Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state:
(a) the outcome of the e-literacy drive being run throughout the country at present;
(b) the percentage of the people who shifted from offline to online in availing services and doing commercial transactions particularly in the rural areas of the country; and
(c) the details of the steps taken by the Government to promote e-literacy in rural areas of the country?
(a) to (c): A statement is laid on the Table of the House.
STATEMENT REFERRED IN REPLY TO LOK SABHA STARRED
QUESTION NO.*237 FOR 03.01.2018 REGARDING E-LITERACY DRIVE.
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(a) and (c) : (1) The Government has taken following steps for promoting e-Literacy in rural areas of the country:
i) In the years 2014 to 2016, two Schemes entitled “National Digital Literacy Mission” (NDLM) and “Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (DISHA) were implemented with a target to train 52.50 lakh candidates in digital literacy across the country including rural India. Under these two schemes, a total of 53.67 lakh beneficiaries were trained, out of which around 42% candidates were from rural India.
ii) In November 2016, ‘Digital Finance for Rural India: Creating Awareness and Access through Common Service Centres(CSCs)’ was implemented for creating awareness on digital payment system for rural citizens and rural merchants. Under this initiative, more than 2 crore beneficiaries and more than 27 lakh Merchants from rural India were trained/enabled for digital payment systems.
iii) In February, 2017, the Government has approved a scheme titled “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (PMGDISHA) for ushering in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 Crore rural households at a total outlay of Rs. 2,351.38 Crore (approx.). As of 28.12.2017, more than 1 crore candidates have completed the training out of which more than 48 lakh have been certified.
(2) Under the PMGDISHA programme the beneficiaries are trained in the basics of digital devices and use them for accessing, creating, managing and sharing information through Internet. Each candidate is required to open an e-mail account, register and obtain digital locker, undergo a typing test apply for or use any Government to Citizen (G2C) service such as PAN card, Passport, electricity bill payment etc and undertake five (5) digital transactions including Unified Payment Interface (UPI), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data(USSD), Cards/Point of Sales(PoS), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System(AEPS), etc.
(b): The e-literacy drive being implemented across the country is aimed at empowering and enabling the rural citizens to on-board the digital eco-system and thus bridge the digital divide. The actual shift from offline to online services and commercial transactions in terms of percentage is difficult to quantify. Key trends pertaining to growth of internet subscribers, e-services, digital payments etc., indicating the growth of online services and digital transaction in the country are given as under:
(i) Growth of internet subscribers: As per TRAI, the details about internet subscriber and data usage in the country are as follows:
Indicator June 2014 September 2017
Total Internet Subscribers 259.14 Million 429.23 Million
(includes 129.41 Million in rural areas)
Total Internet Subscribers per 100 population 20.83 33.22
Total Wireless Subscribers 914.92 Million 1,183.04 Million
Wireless Rural Subscribers 377.36 Million 498.28 Million
Average Data Usage per subscriber per month 70.10 MB 1600 MB
(ii) Electronic delivery of services: The number of e-transactions as captured on e-Taal (Electronic Transaction Aggregation & Analysis Layer) portal have increased from 241 crore in 2013 to more than 3013 crore e-transactions in 2017.
(iii) Common Services Centres (CSCs) are taking the digital services to every corner of India especially in rural areas. As on 30.11.2017, a total of 2,71,311 Common Services Centres (CSCs) are active and transacting for delivery of e-Services across the country; among which 1,73,853 CSCs are at Gram Panchayat level.
(iv) Digital Payments: The number of digital payment transactions per month has increased from 60.7 crore in December 2015 to 153 Crore in the October, 2017.
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