Cabinet plan to make India digitally empowered

The government on Wednesday announced a special programme to transform India into a digitally empowered society.

The programme “Digital India” was approved at a meeting of the Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

“The programme aims to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy,” Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a briefing.

The programme has been envisaged by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology. The programme will be implemented in phases from the current year till 2018. It would ensure that government services are available to citizens electronically.

The source of funding for most e-governance projects at present is through budgetary provisions of respective ministries or departments in the central or state governments.

The programme envisions high-speed internet as a core utility which would be made available in all gram panchayats. Mobile phone and bank accounts would enable participation in digital and financial space at individual levels.