Digital India: Unlocking the trillion dollar opportunity

Since its launch in July 2015, significant progress has been made in several initiatives under Digital India. However, a few challenges that remain, need to be addressed in order to realize the full potential of the program.

The government is focusing on developing the physical infrastructure as well as software and security infrastructure to ensure the success of its vision of providing infrastructure as a utility to every citizen. Till now, the government has successfully achieved the digitization of all department post offices and has set up Common Service Centers (CSCs) to deliver e-governance services in villages. To increase the speed of development and adoption of digital services, the government needs to increase availability of digital infrastructure in rural areas, leverage existing infrastructure and improve digital awareness.

This publication reviews the initiatives launched under the Digital India program, and attempts to address some of the challenges in the implementation of the program. In addition, the impact of these initiatives on citizens, business and the environment have been discussed. The tripod of 1 billion digital identities, 1 billion mobile and over 250 million bank accounts is waiting to unleash a very big digital revolution in India.