The Development of Digital Technology in India and its benefit for the Common man.

-- Serafin Fredy, IIK Young Contributor

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

Despite rising adoption of digital technologies and the IT industry, India’s digital divide is deep. Here are some of the small yet big problems that can be solved by the development of digital technology in India-

1.To bridge the divide

One of the main reasons for the need of digital technology in our country is to bridge the disparities between those who can afford technology and those who cannot, which thereby affects the country’s overall digital growth. The government introduced the ‘Digital India’ initiative covering various programmes such as e-governance, mobile e-health services and digital finance for digital inclusiveness.

2.Digital Technology makes it possible for people from all walks of life to have access to different resources.

A well-connected country is necessary for a well-served country, and digital technology connects the people from all walks of life and enables them to have easy and efficient access to all government services and programmes.

3.Its goal is to ensure that citizens may access government services electronically by eliminating paperwork.

Digilocker- a scheme by ‘Digital India’

To minimize the physical usage of documents and enable the feature of e-signing by making documents available electronically. Digital Locker will increase the authenticity of documents by online upload and reduce the existence of fake documents.

4. Food and agriculture

E-Agriculture- A scheme by ‘Digital India’

Being a country, whose agriculture production sector is the main income source for almost half of the population, this scheme is extremely beneficial to farmers. The scheme will provide farmers with online access to services such as soil testing, seed selection, and crop insurance. This will improve the quality of their farm produce and reduce the risk of low crop growth.

India, being the second largest food producer in the world, The Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada Yojana, and the e- agriculture schemes by THE ‘Digital India’ provide investments and funds are essential to the country’s food growth as well as beneficial to farmers and fish vendors, fishermen, and micro and small enterprises for improving value chain efficiencies and expanding the market.

5.to build high-speed internet networks in rural areas.

Bharat Net-A scheme by THE ‘Digital India’

It was introduced in 2012 (renamed in 2015) to connect all 250,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country and provide 100 Mbps internet connectivity where there are ~146,872 service-ready GPs.

6.Digital Literacy

Digital literacy is an important aspect to better jobs. Because eight out of ten middle class jobs require digital skill. And other jobs which don’t require digital skill are lower paying jobs. So, in this age, families who have no access to digital literacy will be stuck in a cycle of low income, low literacy rates and low quality of life.

Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Sakshatra Abiyaan

The (PMGDISHA) is another scheme by THE ‘Digital India’ which was launched in 2017 to help people in rural areas become digitally literate. The scheme aimed to cover 6 crore rural citizens by March 2020. achieving ~40% rural households by targeting one member from every eligible household.

7.Further, technology is also being used to equip people who need a certain type of assistance to improve their quality of life and help them avail opportunities that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Smart Cities- A scheme by the ‘Digital India’

It was initiated in 2015 to transform all Indian cities into smart cities by leveraging various technologies.100 cities have been selected for area-based and pan-city development between 2019 and 2023.

8.To make a more accurate database

This is proved by one of digital India schemes-

Aadhar

It was launched in 2009 to provide every Indian resident with a unique identity or Aadhaar number.
According to the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), 129 crore residents of India possess Aadhaar as of April 2021.

9. They become digitally equipped as well as aware of the functioning of the policies and schemes of the government.

MyGov- A scheme by the ‘Digital India’

It was launched in 2014 to bring the government closer to the people by providing an interface (online forum) for exchange of ideas.

10. To tackle the language barriers

India, is a country which is home to 121 languages and 270 mother tongues. Here is another scheme to tackle this

Bhashini- as scheme by THE ‘Digital India’

‘Bhashini,’ one of these initiatives, is a local language translation mission that aims to break language barriers between various Indian mother tongues using available technology.

Thus, we can conclude that ‘Digital India’ is the foundation for a new era of innovation entrepreneurship economic growth.