Preface- Digital India - The Complete Reference
PREFACE
India’s Digital Transformation is underway
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As I was putting the final touches to the draft of this online book Times of India reported that (1) FASTags has overtaken cash collection in National Highway tolls and (2) The Finance Minister announced that UPI based payments and RuPay debit card transactions are exempted from MDR. These two developments among others illustrate the speed with which Digital India is transforming the way government is serving citizens and how the nation is moving from traditional ways of conducting transactions- cash or paper to DIGITAL .
Today in India we have available enough infrastructure, knowledge, exposure and experience needed for the successful practice of Digital India. National Government Services Portal (https://services.india.gov.in/) lists nearly 10,000 services most of them offered on fully online mode. However, the percentage of people who are aware of these resources and applying them in their daily life for professional and personal purposes is very small compared to the rest of the population.
Let me give you an example. As part of digital India citizen services suite the Indian government has made available a world class secure digital storage service called Digilocker. Digilocker is open and available to every Indian resident. Residents can store and share documents securely.
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Digital India Resources are underutilized
However the number of Indian residents who have created accounts on Digilocker and use it on a regular basis is very small (49 million users) . In my opinion every college student in India should have created an account by now and has been using it actively. This needs immediate attention and action.
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The Goal
This work sets its goal as to help overcome this situation and bring Digital India resources central to every Indian resident and join this wonderful journey of transforming India into Digital Economy and Knowledge society as envisaged in Digital India programme.
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With the Digital India programme gaining momentum in recent years, its penetration into the fabric of our lives is getting deepened. Today the three basic services required for online transaction- online identity Aadhaar, online document sharing- Digilocker, online payments- BHIM are up and are serving millions of Indians. There are more than 1200 services or apps deployed by Digital India which a citizen can choose from and use depending on her requirement. Special services are available for farmers, students, teachers and entrepreneurs and like. Digital India is a new reality and compelling.
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Digital India information on services is scattered in many places- government websites, app stores , publications and other locations. It is very hard for citizens to discover them on the fly and use them. This work intends to offer a remedy for this. Between the covers of this book, citizens will be able to find essential and important information and links that help them to explore and understand available services.and choose the appropriate ones that meet their specific requirements. For instance, a senior citizen will find how to get an online living certificate or a student will find where to discover a scholarship online or access learning resources. Digital India is all inclusive and has service to each one of its citizens.
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A book of this sort gathers information from an innumerable sources - web sites, published documents and books, discussion forums , blogs and more. Hence it is not possible to mention every source consulted by the author while composing the content. However, an alert reader can discover soon that the author has borrowed a great deal of content from many government websites run by different departments both center and state. Another important resource is publications such as policy documents and white papers. No references or sources or links are mentioned in the text to enable readers go through smoothly without distraction. However a brief bibliography is included for the interested reader.
Digital India is the theme of our times. It is affecting all of us and each one can benefit from it. Author has enjoyed learning it and teaching a set of courses on them. Now the author wishes to share the same with the rest of the nation. Hope this book finds relevance in the life of every Digital Indian.
Digital India is a living and growing and Suggestions/corrections if any may be emailed to author at digital.india.master@gmail.com
Ravindra Dastikop
January, 2020