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The history of ‘Digital India’

Since its inception, mankind has evolved on a huge scale. From communication to governance, every single element has witnessed noticeable advancement. A lot has been said about e-governance in recent years, and the latest ‘Digital India’ initiative by the Indian government seems to have initiated this very notion. The official website summarizes the concept as follows: “Digital India is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.”

India has been a constant mess when we consider its governance. Ways and methods used for governance have not advanced with time and act as dead weight on the march to progress. Corruption and unreliability are crippling governance on a daily basis. A clear need for governance was seen, which could be reliable, transparent and upgraded as per modern technology. An E-governance plan was initiated in 2006 by the UPA government, trying to connect government services to the public via telecom services.  This did not meet expectations, and was soon let go of.

Carrying the idea, if not the implementation, onwards, PM
Narendra Modi launched the Digital India programme in September 2015. He is
trying to regain people’s confidence in reliable governance, and the progress
in this direction till now cannot go unseen.

The major objective of Digital India is to equip rural areas of
the country with paramount digital infrastructure, digital delivery of services,
and digital literacy. The responsibility of handling the working of the
project has been delegated to the Digital India Advisory group, chaired by
the Ministry of Communications and IT. Services relevant to
Healthcare, Education and Judicial services are all subsets of the assignment.

Additional support was acquired by the campaign after the
Prime Minister’s recent visit to Silicon Valley. “We must ensure that
technology is accessible, affordable, and adds value.” he said at a conference.
Microsoft’s Satya Nadella, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Facebook’s Mark
Zuckerberg were few amongst those big names who emphasized on the scheme’s
importance.

After plans like ‘Make In India’ and ‘Swachh Bharat
Abhiyan’, the ‘Digital India’ initiative is another prioritized project
administered by the Modi government and has also been recognized, globally. Its
goal to digitally connect the nation’s population is unquestionably appealing
and definitely qualifies as another step forward towards a developed India.

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