Right from the day of assuming power, Digital India and Make in India have been two big USPs of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The first steps were taken with the launch of MyGov.in portal. Only a couple of weeks ago, Narendra Modi launched his mobile app to connect further with the netizens. Over the last one year, several initiatives have been taken for introduction of Information Technology to empower people in areas relating to health, education, labour and employment, commerce etc. The Prime Minister inaugurated the Digital India campaign in July 2015. It is an umbrella program that aims to cover multiple ministries and departments with the whole program being coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.

1. Research Project Final Report
Digital India :Innovation
strategies for inclusive growth
Under Guidance of Dr. Sonu Verma
Submitted By: Tarandeep Singh, Roll No. 50
6/20/2016
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF FOREIGN TRADE
EPGDIB BATCH 2015-17

2. Preface:
Digital India – the dream project of the government and a blessing for the citizens, could help in
connecting the dots of various projects, past and present, to bring India to a global platform. It will
help in moving with the universal trends of digital innovation and create positive impact in the lives
of people - rural and urban, young and old.
As per the World Bank report, a 10% increase in mobile and broadband penetration increases the
per capita GDP by 0.81% and 1.38% respectively in the developing countries. If Digital India project
could help increasing the broadband penetration across India (current ~7%) by 50% and mobile
penetration in rural India (current ~45%) by 30% in next 2 years, the corresponding increase in GDP
could be 9% (~$180 billion). This is just the impact of 2 out of 9 pillars of Digital India project. Adding
to this growth and prosperity would be the impact of other pillars that would empower the citizens
with gamut of services at their fingertips. The benefits of the Digital India initiative are beyond
imagination and the opportunities to innovate in the digital world for all stakeholders are limited
only by their own imagination. The Aadhaar card (722 million as on December 2014) would facilitate
lifelong and unique identification and authentication of citizens across the country. This unique id
along with digital platforms could enable efficient and equitable service delivery at anytime,
anywhere and on any device.
With increased penetration of mobile, they become obvious choice for attaining inclusiveness in
others sectors like financial, education, healthcare to name a few. 115 million bank accounts were
opened under the Jan Dhan project in less than a year, which was first step towards inclusion in
financial systems for base of the pyramid. Moreover, with several industries undergoing digitization
lately, local language content would help to gain adoption and to bridge the rural-urban divide.
Problem of urbanization could be tackled by enabling equivalent infrastructure in rural areas or
building satellite towns through 3 types of connectivity proposed by APJ Abdul Kalam namely:
physical, electronic and knowledge. The digital business models not only help in reaching to wider
audience, but at the same time, make the services more affordable, attractive and feasible for the
end users. For example, entrepreneurial ventures such as BigBasket (grocery at home), Portea
Medical (home healthcare), SuperProfs (online education), etc. are enabling inclusive growth by
delivering high quality services to masses at low-cost. E-Commerce is bringing paradigm shift in the
delivery of sale and service and slowly replacing the traditional brick and mortar sellers. As per
GSMA, the global business impact of connected life could be $4.3 trillion by 2020. India will be a big
beneficiary of this. All these digital initiatives, technologies and services would together create a
multiplier effect and transform individuals, governments, enterprises and societies towards greater
prosperity.
Digital India initiative could help in achieving the objectives of Education for all, Information for all,
Healthcare for all, Broadband for all if the government focusses on strong leadership structure,
enables private participation, creates detailed implementation plan with common ‘citizen centric’
framework and robust security/privacy measures, and ensures integrated efforts from all
departments.

3. Contents
1. Title ................................................................................................................................................. 3
2. Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................ 4
3. Introduction ................................................................................................................................... 5
4. Inclusive Growth and Digital India (As per United Nations) ........................................................... 6
5. Digital India = Inclusive India .......................................................................................................... 8
6. 9 Pillars of Digital India ................................................................................................................. 10
7. Challenges and Changes Needed: ................................................................................................ 19
8. Crowd Sourcing in Digital India: ................................................................................................... 21
9. Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 23
References ............................................................................................................................................ 26

4. 1. Title
UNDERSTANDING COLLECTIVE ACTION ON THE INTERNET SERVICES BY
DIFFERENT SEGMENTS OF INDIAN CITIZENS BY DIGITAL INDIA:
A CONCEPTUALIZATION AND EMPIRICAL STUDY OF INNOVATIONS REQUIRED
FOR INCLUSIVE GROWTH

5. 2. Executive Summary
“If you ask an economist what's driven economic growth, it's been major advances in things that
mattered - the mechanization of farming, mass manufacturing, things like that. The problem is,
our society is not organized around doing that.” – Larry Page, Co-Founder of Google Inc.
Sub stage Text
Introduction This part will give brief description of Digital India Programme by
Government of India in 2015.
Inclusive growth and
Digital India
This part will give what exactly is Inclusive growth as per UNDP and Digital
India as per CMAI
Digital India = Inclusive
India
This section is about, how Digital India programme is envisaged for
Inclusive growth if India.
9 Pillars of Digital India This section will give brief description and strategies of 9 pillars of
programme.
Challenges and Changes
Needed
In this section we will discuss the challenges and their mitigation.
Crowd Sourcing in Digital
India
How Crowd Sourcing can help in Digital India Programme
Conclusion Impact of programme by 2019.

6. 3. Introduction
Right from the day of assuming power, Digital India and Make in India have been two big USPs of
Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The first steps were taken with the launch of MyGov.in portal. Only a
couple of weeks ago, Narendra Modi launched his mobile app to connect further with the netizens.
Over the last one year, several initiatives have been taken for introduction of Information
Technology to empower people in areas relating to health, education, labour and employment,
commerce etc. The Prime Minister inaugurated the Digital India campaign in July 2015. It is an
umbrella program that aims to cover multiple ministries and departments with the whole program
being coordinated by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology.
The program has three main vision areas, that is:
• Digital Infrastructure as a Utility to Every Citizen: The government is planning to provide high-
speed internet connectivity to 250,000 Gram Panchayats, which will be a core utility for digital
inclusion. The citizens will be provided with a digital identity which will be unique, lifelong,
online, and valid. There will be easy access to Common Service Centres and a shareable private
space for every citizen on a public cloud.
• Governance and Services on Demand: Under this vision, all the government departments will be
seamlessly integrated with high-speed optical fibre, which will improve inter-operability of
these organizations and will result in real-time service delivery from online or mobile platform.
Apart from this, the government is planning to make all citizen entitlements portable through
cloud for easy and country-wide access and to digitally transform the services for improving
ease of doing business in India. The government also plans to use the power of Geographic
Information Systems (GIS) for decision support systems & development.
• Digital Empowerment of Citizens: This vision is to empower citizens through digital literacy and
universal access to digital resources. e.g. all documents/certificates to be available on cloud and
in Indian languages. Government also wants to provide collaborative digital platforms for
participatory governance. e.g. MyGov website for crowd sourcing ideas.

7. The program has a focus on nine areas. These are:
Broadband highways – Connecting villages to a national optical fibre network, Virtual network
operators to be leveraged for urban connectivity infrastructure and a national information
infrastructure for government.
Universal access to mobile connectivity – To improve mobile network penetration and fill the
connectivity gaps across the country
Public internet access programme – Increase the number of common service centres across the
country and make them viable and convert post offices into multi-service centres
e-Governance –Re-engineer government processes around IT and make them more efficient
e-Kranti – 44 mission mode projects already in various stages of implementation for the electronic
delivery of services
Information for all – An open data platform for disseminating government data sets, social media
and online engagement through email and sms by government with citizens
Electronics manufacturing – a target of net zero imports in electronics by 2020, with focus on
microprocessor fabs, fab-less design, Set top boxes, VSATs, mobiles, Consumer & Medical
electronics, Smart energy meters, smart cards and micro-ATMs
IT for jobs – Training youth with skills required for jobs in the IT/ITES sector
Early harvest programmes – Projects that can be implemented in a short period of time, including
WiFi for all universities, public WiFi hotspots, Biometric attendance systems for central government,
SMS based weather information and disaster alerts and the national portal for lost and found
children.
4. Inclusive Growth and Digital India (As per United Nations)
With the historic Third International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD3) now
completed, “inclusive growth” remains a high priority on the agenda. While most stakeholders agree
it’s an important and compelling part of the dialogue on development, it still remains rather
ambiguous as a term. And seemingly when you ask five economists to define the concept, you will
likely end up with six answers.
Within the Sustainable Development Goals Fund (SDG Fund), we are keen to understand the various
theories pertaining to inclusive growth and how best to put them into practice. We realize that
there’s more than one way to achieve this objective, which means there is plenty of room for
creativity.
There are many perspectives as to what inclusive growth means in practice, with big differences in
approach amongst key institutions. The Open Working Group has included the concept as part of the
post-2015 development agenda. Number 8 of the 17 proposed Sustainable Development Goals is
“promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment
and decent work for all.”
UNDP’s chief economist, Mr. Thangavel Palanivel, recognized multiple definitions but pointed out
that there are some common features, namely: “Growth is inclusive when it takes place in the
sectors in which the poor work (e.g. agriculture); occurs in places where the poor live (e.g.
undeveloped areas with few resources); uses the factors of production that the poor possess (e.g.

8. unskilled labour); and reduces the prices of consumption items that the poor consume (e.g. food,
fuel and clothing).”
In other words, inclusive economic growth is not only about expanding national economies but also
about ensuring that we reach the most vulnerable people of societies. The “equality of opportunity”
and “participation in growth by all” with a special focus on the working poor and the unemployed
are the very basis of inclusive growth. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) suggests that growth, at any level, often fails to tackle three overarching
elements: poverty, unemployment and inequality. Therefore, there is a need to address the quality
and inclusiveness of economic growth.
Digital India as in publications of United Nations:
The stark gap in the digital divide between the developed and developing world needs to receive
global attention, said Santosh Jha, Director General, Ministry of External Affairs.
He said that despite significant advances, half of the world's population, mostly from developing and
least developed countries, continues to be denied access to Information and Communications
Technology.
Speaking at the the First Session of the Review by the UN General Assembly on the implementation of
the outcomes of the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS) here, he noted that the growing
gender digital divide, which has become even more sharp and acute, is a related area of concern and
needs to be specially factored into the review agenda.
"There is also a need to go beyond access issues and focus on affordability and multilingualism for
inclusive growth and development. The formal launch of the 'Digital India' programme by the Prime
Minister of India seeks to address these and other issues related to digital empowerment of all its
citizens," Jha said.
Flagging key issues in areas for incorporation in the WSIS + 10 review process, Jha said there is need
to recognise the importance of building a common understanding on the applicability of international
rights and norms, particularly the freedom of expression to activities in cyberspace.
He stressed that there is also need to ensure better protection of all citizens in the online
environment and strike an ideal balance between national security and internationally recognized
human rights; and to create frameworks so that internet surveillance practices motivated by security
concerns are conducted within a truly transparent and accountable framework.
He further expressed the Indian government's strong affirmation of the principles of net neutrality.
The official underscored that the overarching focus of the review must be to utilise ICT's for
development and for the benefit of developing countries.
On the issue of internet governance, Jha said it is imperative to acknowledge the platform of the
internet as a global public good, where all stakeholders have an equal stake in its functioning and
efficiency.
"India would like to reaffirm and renew its commitment to the multi-stakeholder processes," he said.
"Our engagement at the WSIS + 10 process stems from our deep and substantive understanding of
the wherewithal needed to make ICTs truly relevant for the benefit of the entire planet and not just
the privileged few," he said.

9. 5. Digital India = Inclusive India
One of the greatest marvels of our times, undoubtedly, is the digital revolution. It has pushed
through human limitations to unleash an ‘e’-era of cutting-edge innovations. Be it a student taking
an online course, a healthcare worker using medical software to get a holistic view of a patient’s
health, a housewife paying bills online, or someone like me with a relentless urge to “google it up”,
the technology has had a profound impact on our day-to-day lives. And precisely why, it also offers
boundless possibilities.
With an aim to digitally connect all Indians, the Government of India has launched a program to
digitize India. Coined as “Digital India,” the program is focused on building digital infrastructure,
governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. Giving a digital edge to
critical focus areas like broadband highways, internet access for all, IT for jobs, electronics
manufacturing, e-governance, healthcare and agriculture, the government aims to engage key
sectors and industries (India and abroad) to bring in administrative transparency, expediency, and
accountability.
The initiative isn’t the first of its kind, but given the institutional mandate & transformational
promise, it is a remarkable one. It not only has the potential to leapfrog a nation into the digital age
but also level the field for an inclusive society.
With an initial commitment by the government and India Inc. to invest about USD 18 billion, the
program is a game changer where services delivery in rural areas is concerned. According to a 2015
report by Deloitte and others, “Digital India: Unleashing Prosperity,” usage of mobile devices and
other available technologies can serve as complementary channels for delivery of public services and
can have positive outcomes on the quality of life of the users. For example, the program introduces
‘Digital Locker’ facility for citizens to digitally store their important documents like Permanent
Account Number (PAN) card, passport, mark sheets and degree certificates. It is aimed at reducing
paper work for administrative officials and delivering faster results.
While ambitious, the program also makes economic sense. According to McKinsey, the adoption of
key technologies across sectors spurred by the Digital India initiative could help boost India's GDP by
$550-billion to $ 1-trillion by 2025. Through cutting transaction costs, the program can enable more
creative and service-oriented businesses and is estimated to create 17 million employment
opportunities.
Digital India is also about reducing carbon foot prints as newer technologies reduce fuel
consumption, waste, foster environment friendly workplaces leading to a greener ecosystem.
To lend more credibility to the program, the Government has roped in global technology players to
formulate the execution of Digital India. For example, Google will set up base for free Wi-Fi at 500
railway stations while Microsoft will take low-cost broadband technology to five lakh villages across
India.
Through placing department specific processes online and by using social media, all ministers and
their respective departments have definitely brought about a major change in the way the
government functions.
And now e-retailers such as Amazon and Snapdeal have also joined the bandwagon by making their
website content available in regional languages and setting up kiosks to help rural India shop online!
However, this sanguinity is not without challenges. The overarching challenges facing “Digital India”
are digital divide between rural and urban India in terms of broadband internet connections and
access to mobile phones; poor quality data services and call drops; cyber security and privacy; and
policy framework and regulations. (To know more about the challenges, please read here.)

10. While some of the concerns are not entirely misplaced, a sustained focus on digital literacy and
digital identity will be vital in the making “Digital India” inclusive for all.
Digital Literacy
A bulk of the government services envisaged via the digital India platform relies on mobile apps.
With a literacy rate of 75% and patchy connectivity, digital literacy becomes ever more important.
The National Digital Literacy Mission, announced two years ago, has a target of training 4 million
citizens. Recently, the department launched an app called “Disha” to promote digital literacy.
However, in the past two years, since, the first target of 1 million has hardly been achieved.
Moreover, the training is focused on technical aspect rather than on user-oriented digital literacy.
Nonetheless, some key private sector players and NASSCOM have shown interests in partnering with
the government of India to scale up the reach of the mission.
Under the program, the existing Common Services Centres (CSC) will serve as kiosk and training
centres. This is probably the only step by the government in ensuring that farthest most areas are
reached. However, in reality, the CSCs are mostly understaffed, run by private firms and lack in
terms of viable infrastructure. Resources need to be allocated in training and capacity building of
these centres.
India is a country of many languages, and even though the program gives importance of bringing
services to people in their language, it’s practically impossible for the government agencies to be
content generator. A multi-sectoral approach and partnerships at various levels are needed to
translate the digital codes into effective service delivery.
Providing identity
Last summer, I wrote about the remarkable initiative taken by the government of Estonia to
transform the country in to e-Estonia. By providing each citizen with a secured unique identity, the
government integrated all the services and made way for transparent and accountable governance.
In the Indian context, Aadhar (the unique citizen identification) is probably comparable to Estonia’s
digital identity system. As of August 2015, nearly 902 million (75% of the population) enrolments
have been achieved. Since the launch of the campaign, the government has been aggressively
pressing for direct transfer of benefits through Aadhar. For example, the cooking gas subsidy, Jan
Dhan Yojana, pensions, and scholarships schemes have been linked to Aadhaar. Technically, one can
use the card for opening a bank account, IT returns, etc., but institutions still ask for more supporting
documents. Moreover, recently, the Supreme Court of India has directed that an Aadhaar card is not
mandatory for direct benefit transfers; but, it can be used as one of the proofs. For many poor
people, who don’t have any other a Driver’s License or Permanent Account Number (PAN) card,
Aadhar was envisioned as the one-point document; that’s still not the case. Since, the government is
discussing employing cloud computing to provide efficient governance; giving its citizen a unique
identity is crucial to the implementation of digital India. The government also needs to invest in
cyber security, as more people start using digital platforms, to check security breach or leakages of
citizen’s data.
Going beyond the symbolism of creating new apps, the government has to dedicate part of its
resources into facilitating an atmosphere where urban or rural population both can retrieve and
consume information in a similar way.

11. 6. 9 Pillars of Digital India
Broadband Highways: The government with the vision of “Digital India” has allocated `5 billion to
build high speed broadband highways connecting all the villages, government departments,
universities, R&D institutes, etc. The digital development sees broadband as a key driver in
addressing the challenges in the Millennium Development Goals primarily through fibre networks.
The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund,
has set the stage for providing broadband access to the country’s 250,000 gram panchayats by 2016.
This 200 billion project involves laying 600,000 km of fibre across the country. BSNL, RAILTEL
(telecom arm of the Indian Railways), and Power Grid Corporation are the three PSUs responsible for
this mammoth task.
The participation of private players is very important for faster rollout of optic fibre networks across
the length and breadth of a vast country like India. The competition from private players will not
only bring efficiency into the processes but also helps in bringing down the price of high speed digital
services. Moreover, the innovation in marketing, operations and business process proven by private
players can help in faster and greater adoption of high bandwidth services in the remote and rural
areas.
Universal access to mobile connectivity: Mobile network is today being viewed as the key
component for bringing social comprehensiveness and all round monetary advancement. Mobile
correspondence has reformed the social and monetary life over the rustic and semi-urban regions by
crossing over the advanced separation. In spite of the quick development of Mobile communication
infrastructure as of late, country Mobi-density in India keeps on falling a long ways behind urban
rates. Transforming the world into a worldwide data center where everybody has admittance to
data on the make a go at connecting the advanced separation, bringing unmistakable monetary
advantages and empowering social advantages through enhanced communication.

12. The schemed exchange will investigate how telecom administrators and government can cooperate
to create imaginative and ‘esteem for-cash’ emulsion for location the mobile availability needs of the
provincial populace and accomplish long for access to correspondence administrations, for example,
telecom and web at moderate costs and sensible separations.
Government of India wants to cover the remaining uncovered villages with mobile connectivity. This
project is heading by Department of Telecommunication (DoT). According to the telecom business
researches, there are approx. 42,300 villages of India still waiting for the mobile connectivity.
Government will connect all the villages to mobile till 2018. Ministry of telecommunication grants
INR 16000Cr for 100% mobile network penetration. Till 2018, every nook and cranny of India will be
approachable by the mobile.
Public internet access programme: The two sub components of Public Internet Access Programme
are Common Service Centres and Post Offices as multi-service centres.

13. Common Service Centres would be strengthened and its number would be increased from
approximately 135,000 operational at present to 250,000 i.e. one CSC in each Gram Panchayat. CSCs
would be made viable, multi-functional end-points for delivery of government and business services.
DeitY would be the nodal department to implement the scheme.
A total of 150,000 Post Offices are proposed to be converted into multi service centres. Department
of Posts would be the nodal department to implement this scheme.
e-Governance: The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) has been formulated by the Department of
Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY) and Department of Administrative Reforms and
Public Grievances (DARPG). The e-governance project works in both centralized and decentralized
way. The centralized way focuses on inter-operability of various e-governance applications and
ensures optimal utilization of ICT infrastructure and resources while allowing for a decentralized
implementation model.
There are many different initiatives from central government as well as state-governments under
the NeGP project to ensure government services are available to citizens electronically.
The guiding principles for reforming government through technology are:
• Form simplification and field reduction – Forms should be made simple and user friendly and
only minimum and necessary information should be collected.
• Online applications, tracking of their status and interface between departments should be
provided.
• Use of online repositories e.g. school certificates, voter ID cards, etc. should be mandated so
that citizens are not required to submit these documents in physical form.
• Integration of services and platforms, e.g. UIDAI, Payment Gateway, Mobile Platform,
Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) etc. should be mandated to facilitate integrated and
interoperable service delivery to citizens and businesses.
Electronic Databases – all databases and information should be electronic and not manual.

14. Workflow Automation Inside Government – The workflow inside government departments and
agencies should be automated to enable efficient government processes and also to allow visibility
of these processes to the citizens.
Public Grievance Redressal - IT should be used to automate, respond and analyse data to identify
and resolve persistent problems. These would be largely process improvements.
e-Kranti: There are 41 mission mode projects under different stages of implementation. Further, 10
new MMPs have been added under the e-Kranti / NeGP 2.0 framework;
Technology for Education – e-Education: All schools will be connected with broadband. Free WiFi will
be provided in all secondary and higher secondary schools (coverage would be around 250,000
schools). A programme on digital literacy would be taken up at the national level. Massive Online
Open Courses (MOOCs) shall be developed and leveraged for e-Education.
Technology for Health – e-Healthcare: e-Healthcare would cover online medical consultation, online
medical records, online medicine supply, pan-India exchange for patient information, etc. Pilots shall
be undertaken in 2015 and full coverage would be provided in 3 years.
Technology for Farmers: This would facilitate farmers to get real time price information, online
ordering of inputs and online cash, loan, and relief payment with mobile banking.
Technology for Security: Mobile based emergency services and disaster related services would be
provided to citizens on real time basis so as to take precautionary measures well in time and
minimize loss of lives and properties.
Technology for Financial Inclusion: Financial inclusion shall be strengthened using mobile banking,
Micro-ATM program and CSCs/ Post Offices.
Technology for Justice: Interoperable Criminal Justice System shall be strengthened by leveraging
several related applications, i.e. e-Courts, e-Police, e-Jails and e-Prosecution.
Technology for Planning: National GIS Mission Mode Project would be implemented to facilitate GIS
based decision making for project planning, conceptualization, design and development.

15. Technology for Cyber Security: National Cyber Security Co-ordination Centre would be set up to
ensure safe and secure cyber-space within the country.
Information for All: Open Data platform and online hosting of information & documents would
facilitate open and easy access to information for citizens.
Government shall pro-actively engage through social media and web based platforms to inform
citizens. MyGov.in has already been launched as a medium to exchange ideas/ suggestions with
Government. It will facilitate 2-way communication between citizens and government.
Online messaging to citizens on special occasions/programs would be facilitated through emails and
SMSs’. The above would largely utilise existing infrastructure and would need limited additional
resources.
Electronics Manufacturing – Target NET ZERO Imports: This pillar focuses on promoting electronics
manufacturing in the country with the target of NET ZERO Imports by 2020 as a striking
demonstration of intent. This ambitious goal requires coordinated action on many fronts, such as:
1. Taxation, incentives
2. Economies of scale, eliminating cost disadvantages
3. Focus areas – Big Ticket Items
>>FABS, Fab-less design, Set top boxes, VSATs, Mobiles, Consumer & Medical Electronics,
Smart Energy meters, Smart cards, micro-ATMs
4. Incubators, clusters
5. Skill development, Enhancing PhDs
6. Government procurement
7. Safety Standards – Compulsory registration, Support for Labs and MSMEs
8. National Award, Marketing, Brand Building

16. 9. National Centres – Flexible Electronics, Security Forces
10. R & D in electronics
There are many ongoing programs which will be fine-tuned. Existing structures are inadequate to
handle this goal and need strengthening.
Demand for electronic goods is increasing with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 22% and
is expected to touch 400 Billion USD by 2020. Indian government is also taking several steps to
promote manufacturing and investment in this sector, which puts India high on the list of potential
places to invest.
National Policy on Electronics (NPE):
Government of India has approved National Policy on Electronics launched in 2012 (NPE 12) which is
holistic, investor friendly and market driven towards creating a conducive environment to attract
global and domestic companies to invest towards the growing Electronics System Design &
Manufacturing (ESDM) sector in India. This gives unique opportunity for companies to consider India
as a destination in ESDM sector and be part of the next largest Electronic Manufacturing Hub of the
world and also provide value added manufacturing involving medium and high technologies.
Significant progress has been made by Government of India to establish the strong foundation for
the (NPE) 2012 framework. This will help for value added manufacturing involving medium and high
technologies. The highlights of the policy initiative taken by Government of India include:
1. Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPs) subsidy of 25% of capital expenditure
(20% in SEZs) is available and all excise/CVD paid on capital equipment is reimbursed.
2. Electronic Manufacturing Clusters Scheme which provides 50% of the cost for development
of infrastructure and common facilities in Greenfield clusters (undeveloped or
underdeveloped area from electronic manufacturing point of view) and 75% of the cost for
Brownfield clusters (area where a significant number of existing EMC exists). Land can be
made readily available in several of the new Electronic Manufacturing Clusters being
supported by the Government of India. Currently around 30 Electronic Manufacturing
clusters are notified and GoI is targeting for 200 Electronic Manufacturing clusters by 2020.
3. Preference to domestically manufactured goods in Government procurement. Extent of
government procurement will not be less than 30%. Around 30 electronic products are
already notified under this scheme.
4. Export of domestically manufactured Set top boxes and other electronic products are
eligible for 2-5 % incentive in Focus Product Scheme under the Foreign Trade Policy.
5. Electronic Development Funds for Research & Development and Innovation in Electronics
sector is under active consideration to support start-ups in electronics and IP generation in
the area of electronics.
6. Department has accorded approval for setting up of two semiconductor wafer Fabrication
(FAB) manufacturing facilities in the country.
7. To promote greater research in electronics and IT, Government of India will fund PhD
students in Universities across the country for research in industry specific needs. 3000 PhDs
will be generated through this program in the area of electronics & IT/ITES.
8. Providing opportunities for skill development for the private sector through two Sector Skills
Councils- Telecom and Electronics. Under the scheme for providing support for skill
development, Government of India provides 75% to 100% of training cost for industry
specific skills for skilled and semi-skilled workers.
9. Opportunities for investment in testing laboratory infrastructure under the mandatory
standards regime brought in force.

17. 10. Several State Governments, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have already
announced complementary incentives as part of their State Electronic Policies. Electronic
Manufacturing Clusters have been announced by states of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra
Pradesh, Punjab, and Kerala. Other states are also in process of taking similar initiatives,
thereby offering a host of incentives and facilities for ESDM investors.
11. In addition, to recognize and motivate the Micro Small and Medium Scale Enterprises
(MSMEs) in the Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM) sector, the Government
of India (GoI) has announced a national scheme for the sector. The Scheme aims at providing
financial support to MSMEs to promote manufacturing, to build quality into Indian
manufacturing & also to encourage exporters. The support under the Scheme will be
provided in the form of reimbursement to the manufacturers in the MSMEs. The scheme for
providing financial support as Grant in Aid is expected to benefit the manufacturers,
domestic industry, exporters in the electronics sector. This will also assist to attract value
added manufacturing involving medium and high technologies. The Scheme will provide GIA
for the following activities:
a. Reimbursement of expenses relating to compliance of electronic goods with “Indian
Standards” notified by DeitY. The total GIA for one model is limited to `1 Lakh, only
for 200 models (maximum).
b. Reimbursement of expenses for testing and certification required for export. The
total GIA under the Scheme for one model is `1.25 Lac , 800 models (maximum).
c. Development of Electronic Manufacturing Clusters by MSMEs for diagnostic study,
soft intervention and for preparing Detailed Project Reports, etc. The Total GIA
available under this Section of the Scheme for Development of Clusters of `10 Lac
/Cluster (max) would be available for setting up of 20 Clusters.
All these incentives are available for electronics design and manufacturing unit. This is also available
for relocation of manufacturing plant from foreign country. Some of the sector includes
Semiconductor FAB, Telecom products, LED FAB and products, automotive electronics,
Semiconductor ATMPs, Consumer Electronics and Appliances, Hand-held devices including
Smartphone and Tablets, Strategic Electronics, EMC, Avionics and Medical Electronics etc. The
product based R&D expenditure has also been included under MSIPS.
IT for Jobs: This pillar focuses on providing training to the youth in the skills required for availing
employment opportunities in the IT/ITES sector. There are eight components with specific scope of
activities under this pillar:

18. 1. IT Trainings to people in smaller towns and villages
2. The target of this component is to train one crore students from smaller towns & villages for
IT sector jobs over 5 years. DeitY is the nodal department for this scheme.
3. IT/ITES in Northeastern States
4. This component focuses on setting up BPOs in every north-eastern state to facilitate ICT
enabled growth in these states. DeitY is the nodal department for this scheme.
5. Training Service Delivery Agents
6. The focus is on training three lakh service delivery agents as part of skill development to run
viable businesses delivering IT services. DeitY is the nodal department for this scheme.
7. Training Rural Workforce on Telecom and Telecom related services
8. This component focuses on training of five lakh rural workforce the Telecom Service
Providers (TSPs) to cater to their own needs. Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is
the nodal department for this scheme.
Early Harvest Programmes: Early Harvest Programme basically consists of those projects which are
to be implemented within short timeline. The projects under the Early Harvest Programme are as
follows:
• IT Platform for Messages
A Mass Messaging Application has been developed by DeitY that will cover elected representatives
and all Government employees. 1.36 Cr mobiles and 22 Lakh emails are part of the database.
• Government Greetings to be e-Greetings

19. Basket of e-Greetings templates have been made available. Crowd sourcing of e-Greetings
through MyGov platform has been ensured. E-Greetings portal has been made live on 14th August
2014.
• Biometric attendance
It will cover all Central Govt. Offices in Delhi and is already operational in DeitY and has been
initiated in the Department of Urban Development. On-boarding has also started in other
departments.
• Wi-Fi in All Universities
All universities on the National Knowledge Network (NKN) shall be covered under this scheme.
Ministry of HRD is the nodal ministry for implementing this scheme.
• Secure Email within Government
Email would be the primary mode of communication.
Phase-I upgradation for 10 lakh employees has been completed. In Phase II, infrastructure would be
further upgraded to cover 50 lakh employees by March 2015 at a cost of Rs 98 Cr. DeitY is the nodal
department for this scheme.
• Standardize Government Email Design
Standardised templates for Government email are under preparation and would be ready by
October 2014. This would be implemented by DeitY.
• Public Wi-fi hotspots
Cities with population of over 1 million and tourist centres would be provided with public wi-fi
hotspots to promote digital cities. The scheme would be implemented by DoT and MoUD.
• School Books to be eBooks
All books shall be converted into eBooks. Min. of HRD/ DeitY would be the nodal agencies for this
scheme.
• SMS based weather information, disaster alerts
SMS based weather information and disaster alerts would be provided. DeitY’s Mobile Seva Platform
is already ready and available for this purpose. MoES (IMD) / MHA (NDMA) would be the nodal
organizations for implementing this scheme.
• National Portal for Lost & Found children
This would facilitate real time information gathering and sharing on the lost and found children and
would go a long way to check crime and improve timely response.
DeitY/ DoWCD would be the nodal departments for this project.

20. 7. Challenges and Changes Needed:
Digital India vision is going to be imperative to propel the country into its next phase of growth.
While the government is trying to connect remote areas/ villages via high-speed Internet services to
digitally empower people it has to deal with multiple issues.
Demand and Supply Constraint: Program Management have separated the supply side into three
sets of initiatives. The first is the digital infrastructure, which requires to be put in place. For this the
telecom infrastructure will form the base. On top of this layer we need the IT infrastructure in the
form of apps, software etc. The second set is content that needs to be relevant to the citizens and
address their real-time requirements. The third layer is capacity. Unless programme have all these
three sets (i.e. telecom infrastructure, content, capacity) management won't be able to meet the
supply commence rate of the demand.
The reason management have separated them into these three elements is because they are
different departments with different sets of issues (policy issues as well as operational concerns
around each). But by no means is government the only player in these three areas. For example,
today telecom infrastructure is largely being provided by the private sector whereas the role of the
government is to provide the right policies. However, management also require a much larger
stakeholder's involvement for infrastructure and operational set of issues around it.
Now there is a vision which brings all these elements together and then breaks that vision into road
maps. For example, telecom infrastructure, broadband, mobile, digital identity, etc. are some areas
or building blocks of the infrastructure which are clearly identified.
Actual programs and roadmaps like BharatNet and National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) have
delivered quantifiable objectives and milestones. Now mobile payments are going to kick-in in a big
way and we see mobile operators coming together with banks. So basic building blocks are in place,
but for the next level of digital transformation to happen the content, applications and capacity
need to come together.
Execution and Co-ordination Challenges: True value of digital means that work flow becomes
automated. Efficiencies have to be brought in the processes, and it needs to be much faster and
transparent. Only then it makes sense to be called digital.
The challenge is around change management as the government has been working in a particular
way and suddenly, this programme want them to work in a completely different environment. Here,
we are now asking them to put information online, respond to grievances and criticism. All this is
difficult for people who are not used to function in this manner. Another aspect is to make them
understand and educate on the advantages that digital will bring in running the government.
If we were to take a single organization like the Election Commission of India with a single objective
of conducting elections; then technology becomes much easier to implement. But if we are dealing
hundreds of government organizations, each having a different objective and diverse kind of citizen
problems, the implementation is challenging.
This programme should try to address these issues by opening up multiple information and
communication channels for the masses. An example in this context would be MyGov, an innovative
platform to build partnership between citizens and government with the help of technology for
growth and development of India.
One positive aspect is that we now have witnessed a rise in accountability from various
departments. This is because for every major program that the government has taken; this

21. programme management team have been asked to benchmark ourselves and put the information
online.
Ease of Internet Access: Indian prime minister Narendra Modi wants to create a digital India that
would use technology to improve the country’s healthcare systems, education and banking. He
envisages ‘smart cities’ that will use big data to build more efficient cities. But as the following chart
shows, India will have to address the problem of digital have-nots at some point, as the barrier to
internet access in the country is high.
A global study by McKinsey and Facebook finds that India has one billion people without Internet
access. The report, titled ‘Offline and Falling Behind: Barriers to Internet Adoption,’ has constructed
an ‘Internet Barrier Index’ assessing the obstacles to Internet access in 25 countries. India finishes
20th on that list. Even the cheapest data plans are simply too expensive right now.
A total of 4 billion people in the world don’t have access to Internet—India accounts for 25% of
them. The study found that most people who don’t have Internet access live in the rural areas, in
low income countries and are largely elderly and female.
The report suggests that the major obstacles in Internet access in India are the same as the most
pressing issues facing the country today: literacy, poverty and poor infrastructure.
37% of adult Indians are illiterate which translates to 287 million people—the highest in the world.
The report notes that such a high illiteracy rate acts as a major roadblock in expanding the reach of
the Internet. Awareness about the Internet and ability to operate a computer is low among Indians,
adding to the worries.
But here is the good news: mobile data plans in India are among the cheapest in the world and the
average retail price of smartphones are sharply declining. Still, Internet is out of the reach of nearly
950 million Indians as many of them struggle to make their ends meet. And even as India gears up
for 4G, network coverage is poor in villages as most service providers don’t have the fibre lines
covering those parts of the country. Shoddy network infrastructure also means that there is no
discernible difference between 2G and 3G speeds while prohibitive costs of spectrum auction has
forced telecom operators to be very choosy about where to roll out mobile data services to
maximize returns on their investment. The government is working to make broadband available in
every village in India. Such efforts, when executed well, will presumably lower the barriers to
internet access in India.
Spectrum Crunch: As per the announcement made by prime minister Narendra Modi, Digital India
initiative will give a big push to mobile commerce. "E-Governance is going to change into M-
Governance... M is not Modi Governance, it is Mobile governance," he has been quoted as saying at
the launch. This is quite an ambitious plan. As of January 2015, India has 979.21 million telephone
subscribers. Of this, 952.34 million is wireless - 553.45 million in urban areas and 398.89 million in
rural areas. As per the visible trend, wireless subscribers are growing and wireline subscribers are
declining. This is true in urban and rural telephony.
It is already a known fact that spectrum is a scarce resource. A further mobile push is likely to make
the situation worse. That is one reason why Bharti Enterprises, which has committed Rs. 1 lakh crore
for Digital India programme, recently acquired stake in a company called, One Web, a global team-
up of telecom companies aimed at providing affordable internet access.
But one such tie-up is not going to solve the problem completely. A spectrum crunch would result in
traffic congestion and call drops, which are a commonplace in India already. Furthermore, the
shortfall raises the demand and prices. We have already seen that in the recently concluded
auctions. If price of spectrum increases, companies will not be able to provide internet at affordable
internet. This will defeat the very purpose of Digital India initiative.
Duty anomalies on electronic manufacturing: Manufacturing has always been a weak link in the
India story. Electronic manufacturing is all the more so.

22. On 22 June, media reports said Japanese telecom giant SoftBank and Taiwanese Foxconn
technologies are in talks to set up joint ventures in India to make electronics products here. Four
days later, on 26 June, The Financial Express reported that global mobile phone makers, including
Foxconn, may have to rethink their plans because the government has removed the 11.5 percent
excise duty concession. "As a result, even those importing mobile phones into the country will end
up paying the same duty as those manufacturing domestically," the report said.
This essentially is a duty anomaly that has the potential to put off global majors from investing in e-
manufacturing here. Minister of communication and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad knows this very well. At
a recent MoU signing between National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom)
and India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA) in Delhi, the minister admitted that
correction of duty structure is crucial to increasing electronics manufacturing in the country and for
this Ministry of Finance also have to be convinced. The government's net-zero import target in the
sector has been set at 2020. It will have to move fast on this front to attain this objective.
8. Crowd Sourcing in Digital India:
With the advent of the internet and online collaboration, things like intellectual property,
organizational boundaries, and the identification of new markets became a much more public and
shared experience. The boundaries that once separated different disciplines, organizations (even
competitors) began to dissolve and innovation opened up to become a much more collaborative
process.
Closed Model Vs Open Innovation:
Henry Chesbrough (who popularized the term “open innovation”) posited that there were four main
reasons why we moved away from closed innovation: “the increased mobility of skilled workers, the
expansion of venture capital, external options for unused technologies, and the increased availability
of high-capable outsourcing partners.”
Now, with a global workforce and the online tools that allow them to collaborate instantly, across
language barriers from anywhere, engaging huge groups of citizens in the innovation process is not
only possible, it’s preferable to letting all the change happen behind closed doors with the folks in
lab coats.
Collaboration of Next Generation:
The workforce is changing at the same pace as the rest of business. By 2025, millennials will make up
75% of the workforce and top-line revenue growth will depend on the ideas of an engaged
workforce. And Millennials are different than their predecessors. Engagement doesn’t mean that
there’s a citizen suggestion box and that everyone says they’re happy on the job. Citizen
engagement impacts programs, culture, and leadership. Specifically, Citizen crowdsourcing
innovation programs must be digital, clear, fluid, and fast.
Citizen engagement programs that are focused on innovation have numerous benefits to the
business, including:
• Increased Net Income. One study showed that National programmes with highly engaged
citizens achieve two times the output than those national programmes where citizens are less
engaged. This is for a number of reasons, including improved productivity and public
satisfaction, but it’s also because many of the best new ideas that define the future of the
business now come from citizens no matter what their job description may be.

23. • Decreased Disappointment. Citizen retention in belief on this programme is an important
aspect of a successful endeavour. The time and resources it takes to train and process new hires
can be a drain on a business that does not commit to retaining those stakeholders and seeing a
return on those investments. If citizens feel that they are a part of the changes that are
happening in this national programme, they are more likely to feel value and less likely to
Object.
• Improved Customer Sentiment. Citizens are the life’s blood of almost every Nation. If things are
not running smoothly for Citizens – those setbacks often translate into setbacks for the end
users in any scheme by government. If citizens are engaged, however, and that engagement
results in new solutions and improved human morale, that often leads to improved services for
the stakeholders, as well. Citizen engagement programs that are digital, clear, fluid and fast,
satisfy citizens and that will lead to pleased stakeholders.
• Optimized operational efficiency. Since almost 70% of innovation is focused on improving a
business’s core offering, here in this programme engaged experienced citizens can help
streamline processes that are a drag on productivity.
• As we have seen in corporates, even without the closed small groups of innovators,
organizations that engaged employees found that they had an enhanced competitive
advantage. Engaged employees see the value of sharing their ideas and then putting those ideas
into action. Those ideas can offer value in a number of different areas: improved products or
services, new programs, initiatives, or efficiencies, or even new organizational structures or
markets.

24. 9. Conclusion
The urban-rural divide in India is in terms of levels of income, expenditure and consumption, literacy,
standard of living, access to basic amenities, finance, technology and infrastructure. However, the
cruellest form of urban–rural division is the digital division. Growing reliance on information and
communication technologies (ICT) is greatly excluding the digitally excluded from education,
government services, welfare measures and the society itself, thus creating yet another division in
the country already divided by race, caste, colour, geographies and finances — a digital divide. In our
country, ICT penetration fails to reach the most vulnerable and disadvantaged across the nation,
alienating them further- many are yet to have access to even telephones. The country’s rural tele
density is abysmally low, at just 8% -its rural Internet usage is five million. The existing infrastructure
in India is inadequate to connect rural areas, and requires laying down of high-speed fibres across
the country. This needs high investments to the tune of around seventeen thousand crore rupees.
The country worries about the rapid advances being made in Information Technology (IT) that is
widening the gap between the privileged urban population and the under privileged rural populace.
Though there has been increase in venture capital to support the number of Internet users, the
trickle-down effect, barring a few villages, is non-existent Also, in the country, the digital divide
between the urban and rural is not restricted to less developed states with traditionally weak
infrastructure but also to new IT states, the main bottleneck being infrastructure. Access to
technology is limited by infrastructure parameters like electricity, tele density, IT penetration, and
Internet industry. The existing infrastructure in the country results in an unequal flow of
communication between people. The constantly evolving ICT landscape has not been able to include
the vast rural majority -- many people are yet to have access to telephones let alone Internet.
However, with effective deployment of network, millions of people could be of brought into
education-fold, helping create jobs for an estimated 21 million rural citizens over the next five years.
Taking these factors into consideration the Modi government has launched the ‘Digital India’
programme to address the digital divide existing in the country and to make digitalization affordable
and multilingual, to bring about digital empowerment and inclusive development. The vision of the
DI focuses on digital infrastructure as a utility to all citizens, governance and service on demand and
also aims at inclusive growth in electric services, products, areas of job opportunities. Digital Locker,
national scholarship portal, e-health and e-education are some of the facilities which would be
available through this initiative. The programme estimates that by 2019, there would be broadband
connectivity in all villages, cost reduction, Wi-Fi in all education institutes, public Wi-Fi hotspots, jobs
in IT and Telecom sectors. The success of this programme is supposed to make India a leader in
usage of ICT in various sectors like health, education, agriculture and banking and make India,
digitally empowered. But the programme launches in a time when development countries continue
to register average connectivity twice than developing countries and broadband services remaining
too expensive in these countries. The programme is in its progress mode in the current year.
Therefore, it is futile to comment on the future success of the programme. However, it will definitely
improve digital literacy, reduce paperwork and leverage India’s IT competence to benefit its citizens.
Increased Internet penetration in urban as well as rural areas across the country is an imperative. It
will help India to connect to its vast population, bringing even those in the hinterlands to the
mainstream and work towards effective governance and help in areas like agriculture, education,
health, banking and insurance.
Agriculture has to make appropriate use of information technology for optimum resource utilization.
ICT is also necessary in E-governance; digital inclusion would also improve availability of ration cards
and licenses, registration of land records, PDS, etc. Broadband access will benefit both consumers

25. and healthcare providers with faster access to healthcare information and connect rural and remote
schools and colleges to main cities and education establishments, help in e-learning initiatives and
networking libraries. It will further the government's efforts towards financial inclusion- wired
banking will bring many more people in remote areas into mainstream banking fold. High-speed
Internet connectivity could make rural BPOs a feasible option, discouraging current migration trends
of the rural populace to cities in search of work and reduce their dependency on agriculture.
Realizing the significance for inclusive growth, the National Taskforce on Information Technology
and Software Development has suggested that the government encourage the establishment of
Internet Service Providers to provide access to network-based services in even the most remote
locations. In the rural telecom sector, the government envisions an entirely connected rural India
with at least one public telephone in each village, data transmission facility within five kilometres of
every village, enabling the village public telephones to function as information centres etc.
The road to India's development goes through its villages. There is no way a nation can grow by
ignoring two-thirds of its population. In India, the telecom growth is taking place at a time when
various technological advancements are taking place in a direction of low cost telecom technologies
in access devices and technology transmissions are emerging. The new technologies offer potential
for developing countries to move to generations of equipment to provide connectivity. With about
700 million population living in rural areas, there is a big market for introduction of latest
technologies. A comprehensive ICT policy integrating the IT, Internet and telecom policy would go a
long way in digitally connecting India and extending access to all. The government must treat
broadband connectivity not merely as a necessity but as a national priority, vital for maintaining its
growth trajectory and to bring about inclusive growth.
Impact of Digital India:
The Digital India project provides a huge opportunity to use the latest technology to redefine the
paradigms of service delivery. A digitally connected India can help in improving social and economic
condition of people living in rural areas through development of non-agricultural economic activities
apart from providing access to education, health and financial services. However, it is important to
note that ICT alone cannot directly lead to overall development of the nation. The overall growth
and development can be realized through supporting and enhancing elements such as literacy, basic
infrastructure, overall business environment, regulatory environment, etc.
Economic impact: According to analysts, the Digital India plan could boost GDP up to $1 trillion by
2025. It can play a key role in macro-economic factors such as GDP growth, employment generation,
labour productivity, growth in number of businesses and revenue leakages for the Government.
As per the World Bank report, a 10% increase in mobile and broadband penetration increases the
per capita GDP by 0.81% and 1.38% respectively in the developing countries. India is the 2nd largest
telecom market in the world with 915 million wireless subscribers and world’s 3rd largest Internet
market8 with almost 259 million broadband users. There is still a huge economic opportunity in India
as the tele-density in rural India is only 4510 where more than 65% of the population lives. Future
growth of telecommunication industry in terms of number of subscribers is expected to come from
rural areas as urban areas are saturated with a tele-density of more than 160%.
The digital platform can enable more creative and service-oriented business models that create
employment opportunities. The Digital India project itself will create employment opportunities for
17 million people directly or indirectly which will help in fighting against unemployment problems in
India. Government has planned to give IT training to 100 million students in smaller towns and
villages as employment opportunity in IT sector is very high in India.
Social impact: Social sectors such as education, healthcare, and banking are unable to reach out to
the citizens due to obstructions and limitations such as middleman, illiteracy, ignorance, poverty,

26. lack of funds, information and investments. These challenges have led to an imbalanced growth in
the rural and urban areas with marked differences in the economic and social status of the people in
these areas.
Modern ICT makes it easier for people to obtain access to services and resources. The penetration of
mobile devices may be highly useful as a complementary channel to public service delivery apart
from creation of entirely new services which may have an enormous impact on the quality of life of
the users and lead to social modernization.
The poor literacy rate in India is due to unavailability of physical infrastructure in rural and remote
areas. This is where m-Education services can play an important role by reaching remote masses.
According to estimates, the digital literacy in India is just 6.5% and the internet penetration is 20.83
out of 100 populations. The digital India project will be helpful in providing real-time education and
partly address the challenge of lack of teachers in education system through smart and virtual
classrooms. Education to farmers, fisher men can be provided through mobile devices. The high
speed network can provide the adequate infrastructure for online education platforms like massive
open online courses (MOOCs).
Mobile and internet banking can improve the financial inclusion in the country and can create win-
win situation for all parties in the value-chain by creating an interoperable ecosystem and revenue
sharing business models. Telecom operators get additional revenue streams while the banks can
reach new customer groups incurring lowest possible costs.
Factors such as a burgeoning population, poor doctor patient ratio (1:870), high infant mortality
rate, increasing life expectancy, fewer quality physicians and a majority of the population living in
remote villages, support and justify the need for tele medicine in the country. M-health can promote
innovation and enhance the reach of healthcare services. Digital platforms can help farmers in know-
how (crop choice, seed variety), context (weather, plant protection, cultivation best practices) and
market information (market prices, market demand, logistics).
Environmental impact: The major changes in the technology space have not only brought changes to
the economic system but are also contributing to the environmental changes. The next generation
technologies are helping in lowering the carbon footprint by reducing fuel consumption, waste
management, greener workplaces and thus leading to a greener ecosystem. The ICT sector helps in
efficient management and usage of scarce and non-renewable resources.
Telepresence in work environment as well as home helps in creating a virtual environment for face
to face conversations and minimizes the need for travel. Similarly, the flexible work environment
where work from home and bring-your-own-device (BYOD) are permitted, can significantly reduce
their carbon footprint and operational costs by not only reducing the electronic waste in the form of
laptops, desktops, etc. but also by reducing the need of large fixed office space for businesses. A
program in the UK found that an employee can save 1,175 driving miles each year, amounting to a
364.5kg reduction in carbon emissions when he works from home 1.5 days per week. M2M enabled
devices and technologies like smart meter, smart grid, smart logistics and smart building help in
many different ways by efficient energy management.
Cloud computing technology minimizes carbon emissions by improving mobility and flexibility. The
energy consumption can be decreased from 201.8 terawatt hour (TWh) in 2010 to 139.8 TWh in
2020 by higher adoption of cloud data centres causing a 28% reduction in carbon footprint from
2010 levels. Digital media for paper intensive services such as governance, ticketing, newspaper, etc.
could not only result in efficient delivery of services but at the same time would lower the use of
paper, thus preventing deforestation.
Global Initiatives:

27. High speed optic fibre rollout: Japan, South Korea and the US have led the world in terms of Fibre-to-
the-Home (FTTH) penetration. Comcast is the major player in the US providing high speed internet to
almost 39 states with more than 145,000 miles and 125,000 optical nodes. AT&T and Verizon are
leading in FTTH access networks. NTT in Japan holds most of the optical fibre networks providing
Fibre-to-the-Cabinet (FTTC) and FTTH services. The National Broadband Network of Australia is using
Public Private Partnership to provide 1Gbps connection to 93% of Australians. New Zealand
Government is spending NZ$1.35 billion on public-private partnerships with Chorus to rollout FTTH
connections of at least 100 Mbps to all towns and cities and has awarded $300 million contract to
Vodafone and Chorus to bring broadband of at least 5Mbps to 86% of rural customers by 2016.
E-Governance: Though the e-Governance project in India was initiated back in 2006 the success rate
is not much impressive in comparison to other developed and developing countries. With proper
strategy, timeline, digital infrastructure and private participation, Korea, Australia and Singapore top
UN E-Governance ranking of 2014.
The Korean e-Governance initiative started way back in 1993 to implement 11 major e-government
initiatives. The Western Australia State Government launched its e-Government Strategy in 2004
with the vision of ‘a more efficient public sector that delivers integrated services and improved
opportunities for community participation.’ In 2006, the Australia Federal Government initiated a
new e-government strategy “Responsive government – a new service agenda,” with a vision for
2010. Similarly, the Singapore government is successful in implementing e-governance which was
initiated back in 1981 under the Civil Service Computerization Programme (CSCP) with an aim to
save manpower, operational efficiency improvement, better information support for decision
making and certain pioneer services for the public.22 The Singapore e-Government Strategic
Framework was centred on three critical relationships – Government to Citizens (G2C), Government
to Businesses (G2B) and Government to Employees (G2E). The Japan Government developed its e-
Japan Strategy in 2001 to provide a basic IT law on the Formation of an Advanced Information and
Telecommunications Network Society. In 2002-03, e-Japan Strategy II was put in place emphasizing
IT usage and applications development23. Likewise, Canada is rated highest in the provision of e-
Government services.
References
• Digital India Official Site: http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/
• Innovation for Inclusive Growth: Towards a Theoretical Framework and a Research Agenda
by Gerard George, Anita M. McGahan and Jaideep Prabhu
• Project Proposal and ToR of NeGD projects
• India Inc’s India US Partnership microsite
• CMAI Asia
• Economic Times
• BharatNiti.in
• Business Insiders
• National Institute of Smart Governance
• United Nations Development Programme India
• Digital India Summit 2016