A Screenshot Of Digital India(Part-1)

Initially, I introduced myself to them and then they introduced themselves to me. They were all(Amit,Neha,Raghav,Shriya and Tania) in the sophomore year of graduation and I guess since I was just two years elder to them it was easier for me to gel up with the gang.

I broached the discussion by asking “Now that we’ve had ourselves introduced who is going to briefly introduce the topic?”

Raghav responded “ Well! ‘Digital India’ campaign is an ambitious campaign spearheaded by our Prime Minister Narendra Modi where he wishes to revolutionize a transformation in the way the government services are provided to the citizens. He wishes to change the facade of these services to e-services where ‘e’ stands for electronics, thereby, reducing the redundant paperwork which is required to avail these services time and again. The timeline to achieve this is 2019.”

“Very well Raghav! Now lets get to the facts. I mean lets talk about what all are the plans of government in this direction.” I said.

“Little steps have been taken as yet. There already is this MyGov.in online platform to engage citizens in governance through a ‘Discuss,Do,Disseminate’ approach. Especially on the issue of Net neutrality there was a lot of active discussion on the site. Then there is this Swachh Bharat Mobile app to educate people about the goals set by the mission. There are plans for Bharat Net program as a digital highway to connect gram panchayats.[A little fact: This will be the world’s largest project using optical fibres].” replied Neha, the girl with the sweet voice.

“The government is planning for a digital locker system with e-sharing feature; e-sign framework to allow citizens to digitally sign documents online using Aadhar; and e-hospital system for important healthcare services such as online registration, fee payment, getting an appointment with the doctor, online diagnostic repositories etc.” added Amit.

“This all sounds so cool!” exclaimed Shriya adding “ I have also heard that BSNL which these days suffers from a lot of complaints from its customers is planning to overhaul itself as a part of this campaign. It’s going to come up with a Next Generation Network to replace its telephone exchanges. Then this Next Gen network is going to handle the communication services. I am quite excited to see this development.”

“Hey! I even heard of BSNL’s plans for large scale deployment of Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the country.” responded Raghav.

“Wi-Fi! Wi-Fi! All we want is Wi-fi. Umm.. Actually free Wi-Fi.” Amit said highly excited and we all laughed.

“How can we forget the government’s plan for a center of Internet of Things.” I added.

I noticed that Tania hadn’t come up with anything. She seemed shy.

“Tania would you want to share something?” I asked.

“ Umm.. Although I know that the government is quite keen for this campaign and also funds worth 1.13 lakh crores have been allotted to bolster this campaign but I wonder if it will have far reaching effects. A significant section of our country’s population is not even acquainted with the usage of computers and internet. The concept of ‘Digital India’ shall be highly alien to them. They might get flummoxed by e-services. Albeit the govt. is trying to simplify the accessibility, it can instead complicate it for people, turning the table upside down.” spoke Tania in her soft voice.

She indeed had come up with a valid point. We were all evaluating this campaign with respect to ourselves. But how about the remote areas to which even the benefits of computers haven’t reached as yet. Her point completely swerved the conversation into a new direction turning it from ‘What the campaign is all about’ to ‘How can this campaign uplift or bring a kind of development that is just not limited to the precincts of urban areas but the rural and remote areas as well?’.

(to be contd..)