Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:
(a) whether Digital India programme is facing multiple challenges and roadblocks due to lack of clarity in policies and infrastructure bottlenecks and issues pertaining to taxation and other regulatory guidelines as per the report by ASSOCHAM; and
(b) if so, the details thereof along with the measures taken by the Government to address these bottlenecks?
(a) and (b): Concerns have been raised in the report by ASSOCHAM regarding multiple challenges and roadblocks due to lack of clarity in policies and infrastructure bottlenecks and issues pertaining to taxation and other regulatory guidelines. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Govt. of India has taken following measures for digital infrastructure to implement Digital India programme effectively, namely:-
(i) Under Digital India progarmme, core infrastructure components such as State Data Centres (SDCs), State Wide Area Networks (SWANs), Common Services Centres (CSCs), State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDGs) and e-District are being implemented. SDC in 26 States/UTs and SWAN in 34 States/UTs have been made operational. 3.10 lakh CSCs have been set-up in 36 States/UTs. e-District Services have been launched in 555 districts in all 36 States/UTs and State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) project has gone live in 26 States/UTs. Meghraj-GI Cloud has been launched and more than 500 departments are using cloud services. Mobile Seva, a gateway to provide services to different government departments has also been implemented.
(ii) BharatNet project has been initiated to establish a network infrastructure by connecting all Gram Panchayats (approx. 2.5 lakh) in the country by using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media, for providing broadband connectivity by all categories of service providers on non-discriminatory basis. The project, being implemented in a phased manner, is targeted to connect all Gram Panchayats. The second phase of the BharatNet programme has been designed to provide one Wi-Fi hotspot in each Gram Panchayat of India. The Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules, 2016 have been notified on 15.11.2016.
(iii) Point of Sale (POS) devices and all input good used for manufacture of POS devices, subject to actual user condition, have been exempted from Central Excise Duty / Countervailing Duty (CVD) up to 30.06.2017, vide Notification No.6/2017-Central Excise dated 02.02.2017. In the Budget 2017-18, following goods and parts/ components for use in the manufacture of these goods, subject to actual user condition, have been exempted from Basic Customs Duty (BCD), Excise Duty / CVD and consequently Special Additional Duty of Customs (SAD) vide S.No.408A of Notification No.6/2017-Customs dated 02.02.2017 and S.No.256C of Notification No.6/2017-Central Excise dated 02.02.2017, respectively:
i. Micro ATMs as per standards version 1.5.1; ii. Fingerprint reader / scanner; iii. Iris scanner;
iv. Miniaturised POS card reader for mPOS (other than Mobile phone or Tablet Computer).
(iv) The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has taken several policy initiatives that are crucial for achieving the vision and objectives of the Digital India programme. Some of the policy initiatives taken in last two years are as follows:
(a) The e-Kranti Framework
(b) Framework for Adoption of Open Source Software in e-Governance Systems
(c) Policy on Open Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) for Government of India
(d) Policy On Collaborative Application Development by Opening the Source Code of Government Applications
(e) Updation and Usage Policy for the Sampark Database(IT Platform for Messages)
(f) Policy on Adoption of Open Source Software for Government of India
(g) Application Development & Re-Engineering Guidelines for Cloud Ready Applications
(h) Email Policy of Government of India
(i) Policy on Use of IT Resources of Government of India
(j) National Policy on Universal Electronic Accessibility
(k) Notification for Digital Locker Rules
(l) The Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and Other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act
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