Digital India | Science & Technology for UPSC CSE PDF Download

Introduction

Digital India is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
E-governance initiatives in India took a broader dimension in the mid 1990s for wider sectoral applications with emphasis on citizen-centric services. The major ICT initiatives of the Government included, inter alia, some major projects, such as railway computerization, land record computerisation etc., which focused mainly on the development of information systems. Later on, many states started ambitious individual e-governance projects aimed at providing electronic services to citizens.
Though these e-governance projects were citizen-centric, they could make less than the desired impact due to their limited features. The isolated and less interactive systems revealed major gaps that were thwarting the successful adoption of e-governance along the entire spectrum of governance. They clearly pointed towards the need for a more comprehensive planning and implementation for the infrastructure required to be put in place, interoperability issues to be addressed etc., to establish a more connected government.

e-Kranti : National e-Governance Plan 2.0

• The national level e-governance programme called National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was initiaited in 2006. There were 31 Mission Mode Projects under National e-Governance Plan covering a wide range of domains viz. agriculture, land records, health, education, passports, police, courts, municipalities, commercial taxes and treasuries etc. 24 Mission Mode Projects have been implemented and started delivering either full or partial range of envisaged services.
  Considering the shortcomings in National e-Governance Plan that included lack of integration amongst Government applications and databases, low degree of government process re-engineering, scope for leveraging emerging technologies like mobile and cloud etc., the Government of India approved e-Kranti programme with the vision of “Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance”.
• All new and ongoing e-governance projects as well as the existing projects, which are being revamped, should now follow the key principles of e-Kranti namely ‘Transformation and not Translation’, ‘Integrated Services and not Individual Services’, ‘Government Process Re-engineering (GPR) to be mandatory in every MMP’, ‘ICT Infrastructure on Demand’, ‘Cloud by Default’, ‘Mobile First’, ‘Fast Tracking Approvals’, ‘Mandating Standards and Protocols’, ‘Language Localization’, ‘National GIS (Geo-Spatial Information System)’, ‘Security and Electronic Data Preservation’.
• The portfolio of Mission Mode Projects has increased from 31 to 44 MMPs. Many new social sector projects namely Women and Child Development, Social Benefits, Financial Inclusion, Urban Governance e-Bhasha etc., have been added as new MMPs under e-Kranti.

Vision of Digital India

The vision of Digital India programme is to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

Vision Areas of Digital India
The Digital India programme is centred on three key vision areas:

Digital Infrastructure as a Core Utility to Every Citizen

• Availability of high speed internet as a core utility for delivery of services to citizens
• Cradle to grave digital identity that is unique, lifelong, online and authenticable to every citizen
• Mobile phone & bank account enabling citizen participation in digital & financial space
• Easy access to a Common Service Centre
• Shareable private space on a public cloud
• Safe and secure cyber-space

Governance & Services on Demand

• Seamlessly integrated services across 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

• Universal digital literacy
• Universally accessible digital resources
• Availability of digital resources / services in Indian languages
• Collaborative digital platforms for participative governance
• Citizens not required to physically submit Govt. documents / certificates

Vision Area 1: Digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen infrastructure
Vision Area 2: Governance and services on demand
Vision Area 3: Digital empowerment of citizens

Approach and Methodology for Digital India programme are:

• Ministries / Departments / States would fully leverage the Common and Support ICT Infrastructure established by GoI. DeitY would also evolve/ lay down standards and policy guidelines, provide technical and handholding support, undertake capacity building and R&D etc.
• The existing/ ongoing e-governance initiatives would be suitably revamped to align them with the principles of Digital India. Scope enhancement, Process Re-engineering, 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.
• States would be given flexibility to identify for inclusion 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 productisation and customisation wherever needed.
• Public Private Partnerships would be preferred wherever feasible to implement e-governance projects with adequate management and strategic control.
• Adoption of Unique ID would be promoted to facilitate identification, authentication and delivery of benefits.
• Restructuring of NIC would be undertaken to strengthen the IT support to all government departments at the Centre and the State levels.
• The positions of Chief Information Officers (CIO) would be created in at least 10 key Ministries so that various e-governance projects could be designed, developed and implemented faster. CIO positions will be at Additional Secretary/Joint Secretary level with over-riding powers on IT in the respective Ministry.

Programme Management Structure for Digital India programme
The Programme Management Structure for Digital India prorgamme as endorsed by the Union Cabinet is as follow:

• For effective management of Digital India programme, the Programme Management Structure would consists of a Monitoring Committee on Digital India headed by the Prime Minister, a Digital India Advisory Group chaired by Minister of Communications and IT and an Apex Committee chaired by Cabinet Secretary. The structure has the needed secretarial/ monitoring/ technical support and appropriate decentralisation of power and responsibility to ensure effective execution of the various projects/ components by the implementing departments/ teams.
• Key components of the Programme Management structure would be as follows:
  • Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for programme level policy decisions.
  • A Monitoring Committee on Digital India under the Chairpersonship of Prime Minister which will be constituted with representation drawn from relevant Ministries/ Departments to provide leadership, prescribe deliverables and milestones, and monitor periodically the implementation of Digital India programme.
  • A Digital India Advisory Group headed by the Minister of Communications and IT to solicit views of external stakeholders and to provide inputs to Monitoring Committee on Digital India, advise the Government on policy issues and strategic interventions necessary for accelerating the implementation of Digital India programme across the Central and the State Government Ministries/Departments. The composition of the Advisory Group would include representation from Planning Commission and 8 to 9 representatives from the States/UTs and other Line Ministries/Departments on a rotational basis.
  • An Apex Committee headed by Cabinet Secretary would be overseeing the programme and would provide policy and strategic directions for its implementation and resolving inter-ministerial issues. In addition, it would harmonise and integrate diverse initiatives and aspects related to integration of services, end-to-end process re-engineering and service levels of MMPs and other initiatives under Digital India programme, wherever required.
  • Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC)/Committee on Non Plan Expenditure (CNE) to financially appraise/ approve projects as per existing delegation of financial powers. The EFC/ CNE headed by Secretary Expenditure would also be recommending to the CCEA the manner in which MMPs/ e-governance initiatives are to be implemented, as well as the financial terms of participation for the States. A representative of the Planning Commission would also be included in both the EFC and CNE.
  • A Council of Mission Leaders on Digital India headed by Secretary, DeitY would be established as a platform to share the best practices in various existing and new eGov initiatives under Digital India and also to sensitize various government departments about ICT projects of DeitY. While the inter-departmental, integration and interoperable issues of integrated projects / e-Governance initiatives would be resolved by the Apex Committee on Digital India headed by Cabinet Secretary, the technical issues of integrated projects would be resolved by the Council of Mission Leaders.
  • Further, considering the scope of Digital India programme and the need to look at issues, such as overall technology architecture, framework, standards, security policy, funding strategy, service delivery mechanism, sharing of common infrastructure etc., at a programme level, it is proposed that the technical appraisal of all Digital India projects be done by DeitY, prior to a project being placed before the EFC/ CNE. This appraisal would cover issues relating to inclusion of adoption of Standards, utilization of Cloud and mobile platforms, consideration of security aspects etc. The Secretary, DeitY or his representative may also be included as a standing special invitee to all EFC/CNE meetings, which are appraising/approving MMPs. It may be mentioned that DeitY has already set up a Programme Management Unit, namely National e-Governance Division (NeGD) to provide support to departments in conceptualising, developing, appraising, implementing and monitoring respective MMPs / e-Governance Initiatives.
  • Institutional mechanism of Digital India at the State level would be headed by State Committee on Digital India by the Chief Minister. State/UT Apex Committees on Digital India headed by Chief Secretaries would be constituted at the State/UT level to allocate required resources, set priority amongst projects and resolve inter-departmental issues at the State level.
• For effective monitoring of Digital India, usage of Project Management Information System would be mandatory in each new and existing Mission Mode Projects to capture the real or near real-time details about the progress of the project. This tool should be proficient enough to capture the parameters for each stage of project namely, conceptualisation and development, implementation and post implementation. The parameters could be decided in consultation with various line Ministries / Departments and DeitY.
• Since “e-Kranti: National e-Governance Plan 2.0” is already integrated with Digital India Programme, the existing programme management structure established for National e-Governance Plan at both the national and the state level has also been decided to be integrated appropriately with the programme management structure being envisaged for Digital India programme at the national and the State/UT level.

Institutional Mechanism at National Level

Mechanism at National Level

Current Status

• The Apex Committee on Digital India programme headed by Cabinet Secretary and the Digital India Advisory Group chaired by Minister of Communications and Information Techology has been constituted.
• The first meeting of the Apex Committee on the Digital India programme was held on 26.11.2014. The second meeting of the Apex Committee on the Digital India programme was held on 09.02.2015. The actions on decisons made by the Apex Committee are being worked out.
• Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple Government Ministries and Departments. 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 individual element stands on its own, but is also part of the larger picture. Digital India is to be implemented by the entire Government with overall coordination being done by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY).
• Digital India aims to provide the much needed thrust to the nine pillars of growth areas, namely 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. Each of these areas is a complex programme in itself and cuts across multiple Ministries and Departments.

Broadband Highways
This covers three sub components, namely Broadband for All - Rural, Broadband. [...]
Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
This initiative focuses on network penetration and filling the gaps in connectivity in the country. [...]
Public Internet Access Programme
The two sub components of Public Internet Access Programme are Common Services Centres [...]
Electronics Manufacturing
Target NET ZERO Imports is a striking demonstration of intent.[...]
Early Harvest Programmes
Early Harvest Programme basically consists of those projects which are to be implemented within short timeline. [...]

• e-Governance – Reforming Government through Technology
  Government Process Re-engineering using IT to simplify and make the government processes . [...]
• eKranti - Electronic delivery of services
  Over the years, sustained efforts have been made at multiple levels to improve the delivery of public services. [...]
• Information for All
  Open Data platform facilitates proactive release of datasets in an open format by the ministries/departments [...]
• IT for Jobs
  This pillar focuses on providing training to the youth in the skills required for availing employment opportunities in the IT/ITES sector. [...]

Implementation Approach
All the initiatives, including establishing and expanding core ICT infrastructure, delivery of services ...etc under the Digital India programme have definitive completion time targets. Majority of the initiatives are planned to be realized within the next three years. The initiatives planned for early completion (“Early Harvest Programmes”) and citizen communication initiatives (“Information for All”) have already started going live and are being completed.
The Digital India programme aims at pulling together many existing schemes. These schemes will be restructured, revamped and re-focused and will be implemented in a synchronized manner. Many elements are only process improvements with minimal cost implications. The common branding of programmes as Digital India highlights their transformative impact. While implementing this programme, there would be wider consultations across government, industry, civil society, and citizens to discuss various issues to arrive at innovative solutions for achieving the desired outcomes of Digital India. DeitY has already launched a digital platform named as “myGov” (http://mygov.in/) to facilitate collaborative and participative governance. Moreover, several consultations and workshops have been organized to discuss the implementation approach of the vision areas of Digital India.