2020 Digital India: Poised To Become 1$ Trillion Economy

With a huge population active on Internet in India, the potential for the businesses as well as consumers is huge and Modi Government has made it clear from their stance since the time of occupying the PMO that it will tap this potential to make Digital India campaign a huge success. This intention and the attempts to reach the end goal are made clear by Ravi Shankar Prasad,cabinet minister of communications & IT. He said, “Digital India will be a $1 trillion economy in the next 5 years”.

10 Achievements as highlighted by Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad

Addressing Policy Paralysis

Many policies that were created to make digital life of businesses and consumers easy but weren’t cleared before for one reason or the other got cleared by the Modi Government. This list includes policies related to:

• Spectrum sharing
• Full mobile number portability
• Sharing of passive and active infrastructure
• Virtual network operator
• Spectrum trading
• Spectrum liberalization
• Defence band identification

Better governance andtransparency

With increased vigilance of the governments, the work processes and procedures have become transparent. The shift to better governance has led to earning the highest ever revenuefrom Spectrum Auctions 2015for the government, which is aroundRs. 1.10 lac crore.

Transformation of BSNL

In the financial year of 2013-14, BSNL was reported with a loss of 8000 Crore which got recovered along with posting an operational profit of 2000 in FY 2015-16. Better services and connectivity helped it gain 23 lakh new mobile additions in March 2016. TRAI data reports this number being the biggest. One can also not ignore the activation of 2,000 Wi-Fi hotspots pan-India as an important achievement.

Growing number ofnew mobile connections

Years from 2014 to 2016 saw a jump in the number of mobile connections by 12.26 crore. Thusthe total statistics point to somewhere around 102.71 croremobile connections leading to the mobile teledensityof 80.95%. The government has also assured 55,669 villages that they will be a part of comprehensive mobile connectivity plan by 2019.

Gram Panchayat Connectivity

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) got highly active, laying optical fibre in 50,732 Gram Panchayats. Till the time of report writing, 143,000 optical ducts were laid by the DoT, covering 115,783 km by optical fibre.

Growing FDI in India

As compared to $1.6 billion the telecom Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in FY 2012-14, last two years saw FDI up to $4.09 billion (INR 27,000 crore).

Evolved Postal Department

When it comes to the number of core banking branches, India Post (22, 137 branches) is much ahead that the most trusted of banks, State Bank of India (16,066 branches). The Postal Department is planning to empower rural India postman by providing 1,20,000 handheld terminals to the GraminDaakSewaks, while urban postmen will be facilitated with mobile till 2016 end. With faster mail delivery, increased Speed Post revenue and cash-on-delivery collection, India Post is now planning to launchPayment Bank services from March 2017 after its ATMs reached to 942 as on May 2016.

Electronic manufacturingsector Achievements

Growth rate of Electronic Manufacturing has increased by 83%, thanks to the 17 new mobile manufacturing units employing around 40,000 people generating 11 Crores from just 6 Crores in 2015. The total investment of Rs 120,000 crores for Electronic Manufacturing thus is not surprising at all.

IT Sector Achievements

India under the able guidance of its progressive PM Mr Modi aims to develop its own supercomputer as early as 2017. The motivation and impetus comes from increase IT revenues ($143 billion with exports for more than $108 billion).

AadhaarEnablement

Aadhaar, the digital identification of Indians has reached to 101.11 crores by May 2016 and attempted to financially joining those who are not already. Through this, Government was able to transferRs 61,000 crore to 30 crore beneficiaries in the DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) schemein FY 2015-16.They eliminated 3.5 crore duplicate beneficiaries and saved more than Rs 15,000 crore in FY 2014-15.

This is still only the beginning of what India is capable of when guided and governed properly and people hope for best!