Lok Sabha Question No. 1460 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-11-27
Subject: Usage of Digital Technology
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Sukanta Majumdar, Raja Amareshwara Naik, Bhola Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1460

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 27.11.2019

## USAGE OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY

## 1460.    DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR: SHRI RAJA AMARESHWARA NAIK: SHRI BHOLA SINGH:

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

- (a)      whether  the  Government  has  launched  various  schemes  to  boost  the  usage  of  digital  technology  among common man in the country;
- (b)     if so, the details thereof;
- (c)   the salient features of the schemes being implemented by the Government to make more impact-full usage of Information Technology in the country;
- (a) whether the Government has taken special efforts to improve accessibility of Information Technology to the people residing in rural, hilly and remote areas of the country;
- (b) if so, the details thereof especially with regard to State of West Bengal; and
- (c) the other steps taken by the Government for pervasion of digital technology application across the country?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a), (b) and (c): Yes, Sir. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India has initiated the 'Digital India' programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge-based economy by ensuring digital access, digital inclusion, digital empowerment and bridging the digital divide. Under Digital India Programme, MeitY has effectively utilised Digital technologies to transform the lives of people while ensuring digital inclusion of all the segments. The Digital India programme is centred on three key vision areas namely Digital Infrastructure as a Core Utility to Every Citizen, Governance and Services on Demand and Digital Empowerment of Citizens. Digital India aims to provide the much needed thrust to nine pillars of growth areas that is (i) Broadband Highways, (ii) Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, (iii) Public Internet  Access  Programme,  (iv)  e-Governance  -  Reforming  Government  through  Technology,  (v)  e-KrantiElectronic  delivery  of  services,  (vi)  Information  for  All,  (vii)  Electronics  Manufacturing  -  Target  NET  ZERO Imports,  (viii)  IT  for  Jobs  and  (ix)  Early  Harvest  Programmes.  Some  of  the  key  initiatives  undertaken  under Digital India programme are as follows:

-  Common Services Centre (CSC): MeitY has initiated a project namely 'Common Services Centre (CSC) 2.0' in  August,  2015  under  Digital  India  Programme,  which  envisages  setting up  of  at least  one  CSC  at Gram  Panchayat  (GP)  to  cover  all  the  2.5  lakh  GPs  across  the  country.  Common  Services  Centres  are internet  enabled  centres  operated  by  local  entrepreneur,  called  Village  Level  Entrepreneurs  (VLEs)  and provide eServices to rural citizens. Over 350 digital services are being offered by these CSCs. The number of functional CSCs (Urban & Rural) across the Country is 3.64 Lakh, out of which 2.62 Lakh CSCs are functional at Gram Panchayat level.
-  Meghraj and CSP: As part of the Digital India program, Government of India embarked upon an ambitious initiative  known  as  MeghRaj,  to  utilize  and  harness  the  benefits  of  Cloud  Computing.  To  fast  track  the adoption of cloud computing MeitY, Government of India has empanelled cloud service offerings of the 13 Cloud Service Providers under different deployment models viz. Public Cloud, Virtual Private Cloud and Government Community Cloud.
-  Digital  locker: Digital  Locker  provides  an  ecosystem  with  collection  of  repositories  and  gateways  for issuers to upload the documents in the digital repositories. So far, 3.23 crore registered user of DigiLocker. 369 crore authentic documents have been issued. 144 Issuers and 42 Requestor organizations have been onboarded.
-  Open Govt. Data Platform: Open Government Data (OGD) Platform is a platform for supporting Open Data initiative of Government of India. It intends to increase transparency in the functioning of Government and also open avenues for many more innovative usages of Government Data to give different perspective. Currently, 3,34,963 resources under 7,839 catalogs published by 162 Ministries/Departments.
-  eTaal: eTaal is  a  web portal for  dissemination  of  e-Transactions  statistics  of National and  State  level  eGovernance  Projects  including  Mission  Mode  Projects.  It  receives  transaction  statistics  from  web  based applications periodically on near real time basis. More than 3691 crore transactions have been recorded for 3,751 services since January 2019.
-  Government e-Market Place (GeM): To facilitate on line procurement of Goods & Services required by various  Government  Departments  /  Organizations  /  PSUs,  Government  e-Marketplace  (GeM)  has  been implemented. GeM will enhance transparency, efficiency and speed in public procurement. Presently, GeM is  being  used  by  various  Departments/Ministries  of  Central  Govt  and  States/UTs.  2,99,544  Sellers  and Services  providers  are  registered  on  the  portal.  There  are  14,85,806  Products  and  19,415+  Services  are available on the portal.
-  Jeevan Pramaan: Digital Life Certificate for Pensioners scheme known as Jeevan Pramaan envisages to digitize  the  whole  process  of  securing  the  life  certificate.  It  is  a  biometric  enabled  digital  service  for pensioners.  With this initiative, the pensioner is no more required to physically present himself or herself in front of disbursing agency or the certification authority.  Over 3.06 crore Digital Life certificates have been processed since 2014.
-  Online Registration System(ORS)/eHospital: Online Registration System (ORS) under eHospital includes online appointment and registration by new patients, viewing of lab reports, checking the status of blood availability  and  integration  with  payment  gateway  (PayGov).    Till  date,  30.79  lakh  online  appointments have been made in 237 Hospitals through ORS.
-  NCOG-  GIS  Applications: National  Centre  of  Geo-informatics  (NCoG)  project,  is  a  GIS  platform developed for sharing, collaboration, location based analytics and decision support system for Departments. So far, 497 applications across various domains are operational.
-  Unified Mobile Application for New-Age Governance (UMANG): 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. About 490 services from 104 departments and 21 States are already available on UMANG platform.
-  Soil  Health  Card: It  has  been  developed  to  establish  the  national  database  on  Soil  Health  and  provide fertilizer and micro-nutrient suggestions for the soil to farmers. The system captures data at each stage of soil  sample  collection  and  testing  to  generate  Soil  Health  Card  in  uniform  format  with  local  language interface for 22 languages.
-  E-WayBill: It provides a self-service platform to consignors, consignees and transporters to generate e-Way Bill for movement of goods from one place to another. It provides multiple modes of generation including web, bulk upload, SMS, and Mobile App.
-  MyGov: MyGov is a first-of-its-kind citizen engagement platform for participatory governance in India. MyGov  aims  to  facilitate  a  dialogue  between  citizens  and  Government,  bringing  citizens  closer  to  the Government and bringing the Government closer to the citizens it serves, via this platform. Presently, over 95  lakh  users  are  registered  with  MyGov,  participating  in  various  activities  hosted  on  MyGov  platform. MyGov activities are structured under 64 groups consisting of 864 tasks, 816 discussions, 265 Polls/Surveys and 185 talks.
-  Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan(PMGDISHA): The Government has approved a new scheme titled 'Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)' in February, 2017 to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 Crore rural households (one person per household). As on date, over 2.30 crore candidates have been trained under PMGDISHA scheme, out of which more than 1.69 crore candidates have been certified.

(d) and (e): Yes, Sir. Government has taken various initiatives to make Information Technology accessible to the people residing in rural, hilly and remote areas including state of West Bengal. Some of the key initiatives are as follows:

-  Common Services Centre (CSC): MeitY has initiated a project namely 'Common Services Centre (CSC) 2.0' in  August,  2015  under  Digital  India  Programme,  which  envisages  setting up  of  at least  one  CSC  at Gram  Panchayat  (GP)  to  cover  all  the  2.5  lakh  GPs  across  the  country.  Common  Services  Centres  are internet  enabled  centres  operated  by  local  entrepreneur,  called  Village  Level  Entrepreneurs  (VLEs)  and provide eServices to rural citizens. Over 350 digital services are being offered by these CSCs. The number of functional CSCs (Urban & Rural) across the Country is 3.64 Lakh, out of which 2.62 Lakh CSCs are functional at Gram Panchayat level. With respect to State of West Bengal, as on 30 th September, 2019, the number of functional CSCs (Urban & Rural) across the state is 18,053 CSCs, of which 14,123 CSCs are functional at Gram Panchayat level.
-  Digital Village: MeitY has also initiated the 'Digital Village Pilot Project' in October, 2018. 700 Gram Panchayats(GPs)/  villages  with  atleast  one  Gram  Panchayat/village  per  District  per  State/UT  are  being covered across the country. The digital services being offered are Digital Health Services (Tele-Health & Tele-Veterinary consultation), Education  Service (NIELIT  courses  on  BCC/CCC,  Tally),  Financial Inclusion Awareness  Programme,  Skill Development,  Solar panel powered  street lights including Government to Citizens Services (G2C), Business to Citizen (B2C) Services. The project is covering atleast one Gram Panchayat/Village from   23 district of the West Bengal for implementation under Digital Village Pilot Project.
-  BharatNet: BharatNet  is  an  ambitious  initiative  to  trigger  a  broadband  revolution  in  rural  areas.  This project  is  being  implemented  by  Department  of  Telecommunications.  BharatNet  aims  to  connect  all  the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats in the country and provide 100 Mbps connectivity to all gram panchayats (GPs). So  far,  3,80,988  Kms  optical  fiber  has  been  laid  connecting  1,40,668  Gram  Panchayats.  1,28,376  Gram Panchayats are ready for service. In the State of West Bengal, 2220 Gram Panchayats are ready for service.
-  e-District  Mission  Mode  Project  (MMP): e-District  project  has  been  implemented  at  district  and  subdistrict levels of all States/UTs, benefitting all citizens by delivering various high volume e-Services such as Certificates (Birth, Caste, Death, Income and Local Resident), Pension (Old Age, Disability and Widow), Electoral,  Consumer  Court,  Revenue  Court,  Land  Record  and  services  of  various  departments  such  as Commercial Tax, Agriculture, Labour, Employment Training & Skill Development etc. e-District services have  been  launched  in  721  districts  across  all  States/  UTs.  In  the  state  of  West  Bengal,  116  e-District services have been launched.
- (f): A  large  number  of  initiatives  have  been  undertaken  by  Government  for  pervasion  of  digital  technology application across the country. Under Pillar 5: e-Kranti of Digital India programme, a total of 44 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs)  are being implemented by various Central Ministries/Departments, States, and State Departments.  These MMPs are providing services in the areas such as education, healthcare, agriculture, justice, land  records,  social  benefits,  local  governments,  rural  development,  women  &  child  development,  legislature, local  language,  transport,  financial  services,  Income  Tax  (IT),  Passport,  Posts,  etc.  Some  of  the  key  initiatives implemented by various Central Ministries/Departments, States, and State Departments covering above sectors are as follows:
-  Government e-Marketplace (GeM): GeM is single window solution for online procurement of common use Goods & Services required by various Government Departments / Organizations / PSUs. GeM aims to enhance  transparency,  efficiency  and  speed  in  public  procurement.  It  also  provides  the  tools  for  direct purchase, e-bidding and reverse e-auction to facilitate the government users to achieve the best value for the money.
-  e-NAM: National  Agriculture  Market  (NAM)  is  a  pan-India  electronic  trading  portal  which  networks  the existing APMC (Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee) mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural  commodities.  The  NAM  Portal  provides  a  single  window  service  for  all  APMC  related information and services.
-  Soil  Health  Card  has  been  developed  to  establish  the  national  database  on  Soil  Health  and  provide fertilizer and micro-nutrient suggestions for the soil to farmers.
-  MCA21: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Government of India, has initiated the MCA21 project, which  enables  easy  and  secure  access  to  MCA  services  in  an  assisted  manner  for  corporate  entities, professionals, and general public.
-  Passport Seva Project (PSP): Passport Seva enables simple, efficient and transparent processes for delivery of passport and related services. The Passport Seva Project is transforming passport and related services in India to provide a best-in-class experience to Indian citizens.
-  National Voters Service Portal (NVSP): Through NVSP, a user can avail and access various services such as   access the electoral list, apply for voter id card, apply online for corrections in voter's card, view details of  Polling  booth,  Assembly  Constituency  and  Parliamentary  constituency,  and  get  the  contact  details  of Booth Level officer, Electoral Registration Officer, among other services.
-  E-WayBill provides a self-service platform to consignors, consignees and transporters to generate e-Way Bill for movement of goods from one place to another.
-  E-Visais a fully online system to facilitate foreigners to get Indian Visa (e-VISA) without approaching the Mission and Service provider i.e. with an ultimate objective to extend Contactless , Faceless and Cashless service.
-  e-Procurement: The  Central Public Procurement Portal of Government of India facilitates all the Central Government Organizations to publish their Tender Enquiries, Corrigendum and Award of Contract details.
-  e-Transport (Vahan and Sarathi): Online vehicle registration and driving license. There is also a mobile App i.e. mParivahan providing details of Registration Certificates, Driving Licenses etc. and other vehicle related information.
-  e-Prison: This application suite will provide the vital information about the inmates, lodged in the prisons, in real time environment to the prison officials and other entities, involved in Criminal Justice System.
-  Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS): AEPS is a bank led model which allows online interoperable financial inclusion transaction at PoS (MicroATM) through the Business correspondent of any bank using the Aadhaar authentication.
-  BHIM: Bharat  Interface  for  Money  (BHIM)  is  an  app  that  makes  payment  transactions  simple,  easy  and quick using Unified Payments Interface (UPI).

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