MAHARASHTRA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY

ECONOMICS

FINAL DRAFT

A Cashless Economy: An Initiative for Digital India

Submitted to : Prof. Rohit Jadhav

Submitted by: Saurabh Misal

Enrolment no:-2017046

Introduction 4

Research Question 5

Hypothesis 5

Objectives 6

Limitations 6

CHAPTERISATION:- 6

Introduction 6

Benefits of Digital India 9

CHAPTER 2: 10

Digital India Programme and it’s Implementation 10

Empowerment of rural entrepreneurs under ‘Digital India’ 10

Digital India and Empowerment of Rural Indian Women 11

Status of Digital India 12

CHAPTER 3: 12

MAJOR PROJECTS UNDER THE INITIATIVE 12

Estimated Outcomes 13

CHAPTER 4: 14

Challenges before Digital India 14

Lack of coordination among departments 14

Other Challenges 15

CHAPTER 5: 15

FINDINGS 15

CHAPTER 5: 17

IS INDIA DIGITALLY READY 17

CHAPTER 6: 18
 DEMONITIZATION 18

CHAPTER 7: 20

CONCLUSION 20

POLICY STATEMENT 20

Literature Review 21

Methodology 22

REFERENCES 22
Introduction
Digital India is a large umbrella national programme that focuses at providing universal digital lit-
eracy and universal accessibility of all digital resources for citizens. The vision is centred on three
key areas: creation of digital infrastructure, delivery of governance and services on demand, and
digital empowerment of citizens. Digital India program will focus on restructuring several existing
schemes to bring in a transformational impact. The vision of the programme aims to transform India
into a digitally-empowered society and knowledge economy through infrastructural reforms such as
high-speed internet in all gram panchayats, lifelong digital identification for citizens, mobile bank-
ing for all, easy access to Common Service Centers (CSC), shareable private spaces on an easily
accessible public Cloud and cyber-security. The programme will also ensure that all government
services and information are available anywhere, anytime, on any device that is easy-to-use, seam-
less, highly-available and secured. It is one of the step by the government to motivate and connect
Indian Economy to a knowledge savvy world. The digital world that we live in today is that where
every civilian has a bright prospect to transform the lives in many ways that were hard to envision
just a couple of years ago. It is the outcome of several innovations and technology advances. Today,
every nation wants to be fully digitalized that will empower society in a better manner. The 'Digital
India' programme, an initiative of honorable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, will emerge new
progressions in every sector and generates innovative endeavors for Next. The motive behind the
concept is to build participative, transparent and responsive system. 1
The “Digital India” initiative aims at availing digitising of various individual projects of all central
government and ministries like education, health services and other services, that can be delivered
to citizens using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by joining all the areas of India
including the Gram Panchayats at high speed internet through broadband connectivity, in order to
focus on the e-governance till 2019. It can also be viewed as the next step of already running Na-
tional e-Governance Plan. In this program government will prefer to adopt Public Private Partner-
ships (PPP) wherever feasible for execution of this initiative.
For the smooth execution of this program, government will enhance National Informatics Centre
which is responsible to carry IT projects in government departments. For faster design, develop and
implement various e-Governance projects, in at least 10 key ministries positions of Chief Informa-
tion Officers (CIO) will be created and necessary senior positions within the department will be
created by Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY) for managing the initiative.
While embarking upon such an ambitious nationwide and all-pervading programme, it is instruc-
tive to review the level at which the country stands at present in terms of its efforts towards digitisa-
tion. The programme will help delineate sectors which need special attention in order to speed up
the process of digitisation on the one hand, and study its efficacy in reaching the intended targets
and objectives of transformation of the techno- economic environment and socio-institutional op-
erations on the other hand. While investing in activities leading to greater digitisation, it needs to be
emphasised that returns to computerization are dependent upon—apart from capital investment—
organisational capital, encompassing managerial culture, availability of critical skills and societal
and regulatory environment.
It is rightly said by the hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi that Information Technolo-
gy plays important role to make India a digital country, in his words “India Today (IT) + Informa-
tion Technology(IT) = India Tomorrow(IT)”.2

Research Question
Q: How much impact will “Digital India Campaign and Programme” have on Indian Economy?

Hypothesis
With the adoption of Digital India Project, India will have a powerful digital infrastructure. All edu-
cational institutions and government services will soon be able to provide digital services round the
clock. More employment prospects will open for the youth that will boost the nation’s economy.
Tech giants from all over the world are willing to actively IMPACT India’s economy has witnessed
a significant economic growth in the recent past by growing7.3 per cent in 2015 as against 6.9 per
cent in 2014. The steps taken by the government in recent times have shown positive results as In-
dia’s gross domestic product (GDP) at factor cost at constant (2011-12) prices 2014-15 is Rs 106.4
trillion (US$ 1.596 trillion), as against Rs 99.21 trillion (US$ 1.488 trillion) in 2013-14, registering
a growth rate of 7.3 per cent. This clearly shows that the Digital India initiative introduced by Indi-
an government has contributed a lot to boost the economy of the country. The Digital India project
itself will create employment opportunities for 17 million people directly or indirectly which will
help in fighting against unemployment problems in India. India’s Import of Software and Hardware
In Million USD World’s leading research firm McKinsey has commented that the adoption of new
technologies and innovative ideas across sectors by the Digital India programme will help India

2 "Digital India." MyGov.in. April 06, 2015. Accessed August 24, 2018. https://www.mygov.in/group/digital-india/.
boost its GDP by $550 billion to $1 trillion by 2025.Thus, the estimated impact of Digital India by
2019 would be cross cutting, ranging from broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-Fi in
schools and universities and Public Wi-fi Hotspots.

Objectives
The main objectives of this draft is to get the answers of the following:-
• What is “Digital India Campaign and Programme?
• How it will be implemented?
• What is the cost of Implementation?
• How much will it impact on Economy?

Limitations
Limitations of Each and every Study which will be based on secondary data as common because
data is Secondary some of the Limitations of the Research paper is as follows:-
- The study is based on published data and information. No primary data is being collected.
- Secondary data may be lacking in accuracy, or they may not be completely current or depend-
able.
- Time constraint remained the major limitation in the study
- Before using secondary data, it is important to evaluate them on above mentioned factors. So, it
consumes the same time as the primary data.

CHAPTERISATION:-
CHAPTER 1:
Introduction

The “Digital India” initiative aims at availing digitising of various individual projects of all central
government and ministries like education, health services and other services, that can be delivered
to citizens using Information and Communication Technology (ICT) by joining all the areas of India
including the Gram Panchayats at high speed internet through broadband connectivity, in order to
focus on the e-governance till 2019. It can also be viewed as the next step of already running Na-
tional e-Governance Plan. In this program government will prefer to adopt Public Private Partner-
ships (PPP) wherever feasible for execution of this initiative. The programme will help delineate
sectors which need special attention in order to speed up the process of digitisation on the one hand,
and study its efficacy in reaching the intended targets and objectives of transformation of the tech-
no- economic environment and socio-institutional operations on the other hand. While investing in
activities leading to greater digitisation, it needs to be emphasised that returns to computerization
are dependent upon—apart from capital investment—organisational capital, encompassing manage-
rial culture, availability of critical skills and societal and regulatory environment. There have been
attempts to develop a measure of cross- country progress along the digitisation development path,
simultaneously identifying measurable tangible elements and indicators of perceived digitisation
metrics.
Identified elements include:
- Ubiquity: It refers to the adoption of mobile and fixed broadband networks accounting for
broadband accessibility and ownership of data devices such as PCs.
- Affordability: The existence of affordable network links, which are critical to launching new ap-
plications and services.
- Reliability: Faultless service would bind participants to the process of digitisation.
- Speed: Signifies the status of country level international links and the capacity of the system to
serve down the line.
- Usage: It is the measure of use of digitisation infrastructure across economic, social and gov-
ernmental environments.
- Skills: Richness of skills will quicken the establishment and stabilisation of all other elements,
including building up of capacities to take optimal advantage of the digital infrastructure.3
Measuring the above-mentioned elements and relevant 23 indicators, 150 countries were classified
into three categories:
I. Constrained digital economies: Evidencing challenges in widespread access and affordability.
II. Emerging digital economies: Affordability and availability challenges have been addressed
and yet reliability and other elements are lacking.
III. Transitional digital economies: Affordability, availability and reliability challenges stand ad-
dressed and challenges regarding speed, usage and skills are being addressed.
IV. Advanced digital economies: Such countries have significantly made strides in creating all the
six elements. 

On the basis of the above-mentioned classifications and digitisation index, India has been included
in the group of constrained digital economies signifying that, India at this stage (2015–2016) is
wanting in all the six elements included in the exercise of indexation of digitisation. To catch up
with the other economies, India will have to make quantum jumps as the pace of digitisation and
movement between stages has been rapidly accelerating the world over. Such anticipation is based
on the fact that the aspiring countries will now tread along the path chosen by the developed coun-
tries and take advantage of the latest technologies at reduced prices, making the process affordable.
India’s decision to go for intensive digitisation is supported by the fact established by the study be-
ing quoted that an increase in digitisation of 10% points triggers 0.50% to 0.62% gain in the per
capita GDP, which is significantly higher than the impact created by broadband penetration. Be-
sides, digitisation, significant impact on the creation of jobs as well as on improving the innovation
index of a country.4
Digitisation is found to be critical but in no way a panacea for wider socioeconomic developmen-
t.On all economic development counts and for generally inclusive growth of the constituent groups
above minimum threshold of economic attainments currently, intensification of digitisation in the
country as conceptualised by the government would stand justified. In a complex and diversified
society like India where presently a large segment of people are below the economic threshold, it is
necessary to accelerate the programmes for their upliftment with urgency so that such sections also
get to avail of the benefits of digitisation programme so as to make the digitisation-based growth
truly inclusive. Social sector programmes would gain in quality and impact with the spillover ad-
vantages of digital-based processes that will become integral to the delivery chain in the social sec-
tor.5
The vision of Digital India encompasses that by the end of 2019, India would emerge as an Ad-
vanced Digital Economy from the present stage of a Constrained Digital Economy. Accordingly, its
programme content ensures: high speed internet as a core facility for the citizens who will have a
“cradle to grave digital identity” with a capacity to participate in digital and financial space, access
to common service centre with assurance of private space on a public cloud, and a safe and secure
cyberspace. Government will ensure the availability of its online services in real time, seamlessly
integrating across departments and jurisdictions. Also, business and the financial transactions would
be made cashless.
It is proposed that by 2016, 250,000 Gram Panchayats will have broadband facility; i.e. covering
the entire rural India. Broad coverage in urban areas would be intensified by mandating communi-
cation infrastructure in new urban development and buildings by bringing about changes in rules.
Nationwide coverage will be accomplished by 2017. Universal access to mobile connectivity will
come about by 2018. On the strength of such an infrastructure being established, it is expected that
by 2017, government programmes will reach 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats (GP) and Post Offices
(PO) across the country. GPs and POs will serve as Multi-service Centres. Besides, the government
will reform its governance with a view to improve transactions, ensuring simpler and lesser number
of forms, and introduction of tracking facilities with interface between departments. Online reposi-
tories will be available for school certificates, voter ID cards, driving licenses, etc.
Those are rooted in the organisational maturity and commitment of the systems within the govern-
ment and also dependent on public support, overcoming the shackles of historical and cultural traits
and the installed wisdom which feels threatened with the transformations that will sweep them off
their feet. In fact, the political allies in the ruling echelon may in the name of security concerns fo-
cus on the “dark” side of digital society, masking the reality that even the security threats would be
responded to in an effective way only by a well-versed digital India with a strong command over
digital tools. It will be able to exact international protocols in collaboration with many other similar-
ly placed countries concerned with the digital security in the economic and strategic matters. This
will help protect national interests of the participating countries—which have been left out from the
fruits of development so far—and be given their rightful place in an internet enabled environment.

Benefits of Digital India

- It makes possible the implementation of digital locker system which in turn reduces paper work
by minimising the usage of physical documents as well as enabling e-sharing through registered
repositories.
- It makes possible for people to submit their documents and certificates online anywhere which
reduces physical work.
- Citizens may digitally sign their documents online through e-Sign framework
- It will ease the important health care services through e-Hospital system such as online registra-
tion, taking doctor appointments, fee payment, online diagnostic tests, blood check-up, etc.
- It is a huge platform which facilitates an efficient delivery of government or private services all
over the country to its citizens.
- Bharat Net programe (a high-speed digital highway) will connect almost 250,000 gram panchay-
ats of country.
- BSNL’s Next Generation Network will replace 30-year old telephone exchange.

CHAPTER 2:
Digital India Programme and it’s Implementation

The vision of Digital India National programme is path breaking and has the potential for transfor-
mational changes and upliftment of rural sector of India. The plan to provide universal phone con-
nectivity and access to broadband in 2.5 lakh villages by 2019 is going to give a boost to the rural
market. Setting up manufacturing facility in India to produce large scale low cost devices, the pro-
posal of shared use of mobile devices by families in rural markets, sharing of infrastructure cost by
mobile service providers and government offering to subsidise the roll out cost of mobile services
are examples of increasing the speed of providing such services within the reach of villages. Several
apps have been launched to enable farmers get accurate and timely information related to crops,
market prices and analytics to enhance productivity and profitability of farmers. The digital plat-
form will open a new era for rural citizens through a variety of services like improved governance,
land records, jobs, health, education and agriculture and digitization of personal and public records
for safekeeping.World's largest software maker Microsoft Corp has joined hands with the Indian
Government for providing help in efforts to "transform" the country through technological innova-
tions.
Intel India has also announced the launch of “Ek Kadam Unnati Ki Aur”, an initiative aimed at
working with the government to create the blueprint for the digitization of rural India. The first such
Digital India ‘Unnati’ Kendra has been set up at a Common Services Centre (CSC) in Nadimpalle
village of Mahabubnagar district of Telangana.

Empowerment of rural entrepreneurs under ‘Digital India’

Digital India programme has launched many schemes that focuses on the empowerment of rural en-
trepreneurs of India. One of such schemes is enhancing Rural Entrepreneurship through Common
Services Centres (CSCs). Rural entrepreneurs can get loan for setting up their CSCs under the Mi-
cro Units Development and Refinance Agency (MUDRA) Yojana. CSCs are information and com-
munications technology enabled service delivery points at the village level for delivery of govern-
ment, financial, social and private services such as applying online passports, land record, digital
locker and Aadhaar cards. Those who want to start such service points but do not have funds can
start their micro-ventures by taking loans under MUDRA Yojana.
Another scheme for promoting rural entrepreneurship under Digital India Programme is through
Internet Kiosks. Internet Kiosk is a kiosk with one or more computers, tablet, Internet connection,
with a web cam that can be the set up in villages to be used as the hub of rural connectivity for pro-
viding education and training, information about agriculture and health care, employment news and
market information. These cyber- kiosks can be run by local entrepreneurs thereby empowering the
rural entrepreneurship.

Digital India and Empowerment of Rural Indian Women

Empowerment of women of a nation leads to the successful growth and development of a nation.
Digital India Programme has set the stage for empowering the Rural Indian Women. Following are
some of the steps taken by Indian Government under Digital India programme for empowering rural
women:
- Arogya Sakhi helps rural women developing their own personality in order to providing health
care to the rural area. It’s a mobile application that helps rural women entrepreneurs deliver pre-
ventive health care at rural doorsteps. Women armed with tablets and mobile healthcare devices
like glucometres, blood pressure checking machine visit homes and collect data from the village
women. This data can be accessed by doctors at any location who could provide treatment to the
patients remotely.
- Internet Saathi aims to go deep with the internet usage among rural women in India. Ratan Tata
has joined hands with Google and Intel to help women in rural India to access the internet in
large number. The three-way project Internet Saathi will deploy 1000 specially designed bicycles
with connected devices to give villagers an altogether new internet experience.
- The Amakomaya Project (Nepal) aims at of providing Nepali rural women with lifesaving digi-
tal content in their own local language via the Internet. It serves a social cause which is to pro-
viding pregnant women during and after pregnancy advices. By this way, it helps reducing popu-
lation and diseases in new born children. With the high mobile tapping, the program has expand-
ed with a mobile platform, and it also connects rural health workers with urban based hospital
doctors.
- Women for Empowerment and Entrepreneurship, in short W2E2 is helping rural women with
digital tools, e-learning, internet connection. Women tend to use the Internet for their own
 projects in fields like sustainable agriculture and rural health. Some are setting up their own
kiosks and shops to provide online services to the local community, while others have taken up
work as digital literacy trainers in their own local communities.

Status of Digital India

Digital India is in the progress mode till the month of November 2014. The Apex Committee is go-
ing to analyze its progress very soon. Media reports have also hinted at development of policies for
Digital India very soon. If correctly implemented, Digital India project can change the way public
services would be delivered in India in the near future.

As the part of “Digital India” Indian government planned to launch Botnet cleaning centers. Gov-
ernment also launched a digital locker under the name “Digi Locker”. Modi appointed Kruti Tiwari
as brand ambassador for Digital India.
In order to transform the entire ecosystem of public services through the use of information tech-
nology, the Government of India has launched the Digital India programme with the vision to trans-
form India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

CHAPTER 3:
MAJOR PROJECTS UNDER THE INITIATIVE

Digital India comprises of various initiatives under the single programme each targeted to prepare
India for becoming a knowledge economy and for bringing good governance to citizens through
synchronised and co-ordinated engagement of the entire Government. Nine projects have been un-
dertaken. These are as follows:
1. Highways to have broadband services: Government aims to lay national optical fibre network
in all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. Broadband for the rural will be laid by December 2016 and
broadband for all urban will mandate communication infrastructure in new urban development
and buildings. By March 2017, the government aims to provide nationwide information in-
frastructure.
2. Easy access to mobile connectivity: The government is taking steps to ensure that by 2018 all
villages are covered through mobile connectivity. The aim is to increase network penetration
and cover gaps in all 44,000 villages.
3. IT Training for Jobs: This initiative seeks to train 10 million people in towns and villages for
IT sector jobs in five years. It also aims to train 0.3 million agents to run viable businesses de-
 livering IT services. Additionally, the project involves training of 0.5 million rural IT workforce
in five years and setting up of BPOs in each North-eastern state.
4. Manufacturing of electronics: The government is focusing on zero imports of electronics. In
order to achieve this, the government aims to put up smart energy meters, micro ATMs, mobile,
consumer and medical electronics.
5. Provide public access to internet: The government aims to provide internet services to 2.5
lakh villages which comprises of one in every panchayat by March 2017 and 1.5 lakh post of-
fices in the next two years. These post offices will become Multi- Service centres for the peo-
ple.
6. E-Governance: The government aims to improve processes and delivery of services through e-
Governance with UIDAI, payment gateway, EDI and mobile platforms. School certificates, vot-
er ID cards will be provided online. This aims for a faster examination of data.
7. E-Kranti: This service aims to deliver electronic services to people which deals with health,
education, farmers, justice, security and financial inclusion.
8. Global Information: Hosting data online and engaging social media platforms for governance
is the aim of the government. Information is also easily available for the citizens.
9. MyGov.in is a website launched by the government for a 2-way communication between citi-
zens and the government. People can send in their suggestions and comment on various issues
raised by the government, like net neutrality.
10. Early harvest programs: Government plans to set up Wi-Fi facilities in all universities across
the country. Email will be made the primary mode of communication. Aadhar Enabled Biomet-
ric Attendance System will be deployed in all central government offices where recording of
attendance will be made online.

Estimated Outcomes

Digital India initiative will provide broadband in 2.5 lakh villages, universal phone connectivity
with the help of NOFN, Net Zero Imports by 2019. Also, 400,000 Public Internet Access Points as
well Wi-Fi in 2.5 lakh schools, all universities; Public Wi-Fi hotspots for citizens will be provided.
1.7 Cr IT, Telecom and Electronics Jobs will be created by training citizens as well 8.5 indirect jobs.
E-Governance & E-Services will be provided across government. IT use in services like health, ed-
ucation, and banking will make India a leader country. Citizens will be digitally empowered by us-
ing public cloud and internet access.
The Digital India once implemented will be executed effectively as there are already 173 million
mobile Internet users in India in December, 2014 and Internet users in India is expected to reach
213 million by June 2015, as per a report Mobile Internet in India 2014 released by IAMAI and
IMRB International launched at an event.

CHAPTER 4:
Challenges before Digital India

The Government of India entity Bharat Broadband Network Limited which executes the National
Optical Fibre Network project will be the custodian of Digital India (DI) project. BBNL had or-
dered United Telecoms Limited to connect 250,000 villages through GPON to ensure FTTH based
broadband. This will provide the first basic setup to achieve towards DI and is expected to be com-
pleted by 2017. The Digital India initiative is a promising initiative of the Indian Government.
Many companies have shown their interest in this project. It is also believed that E-commerce
would facilitate the Digital India project. However, it is not free from challenges and legal hurdles.
Some believe that Digital India cannot be successful till mandatory E-Governance services in India
are introduced. Having incomplete implementation of the National E-Governance Plan of India will
only affect the success of the Digital India project. India has poor regulations in the field of privacy
protection, data protection, cyber law, telegraph, e-governance, e-commerce, etc. Further, many le-
gal experts believe that e-governance and DI without cyber security is useless. The cyber security
trends in India have exposed the vulnerability of Indian cyberspace. Even the National Cyber Secu-
rity Policy 2013 has not been implemented till now. The intelligence agencies of India like Intelli-
gence Bureau and law enforcement agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation are operating for
decades without any law and parliamentary scrutiny. DI and IoT would further strengthen the mass
surveillance activities of the Indian Government if proper procedural safeguards are not implement-
ed and practiced.

Lack of coordination among departments

It is a large project which includes many departments, so a strong and timely support is utmost im-
portant for the timely completion of the projects High cost of Implementation: A very high amount
is required to implement the all project of DI plan which is approximately Rs.1.13Trillion. (Includ-
ing ongoing and new Projects)
- Infrastructure: National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) Project is planning to build a high speed
broadband highway .but still we need other supportive Infrastructure such as robust and large
data centre for managing a large data of entire country .
- Time Overrun: NOFN Project has been delayed several times and suffering two years so it also
delayed other projects .Timely completion of the projects is most important for the successful of
the projects.
- Participation of Private Players: So many regularities checks and long and delayed projects
breaking entering private players in Digital India Projects .Private companies will play a crucial
role in its success

Other Challenges

Digital India initiation also face some challenges like: Privacy Protection[, Data Protection, Cyber
Law, Telegraph, E-Governance and E-Commerce Etc. Recently, ninth India Digital Summit was
been hosted by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) in New Delhi on January
2015 to discuss the plans of Digital India Initiative. There the increment in mobile wallets in India
for payment and e-commerce infrastructure was been discussed by a panel, as over 60% of Indian
citizens still deal in cash and don’t have bank accounts, so in order to establish digital transaction
mobile wallets are very essential.

CHAPTER 5:
FINDINGS

With the adoption of Digital India Project, India will have a powerful digital infrastructure. All edu-
cational institutions and government services will soon be able to provide digital services round the
clock. More employment prospects will open for the youth that will boost the nation’s economy.
Tech giants from all over the world are willing to actively IMPACT India’s economy has witnessed
a significant economic growth in the recent past by growing7.3 per cent in 2015 as against 6.9 per
cent in 2014. The steps taken by the government in recent times have shown positive results as In-
dia’s gross domestic product (GDP) at factor cost at constant (2011-12) prices 2014-15 is Rs 106.4
trillion (US$ 1.596 trillion), as against Rs 99.21 trillion (US$ 1.488 trillion) in 2013-14, registering
a growth rate of 7.3 per cent. This clearly shows that the Digital India initiative introduced by Indi-
an government has contributed a lot to boost the economy of the country. The Digital India project
itself will create employment opportunities for 17 million people directly or indirectly which will
help in fighting against unemployment problems in India. Government has planned to give IT train-
ing to 100 million students in smaller towns and villages as employment opportunity in IT sector is
very high in India. In the next 5 years, India will emerge to be a leader in using IT in sectors like
health, defence, education, agriculture and banking. Also the service sectors will be digitally em-
powered. In the field of education, it also assures broadband connectivity in all panchayats, schools,
libraries and other public places. Apart from Broadband connectivity, every village is provided with
universal phone connectivity across the country. Mobile and internet banking can improve the fi-
nancial inclusion in the country and can create win-win situation for all parties in the value-chain by
creating an interoperable ecosystem and revenue sharing business models. Telecom operators get
additional revenue streams while the banks can reach new customer groups incurring lowest possi-
ble costs. The digital inclusion among the country ensures the manufacturing sector to revive the
electronics manufacturing. With the Make in India campaign and Digital India, the nation is plan-
ning to achieve net zero imports by 2020.
Region 1
Figure-1: India’s Import of Software and Hardware In Million USD World’s leading research firm
McKinsey has commented that the adoption of new technologies and innovative ideas across sec-
tors by the Digital India programme will help India boost its GDP by $550 billion to $1 trillion by
2025.Thus, the estimated impact of Digital India by 2019 would be cross cutting, ranging from
broadband connectivity in all Panchayats, Wi-Fi in schools and universities and Public Wi-fi
Hotspots. The programme will generate huge number of IT, Telecom and Electronics jobs, both di-
rectly and indirectly.
This ensures the exports will be equal to the imports and this helps in the economic development of
the nation. With the introduction of mobile connectivity in all villages, unique single portal can be
maintained for all government related services. This ensures that all databases and information
should be in electronic form and not manual. Next to crude oil, Electronics hardware comprises ma-
jor parts of imports in India. Since India is a service based country and till now we have focused
only on software development, with the advent of Digital India, with its stress on making India a
manufacturing hub will change the trend.

CHAPTER 5:
IS INDIA DIGITALLY READY

There is no doubt in it. India is ready for this. Immediately with the introduction of this campaign,
many organizations came forward to lend their hands for achieving India a digitally equipped coun-
try. Organizations like BSNL, Reliance Ltd. are coming forward to spread digitalization among rur-
al areas. And over 42000 villages all over India will be having seamless mobile connectivity by
2018. The Internet Saathi initiative aims to cover 4,500 villages over the next 18 months, starting
with Gujarat, Rajasthan and Jharkhand. India is aiming to achieve universal digital literacy across
the country. The prime importance is to make sure every individual can be able to leverage the po-
tential of Digital India. The focus is at least one person in a household should transform into an e-
literate. This can be achieved by BBNL which is planning to connect 2, 50,000 panchayats under
the scheme. This will ensure the digitization and connectivity of local institutions like panchayats
offices, schools, other government offices and libraries etc. India is reforming its government
through technology in the name of E-Governance with the advancement of technology and digital-
ization. Under the e-governance programme, out of 252 schemes planned, 222 services have been
provided in short span of time. The nine pillars of Digital India programme clearly confirms that
India as a nation is at its nascent stage. One can easily assure that India will be digitally ready in the
next three years.
The Digital India program is just the beginning of a digital revolution, once implemented properly it
will open various new opportunities for the citizens. It is one of the highly ambitious programs of
Indian government, and is directly monitored by Hon’ble Prime Minister of India. While there are
many obstacles in the path of Digital India program, one major of which is electricity. But this prob-
lem will soon be solved as there will be pressure on local leaders to get electricity in their village
when Digital India program will be running in the nearby villages. Also, it will open gates for em-
ployment as Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said while addressing students at Shri Ram
College of Commerce: “IT gives employment to about 30 lakh people. Once Digital India becomes
reality, we can give jobs to five crore plus people.”
Digital India is ambitious programme of Government of India. it was started to transform India into
digital world ,empowered society and knowledge economy .Government services will provided to
citizen with the E-services (For policies implementation) and E- governance (For Government De-
partment )as it will take speed in implementation as a economy will emerge with more transparency
,speedy implementation of government policies ,reducing corruption , more productivity ,less paper
work ,more employment more informative way. Services like E-Kranti, My Gov.com many more
portal services creates a knowledge economy .information is a backbone of speedy decision which
helps in growth of economy. Millions of jobs, mobile connectivity, internet highway, on line infor-
mation and many other things create a new India

CHAPTER 6:
DEMONITIZATION

On the day when the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) finally reported that almost 99% of the pro-

scribed currency notes of ₹500 and ₹1,000 denomination had returned to the banking system by 30

June 2017, the finance ministry also issued a formal statement seeking to explain how demonetisa-
tion has been “immensely beneficial to the Indian economy and people.”
The statement begins by enumerating the objectives of demonetisation:
(i) flushing out black money,
(ii) eliminate Fake Indian Currency Notes (FICN),
(iii)to strike at the root of financing of terrorism and left wing extremism,
(iv) to convert non-formal economy into a formal economy to expand tax base and employment and
(v) to give a big boost to digitalization of payments to make India a less cash economy.”
The finance ministry’s statement, while acknowledging that a significant proportion of cash de-
posited in bank accounts post-demonetisation could be black money, also claims that a fiscal wind-
fall will eventually come through the mining of big data by the income tax department, which could

be collated because of demonetisation. However, the mention of 18 lakh accounts involving ₹2.89

lakh crore under the income tax department’s scrutiny is of little fiscal relevance, since neither does
one know what the revenue outcome of that scrutiny may be, nor is there any time frame for its ma-
terialisation.
The finance ministry’s statement has reproduced the data on the increase in the number of income
tax assessees following demonetisation in the recently released Economic Survey 2016–17 Volume–
2. However, it fails to mention that while the number of income tax assessees in 2016–17 has grown
by 5.4 lakhs over that of 2015–16, the average taxable income reported by the possible additional
taxpayers is only around ₹2.7 lakh annually, barely above the ₹2.5 lakh income tax threshold. The

Economic Survey has projected the possible additional revenue from this income tax base expan-

sion to a modest ₹10,587 crore.

The data provided in the finance ministry’s statement also show that between November 2016 and
May 2017, the total amount of undisclosed income unearthed is ₹17,526 crore, out of which only

₹1,003 crore was seized. The crackdown on benami transactions so far has yielded another ₹600

crore. Revenue department data show that since 2013–14, the income tax department has annually
unearthed undisclosed income of around ₹10,000 to ₹11,000 crore, with seizures of around ₹700 to

₹800 crore. It is clear from the finance ministry’s statement that there has not been any significant

rise in such seizures of illicit wealth, post-demonetisation.

The fact that the finance ministry has chosen to officially educate the Indian people on the “im-
mensely beneficial” impact of demonetisation on the same day when the RBI reported that 99% of
the currency notes has returned to the banking system, is symptomatic of the post-truth world that
we live in today, where the establishment has turned its back towards the concerns of factual accu-
racy and credibility. Despite the smog of misleading official propaganda, however, the fact remains
that even the fiscal costs of demonetisation have far surpassed its benefits, let alone its impact on
the rest of the economy and the people.
CHAPTER 7:
CONCLUSION

This paper has shown that despite its lively democracy, strong tradition of press freedom and politi-
cal debates, India is in many ways struggling to find the right balance between freedom of expres-
sion online and other concerns such as security. While civil society is becoming increasingly vocal
in attempting to push this balance towards freedom of expression, the government seems unwilling
or unable to reform the law at the speed required to keep pace with new technologies, in particular
the explosion in social media use. The report has found the main problems that need to be tackled
are online censorship through takedown requests, filtering and blocking and the criminalisation of
online speech.
Politically motivated takedown requests and network disruptions are significant violations of the
right to freedom of expression. The government continues its regime of internet filtering and the
authorities have stepped up surveillance online and put pressure on internet service providers to col-
lude in the filtering and blocking of content which may be perfectly legitimate.
Despite numerous calls for change, the government has refused to reform the controversial IT Act.
However, public outrage and protests against abuses of the law have multiplied since 2012. Civil
society and political initiatives against this legislation have increased and demands for new trans-
parent and participatory processes for making internet policy have gained popular support.
Technical means designed to curb freedom of expression, arguably to achieve political gain, have
no place in a functioning democratic society. While government efforts to expand digital access
across the country are promising, these efforts should not be undermined by disproportionate and
politically motivated network shutdowns.
While it is to be welcomed that India is taking a more vocal part in the global internet governance
debate in favour of the multi-stakeholder approach, it is essential it ensures its own laws are propor-
tionate and protect freedom of expression in order for the country to have the most impact in this
debate.

POLICY STATEMENT
Digital India is innovative and technological, as India is developing nation becoming world leader
in various sectors. Our Prime Minister wanted it to make digital. The creation of digital in-
frastructure of nation. Delivering services digitally to all people of nation. Creating Digital literacy.
Aim of creating Digitally Empowered Society, Digital Infrastructure, Broadband Highways, E-
Governance, E-Kranti, Electronic Development Fun etc. It is the dream of every Indian that the na-
tion should become powerful in all aspects. This is the dream of first person of India i.e. Mr. Naren-
dra Modi and all citizen of nation. Its platform for the growth and development of nation and its
people digitally.

Literature Review
Digital India” initiative has been an intriguing subject matter of numerous researches from various
disciplines because of its great significance and influence on the economy as a whole and particu-
larly the technological sector. Being a recent move, there have been various researches on different
aspects of the initiative ranging from the economical to social and ethical dimensions. Some of
these researches retrieved through internet searches have been reviewed here.

- Prof. Singh began with the basic overview of what Digital India entails and led a discussion of
conceptual structure of the program and examined the impact of “Digital India” initiative on the
technological sector of India. He concluded that this initiative has to be supplemented with
amendments in labor laws of India to make it a successful campaign.

- Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella, Elon Musk researched about Digital India and its preparedness
to create jobs opportunities in the information sector. He concluded that creating new jobs should
be continued with shifting more workers into high productivity jobs in order to provide long term
push to the technological sector in India.

- Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella intends to become India’s partner in Digital India program. He
said that his company will set up low cost broadband technology services to 5lakhs villages
across the country.

- Arvind Gupta intends to say that Digital India movement will play an important role in effective
delivery of services, monitoring performance managing projects, and improving governance. An
Integrated Office of Innovation & Technology to achieve the same ,and for problem solving,
sharing applications and knowledge management will be the key to rapid results, given that most
departments work on their own silos. Tracking and managing the projects assume significance
because India has been busy spending money in buying technology that we have not used effec-
tively or in some cases not even reached its implementation stage. Sharing, learning’s need to be
 best practices across departments Tracking and managing the projects assumes significance be-
cause India has been busy spending money in buying technology that we have not used effective-
ly or in some cases not even reached implementation stage. Sharing learning’s and best practices
across departments needs to be driven by this Office of Technology.

- Rajan Anandan, Managing Director at Google India, said: “Enabling content consumption in
local Indian languages can greatly push the Internet consumption up.”

- Bipin Preet Singh, Founder and CEO at MobiKwik, said “Consumers can overcome the trust
factor in online payments,”

- Aloke Bajpai, Co-founder and CEO of meta search site ixigo.com, said: “While the growth in
desktop is almost zero, it’s terrific on mobile,” “It is not only mobile first anymore but mobile
only soon. Will have to see whether to work any further on evolving our desktop experience.”

- Dhruv Shringi, CEO of Yatra.com, said: “The next thing to aim for travel companies is person-
alisation of travel purchases such as hotels and holiday packages as also using predictive comput-
ing to understand and predict consumer behaviour and reacting to it.”

Methodology
This study attempts to explain the impact of digitisation on the development of Rural India. It is
based on secondary data that is collected through different sources like newspaper, internet, gov-
ernment websites, journals etc.
Data Collection
The secondary data has been collected. For this purpose, various magazines and journals have been
used as it is a conceptual paper. Thus, the focus is to know more about the concept, its application
and the impact on economy via other parameters. Therefore, qualitative and quantitative data have
been used. 


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