After wifi at the Taj, Modi revives campaign for "digital" India
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NEW DEHLI: India is reinvigorating an $18 billion campaign to provide fast internet connections for all, with a “digital week” aimed at popularising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign promise to connect 250,000 villages in India by 2019.
The government's tech push, which plans to provide electronic governance and universal phone connectivity across the country, aims to bridge India's digital divide, bringing in large investments in technology manufacturing.
But apart from a handful of headline-grabbing initiatives ─ free wifi at the Taj Mahal, for example ─ the push to connect India and drive a national fibre optic network, first approved by the last government in 2011, has made slow progress.
“Now we are at a place where we can take off,” said a spokesman for Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad. “The idea is to bridge the gap between haves and have-nots of services and deliverables.”
The digital week, being launched later on Wednesday, will involve citizen awareness programmes. But officials say a plan will also be announced for “billions of dollars” of investment, most likely in manufacturing ─ critical for a government which badly needs to create more jobs, at a faster rate.
The plan aims to stop net imports of technology and electronics by 2020, while creating over 100 million jobs.
India's first cyber premier, Modi has used social media and particularly Twitter, where he has 13 million followers, to style himself as a leader in touch with technology.
With a growing economy and falling handset prices, India is one of the fastest growing smartphone markets in the world, and Modi is looking to harness India's potential for social development in fields like education and health.
But the challenge is great.
India's average Internet speed was ranked 115th globally in the first quarter of the year, among countries studied by services provider Akamai Technologies.
India had just a little over 100 million broadband subscribers at the end of April, out of a population of close to 1.3bn, according to the sector regulator, which considers Internet connections with minimum download speeds of 512 kbps.
A telecom ministry panel, by comparison, said in March it wants the digital push to establish affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps “for all households” by 2017.
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Comments (39) Closed
Jul 01, 2015 03:33pm
Good work modi.. You have vision for future, surely you will change India. Don't bother about hater , they will also follow you later..
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Jul 01, 2015 03:42pm
Im sure those indian villages without proper roads,hospitals,schools oh and indoor plumbing would appreciate the internet..good job.
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Jul 01, 2015 03:43pm
well Done Modi.. it was much needed
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Jul 01, 2015 03:55pm
The country which is superpower in software development needs high speed affordable internet to each and every house hold and mobile owner. From November 4G services ranging between 300-500 would be launched by Reliance. We need more such skims.
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Jul 01, 2015 03:55pm
Yet again, slowly and steadily India goes forward bridging great divides. Reminds one of the slow tortoise and the quick hare. The former having all the disadvantages like lower area per citizen, lower per capita, lower education levels (in 1947) huge population etc, while the latter got better benefits of being more agile, much better geo-strategic located and with more area per citizen and natural bounties. So, the latter bounded faster and developed faster but unfortunately had an ambitious army - we all know the rest.
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Jul 01, 2015 04:00pm
Keep going MODI JI.......... we need prosperous and powerful India. Lets regain our lost heritage of knowledge based society.
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Jul 01, 2015 04:06pm
wrong ,,,,,,,,,,,we have over 18 crores broadband connection & over 50 crore mobile internet users ,india is the largest smartphone (50crores) users in the world beating chines smartphone which is diplicate .....
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Jul 01, 2015 04:12pm
@Pakistani Getting technology means more growth more money.
Going to Mars means entering in the billion dollar industry means more money.
That will improve the life of poors as well. I only pay 550 rs/Monthly for 3 Mbps 80 Gb
Wi fi Connectin at my home.
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Jul 01, 2015 04:12pm
With around 950 million mobile subscribers, India 2nd largest in the world. With 3G and 4G smart phones are penetrating even rural areas and helping to improve economy. Bill payments, education, fund transfers, sales or purchases are being done efficiently throug
on- line .Infrastructure issues are expected as this doesn't happen overnight. With government push ' Digital India ' will make second revolution in Information technology, despite all problems.
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Jul 01, 2015 04:37pm
It is possible with the proposed launch of GSAT-11 satellite. It will make possible our PM's dream of digital India.
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Jul 01, 2015 04:42pm
@Pakistani The last BJP government built more roads in its five year term than Congress regimes did in 55 years. This government has already started work on building roads all over the country. Emphasis is on rural infrastructure. If this government lasts next two terms India will be transformed.
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Jul 01, 2015 05:00pm
Go Modi Go.... haters gonna hate cuz they know you're doing great!
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Jul 01, 2015 05:15pm
Action Man...Modiji..great going..
@PAKISTANI...Bharat will be transformed and our villages will be churning out wonders in innovation and human talent including increasing economic output dramatically within next 10 years and Digital push will be the backbone for these..You will witness...its not too far off...
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Jul 01, 2015 05:22pm
Digital India means not only mobile networking but also includes entire government functioning. Almost like paperless office. It also includes manufacturing of digital devices. This project is huge and ambitious. India has money , knowledge and the will to do the same.
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Jul 01, 2015 05:31pm
Naya Daur......Foundational steps towards empowerment of poor!!!
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Jul 01, 2015 05:32pm
Modi ji has really made a big difference in taking India on the path of progress.People feel quite comfortable with the kind of working style he has. Great Going...
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Jul 01, 2015 05:51pm
Mind you digital India is not only providing internet facility.it is use of internet.by it remote areas where comminication is weak we can provide gov service , health, education, knoweledge and many more.superb speach.you should have listen the speach of Modi ji.
₹4.5 lakh crore =$70b investment committed in 2 hr function.many more to come.
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Jul 01, 2015 05:54pm
@Pakistani Though sarcastically but Sir, You are right to say "indian villages without proper roads,hospitals,schools oh and indoor plumbing would appreciate the internet..good job." Yes this will provide all the village panchayts connectivity to district and divisional level government offices improving the administrative edge. It will also provide the villagers including students the opportunity to resolve questions and open their minds to higher education, health, agricultural and business windows. In India we already have running education facilities providing every day classes on various subjects, grades,subjects, curriculum and help students to resolve their questions. Possibilities are immense, specially for a poor country. just think and you will realise.
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Jul 01, 2015 06:43pm
The plan aims to stop net imports of technology and electronics by 2020, while creating over 100 million jobs.
This is the best line in the entire news article. It shows the vision to become self sufficient, which in turn will improve the lifestyle. Creating 100 million jobs at the village level means kind of stoppage to the mass migration from villages to the cities improving the life at villages. When jobs are created at local level, overall economy improves. When there will be less imports on digital items, the money effectively can be used on providing other facilities which currently lack.
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Jul 01, 2015 06:47pm
Imagine the transparency in operation when e-governance comes at such grass root levels, resulting in reduced corruption.
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Jul 01, 2015 07:08pm
All this 4G, 3G and Modiji is fine,but sir jee, when are we going to adopt focussed widespread measures to bring to par the lives of at least 420 million people in the country who live in utter poverty with virtually no hope for the morrow, or is it that what it has always been, a peripheral issue which people like me who have no sense of proportion tend to disturb educated progressive-minded people with ?
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Jul 01, 2015 07:40pm
What ever one can say about this govt. led by Modi, he has to be appreciated for taking some visionary steps and trying something. Unless one tries, one cannot either succeed or fail. Failure is a stepping stone for success. Better than the status quo or complete regression in the earlier UPA/"Con"-'grass' govt.
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Jul 01, 2015 08:39pm
We have broadband and smart phone connections serving quite a lot of people in the country. So there; we aren't far behind in percentage terms.
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Jul 01, 2015 08:44pm
Almost all the comments on this column seems to be from Modi fan club. One man cannot and does not make a nation or lead to its progress. It is the people who do it while the government clears the pathways. NS too is trying his best despite several road blocks and setbacks. He may not have Modi's charisma but is quite savvy in his own way. Any NS fans here? Let's hear from you then.
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Jul 01, 2015 08:46pm
What a joke?
He should first concentrate on providing food, shelter and clothes to about 80% Indians who are living below poverty line set by the United Nations i.e. those who are earnling less than US Dollars four per day.
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Jul 01, 2015 08:53pm
Although the" digital aspect" of development is good, it does not replace the need for the setting up of infrastructure lacking woefully all over the country.
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Jul 01, 2015 09:08pm
I see a 3 trends in this initiative - (a) Become self-sufficient in electronics manufacturing and stop the net imports. This will bridge the trade deficit with China and other countries (b) Provide Mobile Governance to the villages, where villagers can access government services using their mobile phones (c) Stop the corruption in the ground level by migrating the village government offices from paper to computers and internet.
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Jul 01, 2015 10:10pm
@Nav
Excellent analysis,well done.
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Jul 02, 2015 12:30am
@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad : "He should first concentrate on providing food, shelter and clothes to about 80% Indians who are living below poverty line set by the United Nations i.e. those who are earnling less than US Dollars four per day."
Development does not mean handing out money to the poor so that they can buy necessities. Development means, modernizing infrastructure to induce high economic growth which in turn lifts people out of poverty & Modi's campaign of digital India campaign is a part of that plan. BTW, UN does not set poverty threshold, the World Bank does & currently 21.9% of Indians are below that poverty threshold and not 80% as you mentioned. (surprised to see a "Dr" with such poor general knowledge)
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Jul 02, 2015 12:30am
@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad
Nobody is laughing smart guy. Better connectivity means more commerce and more jobs. 100 million jobs means more people have work and money to feed themselves and their family.
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Jul 02, 2015 01:38am
They will have their work cut out as "universal access" does not guarantee a working network. Even in its major cities, India's mobile network is so stressed that many say it's broken, with call failures and drops a common complaint.
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Jul 02, 2015 02:29am
@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad
Ignorance is bliss
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Jul 02, 2015 04:27am
Internet and Smartphones may just be Gizmos and Toy for city bred but can be lifeline for people living in remote areas in sub continent. A farmer gets weather update at the touch of a button, gets access to commodity price ,Oil, Rice, Sugarcane, Cotton procurement rate (so not be duped by Merchants), Ayojana scheme (so not to be duped by Govt Officials), Heatwave Alerts, Emergency Services and Alerts. Digital Highway is as vital as Physical Highway
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Jul 02, 2015 05:13am
Computer came to Pakistan(during Ayoob Khan government) earlier than India. If Ayoob Khan was allowed to continue Pakistan would have been different.
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Jul 02, 2015 05:16am
Good job Mr. Modi. Our government can learn from Mr. Modi's actions and we as people of both countries can learn from people of Europe. Europe has had two World Wars, yet they get along fine with each other for economic and military benefit. Pakistan and India both have a lot more to gain from each other than opposing each other.
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Jul 02, 2015 05:24am
I am so disappointed comments made by Pakistanis. No one agreed that it's a positive move. Don't expect everything to change in 1 year, Modi still have 4 years left and will see different India by then and I am sure he even knows that he has to prove himself and will have to work hard to make a change. So let's see the report card after his term is over until then please don't be biased.
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Jul 02, 2015 05:55am
Pakistan is more developed than India in this field
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Jul 02, 2015 06:05am
Good see deadline to complete..!!!!!!!!!
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Jul 02, 2015 06:55am
@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad - Access to Information increases the awareness of the common man. The awareness enables her/him to demand more from the people she/he elected. A citizen who is aware of what is happening around the world will definitely demand more from elected representatives and government.
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