Lok Sabha Question No. 3494 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-08-08
Subject: Technology for Rural People
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Richard Hay

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3494

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 08.08.2018

## TECHNOLOGY FOR RURAL PEOPLE

## 3494.       PROF. RICHARD HAY:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  Government  has  succeeded  in  promoting  low  cost  technology  based initiative in rural sector in the whole country in terms of fulfilling the rural people's aspirations and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the details of the assessment regarding the success of UMANG App;
- (c) whether  Medium  and  Small  Enterprises(MSMEs)  are  being  properly  utilized  in systematic growths of e-platform for service delivery, if so, the details thereof, Statewise; and
- (d) the details of start-up enterprises registered under Digital India programme?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI S.S. AHLUWALIA)

(a):    Yes,  Sir.    Some  of  the  key  initiatives  implemented  by  Ministry  of  Electronics  and Information Technology, Government of India in rural sector of the country are as follows

Common  Services  Centre  (CSC)  2.0: The  key  objective  of  CSCs  is  to  deliver  various citizen  centric  services,  such  as,  Government  to  Citizen  (G2C),  Business  to  Citizen  (B2C) services, financial inclusion services, educational services, skill development services etc.

CSCs  are  internet  enabled  centres  operated  by  local  entrepreneur,  called  Village  Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). CSC has the capability in extending the information technology for access by the people, thereby, bridging the digital divide, with a particular emphasis on the provision  of  effective  online  services  for  the  inclusion  of  the  societies,  thus  digitally empowering the citizens, especially in rural & other inaccessible areas. Till June, 2018, there are 3,05,226 Common Services Centres (CSCs) functioning across the country; among which 2,10,314 CSCs are at Gram Panchayat (GP) level.

e-District MMP: The objectives of the e-District project are to ensure: end-to-end workflow to ensure delivery of e-Services by undertaking Business Process Re-engineering (BPR) of services, providing easy, anywhere and anytime access to Government services. This MMP is being  implemented  by  State  Governments/UT  Administrations  through  their  designated agencies. e-District services have been launched in 649 districts across all States / UTs.

Mobile  Seva  Platform: Mobile  governance(m-governance)  aims  to  leverage  wireless  and new  media  technology  platforms,  mobile  devices  and  applications  for  delivery  of  public information and services to all citizens and businesses. It aims at  widening the reach of, and access to, public services  to  all  citizens  in  the  country,  especially  in  the  rural  areas  by  exploiting  the  much greater penetration of mobile phones in the country. It also leverages the innovative potential of mobile applications in providing public services. Around 3992 Government departments and  agencies  integrated  with  the  Mobile  Seva  platform.  The  total  number  of  services available to  citizens  and  businesses  over  Pull SMS  has  reached  705.    On  the  Mobile  Seva AppStore, total 1017 live mobile Apps have been developed and hosted.

Unified  Mobile  Application  for  New-Age  Governance  (UMANG): Unified  Mobile Application  for  New-Age  Governance  (UMANG)  has  been  developed  as  a  single  mobile platform to deliver major Government services with Core Platform integrated with Aadhaar, DigiLocker,  PayGov,  Rapid  Assessment  System  (RAS)  etc.  Citizens  can  access  pan  India Government  services  from  the  Central  Government,  State  Governments,  local  bodies  and their agencies and some important utility services from corporate. About 276 services from 62 departments and 14 States are available on UMANG platform.

Vikaspedia: Vikaspedia is a knowledge portal targeting specific country needs in the domain of  social  development.  This  multilingual  portal  is  developed  as  a  single-window  access  to information,  products  and  services,  with  specific  objective  of  reaching  the  'un-reached' communities  of  India,  especially  poor.  It  catalyses  the  use  of  ICT  tools  for  knowledge sharing, leading to development. Vikaspedia seeks to bridge the gap between the poor and development,  by  providing  links  to  government,  civil  society  groups  /  NGOs  and  private institutions. The ultimate goal is to create a service-oriented, people-friendly and demystified Information Technology (ICT) for Development in service of communities through countrywide collaborations.

National Informatics Centre  (NIC),  an  attached office of  Ministry of  Electronics  & Information  Technology  (MeitY),  has  its  State  Centres  at  State  level  and  District  level  all over India. These State and District Centres continuously guide and assist the Government Officers in  ICT applications. NIC also provides various citizen centric services through its products and platforms such as e-Hospital, e-Counseling, Service plus, e-Transport, Jeevan Pramaan,  National  Scholarship  Portal  etc  which  can  also  used  by  rural  people  and  thus fulfilling their aspiration.

(b):    276  services  of  62  departments  and  14  states  are  available  on  UMANG  platform. Though,  no  external  agency  has  been  hired  so  far  for  doing  the  impact  assessment,  the internal assessment shows that it has been downloaded more than 72 Lakh times and has a rating of 4.44 on a scale of 5 on Google Play Store with 72 % ratings of 5 indicating a very good  feedback  from  the  citizens.  More  than  3  crore  transactions  have  been  executed  on UMANG since its inception and it has an Average Monthly Active User Base of 19 Lakh. UMANG  was  given  the 'Best m-Government Service Award' in the 'Accessible

Government  Category'  during  the  6 th edition  of  the  World  Government  Summit  on  13 th February, 2018 in Dubai by UAE Government.

- (c):  To facilitate on line procurement of Goods & Services required by various Government Departments/Organizations/PSUs Government e-Marketplace (GeM) has been implemented. The  GeM  platform,  which  provides  for  procurement  of  goods  and  services  required  by Central  &  State/UT  Government  organizations.  GeM  SPV  provides  an  end-to-end  online Marketplace  for  Central  and  State  Government  Ministries  /  Departments,  Central  &  State Public  Undertakings  (CPSUs  &  SPSUs),  Autonomous  institutions  and  Local  bodies,  for procurement of common use goods & services in transparent and efficient manner. Presently, 3,93,000+ products & 20+ Services offered by 131,000+ Sellers & Service Providers.

(d):   No start-up enterprise is being registered under the Digital India programme. *********