India's Digital Revolution

Saumya, FY MAMC

Digitalization is the use of advanced innovations to change an action plan and give new earnings and esteem-delivering openings. It is the path toward computerization. It has been observed in various countries that digitalization has become a crucial economic driver today, as it ensures economic growth and creates abundant job opportunities.

History of Digitalization in India

India is the fastest developing economy in the world. The Indian economy is the seventh biggest economy in the world in terms of GDP and the third biggest by purchasing power parity (PPP) after US and China. Digitization began in India around two decades ago, when companies with Internet sites were considered great value. There have been many shifts in the Indian economy, from acting self-dependent to opening its entryway for worldwide exchange by introducing LPG (Liberalization, Privatization, and Globalization) in 1991, under Dr. Manmohan Singh as Minister of Finance. Furthermore, the Government of India 2006 planned to introduce the electronic governance initiative. However, it was not a very successful trial. With the same idea of digitalization of India and economic revival, the «Digital India» initiative was launched in 2015. It stimulated transformation and changed virtually every aspect of governance. Considering that digitalization can contribute to overcoming physical barriers and costs, it got introduced in different sectors.

Aim of Digitalization

Digitization in India aims to make India a knowledge-based economy and bring good governance to citizens through coordinated and synchronized engagement across government.

All highways must be equipped with broadband services.

The government has taken steps to establish a nationwide fiber optic network in all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Broadband is being set up for rural India, and it will be mandatory to provide communication infrastructure for new urban development. At the end of March 2017, the government put in place a national information infrastructure.

Rural Connectivity 

Big steps were taken to ensure that all villages are covered by mobile connectivity. The primary objective was to increase network penetration and address gaps in the 44,000 villages.

Jobs & Training

The government focused on training 10 million people in towns and cities for information technology jobs over a five-year period. The project also involved training and preparing 0.5 million rural IT workers for the next five years.

Electronic Self-Reliance

For the production of electronics, the government intends to restrict the import of electronics. To ensure this, the government has planned to introduce smart energy meters, cash dispensers, mobile devices, consumer electronics, and medical devices.

Easy Access 

The government is emphasizing Internet services in villages and post offices. It also aims to make these post offices multiservice centers for people.

E-Governance

The process and delivery of various government services are designed to go digital through electronic governance with UIDAI, payment gateway, EDI, and mobile platforms.

School and college certificates, aadhar cards, voter id etc, are now available online. This enabled faster data review and benefits services.

E-Kranti

E- Kranti would make it mandatory for every citizen to go digital with the intention of providing electronic services to people related to health, education, justice, farmers, financial inclusion, and security.

Free Access to Information

The Government's goal is to engage social media in a meaningful way to host data online and use these social media platforms for governance purposes. This made information available by making sure that even simple information, such as train times, etc., is easily accessible to citizens by clicking a button.

Feedback Loop

The government launched the MyGov.in site for two-way communication between the government and the people. Individuals are free to submit their suggestions and comments on various issues raised by the government.

Digital India

'Digital India', an initiative of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, emerged with the idea of constructing a transparent, participatory, and reactive governance system. It proposes a three-tiered programme, providing the necessary infrastructure, digital empowerment for each citizen, and corporate governance. By making information available digitally, it seeks to enhance public accountability. In India, the informal economy is very large in size as in many developing countries; the companies here are in the non-organized sector with no availability to statistics which seems to be a problem for many economic decisions. India's digital campaign would provide proactive measures to transform the informal economy into an organized sector.

Digital Economy

The digital economy is regarded as the third industrial revolution. The Digital Revolution, which is also known as the Internet of Everything (IoE) or the Internet Economy, should create new market growth, jobs, and opportunities. It is a global network of business activities made possible by information and communications technologies (ICTs). Simply put, the economy is based on digital technologies.

E-Payment

Bharat Interface for Money-Unified Payment Interface (BHIM UPI) is the strength of character that combines consumers and all banks and is charged at the start of a transaction by numerous national and international digital programs. PhonePe, Google Pay, Paytm, Amazon pay viz. are all standing out in the world of digitalization.

Jan-Dhan Aadhaar

The Government of India has taken steps to ensure that no Indian is left without a single identity. Today, around 99% of Indian adults have an Aadhaar identification number. Moreover, the government has linked the identity status system with bank accounts and the trinity mobile phone numbers, i.e., JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-mobile phone).

Success of Digitization

Growth continues to advance slowly, with public-private partnerships (PPPs) playing a key role. Advances in technology, collaboration, connectivity tools, and changes in management practices are making a significant difference in everyday life. Indicating how important digitization is to everyone's life. However, limited access to electricity in rural areas remains a significant barrier to the development of digital technology. The mission of Smart Cities will be to promote the building industry, construction, the steel, and concrete industry, as well as the infrastructure sector. Make in India, and Digital India has opened up new prospects for the technological sector. Foreign companies are investing in India and setting up their factories to produce products that are sold in India as well as exported. While the digitization process has not left any areas intact, the lack of legal clarity has negative impacts on some areas.

Future is Digital

It is now clear that the impact of digitalization on a country's economic growth is phenomenal, as quantitative research shows. India can now build on the track lines drawn by developed countries by learning from their best practices, mature technologies, and markets. This could provide the long-awaited acceleration in digitization programmes.

As we just celebrated our Independence, we cannot miss out on how our country has grown in all these years, as Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav is all about what our country has achieved after it got its independence 75 years ago.

India's digital initiatives have already changed people's socioeconomic lives and will only increase in the coming days.