Digital India

Digital India is an initiative of Government of India to integrate the government departments and the people of India. It aims at ensuring the government services are made available to citizens electronically by reducing paperwork. The initiative also includes plan to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks. Digital India has three core components. These include:

next gen...india...

The creation of digital infrastructure
Delivering services digitally
Digital literacy.
The project is slated for completion by 2019. A two-way platform will be created where both the service providers and the consumers stand to benefit. The scheme will be monitored and controlled by the Digital India Advisory group which will be chaired by the Ministry of Communications and IT. It will be an inter-ministerial initiative where all ministries and departments shall offer their own services to the public Healthcare, Education, Judicial services etc. The Public-private-partnership model shall be adopted selectively. In addition, there are plans to restructure the National Informatics Centre. This project is one among the top priority projects of the Modi Administration.

The initiative is commendable and deserves full support of all stakeholders. However, the initiative also lacks many crucial components including lack of legal framework, absence of privacy  and data protection laws, civil liberties abuse possibilities, lack of parliamentary oversight for e-surveillance in India, lack of intelligence related reforms in India, insecure Indian cyberspace, etc. These issues have to be managed first before introducing DI initiative in India. Digital India project is worth exploring and implementation despite its shortcomings that can be rectified before its implementation

Challenges Before Digital India

The Government of India entity Bharat broadbrand network limited which executes the optical fibre network limited project will be the custodian of Digital India (DI) project. BBNL had ordered united telecoms limited to connect 250,000 villages through GPON to ensure FTTH based broadband. This will provide the first basic setup to achieve towards DI and is expected to be completed by 2017.

The Digital India initiative is a promising initiative of the Indian Government. Many companies have shown their interest in this project. It is also believed that E-comerce would facilitate the DI project. However, it is not free from challenges and legal hurdles. Some believe that DI cannot be successful till mandatorybcb e-governance services in India are introduced. Having incomplete implementation of the national e-governence plan of India will only affect the success of the DI project. India has poor regulations in the field of privacy protection, data protection, cyber law, telegraph, e-governance, e-commerce etc. Further, many legal experts believe that e-governance and DI without cyber security is useless.^[16] The cyber security trends in India  have exposed the vulnerability of Indian cyberspace.^[18] Even the National Cyber Policy 2013 has not been implemented till now. In these circumstances, critical infrastructure protection would be a really tough task to manage for the Indian Government. The project also lacks the concept of proper E-waste management.

Civil Liberties Issues

Initiatives like DI and IoT would be required to comply with the Civil liberties requirements in general and civil liberties protection in cyberspace in particular. India has not given any importance to privacy and privacy laws so far. Indian government indulges into Mass surveillance in India and projects like Aadhaar, Central Monitoring System, Netra, NATGRID, etc. are operating without any law and parliamentary oversight.

 The intelligence agencies of India like Intelligence Bureau  and law enforcement agencies like Central Bureau of Investigation are operating for decades without any law and parliamentary scrutiny. DI and IoT would further strengthen the mass surveillance activities of the Indian Government if proper procedural safeguards are not implemented and practiced.

Digital India Week

At the launch ceremony of Digital India Week by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, top CEOs from India and abroad committed to invest Rs 4.5 lakh crore towards this initiative. The CEOs said the investments would be utilitized towards making smartphones and internet devices at an affordable price in India which would help generate jobs in India as well as reduce the cost of importing them from abroad. 9 Key points of Digital India Programme are as follow 

Broadband Highways

digital revolution of INDIA...

Universal Access to Phones

Public Internet Access Programme

e-Governance – Reforming government through Technology

e-Kranti – Electronic delivery of services

Information for All

Electronics Manufacturing – Target NET ZERO Imports

IT for Jobs

Early Harvest Programmes

Negative effects on family communication

Although there are conflicting research findings on this topic, an article published by Science Daily reported that time spent on the Internet was associated with later declines in within house family communication and a decrease in the number of friends and acquaintances with which they kept ties.


Lack of conflict resolution

The same article suggests that communication on the web is taking away necessary human conflict. For example, if an Internet conversation starts getting heated or if someone gets angry, it is too easy to just sign off and not deal with the issue. Resolving conflict is a part of life that shouldn’t be avoided and is usually psychologically helpful.


Lonliness

Another proposed disadvantage is that a couple of studies have found strong correlations between frequency of Internet use and loneliness. People that use the Internet often are more likely to become lonely and depressed than those that don’t. One proposal as to why this is the case is because of a potential reduced social support system as a result of the Internet.

Internet addiction
There is some controversy over whether it is possible to actually be addicted to the Internet or not. Some researchers, like John M. Grohol, claim that it is simply people trying to escape their problems in an online world and cannot be classified as an addiction. He demonstrates his theory with this model and states that what some people call an addiction is just someone that is caught in stage one.

Other psychologists, including Jennifer R. Ferris, believe that Internet addiction is a true psychological disorder with definable symptoms. The symptoms are comparable to any addiction, withdrawal, loss of relationships or job and significant time consumption.

If an actual addiction exists or doesn’t exist, the underlying themes that support the addiction theory are still an issue. Whether people are trying to escape problems and reality or they will go through withdrawal if they aren’t surfing the net or chatting, it is still psychologically unhealthy.