Relevance: GS-2: Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation

Key Phrases: Digital India Week 2022, Catalyzing New India’s Techade, Streamlining Service Delivery, Digital Divide, Digital India Bhashini, Digital India GENESIS, Artificial Intelligence, National Language Translation, Chips to Startup Programme

Why in News?

• Digital India Week 2022 was recently inaugurated by the Prime Minister in Gandhinagar with the theme "Catalyzing New India’s Techade”
• Various digital initiatives were launched by PM aimed at enhancing the accessibility of technology, streamlining service delivery to ensure ease of living, and giving a boost to startups.

Key Highlights:

• While Digital India Week is a celebration of the country’s digital transformation journey, which reinforces the government’s vision of a ‘digital-first’ economy, it is also a powerful signal of its thrust to overcome a digital divide.
• Digital India has empowered people by making technology more accessible.

Various Initiatives Launched Include:

1. Digital India Bhashini:
   • It is India’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) led language translation platform.
   • The Platform will make Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) resources available to MSME, Startups and Individual Innovators in the public domain.
   • It will help in the creation of content in Indian languages.
2. Digital India GENESIS:
   • It is a national deep-tech startup platform to discover, support, grow and make successful startups in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of India.
3. My Scheme:
   • It is a service discovery platform facilitating access to Government Schemes.
   • It aims to offer a one-stop search and discovery portal where users can find schemes that they are eligible for.
4. Meri Pehchaan:
   • It is National Single Sign On (NSSO) for One Citizen Login.
   • It is a user authentication service in which a single set of credentials will provide access to multiple online applications or services.
5. Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme:
   • The C2S Programme aims to train 85,000 Specialized Manpower in the area of VLSI and Embedded System Design over the course of five years and leapfrog in the ESDM space.
   • It also serves as a catalyst for the growth of Startups engaged in fabless design.
   • The key objectives linked to this initiative are:
     • Generating industry-ready manpower in System/ Systems on Chips (SoCs).
     • SoC design area for creating a vibrant fabless chip design ecosystem.
     • Promote industry-led R&D translational research and strengthen Industry-Academia collaboration, which is required to boost the start-up growth pattern in India.
     • The culture of developing reusable IP Cores and developing ASIC/SoC/Systems for societal/ strategic sectors.
     • Broaden the base of ASIC/ IC design in the Country by accommodating more academic institutions, and start-ups for the design of IP Core Repositories/ ASICs (application specific integrated circuits)/ Systems on Chips (SoCs).
     • Protection of intellectual property generated etc. and to inculcate the culture of entrepreneurship among students and researchers by way of incubating startups.
6. Indiastack global:
   • It is a global repository of key projects implemented under India Stack like Aadhaar, UPI, Digilocker, Cowin Vaccination Platform, Government e MarketPlace, DIKSHA Platform and Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission.
   • It will help position India as the leader of building Digital Transformation projects at population scale.

Efforts made towards Digital Revolution:

1. Championing Digital Literacy for Digital-First users:
   • The government has launched multiple innovative initiatives and programmes to foster a seamless transition to a digitally inclusive nation.
   • However, integrating technology into the lives of India’s rural population is key.
   • India Stack has successfully linked individuals to the country’s digital ecosystem. For Example: The Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile (JAM) initiative has provided digital identities to more than a billion Indian citizens, or the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has provided access to the country’s banking system for millions of Indians who were earlier excluded from the formal economy.
   • However, the digital literacy is imperative to drive adoption of digital services.
   • WhatsApp has been consistently investing in awareness and adoption by rural and other users who are new to digital services.
   • It has been able to launch most innovative and new social impact experiments and programmes.
   • Working with the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) during the pandemic, women farmers in Kashmir used WhatsApp to create an alternate ‘supply-chain’ and connect with customers in Gujarat to sell thousands of kilograms of apples and cherries.
2. Digitization of businesses to drive a sustainable business impact:
   • Micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of a resilient national economy.
   • Not only do the 63 million MSMEs in India contribute about one-third to the country’s gross domestic product (GDP), but they also provide employment to a large segment of the population, particularly the non-formal sector.
   • Platforms like WhatsApp that are embedded in India’s social fabric can help turbocharge the MSME sector by providing democratized digital access, making it easier for small businesses to create and scale a digital presence.
   • The WhatsApp for Business App has helped millions of small businesses grow their client base and revenue streams.
   • Jeevan Handicrafts based in Nagaur, Rajasthan, is an example of the app being used to empower local women artisans, making them less dependent on tourists, wholesalers and retailers, and directly sell their handicrafts to customers across India.
3. Scaling payments and financial inclusion:
   • The digital transformation induced during the covid pandemic is an example of how technology can help connect people and build an inclusive society.
   • The adoption of digital payments on UPI has fast-forwarded the pace of financial literacy across the board, from urban enthusiasm to rural need.
   • The UPI has been an unquestioned success, and it is believed that there is an opportunity for it to have an even greater impact on the country, especially in rural regions where digital and financial inclusion can significantly improve peoples’ lives.
   • WhatsApp’s pilot programme has been launched to empower 500 villages across Karnataka and Maharashtra with access to digital payments through ‘payments on WhatsApp’.
   • It will include on-ground facilitators educating citizens on aspects such as signing up for UPI, setting up a UPI account and the best practices of safety while using digital payments.
   • The vision is to deliver a simple, reliable and secure experience that will accelerate the adoption of UPI and financial inclusion for the ‘next 500 million’ Indians who are not yet a part of India’s digital payments ecosystem.
4. Citizen services for efficient e-governance:
   • Various successful initiatives around digital governance and citizen services like MyGov Corona Helpdesk chatbot on WhatsApp were launched.
   • In partnership with the government, the chatbot has become a one-stop solution for accessing authentic covid-related information and vaccination-related resources, and has helped over 80 million people till date.
   • MyGov Helpdesk now includes ‘Digilocker’ services, offering quick access to official documents, which is a step towards providing integrated citizen support and efficient governance via WhatsApp.

Conclusion:

• The simple and reliable technology platforms empower Indians with digitally inclusive solutions and contribute meaningfully to the country’s growing digital economy.
• In a country as socio-economically diverse as India, championing a digital revolution is only possible if the entire population has the resources and access to the internet.
• This can only happen with strategic public-private partnerships that can promote digital literacy and equity across rural and digital-first users.
• This is India’s decade of scaling innovative digital technology solutions to transform the lives of people at the grassroots, a journey to realize equality, freedom from biases and democratization so that every Indian is brought into the main fold.

Source: Live-Mint

Mains Question:

Q. What are the various challenges faced by the government in the implementation of Digital India Programme? Also discuss the efforts made to tackle these challenges. (250 words).