8. • Digitisation and formalisation seems to be the mantra, with the
Finance Minister stressing on the growing digital economy and
increased allocation to aid digital transformation
• Budgetary allocation of Rs 3,073 crore (US$ 483.09 million) for
the Digital India programme is made for 2018-19.
• A national program will be initiated by NITI Aayog to increase
efforts in the area of AI.
• Mission on Cyber Physical Systems will be launched by the
Department of Science & Technology under which centres of
excellence for research, training and skilling robotics, AI, digital
manufacturing, big data analysis, quantum communication will
be established and promoted.
9. • Under the Smart Cities Mission, projects worth Rs 2,350
crore (369.43 million) have been completed and projects
worth 20,852 crore (US$ 3.82 billion) are under progress. A
total of 99 cities have been selected under the mission with
an outlay of Rs 2.04 lakh crore (US$ 32.07 billion)
10. 500,000 Wi-Fi hotspots will be set up by government to provide
internet connectivity to over 5 million rural citizens
With nearly 70% of the country’s population living in rural and semi-
urban geographies, the move will boost the vision of ‘Digital India’ and
provide businesses an opportunity to upscale
11. • Budgetary allocation of Rs 10,000 crore (US$ 1.57
billion) is made in 2018-19 for telecom
infrastructure: The Department of Telecom will also
support establishment of an indigenous 5G Test Bed
at IIT, Chennai. Industry body NASSCOM welcomed
the decisions, saying they will enable India to
leapfrog in areas of emerging technologies globally
• Every individual enterprise in India will be assigned a
unique ID
The Union Budget 2018 is both populist as well as pragmatic. It focuses on growing the promising rural economy and extending digitalization to rural citizens which can yield great results in the form of increased household rural consumption, and thereby providing internet driven businesses with a great potential market opportunity
