Lok Sabha Question No. 372 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-03
Subject: Access to Information Technology
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Arun Sao, Heena Vijaykumar Gavit, Unmesh Bhaiyyasaheb Patil, Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Hemant Patil, Sambhajirao Mane Dhairyasheel, Vijay Baghel, Sujay Radhakrishna Vikhepatil

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 372

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 03.02.2021

## ACCESS TO INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## 372. SHRI ARUN SAO:

DR. HEENA GAVIT:

SHRI UNMESH BHAIYYASAHEB PATIL:

DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE:

SHRI HEMANT SRIRAM PATIL:

SHRI DHAIRYASHEEL SAMBHAJIRAO MANE:

SHRI VIJAY BAGHEL:

DR. SUJAY RADHAKRISHNA VIKHE PATIL:

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

- (a). the salient features of the schemes being implemented by the Government to increase the access of Information Technology in the country;
- (b). whether  efforts are  being  made  by  the  Government  to  increase  the  access  of Information Technology to the people living in rural, hilly and far flung areas of the country including Chhattisgarh;
- (c). if so, the details thereof;
- (d). whether effective steps are being taken/proposed to be taken for the decentralization of Information Technology in the country; and
- (e). if so, the details thereof ?

## ANSWER

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

(a):    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  economy.  Digital  India  is  an  umbrella programme  that  covers  multiple  projects  of  various  Central  Ministries/Departments  and States/UTs.  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.

- (b)  and  (c). Some  of  the  key  initiatives  taken  by  the  Government  to  make  Information Technology accessible to the people living in rural, hilly and far flung areas of the country including Chhattisgarh 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 300 digital services are being offered by these CSCs. As on December, 2020, the number of functional CSCs (including urban & rural areas) across the Country is 3,73,827 CSCs, out of which, 2,78,048 CSCs are functional at Gram Panchayat level. In the  state  of  Chhattisgarh,  13,931  CSCs  are  functional,  out  of  them,  10,698  CSCs  are functional at GP level.

-  Digital  Village: MeitY  has  also  initiated  the  'Digital  Village  Pilot  Project'  in  October, 2018. 700 Gram Panchayats (GPs)/Village with atleast one Gram Panchayat/Village per District  per  State/UT  are  being  covered  under  the  project.  The  digital  services  being offered are Digital Health Services (Tele-Health &  Tele-Veterinary consultation), Education  Service,  Financial  Services,  Skill  Development,  Solar  panel  powered  street lights  including  Government  to  Citizens  Services  (G2C),  Business  to  Citizen  (B2C) Services.  27  villages  from  Chhattisgarh  have  been  covered  under  the  pilot  project  for Digital Village implementation.
-  e-District  Mission  Mode  Project  (MMP): e-District  project  has  been  implemented  at district  and  sub-district  levels  of  all  States/UTs,  benefitting  all  citizens  by  delivering various 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 705 districts across 28 States/ 5 UTs. 129 e-services have been launched in all 28 districts of Chhattisgarh.

(d)  and (e): 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  various  State  & District level Government Offices in developing and implementing various 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 for fulfilling aspirations of the citizens.

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