Importance of digital India mission, challenges and key points for smooth execution of the digital India program.

Data: internet and information, the growth driver of India's economy:

In the last few years, I have seen tremendous growth among various sectors in India. And the progress of our nation has done with very high pace that has not done before and it was only possible due to strong leadership and dedication of team. Since last few years, the central government has focused and invested huge amount in the infrastructure sectors like Roads, Railways, Telecommunication. And the digital India program is the best ever program that has been executed by this government Because it has a tremendous growth potential with the least investment than any other sector. During last few years, I have travelled in various villages of Marathwada in the state of Maharashtra. And I have studied, observed the rural lifestyle very closely and concluded that the growth of any nation can only starts from village. And the central government has projected correctly by initiating investment in different rural projects like rural broadband connectivity. The investment has done for rural connectivity with fiber optic cable for the internet is really appreciable. I feel that the future of the nation is Data and the data is nothing but Internet as well as Information. The more you focus on Data, the more our nation will grow. We must say now that the UPI is 8th wonder, as the transaction has done through UPI is just amazing and is purely because of data i.e. Internet. The central government has focused on telecom and invested huge amount in the project of rural broadband connectivity through mission Digital India a decade ago and now we have seen enormous magical power after the innovation of UPI. Truly data i.e. Internet has unimaginable power and it drove the Indian economy on super high level and we must say that the India has been changing with its own unimaginable power across globe due to a huge investments and developments in the telecom infrastructure. The union government has recognized its true super magical power of the Digital India on time and invested, implemented and executed the project that no other government done before.

Challenges in the Digital India mission:

The union government has invested various projects like rural broadband across India under Digital India mission, building of road/highway works, water/gas pipeline works. The union government has implemented the infrastructure projects through different government authorities i.e. central government/CPSU/State government/State PSUs. The government has initiated various projects across India and executed in due time period. But the digital fiber project got hampered due to various reasons that discussed below:

1. Lack of awareness of potential/power of data i.e. Internet among different government bodies.

2. Lack of importance of data i.e. Internet in public domain, as last few years the anti-social elements have grown across every part of India and it is critical to resolve the issue at the point of time due to lack of support of administration.

3. Lack of prioritizing different government infrastructure projects by government.

4. Lack of coordination among government and different government bodies. And In India, there are different government agencies for different infrastructure works and the work done by state as well as central government are not in coordination with each other. And there might be chances of incurring expenditures twice due to lack of data i.e. information available with government at the point of time. If the data i.e. information made available on single platform, then it could be easy to roll out and prioritize the government work and can avoid unnecessary damages or expenditures.

Key points for smooth execution Digital India mission:

The union government can do precise study before the construction of highways in respect of study/planning by considering the importance of other utilities like Optical Fiber, Power Cables, Water/Gas Pipeline. These utilities require to cross highway at city/village underpass from one point to other point and such provision must be done on every chowk/underpass on highways to avoid any further hinder.  After the road works, the crossing of utility ducts at underpasses have become challengeable to concerned agencies. And this could be avoided by making provision of extra separate ducts for different utilities at underpass, Village/city area. The growth of India is not just by growing only particular sector but by growing and considering other works/sectors at the point of the time. And each and every infra sectors are interdependent. So, if such provision made available before the construction of the Road with coordination of different agencies/authorities then the future of the nation will be unimaginable.

~ Amar Vallamdeshi