IfG.CC - The Potsdam eGovernment Competence Center

Technology is a game-changer. For Indian Government adopting technology means a fundamental shift in the way its services are offered, in the way its people are empowered and in the way it is perceived by its people. Not only does it impact the economy, but it also impacts society. Urban India is already seeing the fruits of its adoption, but the challenge here is for the shift to work at the grassroots of the society.

It may still be ages before food, health, education reach the grassroots of the society. But technology adoption is a different thing. The good news is that, once adopted, it has the potential to challenge the corrosive effect of corruption across institutions, thus increasing the chances of food, health and education reaching the grassroots. Digital India is a bold initiative that aims to achieve this.

India’s government has unveiled plans to link its biometrics-backed unique ID number, the Aadhaar, with the National Population Register.

New Delhi says this will lead to a consolidated database that will help it uncover illegal immigrants, money-laundering, and terrorism.

The Aadhar number is individual based, whereas the NPR scheme focuses on the household or the family as a composite unit.

Under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the National e-Governance Division (NeGD) plans to establish cyber labs for the ‘Online Capacity Building Programme on Cyber Law, Crime Investigation and Digital Forensics’. The government has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the National Law University (NLU) in Delhi and the National Law Institute University (NLIU) in Bhopal to set up these cyber labs.

The goal of this programme is to provide police officers, state cyber cells, law enforcement agencies, prosecutors, and judicial officers with the skills to deal with cyber forensics cases efficiently and effectively as per the Indian Cyber Law. According to a press release, it aims to adopt the best global practices, standards, and guidelines. The NeGD, in collaboration with NLIU-Bhopal, is offering a nine-month online postgraduate (PG) diploma to 1,000 Officials through its learning management system (LMS). This programme enables users to learn on the go-anywhere and anytime. The first batch started last November with a total of 579 participants approved for the course.

With a vision of making India a technology-centric economy of the future, various government projects now extensively cover concepts of E-Governance, Smart Cities, and Digitalization. The burgeoning population of our country coupled with diversity is increasing the amount of data generated on an individual level, making India an ideal place to implement big data-related technologies. The Internet ruled the roost for about two decades and now big data has emerged as the largest game-changing opportunity in the global market.

To discuss potential for cooperation to create smart cities

India and the European Union (EU) on Wednesday forged a new digital partnership and discussed potential for collaboration in the fields of technology and innovation besides cooperation to create smart cities.

The first India-EU Strategic Dialogue Series, organised by UK-based policy platform India Inc. alongside key players like Microsoft and McKinsey, focussed on 'Delivering Smart Communities' as part of the Narendra Modi government's Digital India drive.

A new study of by well-known Delhi-based civil rights body, Housing and Land Rights Network (HLRN), has said that only 8% of India’s total population or 22 per cent of its urban population is likely to benefit from the Government of India’s Smart Cities Mission (SMC) project, which has been initiated in 99 cities from whom proposals have been received.

Pointing towards a clear bias against the marginalized communities, the report states, “Of the total proposed investment of Rs 2.04 lakh crore (2,039 billion) in ‘smart cities,’ 80% will be spent on Area-based Development (ABD), i.e. only on specific areas in each city, with only 20% of funds being devoted to ‘pan-city development’.” In fact, it says, “The city area covered by ABD is less than 5% for 49 of the 86 cities for which information is available”, even though it would lead to forced displacement in the name of development.

'Mobile Seva', a nationwide initiative conceptualized, funded and implemented by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology (DeitY), is among the second place winners of the 2014 UN Public Service Awards, along with Bahrain, Brazil, Cameroon, Republic of Korea and Spain.

Speaking on the occasion, Prasad said the country was witnessing "a new era of digital empowerment" and his government "has firmly set its focus on the all round development and inclusive growth of the country".

"India believes in the philosophy of inclusion. India's population scale and open source 'public digital platforms' such as UPI and Aadhaar have delivered economic and social inclusion," he added

As part of India's G20 presidency, Union Minister for Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday launched the "Stay Safe Online" campaign and the "G20 Digital Innovation Alliance" (G20-DIA).

Visualize a seamless stroll to Varanasi’s Sankat Mochan Hanuman Mandir, unconcerned about slipping on water leaking from pipes and drains, garbage strewn across streets, bad traffic or facing unexpected hotel or travel cancellations. This may sound like a dream. Yet, the Cabinet’s approval of Narendra Modi’s urban regeneration project could turn it into reality. The Union Government plans to spend `48,000 crore on creating a hundred smart cities over five years.

The Prime Minister has already got commitments from Japan, Germany, France, the US, the UK and Canada on helping the plan with their experience and technology. Technology helps maximize utilization of resources by leveraging data collected from sensors, controls, and real time data analytics. It can be used to improve key segments like buildings, which consume 40 per cent of all energy in India, as well as utilities, healthcare, governance, transportation and education. This move could reverse decades of neglect.

The government must focus on restructuring the education system to make Digital India a success

All nine pillars of Digital India directly correlate with policy research conducted at the Centre for Internet and Society, where I have worked for the last seven years. This allows our research outputs to speak directly to the priorities of the government when it comes to digital transformation.

Broadband Highways and Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity: The first two pillars have been combined in this paragraph because they both require spectrum policy and governance fixes. Shyam Ponappa, a distinguished fellow at our Centre calls for the leveraging of shared spectrum and also shared backhaul infrastructure. Plurality in spectrum management, for eg, unlicensed spectrum should be promoted for accelerating backhaul or last mile connectivity, and also for community or local government broadband efforts. Other ideas that have been considered by Ponappa include getting state owned telcos to exit completely from the last mile and only focus on running an open access backhaul through Bharat Broadband Limited. Network neutrality regulations are also required to mitigate free speech, diversity and competition harms as ISPs and TSPs innovate with business models such as zero-rating.

Technology is evolving faster than ever, and as it continuously changes, the world changes along with it. As we enter the era of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, it is important for people to come together to ensure that such technologies are used to benefit mankind.

The emerging technologies do not come without their risks. One of the major concerns for many is privacy. Controversies against Facebook in the past reveal that our data may not be so secure after all. Aside from that, developments in artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics show that there is a potential that such technologies could displace millions of jobs. A new study forecasts that by 2030, as many as 800 million jobs could be lost worldwide to automation.

India’s regulatory environment is going through a metamorphosis with digitization driving transparency, accountability and quality in review practices, according to Arun Mishra, executive vice president, regulatory affairs, India sub-continent, GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare.

The country’s regulatory framework is evolving with efforts to comply with the global drug manufacturing norms. There is a surge in new business models like e-pharmacies, e-consultations and e-diagnostics. This makes the Indian regulatory authority devise norms for the new age practices, he added.

Four Indian cities—New Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, and Bengaluru—witnessed a significant drop in their rankings in the global listing of smart cities that was topped by Singapore.

The Institute for Management Development (IMD), in collaboration with Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD), has released the 2020 Smart City Index, with key findings on how technology is playing a role in the COVID-19 era.

K. Phani Prakash, the assistant director for the Department of Fisheries said out of the 10,000 fishermen living in the two mandals, 3,745 have submitted the appropriate details for ID cards, to be distributed soon.

Paradip Port is one of the major ports of India, serving both the eastern and central parts of the country. Of the 1,715 fishermen in the area, only 250 have received their unique BFICs at a function held in the village, attended by the Director of Fisheries PK Mohan and Commandant of the Coast Guard, Anil Sharma.  According to the article, as many as 21,695 fishermen of 96 villages in the Jagatsinghpur district as well as approximately 18,000 fishermen of the 109 villages in Kendrapada are going to get the new BFICs.

India’s Minister of State for Planning Rao Inderjit Singh provided Rajya Sabha (Council of States) with new data regarding India’s unique biometric identity number system (AADHAAR) for residents, according to a report by Business Standard.

The information included usage of basic demographic and biometric data (ten fingerprints, two iris images) with a photograph to identify a resident after a process of biometric de-duplication, which helps to ensure an accuracy rate of more than 99%.

The Ministry of Science and Technology released three online applications that make government maps available to the public for the first time. The Survey of India (SOI) GEO Spatial Data Dissemination Portal, SOI’s Sarthi: WEB GIS Application, and the MANCHITRAN Enterprise Geoportal of National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO) were inaugurated.

According to a press release, the online portals are rich repositories of maps and functionalities, which will provide easy access and make the geospatial data generated out of public funds available to government and private users. Among others, the portals provide a range of digital maps, including digital geographical maps, railway and political maps, digital geographical road maps, digital geographical physical maps of India, and open series map scale.