Lok Sabha Question No. 2535 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-10
Subject: Digital India Initiative
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Anurag Sharma

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2535

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 10.03.2021

## DIGITAL INDIA INITIATIVE

## 2535.  SHRI ANURAG SHARMA:

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

- (a) the present status of Digital India Programme in the State of Uttar Pradesh along with the success achieved in the State against the target set thereunder and the funds allocated under the said scheme;
- (b) whether the Government has conducted any study to assess the role played by Digital India Initiative in empowerment of people and if so, the details and the outcome thereof;
- (c) whether the Government has conducted any study to measure the extent of adoption of digital technologies by the rural masses in Uttar Pradesh and North East Region and if so, the details and the outcome thereof; and
- (d) the increase in digital penetration and usage of e-Government tools in the last three years, State/UT-wise?

## 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-based economy by ensuring digital access, digital inclusion, digital empowerment and bridging the digital divide. Digital India is an umbrella programme that  covers  multiple  projects  of  various  central  Ministries/Departments  &  States/UTs.  Each project has its own budgetary requirement and accordingly project-plan has been charted out by the implementing Ministry/departments and budget details are being maintained by concerned Ministries/Departments & States/UTs.

Some of the key initiatives taken by the Government under Digital India programme across the country including state of Uttar Pradesh are as follows:

- Common Services Centre (CSC): The Common Services Centres are service (Government to Citizen & Business to Citizen) delivery centres. Common Services Centres are internet enabled centres operated by local entrepreneur, called Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) and provide eServices to rural citizens. As on January, 2021, 3.73 Lakh Common Services Centres are functional including 2.78 lakh CSCs at Gram Panchayat levels. In the state of Uttar Pradesh, 76,444 CSCs are functional, out of them, 57,913 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 Health,  Education,  Skill  Development,  and  Financial  Inclusion  including  Government  to Citizens Services (G2C), Business to Citizen (B2C) Services. 75 villages from Uttar Pradesh have been covered under the project 'Pilot Project- Implementation of Digital Village.'
- 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. 258 e-services have been launched in all 75 districts of Uttar Pradesh.
- Pradhan  Mantri  Gramin  Digital  Saksharta  Abhiyaan(PMGDISHA): MeitY  is  also implementing  a  scheme  titled  'Pradhan  Mantri  Gramin  Digital  Saksharta  Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)' to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 crore rural households (one person per household). So far, training has been imparted to 3.65 crore candidates and out of this more than 2.67 crore candidates have been certified. The scheme is applicable to all rural areas of the country including state of Uttar Pradesh.  In the Uttar Pradesh, around 1,17,66,647 candidates have been registered and 1,00,33,606 candidates have completed the training out of which 74,11,882 have been duly certified.
- (b): MeitY has  conducted  third  party  evaluation  for  Electronic  Governance  scheme  under Digital  India  Programme'.  The  study  was  initiated  in  January  2020  by  the  Centre  for Innovations  in  Public  Systems  (CIPS),  Hyderabad,  Telangana  and  submitted  final  report  in October, 2020. Driven through technology, e-Governance is transforming citizen services by providing access to information, integrating various systems and services between government and citizens, thereby empowering and enhancing citizen's social, environmental and economic values. Following are the key findings of the study with respect to availing services online:
- Eighty-Eight  percent  of  the  sample  beneficiaries  (accessed  any  e-service)  of  the  study indicated that the cost associated with availing services online has significantly reduced compared to the manual system. This implies a reduction in the costs related to the number of trips made, out-of-pocket expense per trip, abolition of intermediaries etc.
- Ninety-Two  percent  of  the  sample  beneficiaries  of  the  study  indicated  that  ease  of accessing  services  online  has  significantly  improved.  This  may  be  attributed  to  the availability of wider range of service delivery channels (mobile, portal, kiosks etc.) and extended hours of availability of service at these channels.

(c)  and  (d): The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has not made any formal assessment to measure the extent of adoption of digital technologies in the state of Uttar Pradesh and NER.  However, the statistics of e-transactions on e-Taal platform (https://etaal.gov.in/) gives an indication of increase in digital penetration and usage of e-Government tools in India. More than 622 crore e-transactions have been recorded for 3,956 services during the year 2020. Number of    e-transactions during the last 3 years in the State of Uttar Pradesh and NER is as follows.

| States            |   Number of e-Transactions (in Crore) |   Number of e-Transactions (in Crore) |   Number of e-Transactions (in Crore) |
|-------------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
|                   |                               2018    |                               2019    |                               2020    |
| Uttar Pradesh     |                                 34.68 |                                 39.91 |                                 38.39 |
| Arunachal Pradesh |                                  0.35 |                                  0.41 |                                  0.4  |
| Assam             |                                  3.76 |                                  6.27 |                                  4.51 |
| Manipur           |                                  0.23 |                                  0.27 |                                  0.26 |
| Meghalaya         |                                  0.39 |                                  0.3  |                                  0.27 |
| Mizoram           |                                  0.21 |                                  0.2  |                                  0.25 |
| Nagaland          |                                  0.23 |                                  0.26 |                                  0.29 |
| Sikkim            |                                  0.09 |                                  0.11 |                                  0.1  |
| Tripura           |                                  0.36 |                                  0.6  |                                  0.49 |

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