DIGITALIZATION OF INDIAN ECONOMY
Pre - Digitalization Era:
Pre 2000, Prior to digitization every aspect of public life and economic activity was in manual mode. This led to several socio-economic issues as mentioned below.
i) Difficulty in accessing the government schemes due to manual procedures and bureaucratic discretions
ii) Corruption in each sphere of life
iii) Undocumented cash transactions leading to rise of parallel economy
iv) Inefficient taxation system which was yielding much lesser revenue than the potential
v) Disconnect between rural and urban socio-economic life
Early steps of digitalization :
Post-2000, India also started taking baby steps in the digitalization of socio-economic life. This included below mentioned steps in particular.
1) 2009 Setting up of UIDAI Authority to implement ADHAR identity of each citizen
2) Gradual introduction of plastic card (credit card) based payment system
3) Computerisation of the Government records
However, these steps were disjointed and were not integrated and therefore they failed to give the desired results.
Digital India Programme:
Major thrust in digitalization of socio-economic activity began in 2013, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s flagship program named Digital India. Digital India’s objective was to:
i) connect the rural areas with high-speed internet through Giga Fibre cable network
ii) E-sanjeevani portal to extend medication and health services at home of the citizen
iii) Bank account based life and health insurance benefits to the citizens
iv) Establishing a Digital Locker to help India store their important government identification documents such as Pan Card, Driving License, Passport, Voter Id Card and Educational Marksheets in a safe, secure & digital format.
v) Introduction of the MyGov Portal for aiming at Good Governance via help from Citizen Engagement
vi) UPI payment through Bhim Pay, Rupay Card, and other private portals like PayTM etc
vii) Connecting AADHAR, PAN , Election Card and Passport to bring in transparency in citizenship records
viii) GSTN Portal & Income tax portals to digitalise the Government taxation records
ix) Digitalization of the land records
x) Employment, business activities better documented through digitalization processes
xi) One nation , one ration card scheme
Impact of digital program:
1) Government schemes are easily accessible and provides time bound benefits
2) Elimination of the middle man and corruption
3) Increase in revenue collection
4) Transparent economic transactions has reduced the black economy
5) Reduction in corruption
6) Last man delivery objective achieved
7) Integration of Adhar, with PAN and Voters Card has increased the efficiency of the overall social-economic life of the country and its citizens
8) Pace of growth of the country has increased many fold
9) Division of rural and urban area is diminishing with the benefits of the digitalization reaching to the hinterlands
10) Education and health have reached to each and every citizen
Overall the Indian economy has taken a stride towards a 5 trillion economy as is envisaged by our Prime Minister. Socially too various parameters such as poverty, education, employment, health, have improved.
Leading to better ease of life for the citizens of the country and making our country a developed nation.
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