PM Modi launches Digital India

NEW DELHI Jul 1, 2015 (Agency) : Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the Digital India initiative at an event attended by government officials as well as industry leaders. The programme aims to make all citizens digitally literate and bring internet and e-governance to all sections of the society.Modi added that Digital India has drawn investments worth Rs 4.5 lakh crore and will create 18 lakh jobs."E-governance is going to change into m-governance or mobile governance. Mobile governance is going to be a reality soon," he added.The Prime Minister also assured help to the youngsters in their startups. "Why can't we make quality electronic goods that are globally competitive? I assure all help to youngsters in startups. I think in the times to come we will get even more active in this," he said."Design in India is very important. Just like Make in India is important. The talent of our youth must be utilized. And we must focus on designing in India," the Prime Minister added.Union telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad added, "The story of Digital India is not about numbers of laptop and phones, it is an idea where we conceive of not only IT-enabled services but IT-enabled society."The government announced that people of 31 gram panchayats across 14 states watched the Digital India event through web conferencing, powered by NOFN's BharatNet network.It also said that BSNL already has 55 Next Generation Network in place to replace 30-year-old exchanges; their number will grow to 683 by year end. BSNL also has 53 active Wi-Fi hotspots, and aims to have 2500 Wi-Fi hotspots by the end of 2015.With the launch of Digital Locker, citizens will be able to store digital copies of all their documents, which can be used for easy download as well as to submit the same for verification with the click of a button.National Scholarship Portal will offer all details and performing all key procedures from a single platform, while the government is also launching an app that will make it possible for citizens to take appointments and pay fees for government hospitals using their smartphones. Similarly, Indian citizens can now connect their phone number with their Aadhaar authentication number for streamlined data



verification.Additionally, the government is launching apps for Swachh Bharat Mission, PayGov and MyGov, and setting up National Centre for Flexible Electronics and National Insititute for IoT (Internet of Things).Cyrus Mistry, chairman of Tata Group, said, "I congratulate PM for setting up #DigitalIndia to provide governance in real time and digitally empowering citizens." Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) aims to hire 60,000 IT professionals this year, and has partnered with the government for projects like Passport Seva and income tax e-filing, as well as state-level projects.Azim Premji, Wipro chairman, said about the Digital India initiative will democratize the nation and "break down the digital divide in India." He added that the level of skills of India's people will have to be significantly improved in order to make full use of the new initiative.Kumar Mangalam Birla said that Birla Group will invest $2 billion electronic manufacturing, energy storage, smart cities and Internet of Things over next the 5 years. Additionally, Idea Cellular will be a partner of the government in Digital India, and will invest $7 billion over 5 years for network rollout & enhancements, broadband implementation and Wi-Fi deployment. It will also launch weather forecasting advisories and mandi price services for farmers, along with a mobile wallet.Bharti Enterprises chairman and group CEO, Sunil Bharti Mittal said, "This (Digital India) initiative can transform the nation in the shortest possible timeframe." The company will spend $16 billion across urban and rural areas as part of the Digital India campaign and will start manufacturing in India to reduce the import burden.Anil Ambani of Reliance Group said his company will invest Rs 10,000 in tech projects as part of Digital India. The company's upcoming five fully operational Cloud Xchange points that "can help government departments access 240 times the amount of compute power currently available in government data centres, and over 6 times the high-speed storage currently available in India."Hari Om Rai, chairman and MD of Lava International, said, that products the company has manufactured in India have lower failure rates compared to the ones it imports from China.