Digital India : Key Features

DIGITAL INDIA project that was launched by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This scheme was launched in the month of July and many commitments have been made in it. So try to remember it for GA Section as well.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the ‘Digital India’ week on Wednesday in the presence of senior ministerial colleagues and top industry honchos, a move that aims to give a ‘digital push’ to governance and jobs. Right from his first day in office, the Prime Minister has always exhibited interest in a digitizing campaign for India, something which he feels would bridge the gap between government initiatives and its beneficiaries. With increasing internet penetration in India, a digital India campaign is the need of the hour.

• Digital locker system to minimize usage of physical documents and enable their e-sharing via registered repositories.
• MyGov.in as an an online platform to engage citizens in governance through a "Discuss, Do and Disseminate" approach.
• Swachh Bharat Mission Mobile app to achieve the goals set by this mission.
• e-Sign framework to allow citizens to digitally sign documents online using Aadhaar.
• e-Hospital system for important healthcare services such as online registration, fee payment, fixing doctors' appointments, online diagnostics and checking blood availability online.
• National Scholarship Portal for beneficiaries from submission of application to verification, sanction and disbursal.
• Digitize India Platform for large-scale digitization of records in the country to facilitate efficient delivery of services to the citizens.
• Bharat Net programe as a high-speed digital highway to connect all 250,000 gram panchayats of country -- the world's largest rural broadband project using optical fibre.
• BSNL's Next Generation Network to replace 30-year old telephone exchanges to manage all types of services like voice, data, multimedia and other types of communication services.
• BSNL's large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country.
• "Broadband Highways' as one of the pillars of Digital India to address the connectivity issue while enabling and providing technologies to facilitate delivery of services to citizens.
• Outsourcing Policy to create such centres in different northeastern states and in smaller towns across the country.
• Electronics Development Fund to promote innovation, research and product development to create a resource pool within the country as also a self-sustaining eco-system of venture funds.
• National Centre for Flexible Electronics to promote research and innovation in the emerging area of flexible electronics.
• Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT) as a joint initiative of the government agencies and private institutions such as Nasscom.

Digital India promises to transform India into a connected knowledge economy offering world-class services at the click of a mouse and will be implemented in a phased manner.The government feels that open access to "broadband highways" across cities, towns and villages would give a fillip to trade across the country. "The other important benefit we see is surge in e-commerce. The intention is to bring down net electronics imports to zero by 2020, from about $100 billion now, a move which will help the country control its current-account deficit. As things stand, net annual electronics imports could rise to $400 billion by 2020, outgrowing oil imports.