Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state: -
(a) the status of implementation of ''Digital India'' scheme in the country especially with respect to Karnataka and Bengaluru in particular;
(b) whether all villages and remote towns of the country have been covered by basic communication/internet services; and
(c) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor and the time by when the entire country is likely to be covered under the said services?
(a): The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Government of India has initiated the ‘Digital India’ programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge-based economy by ensuring digital access, digital inclusion, digital empowerment and bridging the digital divide. Digital India has dramatically reduced distance between Government and citizens significantly. Further, Digital India has also helped in delivery of substantial services to citizens with no leakages and directly to the beneficiary.
Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple projects of various central Ministries/Departments & States/UTs. Each project has its own budgetary requirement and accordingly project-plan has been charted out by the implementing Ministries/Departments and budget details are being maintained by concerned Ministries/Departments & States/UTs. The status of some of the key initiatives undertaken by MeitY under Digital India programme in the state of Karnataka is as follows:
• Common Services Centre (CSC): The Common Services Centres project aims to set-up at least one CSC at 2.50 lakh Gram Panchayats(GPs) across the country, for delivery of various Government to Citizen(G2C) and other citizen centric e-Services. It is a self-sustainable entrepreneurship model which is run by Village level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). As on June, 2021, total of 3,99,675 CSCs are functional across the country, of which, 3,00,955 are functional at Gram Panchayat (GP) level. In Karnataka, 9,762 CSCs are functional including urban & rural areas, of which, 5,818 CSCs are functional at Gram Panchayat level. In Benguluru, 727 CSCs are functional, out of them, 194 CSCs are functional at GP level.
• National Rollout of eDistrict: e-District is a Mission Mode Project (MMP) that aims at electronic delivery of identified high volume citizen centric services at the district or sub-district level. Total 3,916 e-District services have been launched in 709 districts across 28 States/ 6 UTs. 190 e-services have been launched in all 30 districts of Karnataka.
• Digital Village: MeitY has also initiated the ’Digital Village Pilot Project” in October, 2018. 700 Gram Panchayats (GPs)/Villages with at-least one Gram Panchayat/Village per District per State/UT are being covered under the project. The digital services being offered are digital health services, education service, financial services, skill development, solar panel powered street lights including Government to Citizen Services (G2C) and Business to Citizen (B2C) Services. 32 villages from Karnataka have been covered under the pilot project for Digital Village implementation.
• Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyaan (PMGDISHA): MeitY is implementing a scheme namely “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)” to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 Crore rural households (one person per household). So far, training has been imparted to 4.17+ crore candidates and out of this more than 3.08+ crore candidates have been certified. In the state of Karnataka, training has been imparted to 6,68,251 candidates and out of this 4,39,647 candidates have been certified.
• BPO Promotion Scheme: The India BPO Promotion Scheme (IBPS) and North East BPO Promotion Scheme (NEBPS) were initiated under Digital India Programme to create employment opportunities for the youth of the country by setting up BPO/ITES operation in smaller cities across the country and North Eastern Region. Under IBPS and NEBPS, 252 BPO/ITES units have started operations distributed across more than 100 locations covering 27 States/UTs providing direct employment to over 42,000 persons. In the State of Karnataka, 11 BPO/ITES units have started operation with direct employment to 1240 persons. With a focus to disperse the BPO/ITES industry to smaller cities/towns, the Urban Agglomeration of 7 metropolitan cities which includes Bengaluru, are excluded from the BPO Promotion Scheme.
(b) and (c): Basic Communication/Internet facility is being provided in rural & remote areas by the Government and the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) through wireless mobile and fixed wireline. It is estimated that out of 5,97,620 inhabited villages (as per Census 2011) in the country, a total number of 5,74,309 villages have mobile wireless coverage. The remaining villages are being covered with mobile connectivity under schemes of the Government and Telecom Service Providers in a phased manner.
Government of India is also implementing BharatNet project to provide broadband to all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) (approx. 2,50,000) in the country. As on 09.07.2021, a total number of 1,57,919 GPs including Block Head Quarters (BHQs) have been made service ready with broadband infrastructure.
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