Digital India: Governance on Fingertips

“Digital India is an enterprise for India’s transformation on a scale that is perhaps unmatched in human history” a remark the Prime Minister made over India’s path towards transcending into a digital age. The objective was to transform India into a digitally empowered and knowledge economy. Digital India has been instrumental in achieving that objective. The vision was ambitious but had a huge task ahead of it. At the time, only 19% of the population had access to the internet services and a mere 250 million people used smart phones at the time. Therefore to usher in to the digital era, Government of India led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi jumped into this herculean task to achieve the set objectives, to ensure easy access to public goods and services to its citizens, electronically with the help of technology. This was achieved by building on the digital infrastructure, enlarging the internet connectivity and by digitally empowering the country in the field of technology.

Today in this Amrit Kaal, India stands at the pinnacle of this digital transformation. The programme has been inclusive, uplifting, accountable and empowering trickling down its benefits to the lowest section of the Indian society, realizing the idea of Sarvodaya through Antyodaya to its true sense. India, today, is home to 120 crore phone users out of which there are more than 60 crore smartphone users. The no. of internet users has increased from mere 17 crores in 2015 to more than 80 crores users today with India entering the 2023 with its own homegrown 5G services. This revolution has been complemented with the lowest data rates in the world.

The genesis of Digital India can be found with the institutionalization of JAM trinity, post 2014, which tapped into the potential of Aadhar, in bringing in the necessary efficiency in delivering public goods and services to the citizens post 2014. The legal identity with the world’s largest biometric identity database has been a keen player in India’s journey towards its own digitalization. Today it has enrolled nearly 1.36 billion citizens in the country and has been authenticated more than 82 billion times. Through the Aadhar linked Jan-Dhan accounts, more than 48 crore people have been integrated into the formal banking system. As per recent data from World Bank’s Global Findex Database, as of 2021,India has seen a huge jump with 78% of Indian adults (age 15 and above) holding a bank account as compared to 53% in 2014. Due to the existence of this framework, the government has integrated these Jan-Dhan accounts with other schemes/programmes and has been running the largest Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system ensuring the benefits reach the poorest sections of the society with transparency and efficiency

The digitalisation of this process has eliminated the existence of middlemen and agents, thus subduing leakages in the delivery process. According to the Economic Survey 2023, funds worth rs. 26.5 lakh crores has been transferred through DBT across varied central programmes and has saved around 2.22 lakh crores. India’s DBT implementation efforts has been praised by the likes of International Monetary Fund and World Bank and other international organizations for providing financial aid and support to the underprivileged in an efficient manner, specifically during COVID times.

Enlarging the internet users base and reaching it out to rural consumers in order to make digital services easily available and accessible to those who are not digitally literate has been a precursor towards digital growth encompassing all sections of rural society. In the last 8 years, the Government of India under the BharatNet project has laid down 5.25 lakh kms of optical fiber cable to provide broadband internet connectivity at the Gram Panchayat Level. Today nearly 1.84 lakh Gram Panchayants are connected with broadband services and have now been extended at the village level. These efforts were supplemented by building on the Common Service centers offering government and business services in digital mode in rural areas. As of today, there are more than 4 lakh CSCs functional at the Gram Panchayat levels, compared to 80000 in 2014, providing over 400 digital services which include PAN card services, banking, insurance, state and central government services, passport and PAN card services, digital literacy, rural eCommerce services and pre-litigation advice etc. under the supervision of Ministry of Electronics and IT (MEITy).

Another initiative under the Digital India initiative has been the launch of Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) which acts as a one stop getaway to all government schemes and services. The app supports more than 1668 e-services and has aided over 20.197 bill payments services. The existence of this digital ecosystem has helped in handling challenges presented during the pandemic. Right from the Aarogya Setu app which was used to alert citizens over the hotspots, contact tracing and indicating them on the risk of getting covid to COWIN portal to manage the world’s largest vaccination drive for Covid-19. Over the course of the pandemic, it has registered 110 crore persons and has facilitated the administration of 220 crore doses of vaccination.

The steps taken towards digital education during the pandemic in the form of Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan (PMGDISHA), when schools were shut down have been bright examples of opportunities and inclusionary spirit of the Digital India initiatives undertaken to reach the masses. India in the last 5 years has made huge strides in the fintech sector filled with shining examples of innovations and great engineering. This has been possible due to the introduction of digital products like United Payments Interface (UPI) and Aadhar Enabled Payments System (AEPS) developed by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI).

Digital India has truly abridged the gap between the rural and urban in the current Indian society. People from all walks of life have access to the same kinds of information, services and opportunities. The rural population has been at the forefront to receive the benefits of this digital revolution. Right from the financial inclusion of women in the formal banking sector to easy access to credit and information, Digital India has been instrumental.

The advances India has achieved under the aegis of Digital India in the last 9 years have transformed the way Indian Governance is perceived in the wider spectrum. It has encouraged a wider participation of citizens in decision making, improved delivery of services and consequently the whole process of governance which is a hallmark of good governance. The maxim “Power to Empower” of Digital India campaign is living up to its true potential in every way. The way forward is to accelerate the process of digitization and unlock the endless potential it holds so as to gain rewards of the well being and developments of its millions of citizens!