The Road to Digital India

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THE ROAD TO DIGITAL INDIA- HOW DID WE ARRIVE AT DIGITAL INDIA?

Digital India project represents the latest in the long list of e-governance projects undertaken by different governments since the 1990s, We have come a long way  on the process of digitizing our government functions and  processes and citizen services. E-Governance was started in India by AHSHAYA in Kerala. This project involved setting up around 5000 multipurpose community technology centers called Akshaya e- Kendra’s across Kerala. Run by private entrepreneurs, each e-Kendra setup within 2-3 kilometers of every household, will cater to the requirements of around 1000-3000 families to make available the power of networking and connectivity to the common man. Akshaya is a social and economic catalyst focusing on the various facets of e-learning, e-transaction, e-governance, information and communication.

The Digital India programme is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. It is the latest in the long list of e-governance programme undertaken by the government since the 1990s. It was launched by the Government of India in order to ensure the Government's services are made available to citizens electronically by improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity and making the country digitally empowered in the field of technology.  The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks. Digital India consists of three core components: (1) the development of secure and stable digital infrastructure, (2) delivering government services digitally, and (3) universal digital literacy

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, among other,  some major projects such as railway computerization, land record computerization, 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.

National e-Governance Plan 2.0: The national level e-Governance programme called National e-Governance Plan was initiated 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, 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 reengineering, scope for leveraging emerging technologies like mobile, cloud etc, Government of India has undertaken  the e-Kranti programme with the vision of Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance.

All new and on-going eGovernance projects as well as the existing projects, which are being revamped,  now follow the key principles of e-Kranti namely 

  • Transformation and not Translation

  • Integrated Services and not Individual Services

  • Government Process Reengineering (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, eBhasha etc have been added as new MMPs under e-Kranti.

Thus digital India programme takes a more holistic view of e governance programmes and aims to knit them together more synergistically resulting in a dynamic platform for citizen centric services.