How quickly is India progressing in its digitization journey
Post demonetisation move, the government has taken several initiatives emphasis on digitisation and bringing in greater transparency in economic transactions.
Narendra Modi had launched ‘Digital India’ programme in an order to create transparent and responsive government. With this launch, the government took a big step towards the transforming the country into a digitally empowered knowledge economy.
By the end of 2019, the project is aiming to provide high speed internet services to its citizens in all gram panchayats. Bank accounts will be given priority at individual level. People will be provided with safe and secure cyber space in the country. Government services will be available online where citizens will be ensured easy access to it. Transactions will be made easy through electronic medium. Rest
India, is emerging as a knowledge based economy, poised for double digit growth
India, is emerging as a knowledge based economy, poised for double digit growth, and needs to strengthen social infrastructure by investing in health and education.
The education policies need to be designed with focus on learning outcomes and remedial education with interventions which work and maximize the efficiency of expenditure. There is need for bio-metric attendance of school staff, independent setting of examination papers, neutral examination and for DBT for schools. There is need to adopt outcome measures for the education and skilling activities to ensure improvement in delivery of schemes/ programmes. Rest
India’s blurry battle between digital freedom and security
In Indian Kashmir’s capital Srinagar, a middle-aged woman enters a small boutique. On her phone is a dress she has spotted online, on the shop’s Instagram page. A prolonged mobile shutdown last year saw their sales drop 40 per cent, owners and sisters Afshan and Mehnaz Mir say. “We don’t want it to happen again and again,” Afshan says. “It really affects us,” added Mehnaz. “Nowadays you can see, the marketing, everything, is done on internet, online.”
According to the aim of its digital India policy, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Government wants to, “transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy“. It aims to improve computer literacy, save money and eliminate corruption by migrating government services and transactions online. Senior ministers have acknowledged the conflict between the policy and the trend. “The trouble is people are misusing it, so temporary intervention has to be there,” IT and Justice Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said when asked earlier this year about the impact on Kashmir’s economy and citizens in particular. “But I do take your point that Kashmir does need proper uninterrupted availability of Internet.” Rest
Be a part of Digital India, but don’t let Net rule you
Telecom subscribers in India, as per the latest TRAI report, crossed 121-crore mark by June end. The overall mobile subscriber base in the country grew to 118.6 crore. This is good in a way as it will speed up the campaign for Digital India, which is one of most ambitious projects in the world, seeking to digitally connect all of the country’s villages and gram panchayats by broadband internet, promote e-governance and transform India into a connected knowledge economy. However, it will take some time before the connectivity issue is resolved and the general public becomes technically aware and get comfortable with the technology. Rest