AMBITIOUSLY AIDING GROWTH: DIGITAL INDIA MISSION
AMBITIOUSLY AIDING GROWTH: DIGITAL INDIA MISSION
The massive popularity and usage of the internet and technology have a crucial role today. In India, E-governance initiatives took a broader dimension in the mid-1990s for wider sectoral applications with emphasis on citizen-centric services.
Some of the initial initiatives by the central government included inter alia, some major projects, such as railway computerization, land record computerisation etc., focused mainly on the development of information systems.
While many states started ambitious individual e-governance projects aimed at providing electronic services to citizens.
These e-governance citizen-centric projects were made less than the desired impact due to their limited features and revealed major gaps that were thwarting the successful adoption of e-governance along the entire spectrum of governance.
Digital India, an umbrella programme that covers multiple government ministries and departments. As it weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them can be implemented as part of a larger goal.
Each element adds to the larger picture while it will be implemented by the entire Government with overall coordination being done by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).
The role of the Ministries / Departments / States would fully leverage the Common and Support ICT Infrastructure established by GoI. The deitY would also evolve/ lay down standards and policy guidelines, provide technical and handholding support, undertake capacity building and R&D etc.
The second impact of Digital India is to suitably revamp the existing/ ongoing e-governance initiatives revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India.
This will be done by scope enhancement, process reengineering, use of integrated & interoperable systems and deployment of emerging technologies like cloud & mobile would be undertaken to enhance the delivery of government services to citizens.
Besides this central government scheme, the States would be given the flexibility to identify for the inclusion of additional state-specific projects, which are relevant for their socio-economic needs.
e-Governance would be promoted through a centralised initiative to the extent necessary, to ensure citizen-centric service orientation, interoperability of various e-Governance applications and optimal utilisation of ICT infrastructure/ resources, while adopting a decentralised implementation model.
Successes would be identified and their replication promoted proactively with the required production and customization wherever needed. Wherever feasible to implement e-governance projects with adequate management and strategic control, Public-Private Partnerships would be preferred and there will be the adoption of unique ID would be promoted to facilitate identification, authentication and delivery of benefits.
Under this mission, restructuring of NIC would be undertaken to strengthen the IT support to all government departments at the Centre and the State levels and there
The positions of Chief Information Officers (CIO) would be created in at least 10 key Ministries at Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary level with over-riding powers on IT in the respective Ministry to facilitate various e-governance projects could be designed, developed and implemented faster.
The technology-based mission, Digital India aims to provide the much-needed thrust to the nine pillars of growth areas complex programme in itself and cuts across multiple Ministries and Departments.
They include the broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public internet access programme, e-governance: reforming government through technology, e-Kranti – electronic delivery of services, information for all, electronics manufacturing, it for jobs and early harvest programmes.
The Digital India programme is centred on three key vision areas of digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen infrastructure, governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
There should be the availability of high-speed internet as a core utility for delivery of services to citizens, a lifelong digital identity that is unique, online and authenticable to every citizen, mobile phone & bank account enabling citizen participation in digital & financial space, easy access to a common service centre, and shareable private space on a public cloud, safe.
Along with secure cyber-space, governance & services on-demand, seamlessly integrated services, cross departments or jurisdictions, availability of services in real-time from online & mobile platforms, all citizen entitlements to be portable and available on the cloud, digitally transformed services for improving ease of doing business, making financial transactions electronic & cashless, leveraging geospatial information systems (GIS) for decision support systems & development
Digital empowerment of citizens with universal digital literacy, universally accessible digital resources, availability of digital resources/services in Indian languages, collaborative digital platforms for participative governance, and citizens not required to physically submit govt. documents / certificates
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