ESSAY: Digital India

Digital India program was launched by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on 1 July 2015. The vision of Digital India program is inclusive of electronic services, products, manufacturing and jobs. The objectives of this program are availability of digital infrastructure to everybody, providing government services on digital platform and empowering citizens digitally. The initiative of this program includes connecting rural areas with high speed internet connectivity.

In Dec, 2018, India's population was 130 crore people, out of which 123 crore people are digitally identifiable by Aadhar cards. 121 crore people have mobile phones with themselves., out of which 44.6 crore people were having smartphones and 56 crore people were having facility of internet. E-commerce has seen growth of 51%.

Government had started providing services online through various platforms. These services are available for every person, who is digitally empowered. These facilities are for people working in any sector eg agriculture, bill payments, mining, government schemes, ticket booking, tax, job search, business, health, travel. Under Digital India program, to connect more and more people with internet and increase transparency in government works, government of India launched various platforms like mygov.in, UMANG(Unified Mobile Application for New Age Governance), Digi Locker, Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Mobile App, attendance.gov.in, eHospital, eNAM etc.
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Sakshstra Abhiyan (PMGDisha) was launched to make 6 crore rural households literate by March 2020, reaching 40% of rural households by covering one member from every eligible household.

For the first time in country's history, Andhra Pradesh government had conducted online cabinet meeting using e-cabinet app. e-Pragati was initiated by Andhra Pradesh government to provide around 750 services to over 30 million citizens by integrating almost 34 departments. e-Panta was launched to book crops online. Loan charge creation project was run by Andhra Pradesh government to prevent multiple and bogus loans issued to farmers.

CEO's of various MNC's had provided support to government for Digital India program. Facebook, Google, Microsoft had initiated to provide internet access to Indian railways, rural areas etc. Digital India Program has been favored by multiple countries including USA, South Korea, Japan, UK, Canada, Australia, Malaysia, Singapore, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

Number of Internet users in India has reached to 500 million till April 2017. In Dec, 2018, Panchkula district of Haryana was awarded with best district to perform under Digital India program.
Digital India Program got boost when Reliance Jio introduced free data packs to users. Reliance Jio also launched affordable smart phones and Internet connected feature phones. 

India has been achieving 10 million Internet users every month. India will be big market for MNC's. Digital India has provided normal citizens to look into government's functioning. On the other hand, States like Bihar and Odisha are still lacking in awareness among people. Government need to shift it's focus from states that had already digitally developed to states that require support to give an extra boost to Digital India Program.