It was stressed that large scale digital transformation is possible, however, India can and must prepare for it.
The Fifteenth Finance Commission headed by Chairman N.K. Singh on Tuesday held a meeting with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) on “Harnessing India’s Digital Opportunity”. A detailed presentation on this was made by the Secretary, MeitY, Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney.
The Ministry held in its presentation that the world economy was getting increasingly digital, and it detailed the disruptive potential of digital technology which is accelerating the transition. Elaborating on the digital profile of India, the Commission was briefed by the Ministry that India was standing on the verge of a trillion dollar digital opportunity.
It was stressed that large scale digital transformation is possible, however, India can and must prepare for it.
Suggestions put forward
In its Memorandum to the Commission, MeitY has made some specific suggestions, such that the Digital India program requires unprecedented IT capability for states or union territories to achieve its objectives and transforms India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.
The continuation of the ICT infrastructure and capacity building schemes is vital for States/ UTs to build ICT capability towards the implementation of the ‘Digital India’ program. It has asked for the allocation of funds for these projects.
As the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) is not a centrally sponsored scheme anymore, the Ministry has asked for separate funds for the NeGP Scheme.
It has proposed continuous union support for funding under CSS the implementation of the core ICT infrastructure such as State Data Centres (SDC), State Wide Area Network (SWAN), State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG), e-districts etc.
The Ministry has also asked the Commission to consider the following criteria while the allocation of resources and proposing performance-based incentives to the states. The Commission assured MeitY that it would take into consideration all the issues raised by the Ministry in making its final recommendations.
