IfG.CC - The Institute for eGovernment

In his spare time these days, 28-year-old farmer Ravi Singh Chauhan, a resident of Shivnathpua village in Madhya Pradesh's Rajgarh district, scours the Internet learning new farming techniques or keeping in touch with friends and family on WhatsApp.

Tucked away in one of Madhya Pradesh's most backward districts, a quiet digital revolution is taking place as over 1,200 villagers across two villages, have become netizens with free internet since October.

Studies have found ineligible candidates received training, and beneficiaries are still not adept at using various digital functions.

In March 2014, the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government launched a digital literacy mission, which became the National Digital Literacy Mission when the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power two months later. It tied in with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of a “Digital India”.

Although the Digital India initiatives are focused on reducing the digital divide, a multi-pronged strategy is required for India to emerge as a leading digital economy.

Information technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad recently stated that the government had added more services through the UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) app for smartphones. This app offers 242 services from 57 departments in 12 states. This is unprecedented progress for a government initiative that was launched by PM Narendra Modi six months ago as part of the Digital India push. While the initiatives must be lauded, a recent global survey on Internet/App usage by global research firm Pew Research Centre ranks India lowest amongst the 39 large economies surveyed. Although the Digital India initiatives are focused on reducing the digital divide, a multi-pronged strategy is required for India to emerge as a leading digital economy.

In order to dismantle information hierarchies, both voice and data should be easily available in multiple languages

A recent research report by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) indicated that there are 935.4 million mobile connections in India out of which nearly 548 million were from urban India and the rest are from rural.

On a chilly winter morning, Kalapana Verma, a 17-year-old girl from north India's Uttar Pradesh state starts her journey from a thatched hut in Bheera village. Traversing the paddy fields and muddy village road, she cycles for about 12 kilometers before reaching a computer learning institute in Raebareli, the nearest town.

Over the last year this has become a routine for Kalpana, who hopes to achieve what is still a distant dream for most of her peers in the country: e-literacy.

The Centre has set in motion the process for digital linkages and grassroot-level monitoring to ensure proper implementation of the Van Dhan programme for development of the value chain for 50 minor forest produce (non-timber) items covered by minimum support price.

Using the existing network of 3.78 lakh citizen service points under CSC e-governance Services India Limited, a special purpose vehicle of ministry of electronics and IT (MeitY), there are plans to provide localised IT based help desk support and banking services to tribals involved in gathering of MFPs.

India has made strides in digitalization and the digital public infrastructure (DPI) has had a transformative impact on the country, said Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman here on Saturday.

Speaking at Indira Gandhi Arts and Science College after unveiling the statue of Mahatma Gandhi, Nirmala started off mentioning about her roots in Trichy.She outlined the government's commitment to inclusive growth and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision for India's advancement.

Considering the mobile phone surge in India, which boasts around 8-9 percent GDP growth, the performance of the broadband segment is dismal. Despite the known benefits of broadband, India had just 10.29 million broadband connections in the country at the end of September 2010. The main broadband growth is still coming from urban areas and the rural population is a neglected one.

The Indian broadband revolution has a history of more than six years. The revolution started following the announcement of a broadband policy in 2004 by the telecom regulator TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). The Broadband Policy 2004 set a target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010. Thanks to our lack of focus, the country missed its 2010 target.

India offers multiple opportunities for internet of things providers, and the country’s IoT ecosystem is expected to continue growing to offer entire new streams of revenue.

The Indian internet of things (IoT) market is forecast to reach $9.28bn by 2025, driven by pandemic-triggered changes in enterprise behaviour and verticals’ focus on automation, a new study finds.

India is known to be the land of villages. Imparting digital education to the rural parts of India can help the country prosper in leaps and bounds. It is important for the village councils to get digitized with suitable tech training as we also have e- governance.

Statistics say that in the Indian Panchayat Raj Ministry, there are 245,525 panchayat offices, including 582 zila panchayats, 6,299 block panchayats and 238,644 gram panchayats. Of these, only 58,291panchayats have computers. Most computers in these panchayats are non-functional or there is no one with adequate skill to handle the computers.

Direct money transfers via Aadhaar and the interoperable software layers called India Stack to India's financially vulnerable population have "saved" the country from long queues and panic during the ongoing COVID19 pandemic and "justified a 10x return on investment on the India Stack", Arvind Gupta, former CEO of MyGov and founder, Digital India Foundation, told IANS in a video interview.

As of April 22, the Indian government paid out Rs 31,235 crore in financial assistance to more than 330 million Indians, according to publicly available data.

Imagine a futuristic transformation of India’s cities that goes beyond the usual, where traffic flows smoothly, energy is used judiciously, and waste is managed efficiently. This is where India’s Smart City Mission comes into the picture. It is all about transforming cities with intelligence and innovation while harnessing the power of technology to build sustainable, efficient and livable urban environments. These cities are meant to be designed for the future, staying adaptable to rapid technological advancements in the years to come. Launched on 25 June 2015, the mission selected 100 cities across the country to be developed as Smart Cities with the aim of driving economic growth and improving quality of life through comprehensive work on social, economic, physical and institutional pillars of the city.

Finally after a rather very long wait, Indian government has announced the launch of top level country code in the Devnagri script. The government believes that it is going to make things rather enticing for the local Indian languages. Government has also said that other Indian languages are also going to get domains in regional Indian languages besides Urdu, a language that is written and spoken universally across South Asia.

It is not surprising to note that India is in a prime position for the growth and development of the e-commerce sector. The most prominent sector for which e-commerce presents an opportunity is retail since it provides for a vivid change from brick to mortar establishments to virtual shops which could operate for a fraction of the cost.

e-Governance is the application of information and communication technology (ICT) for delivering government services, exchange of information, communication transactions, integration of various stand-alone systems and services between government-to-customer, government-to-business, government-to-government as well as support systems, processes and interactions within the entire government framework.

Through e-Governance, various government services will be made available to citizens in a convenient, efficient and transparent manner.

There is need to focus on strengthening of e-Governance, an important pillar of the Government of India's "Digital India" campaign so as to digitally empower the administrative and Governance process for providing Citizen Centric Services.

This was stated by Shri Devendra Chaudhury, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG) while inaugurating a Workshop on "UN e-Government Development Index".

The awards, to be given at the 16th National Conference on e-Governance on 11-12 February, are divided into seven categories, including ‘Outstanding Performance in Citizen-Centric Service Delivery’, ‘Innovative Usage of Technology in e-Governance’ and ‘Best Government Portal’. Gold, silver and bronze awards will be given in each category.

"There is a great digital divide between rural and urban India. IT can address that. For instance long distance education can do wonders in the country," Modi said, addressing a Nasscom conference in Mumbai.