Lok Sabha Question No. 4085 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2015-12-23
Subject: Digital Literacy
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: JAYAKUMAR JAYAVARDHAN, DHANANJAY BHIMRAO MAHADIK, HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT, RAJEEV SHANKARRAO SATAV, SUPRIYA SADANAND SULE

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION  NO. 4085

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 23.12.2015

## DIGITAL LITERACY

4085

DR. J. JAYAVARDHAN: SHRI DHANANJAY MAHADIK: DR. HEENA VIJAYKUMAR GAVIT: SHRI SATAV RAJEEV: SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE:

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

- (a)   The target fixed by the Government to train individuals under the digital literacy programme along with the number of individuals who have been actually trained in the current year;
- (b)    Whether the Department of Electronics and Information Technology   (DeitY) has decided to advance the deadline of its ambitious digital literacy programme by four years  and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (c)  The corrective steps taken by the Government to achieve the target fixed; and
- (d)   The steps taken by the Government to make internet content available in local languages?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a):  A Scheme for IT Mass Literacy (renamed as National Digital Literacy Mission) with the objective to make 10  lakh  persons  digitally  literate  throughout  the  country  was  approved  by  the  Government  on  04.03.2014. Subsequently,  an  expanded  scheme  under  'Digital  India':  'Digital  Saksharta  Abhiyan'  has  been  approved  by Government on 09.12.2014 with the objective to make additional 42.5 lakh persons digitally literate in a period of four years. Both these Schemes are being implemented concurrently.  Out of the total target of 52.50 lakh of both the  schemes,  5  Lakh  candidates  are  to  be  trained  by  Industry,  Non-Governmental  Organisations  and  others through their own resources/ under Corporate Social Responsibility and remaining 47.50 lakh candidates would be supported by Government.

So far more than 25 lakh persons have been trained under the two Schemes out of which 6.91 lakh candidates have been certified.

(b) and (c):  As of now, about 34.5 lakh persons have been enrolled under the above mentioned two schemes and hence, it is likely that the set target of training 52.5 lakh persons would be achieved much earlier than envisaged. (d):  Under the aegis of Technology Development for Indian Languages (TDIL) Programme, in collaboration with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), software tools like Keyboard Drivers,  Open Type Fonts  and  Libre  Open  Office  for  content  creation  in  all  22  constitutionally  recognized  Indian  languages  viz. Hindi, Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Maithili, Malayalam, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santali, Sindhi, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu have been made available free for public through language CDs and web downloads (http://www.ildc.in ) for the benefit of masses.

National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) is actively engaged in creating domain name in Indian languages. As of now .Bharat is available in Hindi, Dogri, Konkani, Maithili, Marathi, Nepali, Sindhi languages and Gujarati, Bengali, Punjabi, Manipuri, Urdu, Tamil and Telugu languages. Further efforts are underway to implement in remaining languages such as Santhali, Sanskrit, Assamese, Oriya, Kannada, Malayalam, Kashmiri, Sindhi (Perso Arabic).

NIXI is promoting .Bharat domain name through its accredited registrars who are making it available free for one year along with .IN domain name.

*******