Digital India to provide 20-30% increase in India’s GDP by 2025: K.J. Alphons

NEW DELHI: Digital India program has the potential to provide an incremental 20-30% increase in India’s GDP by 2025, since its launch in July 2015, significant progress has been made in several initiatives under Digital India, Minister of State, Ministry of Electronics and IT, K.J. Alphons said at an ASSOCHAM event held in New Delhi today.

Several of the flagship projects under the program have now moved from the planning phase to the execution phase. The progress made in these projects and across the three vision areas of Digital India has started to show an impact on the lives of citizens and on businesses, said Alphons while inaugurating an ASSOCHAM 13th National Summit on e-Governance & Digital India.

Several applications and services that have been developed have seen significant adoption. The cloud storage service, DigiLocker, is now being used by four million users. The MyGov application which provides a platform for citizens to interact with the government is used by over one million users to interact with the government, said Mr. Alphons.

“IT never reached ordinary people, Digital India biggest revolution happening in world,” said Mr K.J. Alphons.

Digital technology is playing a vital role in leapfrogging our country to the next stage of development. It is bridging the gaps in financial and social inclusion with initiatives such as Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). Digital is plugging the gaps in physical infrastructure to some extent with projects such as online courses. Thus, technology is an enabler for our country to progress socially and economically. The thrust is now to take these benefits of technology from block level to district level, said Alphons.

‘Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple Government Ministries and Departments. It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them can be implemented as part of a larger goal’.

The success and brand established by the Indian software services industry needs to be leveraged with next wave of "Made In India" technology, products and innovations.

Our Government has laid unprecedented emphasis on innovation and technology and its cross sector potential as also evident in the Manifesto 2014. The three flagship programs namely Digital India, Skill India and Start-up India are all focused on it, noted Alphons.

With the increase in internet penetration and availability of resources, many emerging technologies such as cloud computing, Internet of things, e-Commerce, mobile applications etc have revolutionized the world of digitization.

With over 300 Million Broadband Subscribers in India and over 1186 million wireless telephone connections, India is fast moving up the ladder of digitisation. Be it Smart grids and smart meters, Smart water distribution system, Intelligent traffic system, Home Automation, Wearable devices in eHealth domain, Digital Identity, no one is untouched from digital technologies.

Dr Ajay Kumar, Additional Secretary, Department of Electronics and IT said, we are working on new policy, which will further spur electronics manufacturing. He said, we are also coming out with cyber security product procurement policy, which will give preference to domestic industry.

Kumar further said, we are working to create Data Protection Act which will provide huge impetus to digital economy. He said, a Rs. 12,500 crore opportunity is being opened for locker service providers. The Model RFQ being created for procurements of IT products.

Electronics manufacturing has significantly grown in the last couple of years. We are in a position to become a significant player in electronics, added Kumar.