Digital India

Digital India is an initiative by the Government of India and it was launched on July 1, 2015 by Prime Minister, Mr. Narendra Modi. From its very beginning there has been many contrary opinions regarding the usefulness and effectiveness of this initiative.

One of the major positive aspect of this programme is that, Government services are made available to citizens electronically and people get all the latest information and benefits of technology. The programme targets at empowering the nation digitally and it also includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks. Digital India has three core components which includes, the creation of digital infrastructure, delivering services digitally and digital literacy. Thus this helps in bringing e-governance to every individual. Other facilities include Digital Locker, e-education, e-health, e-sign and national scholarship portal.. Thus it will be a boost to industry for both large and small enterprises. It create a lot of jobs and helps the citizens to connect directly with the government. The total investment made for this initiative is equivalent to one-fourth of the national budget and this itself shows the great importance with which the initiative is put forward.

Along with all these positive aspects there are also some drawbacks associated with this programme. These includes, the ambiguity regarding the efficiency with which the programme handles the personal data of so many citizens of the nation. The reliability of the digital lockers for official documentation was also questioned. Also whether the initiative gives the government a tool to conduct mass surveillance or not. Even some experts feel that the government should concentrate on giving people access to basic necessities like water, power and sewage rather than digitally empowering India.

In my opinion Digital India is a great project put forward by the Modi government. Just as its mission statement says "Power to Empower", it literally helps in empowering each and every Indian citizen. The only thing is that it should be ensured that the privacy and security of personal as well as the official data has to be given great importance, so that this initiative will be a great and remarkable milestone in Indian economic progress itself.