform of Digital India has proved that it can actually turn the billion Indians dreams into reality, catapulting India’s success stories into the next set of Unicorns with support of a conducive policy environment.

Govt’s target to create hyper-scale data centres, Bhashni (to break language barrier) and futuristic digital info-way that will connect education, research institutions, government and skilling will all enable the steps in building the ‘1000+ Soonicorn’ – the ‘Soon to be Unicorn’ Club which will further realise the dream of “Make in India, Made for the World.” 5G auction is also step in this direction. Firstly, inculcation of scientific temper, where perception doesn’t drive policy, access to data and lower costs of devices especially smartphones, Cyber Army, high speed technology and seamless connectivity (5G, 6G), Adoption of Internationalized Domain Names, Local language content, a secure and safe cyberspace with clear spaces for redressal, ombudsmen, grievance redressal officers, renewable energy, seamless power supply, green technology and lastly more and more government services to be brought online with more departments talking to each other while giving access to information through public APIs for easy access and distribution of data and decision making. That’s one step forward for every year of this remarkable program. We do this right and we’re looking at a truly self-reliant and Aatmanirbhar Bharat where each citizen is connected and fully empowered. I would strongly propose to have an communicable identify for every citizen which could become the primary mode of communication for each citizen for all kind of services. That identify if linked with Aadhar and hosted for unlimited storage FREE for every citizen.

IMPORTANCE OF VERNACULAR LANGUAGE

Sant Gyaneshwar (1290) — translated Holy Geeta from Sanskrit into Marathi and Henry 8 (1538) authorised the translation of Holy Bible from Latin to English. It led to people became closer to their own religion. India’s road to digital transformation was paved by important Government initiatives that led to new digital platforms for the citizens and improved access to such platforms. Aadhar and UPI probably are two most important significant achievements, covering large Indian population, allowing them access to important government digital services and make seamless payments. Not only did this improve availability and transparency of social payments, it also helped in providing financial assistance to those in need.

Governments Digital India programme has three vision areas: digital infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen, governance & services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. This unique flagship programme of GoI was launched on 1 July, 2015 with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It started as an attempt to improve access to critical Govt services by making the country digitally empowered through improved infrastructure and connectivity. Programme has been enabled for several important Govt schemes, such as BharatNet, Make in India, Startup India & Standup India, industrial corridors etc. Digital India, an umbrella programme that covers multiple Govt Ministries & Depts, is a consolidation of various smaller initiatives and ideas into a comprehensive vision. Each initiative is implemented as part of larger goal under overall coordination done by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY). India having a very modest start kicked off the JAM trinity (Jan Dhan, Aadhar and Mobile) to weed out leakages in the system, today empowered the entire vaccination drive for COVID, making India only the second nation to USA that administered 20 crore vaccines. Tech solutions empowered by Digital India that has built the infrastructure for years together today serve as a basis for other emerging interventions in the fields of startups, digital education, seamless banking and payment solutions, agritech, health tech, smart cities, e-governance and retail management. It would not have been feasible without the dream of Hon’ble Prime Minister Modi ji who said, “Indian Talent + Information Technology = India Tomorrow.”

PATH TO HAPPIER AND POWERFUL INDIA @75
Research indicates that 50% of the 4 million employees of the IT industry need to be reskilled over the next 3 years. Further and everchanging digital disruption will continue transforming every industry and the way businesses are conducted. Government and industry together aim to reskill/upskill a total of about 1.4 million employees over a period of 5 years. Gamification of skilling and education initiatives will bridge the gap between languages and help lesser educated individuals to also become future savvy, technology empowered.

THE VIEWS EXPRESSED BY THE AUTHOR ARE PERSONAL

DR AJAY DATA The writer is Co-Chair FICCI ICT and MD — Data Group