The Digital Divide in India: How India Is Closing It
Digital India
An initiative spearheaded by the government called “Digital India” seeks to make India a knowledge-based society and economy. With the intention of closing the digital gap between India’s urban and rural communities, the programme was introduced in 2015. The programme has advanced significantly since its inception in terms of building digital infrastructure, fostering digital literacy, and offering digital services to individuals all around the nation.
Digital Infrastructure
A crucial part of the Digital India programme is the development of digital infrastructure. To give individuals all around the nation access to digital services, the government has made significant investments in high-speed internet networks, fiber optic cables, and data centers. The government’s efforts to bring broadband access to every hamlet in India are well-illustrated through the Bharat Net initiative. As of December 2020, the project had connected more than 150,000 village panchayats to high-speed internet, according to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, 2020)
Digital Literacy
Another crucial element of the Digital India strategy is the promotion of digital literacy. The Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) and Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISHA) programmes are two of the government’s many initiatives to train residents in digital skills. These initiatives seek to educate citizens in rural and remote areas of the nation about digital literacy. Since its debut in 2017, the PMGDISHA programme, for instance, has trained over 6 million people in digital literacy (Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, 2021).
Digital Services
The Digital India campaign places a lot of emphasis on the provision of digital services. To give citizens access to digital services like healthcare, education, and financial services, the government has created a number of online portals and mobile applications. For instance, the National Health Stack is a platform for digital infrastructure that promises to give India a unified healthcare system. In accordance with the platform, residents will be able to view their medical records and obtain healthcare services online (National Health Authority, 2021).
The Future of Digital India
In India, the digital divide has been significantly reduced thanks to the Digital India effort. More individuals are going online and have more access to digital services thanks to government initiatives to build digital infrastructure, encourage digital literacy, and offer digital services to residents. To ensure that all residents, especially those in rural and isolated locations, have access to the digital tools and services they need to flourish in a digital society, however, there is still a lot of work to be done. To ensure that no citizen is left behind in the digital age, it is crucial that the government continue to invest in digital infrastructure and programmes to promote digital literacy.
References
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. (2020). BharatNet: Connecting India’s Villages. Retrieved from https://bharatnet.gov.in/
Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology. (2021). PMGDISHA: Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan. Retrieved from https://www.pmgdisha.in/
National Health Authority. (2021). National Health Stack. Retrieved from https://www.nha.gov.in/nhs/
