Digital India with Impact of Covid – 19

• Bharat Net:

The Government of India has undertaken an initiative namely Bharat Net, a high-speed digital highway to connect all 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats of the country. This would be the world’s largest rural broadband connecting project using optical fibre.

• BSNL (NGN):

BSNL has introduced  NEXT GENERATION NETWORK (NGN), to replace 50-year-old exchangers, which is an IP-based technology to manage all types of services like voice, data, and other types of packet-switched communication services.

• Wifi Hotspots:

BSNL has undertaken large-scale development of wi-fi hotspots throughout the country. The user can catch on the BSNL wi-fi network through their mobile devices.

ANALYSIS OF DIGITAL INDIA:

Emphasizing transparency and the efficient interface between the government and Indian citizens, the limited progressive alliance launched the national E-governance plan in 2006. As it benefitted only 18% of the middle-class population, the National Domestic Alliance reintegrated the same by addressing the major of digital empowerment and knowledge-based memory economy under the umbrella program of ‘Digital India’ The government has tried digitalizing almost all the sectors of the economy. Increased internet accessibility, mobile connectivity, and bank facilities were brought under the “Digital Infrastructure” transferring services and making them available online on a single window under ‘Governance and e-services and demand.’ Participate governance was encouraged by universalizing digital literacy under ‘Digital Empowerment’ Besides the services that will be electronically provided under the e-Kranti, not only will the information of the government functioning be accessible online but a platform to engage citizens will also be initiated under the ‘Discuss’ and ‘Dissemination’ approach coupled with making the government accountable to the citizens, it will enable the citizens to participate in the democratic framework of the country beyond exercising basic voting rights. The campaign for “Digital India” unfolded on 1 July 2015. Before the announcement of the union budget 2016-17, the improvement was observed in mobile manufacturing from 5.4 crores in 2014-15 to 11 crores in 2015-16.

Advantages:

It is a scheme to improper people of the country.

The main benefits of this program are :

1. The Digital India mission would lead to inclusive growth by enabling access to education. Wealth care and government services to all citizens of the country through common service delivering cutlets.
2. Online availability of data will lead to more transparency.
3. E-Governance will help in reducing corruption.
4. This will lead to a cashless society.
5. The program would generate giant demand for IT, electronic, and telecommunication personnel.

Challenges:

• Regulatory Roadblock:

The issues about taxation and other regulatory guidelines have proved to be roadblocks in advertising with the program while contracting challenges also played a spoilsport. Some of the common policy hurdles include a lack of clarity  in FDI policies, which have impacted the growth of e-commerce

• Idle Government-RFPS:

Many requests for proposal (RFP) issued by the government are not being picked up by competent private sector organizations since they are not commercially viable, the report added.

• Digital Divine:

The joint study observed that for Digital India to have a large-scale impact on citizens across the nation, the digital divide needs to be addressed through last-mile connections in remote rural areas, currently over 5500 villages remain deprived of mobile connectivity. This is large because providing mobile connectivity in such locations is not commercially viable for service providers.

• Poor Connectivity:

The report estimated that India needs over 80 lakh hotspots against the availability of about 31,000 hotspots at present to reach the global level of one wi-fi hotspot for every 150 people. With the proliferation of cloud-based services like Digilockers, data security has emerged as a major challenge revealed in the report.

• Proper Policy Makeup:

To enable the development of digital infrastructure, it’s said that a uniform “ROW-Right of Way “

Policy across all states with a reasonable cost structure is required along with a single-window mechanism for granting ROW permissions PPP models must be explored for suitable development of digital infrastructure, as has been the case for civic infrastructure projects like roads & metro.

Moreover, startups need to be increased like roads and metro development and localized services and applications, it suggested.

WORDS IN SAY:

Prime Minister Narendra Modi met silicon valley leaders to reiterate the idea of a “DIGITAL INDIA” and made some iconic remarks about how technology and social media, in particular, are helping in shaping the modern world.

• Status now is not whether you are awake or asleep, it’s whether you are online or offline
• Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, they’re the new neighbourhoods of our new world.
• The most fundamental debate for youth is the choice between Android, ios, and windows.
• Twitter today has turned everyone into a reporter.
• Social media is reducing social barriers. It connects people on the strength of human values, not identities.
• California is one of the last places in the world to see the sunset, but it’s here that new ideas see the first light of the day.
• In this digital age, we have n opportunity to transform the liver of people in ways that were hard to imagine a couple of decades ago.
• We must ensure that technology is accessible, affordable, and value-adding.
• I see technology as a means to empower and as a tool that bridges the distance between hope and opportunity.
• The pace at which people are taking to digital technology defines by stereotypes of age, education, language, and income.

IMPACT OF DIGITAL INDIA:

Economic Impact:

According to the analysis, the Digital India plan could beast GDP up to $1 Billion by 2015. It can play a key role in macroeconomic factors such as GDP growth,

Employment generation, labour productivity. Growth in the number of businesses and revenue leakage for the government.

As per the World Bank report, a 10% increase in mobile and broadband penetration increases the per capita GDO by 0.81% and 1.38% respectively in the developing countries. India is the second-largest telecom market in the world with 9.5 million wireless subscribers and the world’s 3^rd largest internet market with almost 259 million broadband users. There’s still economic opportunity in India as the teledensity in the rural area is only 45%.

Social Impact:

Social sectors such as education, healthcare, and banking are unable to reach out to the citizens due to directions & limitations such as middlemen, literacy, ignorance, poverty, lack of funds, information, and investments. These challenges have led to imbalanced growth in the rural and urban areas with marked differences in the economic and social status of the people in these areas.

Modern ITC makes it easier for people to obtain access to services and resources. The penetration of mobile devices is maybe highly useful as a complementary channel to public service delivery apart from the creation of entirely new services which may have an enormous impact on the quality of life of users.

Environmental Impact:

The major changes in the technology space will not only bring changes to the economic system but will also contribute to the environmental changes.

The next-generation technologies will help in lowering the carbon footprint by reducing fuel consumption, waste management, greener ecosystem.

The ICT sector helps inefficient management and usage of scarce and non-renewable resources.

Cloud computing technologies minimize carbon emissions by improving mobility and flexibility.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON DIGITAL INDIA PROGRAMME:

The Coronavirus (covid-19) outbreak is indirectly helping the centre’s vision of Digital India, as many service providers, including banks and telecom operators, have significantly reduced their offline operations (same have even closed) and are asking their customers to embrace the digital form for any assistance.

This trend could help in spending up Digital transformation in the long term. But the challenge is that not many customers are prepared for their drastic change.

Moreover, for most businesses, the COVID-19 pandemic was the catalyst for their organizational caterpillar to evolve. Yet following the crises, it remains to be seen which companies will emerge with wings – and which will simplify be crawling along slightly faster than before.

The Rise Of Digital India Platforms:

The use of Digital platforms exploded during the pandemic. Videoconferencing, messaging, collaboration tools, and document sharing all became common for facilitating remote working.

At the end of March, Slack has added 9,000 new customers in Q1-up from about 5,000 in each of the previous quarters. Zoom saw its shares go up 112% on the year. Meanwhile in china conferencing apps such as Tencent’s WeChat work and Alibaba-owned DingTalk, reported the BBC.

HIGHLIGHTS OF THE PROGRESS:

More than 12,000 rural port office Branches have been linked digitally and soon payments Banking would also become a reality for them.

The Government also plans to make a ‘Digital Village’ across the country, By linking, solar energy, skill development centres, and e-services like E-education and E-health.

The progressive policies and aggressive focus on “make in India” have played a significant role in the resurgence of the electronics manufacturing sector.

GOVERNMENT INITIATIVES:

• The online market for smart government buyers.
• Digital India Internship Scheme (understanding Digital India Better).
• Government services are at your fingertips.
• Digi-Locker.
• E-Governance & Digital (The Power to Empower).

STUDENT’S VIEW:

The vision of digital India is Grand It’s a huge step towards building a truly empowered nation. If successful, it transforms citizen access to multimedia information, content, and services. However, the goal is still far away since most of the nine pillars of the Digital India mission are facing serious challenges in implementation. It is imperative to treat focused persistent attention must be mentally prepared for the change and ready to face challenges in implementing their policy, only then it would be possible to make this vision a reality.

CASE STUDY:

The impact of the business adds to the debate over Internet Shutdowns and whether modern democracies should resort to them to quell unrest or potentially contributable situations. In recent lines, the Indian government has implemented shutdowns or throttling of the internet more than any other government. In 2018 there were 134 instances of shutdowns while in 2019 there were 104 Internet shutdowns on a website that tracks internet shutdowns in India and is operated by the software freedom law centre (SFLC).

Jammu & Kashmir, which saw the revocation of Article 370 in August has been, by and large on a total Internet shutdown barring a few relaxations,

However, when it comes to monetary losses, it isn’t just telecom companies that hit. The internet has become the lifeblood of several businesses, not the least of which is the app-based economy comprising e-commerce majors, cab operators, food delivery services & a little like everything. To the Rs 2.45 crores figure, one could add another 50% to account for the loss of business in and from the area where an internet shutdown takes place says Rajan Matthews, Director General of COAI. This brings the estimated total loss in business per hour to about Rs 3.67 crores. In fact, according to a 2018 study by Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Internet shutdowns added up to over 16000 hours between 2012 and 2017.

“These shutdowns are nothing short of being crazy,” said Ananth Padmanabhan, fellow technology and society at the centre of policy Research. “if Aadhar is the vehicle of communication, and now of business too,” Padmanabhan explains that small business has increasingly come to rely on the Internet to generate leads, advertise and get clients and it’s they who get hit the hardest. “In Kashmir, we’re already seeing that Businesses are shutting down because of the lack of Internet. “He said that according to the head of government affairs at a large e-commerce company say that traffic on its website fell by 10% after the Internet shutdowns arising from the anti-CAA protest.

E-commerce companies do not just get affected because of fewer orders. The law and order situation takes a toll on logistics as well, making it difficult for them to deliver orders on time. “Deliveries can get delayed by 2-3 hours. Once these are delays, there are higher chances of cancellation; the executive said. The compact on the supply chain is particularly difficult for businesses where timely delivery is of utmost importance such as in the case of Milk Basket which relies heavily on cloud-based technology to deliver milk to its customer. “Customers could place orders but our field force could not access the internet during day & night,” said the company’s co-founder and CEO Anant Goel. This impacted milk baskets order volumes managed to restrict the revenue loss to only 5% thanks to some “last-minute hacks” online grocer GROFERS, too saw a dip in business, particularly from Lucknow, through it made up for volumes over the following weekends, according to co-founder Albinder Dhirendra.

• Negative Impact of Internet Shutdowns:

According to Deloitte estimate, economies with low and medium Internet connectivity could lose about $0.6 million and $6.6 million per day 10 million population. For a highly connected” economy this could go up to as much as $ 23.6 million COAI Matthew said, “governments should resort to internet shutdowns only under severe circumstances.” Shutting down the Internet is a blunt instrument A whole lot of commerce and business gets shut down.

• Stories From Recent Shutdowns:

Restaurants in Delhi’s Chittaranjan Park area lost about 100 orders coming from Jamia Nagar and Okhla because the government ordered an internet Blackout to restore peace and clamp down on communication that could add to the social unrest.

But Pawan Kumar, a Zomato rider was not sweating over it. “its good that the internet was shut down.” Almost half our lives to earn Rs.30 per order,” he said.” In any case, the restaurants won’t deliver.”

Restaurants in CR park’s two markets saw a dip in Business of about 30-40% because of the internet Shutdowns.” Almost half of our customers order online. That fell and online sales were down by 50% said Dushyant Sharma, owner of Lucknow central.

“Sahab, the connection was so bad that either I was not getting orders or the map would not work, said Vikram Kumar, a Delhi based Uber driver, who delivers only at Night ”Dhanda Manda tha (business eas bad) lagbhag (around) 40% down, ”he added. “Aur entertainment bhi nahi tha,” Kumar who watches movies or news on his phone in his free time.

The government is responsible for all economic activities and presently every small or large work are done online either done by some nosiness groups or by some startup companies which connected with the Internet which is quite important for the digital India concept given by the Government, But may whatever reason for the shutdowns be, the government is supported to keep in mind the monetary losses due to this and also the loss to the economy. Consider our economy is still in the development stages, we need to make sure to keep it growing for our country to become one of the powers in the world but their major hit for even a small period of time only causes our treasury to deplete in numbers. The concept of Digital India is glorious if it can be assured without large implications.

CONCLUSION:

THE goal of Digital India is far away as most of the nine pillars of the digital India mission are facing serious challenges in implementation. Persistent attention must be given to every pillar so that the program doesn’t become a failure. The following steps may be considered to fulfil the vision of Digital India;

• Digital literacy should provide Knowledge to secure their online data.
• Massive awareness has to be created particularly in rural areas.
• Digital India needs to be addressed.
• This mission needs content and service partnerships with telecom companies and other firms to develop infrastructure.
• The success of Digital India projects depends on maximum connectivity with minimum cybersecurity risks. For this, there should be a strong anti-cybercrime team.
• To improve skills in cybersecurity, cybersecurity courses should be introduced in the educational sector.
• There is a need for effective participation of various departments & demanding commitment and efforts. Various policies in different areas should support this goal

REFERENCES:

• https://digitizeeindia.gov.in/
• https://www.indianfolk.com/digital-india-comprehnsive-analysis-edited-nivedha/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital-imdia
• https://www.emai-asia/digitalindia/
• https://www.news/B.com/mews/tech/digitalindia-5-major-problems-that-government-needs-to-address-quick-1334984.html

CERTIFICATE:

This is to certify that class Xll, of —— has completed the project under my supervision. He has taken proper care and shown the utmost sincerity in the completion of this project. I certify that this project is up to my expectations and as per the guidelines issued by CBSE.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT:

I would like to convey my heart-filled thanks to my teacher who guided me throughout the project and gave me valuable suggestions for the completion of the project.

This project has been submitted as per the objectives of CBSE and according to the given guidelines.

DOWNLOAD PDF OF THE PROJECT

Password: hscprojects.com

Download Digital India with Impact of Covid – 19 PDF