The nine pillars of digital India program include: broadband highway, universal access, public Internet access, e-Governance, e-Kranti, information for all, electronics manufacturing, IT for jobs and early harvest program.
1. Broadband highway: Laying of national optical fibre network (NOFN) in all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country will happen in a phased manner. The NOFN will be completed in FY 2016-17 with a total estimated cost of Rs 20,100 crore. NOFN infrastructure connectivity is planned to be be supplemented by government user network (GUN) as an overlay on NOFN. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 4900 crore as capex and Rs 2,500 crore as opex for a period of 10 years.
2. Universal access: Ensuring mobile access in around 44,000 uncovered villages in the country and government is taking steps to ensure that all villages are covered through mobile connectivity by 2018. The government has also decided to install 1,836 mobile towers to connect the unconnected areas in the states affected by Left Wing Extremism (LWE) at a project cost of Rs 3,567.58 crore to be met from USOF.
The new government has taken the initiative to give a push to connect the unconnected villages of North Eastern Region through mobile. The project entails mobile coverage in uncovered areas and along national highways at an estimated cost of Rs 5,336.18 crores to be funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF.
3. Public Internet access: To expand the coverage of common services center (CSC) from 1.35 lakhs to 1.5 lakhs, i.e. one in every panchayat. Even 1.5 lakh post ofices to be converted to be converted to a multi-service centres in 2 years.
4. e-Governance: Business process re-engineering will be undertaken to improve processes and service delivery. Services will be integrated with UIDAI, payment gateway and mobile platform. Even public grievance redressal will be automated end to end.
5. e-Kranti: e-Kranti focuses on electronic delivery of services whether it is education, health, agriculture, justice and financial inclusion. In education, the focus is on digital literacy program and MOOC (massive online open courses) and installing free Wi-Fi in 250,000 schools. In healthcare, the government is stressing on online consultation, medical records, medicine supply and pan India exchange for patient information, pilots by 2015 and full coverage in 3 years. Farmers will get real time price information, online cash loan and relief payment with mobile banking.
6. Information for all: The focus will be on online hosting of data and proactive engagement through social media and web based platforms like MyGov.
7. Electronics manufacturing: Focus is on set tob boxes, VSAT, mobile, consumer electronics, medical electronics, smart energy meters, smart cards and micro ATMs. For this the government is co-ordinating on many fronts be it taxation, incentives, economies of scale and providing cost advantages to local manufacturers.
8. IT for Jobs: The government is planning to train one crore students from small towns and villages for IT sector. Plans are also to train 300,000 service delivery agents in 2 years to run viable businesses delivering IT services and telecom service providers to train 500,000 rural workforce in 5 years.
9. Early Harvest: The government is planning to deploy Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System in all central government offices located at Delhi. A web based application software system will enable online recording of attendance and its viewing by the concerned stakeholders.
A system of secured email is being established, to increase its usage within government system for 50 lakh employees by March, 2015. To provide Wi-Fi in all universities on NKN by December, 2015. All books will be e-books and SMS based weather information and disaster alerts.
All cities with population of over one million and tourist centers to have public Wi-Fi hotspots. The national portal for missing children is accessed by various stakeholders such as MWCD, MHA, police, child care institutions, child welfare committee etc. The existing portal is being upgraded to include mobile application for reporting a missing child or searching a missing child, with a provision for email and SMS alerts and registration of volunteers/NGOs in helping the authorities in tracking the missing children.