‘Digital India’ Promises a Better India

Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi’s USA visit is turning out to be a big hit in both USA and his native country. Doing justice to his charming personality Mr. Modi is taking the Silicon Valley by storm. Top notch executives of IT world held a warm welcome reception for the Indian Prime Minister in San Jose, California. The occasion was honored with the presence of Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Qualcomm Executive Chairman Paul Jacobs and Cisco Executive Chairman John T. Chambers. In the words of the Prime Minister, “Digital India is an enterprise for India’s transformation on a scale that is, perhaps, unmatched in human history.”

Significance of ‘Digital India’ for Indians

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What’s significant for Indian public is Modi’s vision towards functionally transforming the country into ‘Digital India’. 1 line elaboration of this concept is ‘program to prepare India for a knowledge future’. Technology is the stepping stone of bringing in positive changes in the country and
‘Digital India’ believes in realizing it. Foundation of this concept is based on 3 pillars that are as follows:

• Digital infrastructure is for all citizens of India.
• On demand governance and services made available to all.
• Digitally empowering every citizen of India.

Above mentioned 3 pillars have been further diversified into following 9 sectors:

• Creation of Broadband Highways.
• Access of phone is to be made available to all.
• Creation of public internet access program.
• Reforming various corrupt practices of government through E-Governance.
• eKranti is the foundation of efficient and quick delivery of government services.
• Information is made available to all.
• Manufacture of all electronic equipments in India and to gradually move towards ‘NET ZERO import’ concept.
• Creation of more IT related job opportunities.
• Creation of Early Harvest Programs.*

Speaking with IT world titans, Mr. Narendra Modi promises for more accountable governance, increased levels of accountability and transparency. He assured for better levels of security and data privacy.

PM has laid stress on undertaking a vast area of India under the sway of wi-fi zones. Even 500 such spots have been earmarked around railway stations. National Optical Fiber Network is to be laid aggressively to enable 600,000 Indian villages taking services of broadband.

*-Early Harvest Programs like implementation of biometric attendance or email being primary medium of communication in govt. offices are few among many other techniques to be gradually implemented.

Promises made by Indian industry giants

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Mr. Modi’s call to ‘Digital India’ has given rise to tremendous positive vibes among top executives’ group in both USA and India. Expected date of completion of ‘Digital India’ program is the year 2019 and the CEOs of stature of Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Cyrus Mistry, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Anil Agarwal, Azim Premji and the Ambani brothers in India have promised to pump in Rs 4.5 trillion within the period. The announcement was made in addition with govt’s proposed investment of Rs 1.13 trillion. This is expected to create employment opportunities for around 18 lakh people in India.

• Chairman of Idea Cellular chairman Mr. Kumar Mangalam Birla pledged to offer its network across 350,000 villages and towns for purposes of education, health care, weather report and availability of retail prices of different farm markets. In addition with aforesaid activities, payment banks and mobile wallets will also be made available to people staying in remote stretches of India.

• Chairman of Reliance Communications Mr. Anil Ambani has decided to invest in the sectors of cloud, telecom and digital spaces along with services for ‘DigiLocker’*.

• Chairman of ‘Vedanta Resources Mr. Anil Agarwal has stressed upon its satellite Company ‘Sterlite Technologies’ laudable works regarding children and women’s literacy plus development of vocational skills through e-Shiksha. In addition, the company is working towards digital connection of Kashmir valley with other Indian states.

• Wipro Ltd. has significantly invested for digital development and research works which would pave the way for ’empowering every single citizen’ of India according to the company chairman Mr. Azim Premji.

• Expected date of Reliance Jio Infocomm along with its 4G services is Dec. 28th, 2015.

*- DigiLocker is an Aadhar linked locker system to store your valuable educational as well as govt. documents safely. After uploading them you need not have to physically carry them at different educational and services departments.

Promises made by USA industry giants

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• Microsoft CEO Mr. Satya Nadella elaborated on joint ventures with Indian govt. on the lines of ‘Digital India’ program wherein he expected to digitally connect some 500,000 villages with low-cost broadband services. ‘We believe that lost-cost broad band connectivity coupled with the scale of cloud computing intelligence that can be harnessed from data can help drive creativity, efficiency and productivity across governments and businesses of all sizes’, he said.
• Google CEO Mr. Sundar Pichai announced a project to connect 400 railway stations with high-speed wi-fi in collaboration with Indian railway’s RailTel. Top 100 busiest stations would be connected within the end of year 2016 and rest others would fall in line quickly.Expected daily users in these 100 stations are 10 million. According to him ‘Indian Language Internet Alliance’ would help in people to communicate through local languages.
• Now famous meet between Indian Prime Minister Mr. Modi and FaceBook chairman Mr.Mark Zuckerberg at Menlo Park, California is a tremendous boost for India’s “Digital India” program (we all know how Mark has updated his DP portraying Indian tri-color,supporting “Digital India” program). Both of them emphasized upon social-media’s importance in creating positive socio-political and socio-economic environments. In addition they also stressed upon greater participation of women in forming positive opinions through social-media.

Among several top industry executives in USA, Mr. Modi met Apple’s CEO Mr. Tim Cook, Adobe CEO Mr. Shantanu Narayan, Uber’s CEO Mr. Travis Kalanick and Tesla Motors CEO Mr. Elon Musk. All of them promised to take part in India’s ambitious “Digital India” program.

With helping hands spread across the globe, all educated Indians have to sincerely work together for successfully fulfilling this project #ISupportDigitalIndia. With this inclusive growth of India, it’ll be no longer a dream to compete at par with topmost advanced countries of world.