Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that the government’s flagship Digital India mission, coupled with enormous opportunities available to the country in terms of data and demographic dividend, could make the next decade one of technological growth.
Modi was speaking at an event to mark the sixth anniversary of the Digital India programme’s launch in July, 2015. One of the marquee programmes for the first as well as the second term of the government, Digital India is a set of initiatives meant to encourage the uptake of services and commerce over the internet.
On Thursday, Modi said gains from such initiatives will further emerge as India bridges the gap between government services and people’s access to them. “This presents a massive opportunity for India, together we will be successful in making this decade India’s techade,” Modi said.
“The digital India mission has enabled the implementation of the one nation, on ration card scheme and helped ease access to services for millions of people during the Covid-19 pandemic.”
The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all states and Union territories to implement the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme by July 31. The singular ration card system has been looked at as a crucial technology-driven solution at a time when rural migrants were stranded at their places of work due to Covid-19 lockdown.
{{/usCountry}}The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed all states and Union territories to implement the ‘One Nation, One Ration Card’ scheme by July 31. The singular ration card system has been looked at as a crucial technology-driven solution at a time when rural migrants were stranded at their places of work due to Covid-19 lockdown.
{{/usCountry}}Interacting with the beneficiaries of Digital India schemes, Modi said direct benefit transfer helped send money to crores of people. “At a time when developed countries were unable to send aid to their citizens due to the lockdown, India was sending thousands of crores of rupees directly to the bank accounts of the people...”
“Under the PM Kisan Samman Nidhi, ₹1.35 lakh crore have been deposited directly into the bank account of more than 10 crore farmer families. Digital India has also realized the spirit of One Nation, One MSP...”
Experts have seen Digital India as having played crucial role in advancing India’s fintech sector and inclusion of more people into the financial system. “The government’s focus on trying to get so much of India digitised is laudable... they need to focus on protecting Indians data rights as well...,” Raman Chima, Asia-Pacific policy director at Access Now, said.