Kurukshetra English August '17

The Monthly Journal
Kurukshetra
MINISTRY OF RURAL DEVELOPMENT
Vol. 65 No. 10 Pages 64
August 2017
CHIEF EDITOR
Deepika Kachhal
CONTENTS
Senior Editor
Mahar Singh
E-Governance In Rural India
 Sanjiv Mittal 5
Editor
Vatica Chandra
 Rural Transformation and Digital Technology Sunita Sanghi
Joint Director (Production)
Vinod Kumar Meena Sakshi Khurana 19
COVER DESIGN
Asha Saxena  Revolutionizing Indian Agriculture: Use of Ict Sameera Saurabh 25
EDITORIAL OFFICE
 Smart Villages: A way forward Madhura Roy 31
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Kurukshetra seeks to carry the message of Rural Development to all people. It serves as a forum for free, frank and serious discussion on the problems of Rural
Development with special focus on Rural Uplift.
The views expressed by the authors in the articles are their own. They do not necessarily reflect the views of the Government or the organisations they work for.
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illustration & study purpose and may not strictly conform to the official map.
Editorial
The Rural-Urban divide often defines the development paradigm of India. While the divide has been
decreasing, with government also focussing on the Rurban model of development, the road to the idea
of inclusive development has always looked difficult. However, a major boost to bridge this divide has
come from the confluence of Information technology and economy i.e. the Digital Economy.
The key strategies of the government for rural development have always focused on poverty
alleviation, better livelihood opportunities, provision of basic amenities and infrastructure facilities
through innovative programmes of wage and self-employment. Digital economic tools and extensive use
of ICT applications are successfully being used to improve the delivery system in government functioning.
‘Digital India’ programme launched in 2015 with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered
society and knowledge economy works on three key vision areas: Digital Infrastructure as a core utility
to every citizen, Governance & services on demand, Digital Empowerment of citizens.
The government has, in a big way, pushed the idea of digital economy after the demonetisation last
year, and people have also accepted it with an open mind. The Government is promoting inclusive and
transparent development through digital inclusion by providing mobile and broadband connectivity to
the villages and initiating measures like Jan-Dhan account, debit cards, Aadhar Pay, Bharat Interface for
Money (BHIM). This is effectively putting an end to the middlemen and ensuring that benefits of various
government schemes directly reach beneficiaries. There is a target of 2500 crore digital transactions in
2017-18.
Digital Saksharta Abhiyan can go a long way in improving employability and facilitate easier and
more efficient participation of the rural population in the governance. Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana
(PMMY), the flagship programme will provide loans to promote rural entrepreneurship, Pradhan Mantri
Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) will benefit school/ college dropouts or unemployed by imparting training
in Soft Skills, Entrepreneurship, Financial and Digital Literacy.
Agriculture contributes around 17 per cent to the country’s Gross Value Added in India’s economy.
54 per cent of the population is engaged in agriculture and allied activities. The National Policy for
Farmers emphasises the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) at village level for
reaching out to the farmers with the correct advisories and requisite information.
Various digital platforms are now serving as information sources e.g. Kisan Call Centers, National
Agriculture Market (e-NAM)- the pan-India electronic trading portal networking the existing APMC
mandis to create a unified national market for agricultural commodities, Geographic Information Systems
and Mobile Apps. Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharata Abhiyan is expected to be one of the largest
digital literacy programmes of the world. As the thrust of the Government is on cashless transactions
through mobile phones, the course content would also emphasise on Digital Wallets, Mobile Banking,
Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and Aadhaar
Enabled Payment System (AEPS), Digital Life Certificates, Digital-locker-India, e-Money, Digidhan mela
and the like. Be it Skill Development, Education, Agriculture or infrastructure, the use of Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) has the potential to bring efficiencies in every domain of Rural
Development.
To Sum up, we can say that with the advent of the new era for technology driven schemes and
initiatives, ‘Bharat’ has now started to take a new shape of ‘India’ in an inclusive manner. After 70 precious
years of its independence and tireless efforts to bring the rural development into the mainstream,
Digital India is undoubtedly, the boldest ever step to make a digitally empowered and skilled ‘Bharat’. As
envisioned by our Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, India is surely on the right path to achieve great
milestones in the times to come.
4 Kurukshetra August 2017

e-Governance in Rural India
Sanjiv Mittal
One of the key objectives of present CSC initiative is consolidated delivery of e-Gov Services by integrating all service access
portals available at States/UT level with the national level universal & integrated platform of Digital Seva (CSC). For this, continuous
supports from the respective States/UTs are pre-requisites. Relentless efforts are being made by this Ministry to resolve the
pending issue of integration of State/UT portals for ease of access of the e-Services by the citizens from anywhere across the
country. As a result of such efforts, a few State Governments now allowed integration of State Portal with Digital Seva Portal.
W hat is e-Governance and what is its

importance in India? There are about 6.5
lakhs of villages in India that represent
more than 72 per cent of the total population.
The rural mass in the nation comprises the core of
Governance. Simultaneously, it was also essential
to effectively improve the information flows and
encourage active participation by citizens in the
policy making process of the Government, so as to
build up the trust between the Government and
Indian society and also represents the real India. citizens. Hence, the complete transformation of the
There was a time in the past when people lost their processes of Governance using the implementation
faith on governance system because of the hardship of Information & Communication Technology is
they had to endure in the form of expenses, called E-Governance. It aims at bringing in faster
inconvenience, multiple visits, demotivating. For and transparent service delivery, accountability,
rural mass, these hardships were more adverse. In information sharing and people participation in the
order to develop these rural mass, Government of decision making and govt. processes.
India already considered the key growth areas from
E-Governance initiatives in India took a broader
various economic & social sectors in the right policy
dimension in the mid 1990s for wider sectoral
formation.
applications with a policy emphasis on reaching
The key strategy of rural development mainly out to rural areas through maximizing the efforts
focuses on poverty alleviation, better livelihood towards delivery of citizen-centric services. The
opportunities, provision of basic amenities major ICT initiatives of the Government included,
and infrastructure facilities through innovative inter alia, some major projects such as railway
programmes of wage and self-employment etc. For computerization, land record computerization,
such developments, a need was felt to improve the etc. which focused mainly on the development of
overall trust relationship between the Government information systems. Later on, many states started
and citizens. It was realized that the challenges like ambitious individual e-governance projects aimed
poor public services, unemployment, housing, crime at providing electronic services to citizens.
and violence, health, education for all etc. could be
Though these e-Governance projects were
successfully addressed through extensive use of ICT
citizen-centric, they could make less than the
applications for the improvement in the processes of
desired impact due to their limited features. The
government functioning to bring SMART, i.e. Simple,
isolated and less interactive systems revealed major
Moral, Accountable, Responsive and Transparent
gaps that were thwarting the successful adoption
of e-governance along the entire spectrum of
governance. They clearly pointed towards the
need for a more comprehensive planning and
implementation for the infrastructure required
to be put in place, interoperability issues to be
addressed, etc. to establish a more connected
government. Gradually, e-Governance at a micro
level, ranged from IT automation in individual
Kurukshetra August 2017 5

departments, electronic file handling and access range of domains, viz. agriculture, land records,
to entitlements, public grievance systems, service health, education, passports, police, courts,
delivery for high volume routine transactions municipalities, commercial taxes, treasuries, etc.
such as payment of bills and tax dues to meeting were initiated. Most of these projects have been
poverty alleviation goals through the promotion of made operational and have started providing
entrepreneurial models and provision of market services. However, despite the successful
information. e-Governance in India has steadily implementation of many e-governance projects
evolved from computerization of Government across the country, e-governance as a whole
Departments to initiatives that encapsulate has not been able to make the desired impact
the finer points of Governance, such as citizen and fulfill all its objectives especially in ensuring
centricity, service orientation and transparency. anytime anywhere availability of services and
Lessons from previous e-Governance initiatives their seamless integration. Even though India is
have played an important role in shaping the known worldwide as a powerhouse of software,
progressive e-Governance strategy of the country. the availability of electronic government services
Due cognizance has been taken of the notion that to citizens is still comparatively low.
to speed up e-Governance implementation across
A lot more thrust is required to promote
the various arms of Government at National, State,
inclusive growth that covers electronic services,
and Local levels, a programme approach needs to
products, devices and job opportunities. Moreover,
be adopted, guided by common vision and strategy.
electronic manufacturing in the country needs to be
This approach has the potential of enabling huge
strengthened. Currently, India imports around $100
savings in costs through sharing of core and support
billion worth of electronic goods which may reach
infrastructure, enabling interoperability through
$400 billion by 2020. India today is at the tipping
standards, and of presenting a seamless view of
point where technology has to be leveraged more
Government to citizens.
holistically to meet the aspirations of its 1.2 billion
The Government accorded the priority to citizens. The stark differences between digital
improving the quality of basic governance and in haves and have-nots (i.e. Digital Divide) need to
that context proposes to promote e-Governance on be bridged to ensure that the government services
a massive scale in areas of concern to the common reach the doorstep of every citizen and create a
people through a strategic collaborative approach long-lasting developmental impact.
of the e-Governance. For this, the National
e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was formulated by Digital India:
the then Department of Information Technology In order to transform the entire ecosystem
(DIT) and Department of Administrative Reforms of public services through the use of Information
& Public Grievances (DARPG), keeping this priority Technology, the Government of India has launched
in mind. It consisted of key components including the ‘Digital India’ programme in 2015 with the
Common Core & Support infrastructure and several vision to transform India into a digitally empowered
Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) to be implemented society and knowledge economy.
at Central, State and Local Government level.
Vision Areas of Digital India:
National e-Governance Plan (NeGP):
The Digital India programme is centred on
The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) three key vision areas:
was launched in 2006 with a vision to make all
government services accessible to the common 1. Digital Infrastructure as a core utility to every
man in his/her locality, through delivery outlets citizen.
named Common Services Centres (CSCs) and 2. Governance & services on demand.
ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of 3. Digital Empowerment of citizens.
such services at affordable costs to realize the
basic needs of the common man. It is a fact that transforming the entire rural
populace into a digitally empowered society under
31 Mission Mode Projects covering a wide Digital India flagship programme is a huge challenge

in case of remote & rural areas. But delivery of Year e-Transaction FY e-Transaction
e-Governance services to the remote corners in a Count Count
meaningful & locally relevant manner may result in a
successful building of rural India with the advent of the 2013 241.76 cr. 2013-14 242.49 cr.
most advanced ICT and by leveraging various existing 2014 357.70 cr. 2014-15 359.67 cr.
infrastructures in an integrated manner. As we know
2015 760.75 cr. 2015-16 763.19 cr.
that e-Governance deals with the ways political &
social powers are organized & used, it has enormous 2016 1089.81 cr. 2016-17 1872.96 cr.
capacity to transform relations with citizens, business
2017 915.35 cr.
and other arms of the Government. (till 19-July-2017)
Following are the basic infrastructure
requirement for successful implementation of consolidated delivery of electronic services/ e-Gov
e-Governance service delivery under Digital India services, there is a need to integrate all service
Programme: applications/ platforms working in silos with a
l Information & Communication Technology common national level platform called Common
infrastructures, such as, Broadband Services Centre (CSC), now commonly known as
Connectivity for people (wired/radio) up to Digital Seva. CSC has the proven potential to create
Gram Panchayat (GP) level, Common Services sustainable rural entrepreneurship redefining
Centres (CSCs) for consolidated service delivery governance and to meet the expectation of the
to citizens through an integrated platform up Government in transforming India into a digitally
to GP level. & socially empowered society. CSCs under Digital
India movement have now become the agents of
l Government offices up to Panchayats having: socio-economic changes in rural India.
l Internet, Wi-Fi, Messaging, Video Conferencing, CSCs are internet enabled access points for
Skill-sets. delivery of various Digital Services (eServices) to
l Uninterrupted Power-supply. the citizens. The CSCs enable citizens to avail the
Government and other services closer to their
l Skilled Manpower resources at least up
locality in a transparent and timely manner. The
to District level (preferably up to Gram
ability of CSC to avoid direct interaction of citizens
Panchayat level for better implementation &
with Government offices brings transparency,
monitoring).
accountability and efficiency in the delivery of
l On demand scalable & secure cloud services through a reduced turnaround time.
infrastructure up to Gram Panchayat level.
Vision and Objectives of CSC:
l Integration of National Data Centres, State
Data Centres & other Data Centres. “The primary objective of the CSC is to provide
e-governance services within the reach of the
Growth of eServices and eTransactions after citizen, by creating the physical service delivery
launch of Digital India: ICT infrastructure.” It helps in making a transparent
service delivery mechanism and eliminating
After the launch of Digital India, the number of
citizens’ effort in visiting government offices.
eServices has grown from 2,221 in 2014 to 3,433 at
The CSCs also aim to provide individual access to
present. That shows that Average monthly count of
internet and access devices to citizens in rural India
eTransactions per month has grown up from 29.80
where the ICT intervention is very low, thereby,
crores in 2014 to 90.82 crores, which is 205 per
creating a digital divide. CSCs being well equipped
cent growth.
ICT enabled centres necessarily play a significant
CSC- Creating Rural Entrepreneurship role in enabling universal access to plethora of
Redefining Governance eServices for citizens and acting as cornerstone for
the citizens’ digital empowerment, hence creating
It was envisaged under Digital India that for a transparent governance ecosystem. Altogether,

these CSCs are becoming a game changer by Background- CSC Scheme
providing a common Information Technology (IT)
platform for rural citizens. The CSC Scheme was initially launched in
September 2006 under National e-Governance
Plan (NeGP), with an aim to cover all 6 lakhs census
villages by one lakh CSCs, as per 1:6 ratio equitably
spread across rural India.
Present initiative of CSC : CSC 2.0

Based on the assessment of the erstwhile CSC
Scheme (NeGP), the Government of India launched
CSC 2.0 Project in August, 2015, under the pillar-3
of Digital India Programme, to expand the outreach
of the CSCs to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) across
Conceptualization of CSC: the country. It has aimed to set up at least one
CSC in every GP across the Country within duration
of 4 years (by August 2019), thereby envisages
establishment of at least 2.5 lakh CSCs covering all
Gram Panchayats of the country over a period of
four years. This would also include strengthening
and integrating the existing one lakh CSCs already
operational under the existing CSC Scheme and
making operational an additional 1.5 lakh CSCs at
Gram Panchayat (preferably at GP premises). The
project is being implemented by CSC e-Governance
Services India Limited (CSC –Special Purpose
Vehicle, CSC -SPV) under the guidance of respective
State Governments and Union Territories (UTs)
Administrations. “CSC e-Governance Services India
Ltd” was set up as a Common Services Centres
Special Purpose Vehicle (CSC –SPV) under Company
Act, 1956 in the year 2009 by the then Department of
Electronics & Information Technology (now Ministry
of Electronics & IT- MeitY). The key mandate of CSC
–SPV was to provide program management support
to this Ministry and to ensure the sustainability
of CSC network across the country by enabling
consolidated delivery of a range of citizen centric
services at an affordable cost.
Implementation Principle of current CSC

model:
Presently, CSC 2.0 model is completely based
on a service delivery / transaction oriented self
sustainable entrepreneurship model with no
viability gap funding for hardware and infrastructure
support to the Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs)
from Government of India. It was envisaged
that applicant for CSC entrepreneurship should
be motivated enough to be the prime driver of

social change and disperse his/her duties with marginalized sections of the society in the CSC
utmost dedication. The motivated VLEs are getting movement significantly. The following actions have
on-boarded under this entrepreneurship model, been taken for this:
wherein, VLEs shall arrange for Capex and Opex for
l Government has already issued guidelines to
setting up and operation of CSCs.
give preference to women as VLEs.
Under CSC 2.0 project, efforts have been made
l To encourage more participation of women,
at State/UT levels for integration of various service
success stories are being published in monthly
portals with the national level on-line CSC Universal
e-Magazine Tarang and newsletters.
portal- “Digital Seva Portal” for consolidated delivery
of services at all the CSCs, thereby, making the A National Level conference was held on
eServices, particularly, G2C services, accessible 20th February, 2016 in New Delhi to celebrate and
anywhere across the country. It will enhance the felicitate the contribution of Women Village Level
portfolio of services to be equally accessed from Entrepreneurs (VLEs) in harnessing the opportunity
each of the CSC, thereby increasing the sustainability provided by the CSC under Government of India’s
of the CSCs in rural areas. Digital India Initiative.
For day-to-day operation of CSCs and knowledge l Participation of women VLEs enhanced from
up-gradation on new services, the VLEs are being 13,204 till May’14 to 32,361 till June’17.
provided with handholding supports through l National Workshop for Women VLEs organised
training on Enterprise Development Programme. in Delhi. 2000 Women VLEs participated.
For increasing the sustainability of VLEs, CSC 2.0 l PM Awarded 3 Women VLEs.
recommends that revenue sharing between VLE and
l Minister (E&IT) Awarded 67 women VLEs.
other stake-holders is in ratio of 80:20.
l Special Award announced for Women VLEs .
To ensure standardization across all States/UTs,
“Digital Seva Kendras” national brand along with Functions of CSCs:
co-branding of States/UTs has been introduced. Common Services Centers (CSCs) are
With a unique identification number of CSC and a strategic cornerstone of the Digital India
GIS mapping of each centre, this would create a programme. They are the access points for delivery
transparent and accountable monitoring framework of various electronic services to villages in India,
for the eServices being delivered through CSCs and thereby contributing to a digitally and financially
help the government to fill the gap in establishing a inclusive society.
self-sustaining CSC network across the States/UTs.
Presently, CSCs are acting as the following:
Participation of Women in CSC Ecosystem: l• Service Delivery Centres for – Government to
Citizen (G2C), Business to Consumer (B2C),
The Government is encouraging women
Utility Services, etc.
entrepreneurs to set up Common Services Centres.
This motivates other women to come forward l Permanent Enrolment Centres (PEC) for
and setup Common Services Aadhaar, and Aadhaar Printing Centres.
Centres (CSCs). In addition to
this, the Government is also
encouraging women members
of Self Help Groups to become
VLEs. As a result, around 32,361
women entrepreneurs have
set up CSCs and are delivering
services in rural areas. The
Government is determined
to include the women and

l Transparent and timely
delivery of government and
other eServices at afford-
able cost and better citizens’
experience.
Reducing citizens’ efforts
and resources in availing
services within their
localities by eliminating
their visit to Government
offices for the same and,
common man’s increased
faith in the system.
l Integrated framework
for delivery and dissemi-
nation of various govern-
l Business Correspondent Agents (BCAs) under
ment initiatives and benefits through ICT en-
Financial Inclusion for Banking services and
ablement.
banking services under Prime Minister’s Jan-
Dhan Yojana. l Introducing change agents for skill
development, education and trainings,
l Insurance service Centres.
financial inclusion and indirect employment
l Educational and Skill Development Centres. generation.
l Electoral Registration centres l Acting as last mile distribution units for
l Information Centre for various schemes of the various governments’ direct benefits to
Government for creating awareness leading to marginalized/backward communities.
digital empowerment among the citizens. l Encouraging more and more participation
l Wi-Fi distribution centres (Wi-Fi e-Choupal), of women to become VLEs and increasing
etc. their contribution in the social and economic
development.
Outcomes and Advantages of CSCs: l The CSCs are acting a medium for rural citizens
Some of the outcomes and advantages provided to get digitally empowered and interact with
by the CSC scheme are as follows: the government and its schemes.

Basic infrastructures in CSC:  Financial Services:
l Banking Services (deposit, withdrawal,
Key Services through CSC Network:
remittance)
 G2C Services :
l Insurance Services (premium collection, policy)
l Central Govt Services (passport, PAN card, PMAY,
l AEPS (Aadhaar pay)
crop insurance, digital financial transaction).
l E-District/SSDG Services (land record,  Educational Services:
certificates). National Digital Literacy Mission, (NDLM) – Digital
l Aadhaar Services (enrollment, updation). Saksharata Abhiyan (DISHA) / Pradhan Mantri
l Election Commission Services. Gramin (PMG) DISHA, Cyber Gram project,
 B2C Services: e-Recharge, bill collection, National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS),
E-Commerce. National Institute of Electronics & Information

Serv
vices Being offered
on "D
Digitl Seva Portal"
Aadhaar Educcational Financial G2C Utility IRCTC Health

Election B2
2C Skill
Service Serrvices Services es
Service Services
S Services Services
Digital Ce
entral Govt. State Govt. Voter
V Telemeddicine L&T
Aadhar Print
P Electricity Bill
B e- Recharge
Ed
ducation Services Service Regiistration Courrses
Payment - Allopathic
- Ayurrvedicc
Banking Services NSDDC
Mobile Up
pdates Cyb
ber Gram PAN card e-Districct /SSDG -Homeopath hy T
Tour & Travelss
- New Accoount Voter
V PVC Courrses
- Land Reccord Card
C Print Electricity new
n
- Deposit Connectio on
Demogra
aphic - Ration Caard
NIOS - Withdrawwal Passport JAN Aushad
dhi Sa
ale & purchase of
Updates -Birth/Dea ath Other
- Remittancce seeds farmer
Certificatee equipments - Electrronics
Modification
M to
o
Animation Income/Ca aste/ Voter details Diagnosticc Motor Mechanic
Enrollem
ments Income Tax Domicile Services
Course -Mobile repair
Return e
certificate
- NOFNN
NEILIT e-Commerce e -Health h adviser
e-KYC Insuraance
--BCC Employmen nt - CSC Bazar
- Life Ins (N
New)
- CCC Service - - VLE Bazar
-Life Ins (R
Ren)
Authenttication - Patanjali
P Produ
ucts
- General Inns
Swachh Bha
arat
Un
niversity Abhiyan
S
Services
Seeding
g Pension
PM Awas
Tally Yojana
AEPS Serv
vices
- Withdra
awal
Coaching Agriculture
- IIIT Service
-Civil Services - Soil Health Card
Financial/ Lega
F al
Literacy
Fig: Services available on Digital Seva (Apna CSC) Portal
Technology (NEILIT) Courses, animation course, Growth and achievements of CSC over last few
accounting. years:
 Skill Development: Data Entry Operator, During 2016-17, more than 90 thousand CSCs
Electric, Auto. have been operationalised across the country as the
 Utility Services: Electric , Water Bill. number of cumulative functional CSCs grew from
 Health Services: Tele Consultation, Jan 1.6 lakhs CSCs in March, 2016 to 2.50 lakhs CSCs in
Aushudhi. March, 2017, of them around 1.60 lakhs CSCs are
operational at Gram Panchayat (GP) level as on 31st
 Others : Tele-legal, Financial Literacy, Investor March, 2017 - registering an increase of around 62
Awareness. thousands operational CSCs at GP level in 2016-17.
Particulars Achievement Achievement

(pan India including GP (GP level)
level)
Total No. of Registered CSCs till May, 2014 1,34,956 83,903
No. of Functional CSCs till May, 2014 83,950 64,259
Total No. of Registered CSCs till Nov, 2015 1,44,875 92,106
(prior to implementation start of CSC 2.0)
No. of Functional CSCs till Nov, 2015 1,19,779 85,952
(prior to implementation start of CSC 2.0)
Total No. of Registered CSCs till March, 2016 1,99,325 1,22,621
No. of Functional CSCs till March, 2016 1,66,671 97,243
Total No. of Registered CSCs till March, 2017 2,91,366 1,81,173
No. of Functional CSCs till March, 2017 2,50,345 1,59,633

Particulars Achievement Achievement
(pan India including GP (GP level)
level)
Total No. of Registered CSCs till June, 2017 3,00,774 1,96,922
No. of Functional CSCs till June, 2017 2,61,071 1,63,226
Increase of Registered CSCs since May, 2014 1,65,818 1,13,019
Increase of Functional CSCs since May, 2014 1,77,121 98,967
Increase of Registered CSCs after implementation start of 1,55,899 1,04,816
CSC 2.0 (Dec, 15 onward)
Increase of Functional CSCs after implementation start of 1,41,292 77,274
CSC 2.0 (Dec, 15 onward)
This huge network of operational CSCs has in December, 2016 for CSC Network on Aadhaar
a growing demand for more robust & scalable Enabled payment System (AePS) platform
technology platform equipped with a digital for delivering online banking services across
B2B wallet for seamless electronic delivery of the country. The purpose is to achieve inter-
services. To cater to the need of this huge network operability between banks for Aadhaar based
of CSCs, and as envisaged in CSC 2.0, CSC -SPV has payment transactions. The DigiPay application
designed, developed and launched, during 2016- enables the CSCs to cater the need of financial
17, a robust and scalable CSC National Portal called services in far flung and banking deprived areas
‘Digital Seva Portal’ to enable dissemination of of the country.
services through a universal technological platform
at all the CSCs across the country, thereby CSC e-Governance Services India Limited (CSC
making the e-services, particularly G2C services, -SPV) has been given licence by RBI for functioning
accessible anywhere across the country. as a Bharat Bill Payment Operating Unit (BBPOU)
under Bharat Bill Payment Service (BBPS). Reserve
During the last part of 2016-17, the Bank of India has introduced BBPS, a unified bill
Government of India launched the Digital payment system in India. The BBPS intends to
Finance Inclusion, Awareness & Access (DFIAA) offer an interoperable and accessible bill payment
Programme under Digital India (DI) Programme. services to customers through the vast CSC Network,
CSC -SPV was entrusted with the responsibility for enabling multiple payment modes, and providing
covering 100 lakh citizens and enablement of 25 instant confirmation of payment. It will facilitate a
lakhs merchants under this programme. CSC -SPV cashless society through migration of bill payments
registered/covered more than 204 lakhs citizens and from cash to electronic channel.
enabled around 26 lakhs merchants during a very
short period of November, 2016 to March, 2017. GST Suvidha Provider:
During 2016-17, a number of important CSC -SPV reached another milestone during
government services have been added in CSC 2016-17 when the GST Council engaged CSC -SPV
network such as Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana as a GST Suvidha Provider (GSP). As GSP, CSC -SPV
(PMAY), Food Safety & Standards Authority of India needs to perform various functions supporting
(FSSAI), Soil Health Card, E-District Services, and various stakeholders, mainly merchants,
PMG DISHA to the existing basket of services. CSC establishments and persons required to fulfill
has also introduced skill development programme compliance as prescribed under GST regime.
for differently-able persons. E-Commerce platform
“vlebazaar” has been launched for showcasing the Wi-Fi Choupal:
products of rural India through CSCs. During 2016-17, CSC -SPV launched Wi-Fi
CSC -SPV partnered with National Payment Choupal, a rural Wi-Fi facility, signifying a new era in
Corporation of India (NPCI) and launched DigiPay providing connectivity in the villages. Wi-Fi Choupal

project has been launched to provide Wi-Fi NDLM - DISHA Target As on As on As on
Internet access in rural India through CSCs. First (started in May’14 Mar’16 Mar’17
Wi-Fi Choupal was launched on 7th April, 2016 December-2014)
in the village Gharora in Faridabad. Today, Wi-
No. of Persons 55.27 0 10.73 102.85
Fi Infrastructure has been deployed in 819 Gram
Registered (In
Panchayats across 9 States and 2 Union Territories. lakh)
The activation of the internet service has been done
at 483 locations. No. of Persons 55.27 0 10.27 89.68
Trained (In lakh)
During 2016-17, through 28 thousand
No. of Persons 55.27 0 9.74 55.46
Permanent Enrolment Centres- PECs (CSCs), over Certified (In lakh)
596 lakhs Aadhaar numbers were generated,
making CSC the single largest UID Registrar in On the basis of success in implementation
the country. During this year, largest number of of NDLM-DISHA Programmes, CSC -SPV has been
transactions on the CSC Portal was for Aadhaar made the implementing agency for the newly
card printing service (45.59 lakhs prints). CSCs introduced ambitious digital literacy programme
have made a significant contribution to the of the Government of India called Pradhan Mantri
enrolment of children in the age group of 0-5 Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)
years for Aadhaar. During 2016-17, around 47.48 which was launched in February, 2017. The Scheme
lakhs children have been enrolled by CSCs, taking envisages to make six crores persons in rural areas,
the total child enrollment to around 80 lakhs as on across States/U’I’s, digitally literate, reaching to
31st March, 2017. around 40 per cent of rural households by covering
one member from every household where there
PARTICULARS As on As on As on Increase is no digitally literate person. The Scheme is to be
May’14 Mar’16 Mar’17 Mar’14 – completed in two years and we hope to achieve this
Mar’17 within defined time frame.
No. of 5097 15,244 27681 22,584 PMG DISHA Target As on As on As on
Permanent (started in May’14 Mar’16 Mar’17
Enrolment March-2017)
Centre (PECs)
No. of Persons
No. of Aadhaar 114.71 977.63 1573.60 1458.89 Registered (In 600 0 0 6.33
Generated (In lakh)
lakh) No. of Persons
600 0 0 4.54
Trained (In lakh)
Aadhaar - 105.51 335.21 335.21
Updates No. of Persons
Certified (In 600 0 0 0.78
(In lakh)
lakh)
Aadhaar Printed - 29.34 74.93 74.93
Apart from NDLM, basic computer training
(In lakh)
is also being implemented for Madrassa students
Through the National Digital Literacy from the minority community in four States under
Mission/Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (NDLM/ Cyber Gram Yojana. During 2016-17, computer
DISHA), the CSC-VLEs and partners worked with training were imparted to 1.56 lakhs Madrassa
inspiring enthusiasm towards the goal of making at students, of them 1.44 lakh have been certified -
least one person from each family digitally literate. an increase of 1.15 lakhs certified students since
During 2016-17, around 35.44 lakhs persons have March, 2016.
been certified under these Programmes bringing Efforts of CSCs in popularising the Gol
the total number of certified persons to 55.46 services across the country are also appreciable.
lakhs in March, 2017 (against target of 55.27 lakhs) The PMAY was launched through CSCs in November,
from 18.011akhs in March, 2016. 2016, and since then till March, 2017, a total of

29 lakhs plus applications have been submitted As envisaged in the ongoing CSC 2.0,
through CSCs. The service under FSSAI was made primacy has been accorded to entrepreneurship
available through CSCs in July, 2016; since then development of VLEs through district level training
till March, 2017, around 1.19 lakhs registrations - a 3 day training programme to leverage the wide
have been made through CSCs. The service under range of services available through CSC. During
Soil Health Card was introduced through CSCs in 2016-17, Capacity Building & Entrepreneurship
December, 2016, and within the next 3 months, Development Programme were conducted at
1.24 lakhs registrations have been made for this District level in 206 Districts of 19 States and
service. imparted training in various services to develop
entrepreneurship capabilities of more than 33
CSCs as Business Correspondent Agents
thousand VLEs.
(BCAs) have rendered a great service in promoting
banking services. During 2016-17, on an average, CSC -SPV has been promoting digital literacy,
around 11,200 BCAs (increased by 2483 CSCs financial literacy and legal literacy for rural
over 2015-16) have provided banking services communities, thus empowering them to
across the country and helped the citizens in actively participate in nation building. Efforts in
doing 320.99 lakhs banking transactions involving encouraging tele-medicine through CSCs
a total transactional value of Rs 570163.61 seems to be gaining acceptability. Allopathy,
lakhs. During this year, these BCAs have earned a Homoeopathy and Ayurvedic tele-consultation are
total commission of Rs. 7079.59 lakhs - increase of now available to people through CSCs. CSC -SPV is
around Rs 2971 lakhs over 2015-16. also working with FMCG Companies so as to enable
them to utilize the CSC Network for selling products/
Similarly, the CSCs have shown an appreciable
services in rural India.
enthusiasm in providing AEPS services. During
2016-17, around 1.22 lakh CSCs have registered for During 2016-17, the VLEs have earned a total
providing banking services under AEPS and made commission of Rs 58,578.29 lakhs from CSC business
28.35 lakhs transactions for a total value of Rs - an increase of around Rs 11405 lakhs over 2015-
17901.90 lakhs. 16 - a step towards sustainability of the CSCs.
During 2016-17, a total of around 40 thousand Indirect Employment Generation through
CSCs have provided Insurance services - both CSCs:
product sales and renewal of policies. During
this year, these CSCs have collected premium The current working model of CSC is completely
worth Rs 33,415.93 lakhs from 10,47,387 a transaction oriented self-sustainable model.
customers, and they have earned a commission of On an average, 3-4 persons are engaged in each
around Rs 199 lakhs - increased by around Rs 134 CSC kiosk. Hence, it is estimated that around 9.18
lakhs over 2015-16. lakhs of people are indirectly employed in the CSC
ecosystem.
Challenges against implementation of CSCs:

l• Connectivity.
l Supports from the States/ UTs.
Connectivity:
It was envisaged that CSC ecosystem shall
work smoothly through optimum utilization of
infrastructure created in the form of BharatNet/
NOFN and other communication infrastructures
available in the States/UTs. Presently, CSCs
are functioning based on the available mode
of connectivity, such as, data card, Wi-Fi, and,

broadband network, wherever feasible. However, Supports from the States/UTs:
internet bandwidth is not adequate & stable in far
flung and remote areas due to inaccessibility. In One of the key objectives of present CSC
view of Government’s commitment, all necessary initiative is consolidated delivery of e-Gov
steps and initiatives have been taken to complete Services by integrating all service access portals
the CSC project within the approved and stipulated available at States/UT level with the national
time period of 4 years from the approval on Aug- level universal & integrated platform of Digital
2015. For this, efforts are being made to extend Seva (CSC). For this, continuous supports from
the connectivity through Wi-Fi e-Choupal. the respective States/UTs are pre-requisites.
BharatNet: The Department of Telecom Relentless efforts are being made by this Ministry
under Ministry of Communications is also striving to resolve the pending issue of integration
to implement the BharatNet project for creating of State/UT portals for ease of access of the
network infrastructure by connecting all Gram e-Services by the citizens from anywhere across
Panchayats (GPs) (approx. 2.5 lakhs) in the country the country. As a result of such efforts, a few
through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) and by using an State Governments now allowed integration of
optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power State Portal with Digital Seva Portal. It would
lines, radio and satellite media, for providing increase the sustainability of the CSCs. In most of
broadband connectivity by all categories of service the States such as Jharkhand, Haryana, Himachal
providers on non-discriminatory basis. The project Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Chhattisgarh etc., the
will be implemented in three phases. Under first
State service portal is already integrated. In
phase of the project, 1 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs)
few States such as Rajasthan, Punjab etc., state
is to be connected by laying underground OFC by
November 2017. Under second phase, connectivity service portals integration are in progress.
will be provided to remaining 1.5 lakhs GPs in the New Services launched / being launched
country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, through CSCs:
fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media,
by March, 2019. Under third phase, a state-of-the- CSC for providing GST Service:
art network with ring architecture, is planned to
be completed by 2023. l Technical platform being developed.
Under the said project (phase-I), 2,38,489 KMs l Training content being designed & Developed.
of pipeline has been laid in 1,06,276 GPs, 2.20 l Workshop at District / Block for VLEs to be
lakhs KMs of optical fibre pulled for 1,00,152 GPs
organised by May & June 2017.
and 23,147 GPs have been connected so far till
09-07-2017. CSCs are being collocated with the l Appropriate incentive structure to be designed
BharatNet terminals for utilizing its bandwidth for for on-boarding of Merchants.
e-Governance services.
Tele-Law: Use of communications and
CSC being leveraged for Wi-Fi hotspot: information technology for the delivery of legal
CSC –SPV is also making efforts to leverage information and advice. This e-interaction between
CSC to further extend the bandwidth of BharatNet lawyers and people would be through the video-
through an initiative called -Wi-Fi Choupal so as to conferencing infrastructure available at the CSCs.
cover the entire Gram Panchayat(s) for providing Tele-law service to be launched at 1800 Panchayats
stable & high speed connectivity. As on date, Wi- in Bihar (500), Uttar Pradesh (500), North-East and
Fi Infrastructure has been deployed in 2500 GPs Jammu & Kashmir (800) through the CSCs through
across 9 States (Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya video conferencing/Chat/telephone.
Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Jharkhand, Bihar,
Maharashtra, and Karnataka) and 2 Union Territories CSCs are also being enabled as White Label
(Chandigarh and Puducherry). The activation of the Business Correspondents (BCs) for interoperable
internet service has been done at 650 GP locations. banking services.

Conclusion: portals are integrated with Digital Seva portal.
Number of services in national CSC portal (Digital
Ministry of Electronics & Information
Seva) was increased from 32 to 170 during last 3
Technology (MeitY) continues to strive towards
improving CSC services and accessibility for years. Out of the total target of around 2.5 lakhs
meeting the Government mandate of a digitally of Gram Panchayats (GPs) to cover with CSCs
and socially inclusive society. Government is under the ongoing CSC 2.0 project within 4 years
committed to promote rural entrepreneurship (by August, 2019) for delivery of citizen centric
through ICT and build a sustainable model providing eServices, more than 1.66 lakhs GPs (more than
gainful employment to citizens. Government 66 per cent) have been covered with around 1.97
strives for redefining the service delivery through lakhs of CSCs for delivery of eServices to citizens
digital technology and framework. Various types till June, 2017.
of citizen centric eServices can be delivered
through national level integrated platform of CSC- (The author is Joint Secretary, Ministry of
Digital Seva, once State/UT level service access Electronics and IT, Government of India.)
Kurukshetra
Forthcoming Issue
September 2017 : Skilling Rural Youth

Rural Transformation and Digital Technology
Sunita Sanghi and Sakshi Khurana
A large proportion of demographic advantage that India enjoys resides in the rural areas. Large number of youth from rural
areas migrate to urban areas and end up doing low paid jobs due to low levels of education or illiteracy. Steps have been taken to
improve the employability as also employment opportunities for these youth, but lack of awareness as also skills, restricts their
movement. Technology can play a critical role in this regard.
T
echnology plays an important role in unemployment rate from 3.5 per cent in 2012-13 to
bringing about significant changes in the 3.4 in 2015-16. However, there is significant decline
way education, skill, health and other public in women participation in the labour force in the rural
services are delivered and in enabling businesses to areas with just about 21 per cent females working.
expand their reach across continents. It is a great The available literature suggests that either jobs are
enabler to bridge the divide between the educated not available, or women do not want to move out of
and uneducated and more so, between urban and their place of residence. Women in rural areas are
rural areas. The unprecedented growth in digital primarily engaged in handicrafts, handlooms, basic
technology penetrating rural areas has paved the way food processing and micro-enterprises such as papad
for unlocking the potential for rural transformation. and pickle making etc. Their restricted social mobility
However, this calls for an innovative approach often prevents their participation in employment
matched with concerted efforts for implementation. and skill development opportunities located far from
To understand the impact of Digital revolution on their homes. According to the Education Report of
rural India, particularly on skill and employment, it the NSSO (Jan-June 2014, 71st Round), in rural
is necessary to understand the rural labour market areas, 71.2 per cent of females studied just up to
so as to devise strategies to leverage technology to the primary education, of which 37.6 per cent were
improve education, skill and employability of the illiterate. In comparison, 19.8 per cent of males were
youth and existing workforce. illiterate and 37.7 per cent of males have studied till
primary level. Only 7.1 per cent males and 4.5 per
Education and Employment Scenario in Rural cent females received higher secondary education.
India: A smaller proportion of rural persons reported
The rural labour market has witnessed a marginal completing graduation and post-graduation. The low
increase in the overall labour force participation level of education results in poor skill level resulting
rate from 55.5 per cent in 2012-13 to 55.8 in 2015- in access only to low paid jobs which affects the
16 (Labour Bureau, 2017) and marginal decline in purchasing power and quality of life.
A large proportion of demographic advantage
that India enjoys resides in the rural areas. Large
number of youth from rural areas migrate to urban
areas and end up doing low paid jobs due to low
levels of education or illiteracy. Steps have been taken
to improve the employability as also employment
opportunities for these youth, but lack of awareness
as also skills, restricts their movement. Technology
can play a critical role in this regard. The following
sections will discuss the current digital interventions
that form a part of policy initiatives for the country
as a whole and elaborate on their implications for
the skill and employment landscape in rural areas.

imparted to 52.5 lakh persons, including Aanganwadi
and ASHA workers and authorized ration dealers in
all the States/UTs across the country.5 To leapfrog
digital education in rural areas, the PMGDISHA is
being strengthened through the network of the
Common Service Centres (CSCs) that deliver various
electronic services to small towns and rural areas.
This is expected to empower women and men, and
particularly the youth, through access to information,
knowledge and skills for operating computers /
digital access devices. The DigiGaon initiative is
being launched to provide tele-medicine, education
and skills through use of digital technologies.6 This
initiative too, is bound to create more employment
Unlocking the Rural India potential with in rural areas.
Digital technology: Major Initiatives For inclusive development, the government
The Government of India launched the is promoting digital inclusion by providing mobile
‘Digital India’ programme in 2014 with the vision of connectivity to over 55,000 villages by March 2019
transforming the country into a digitally empowered and initiating measures like Jan-dhan account,
society and knowledge economy. The program debit cards, Aadhar Pay, Bharat Interface for Money
focusses on access to high speed internet as a core (BHIM), to put an end to middlemen and ensure that
utility for all Gram Panchayats, unique, lifelong, online benefits of various government schemes directly
and authenticable digital identity; mobile phone and reach beneficiaries through digital transactions that
bank account to enable participation in digital and touched 1569.3 crore in FY 2016-17 till January.
financial space at the individual level, easy access to There is a target of 2500 crore digital transactions in
a Common Service Centre that provides e-services 2017-18.7
of the government in rural and remote locations; Agriculture is the primary occupation in
universal digital literacy and so on.1 rural areas with challenges like (i) weakening of
For a deeper digital penetration in rural areas, input delivery; (ii) increasing risk in agriculture due
the Government has taken up BharatNet in mission to weather, prices and trade policies; (iii) small,
mode to connect all 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats declining and fragmented holdings; (iv) growing
(over 600 million rural citizens) in the country with market inefficiencies and increasing agri-waste; and
100 mbps broadband to bridge the rural coverage (v) limited employment opportunities in non-farm
gap both for broadband penetration and voice.2 The sector (Working Group on Agriculture Production,
coverage of Optical Fibre laid in the country has seen 2010). These challenges neutralize the contributions
a significant increase from only 358 kms of optical made through various technological breakthroughs
fibre in June 2014 to 1.72 lakh kms across more than with substantial adverse effect on the farm income
76,000 Gram Panchayats by January 2017.3 and the future of Indian agriculture.
Further, the ‘Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital To facilitate free flow of agri. commodities from
Saksharta Abhiyan’ (PMGDISHA), one of the largest one market area to another with commensurate
digital literacy programme in the world has been benefit to the farmer, eNAM (electronic trading
launched to usher in digital literacy in rural India platform for national agricultural market) has been
by March 2019 by making 6 crore rural households launched by the government in 2015. This provides
digitally literate.4 To ensure equitable geographical a unified market through online trading platform
reach under the program, each of the 250,000 Gram both at State and National level that promotes
Panchayats are expected to register an average of uniformity and transparency in auction process, and
200-300 candidates. In the earlier version of the access to a nationwide market for the farmer, with
Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISHA), IT training was prices commensurate with quality of his produce

and online payment and availability of better quality
produce at more reasonable prices to the consumer.
So far, 417 mandis in 13 states have joined the eNAM
platform. Several apps have also been launched to
enable farmers get accurate and timely information
related to crops, market prices and analytics to
enhance productivity and profitability of farmers.
State governments need to take greater initiatives
to encourage farmers to make use and benefit from
this digital platform. Now the question that arises
is how these digital /technological interventions are
impacting the skill and employment scenario in the
country can be of great significance for connecting
rural area.
rural areas to wider markets.
Impact on Employment and Skill Development:
The network of the Common Service Centres
Technology can play a pivotal role in making (CSCs) that are functional and are being strengthened
agriculture and allied activities more aspirational as part of the Digital India programme, deliver more
for youth, improving the quality of production and than 300 digital services like Aadhaar enrolment,
the product itself and connecting farmers and their ticket booking, utility bill payments, tele-medicine,
produce to the wider markets. Across the globe, skilling services, digital literacy etc. in small towns
technology has facilitated efficiencies and cost and rural areas. It is to be noted that 2.05 lakh
savings in almost every area of farm businesses. Use CSCs that are now functional across the country
of RFID technology and the Internet of Things, for have already generated employment opportunities
example, helps farmers collect and collate vital data for over 5 lakh youth in rural areas,10 including for
to help them improve efficiency.8 The expansion in more than 34,000 women.11 These centres hold
coverage of National Agricultural Market (e-NAM) tremendous potential for both direct and indirect
from the current 250 markets to 585 APMCs provides employment as they provide employment to
an opportunity to farmers to enhance skills in using staff recruited for running these centres as well
digital technology at various stages of production as impart training and digital literacy to youth
and marketing of produce.9 and rural persons as part of the Digital Saksharta
Abhiyan, which can go a long way in improving their
Greater broadband access would impact employability. These steps would also facilitate
productivity of the agricultural sector as well as small easier and more efficient participation of the rural
enterprises through access to better technology, population in governance.
innovations and market. Steps are being taken to
promote digital payments in petrol pumps, fertilizer Under the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana
depots, municipalities, block offices, road transport (PMMY), the flagship programme to provide loans to
offices, universities, colleges, hospitals and other promote rural entrepreneurship, loans are available
institutions, such as using the recently launched for non-agricultural activities upto Rs. 10 lakh and
BHIM App. Such initiatives lead to the creation of activities allied to agriculture such as dairy, poultry,
direct employment as Banking Correspondents and bee keeping etc, are also covered. Mudra’s unique
others operating these digital facilities and also features include a Mudra Card which enables access
enhance digital literacy of all rural men and women, to working capital through ATMs and Card Machines.
particularly the youth. Also, it will have the potential A record Rs 1.80 lakh crore of loans have been
to generate new employment opportunities while sanctioned in financial year 2017-18, immensely
enabling a host of services like e-commerce, benefiting entrepreneurs.12 The skill development
e-learning, e-banking etc. The concept of dedicated programme, covering 45 lakh households, has been
Payment Banks supported by digital platform and making a significant contribution to give further
mobile operators that enable customers to load cash impetus to the Mudra Yojana.13 The flagship skill
onto mobile wallets and send payments across the development scheme of the Government, Pradhan

Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is expected arena of growth and in the process will augment
to particularly benefit youth who are either school/ jobs for several thousand rural youth. The larger aim
college dropouts or unemployed. Apart from is to provide employment to one lakh such youth.
providing training according to the National Skills Rural Shores offers its employees an opportunity to
Qualification Framework (NSQF), the Training support their seasonal family income with a steady
Centres under PMKVY also impart training in Soft monthly income without having to migrate to
Skills, Entrepreneurship, Financial and Digital urban areas.14 This initiative serves as an example
Literacy. Under the PMKVY, all states have also been of how technology can help create employment
given targets for training youth. for youth in rural areas, without them having to
While the government is making efforts to migrate to urban centres of jobs and information
cover large sections of the rural population through technology. More such initiatives can bring about
the digital platform in areas such as improved a greater transformation in the rural employment
governance, land records, jobs, health, education landscape.
and agriculture and digitization of personal and
Moving Ahead:
public records for safekeeping, enhanced access to
technology also provides innumerable avenues for Up-scaling Skill Development Initiatives:
budding entrepreneurs as well as existing businesses Setting-up of Skill Committees and training institutions
to service the rural markets as never before. For like Kaushalya Vardhan Kendras (Gujarat) in under-
example, Arogya Sakhi, an initiative of Swayam served rural areas to target school dropouts, women
Shikshan Prayog (SSP), a learning and development could make a significant impact. Such training
organization, uses a mobile application that helps initiatives reach out to trainees through mobile
rural women entrepreneurs deliver preventive training, utilizing school and panchayat buildings
health care at rural doorsteps. Under the Arogya and other existing public infrastructure to impart
Sakhi programme, SSP selects and trains women skill training.
who are landless, but have basic education, are
interested in healthcare and community service and Expanding Outreach and Awareness on
sport strong community links and an entrepreneurial Digital Education: State governments should
mindset. Women equipped with tablets and mobile leverage institutions with rural footprint viz.
healthcare devices like glucometers, blood pressure Panchayat Institutions, Common Service Centers,
checking machine visit homes and collect data from Self-Help Groups, Cooperatives, Farmer Producer
the village women. This data can be accessed by Organisations, Agricultural Societies, NGOs, micro-
doctors at any location who could provide relevant finance institutions, India Post, Fertilizer corporation
advice to the patients remotely. Digital technology, etc. to impart widespread awareness on the need
thus provides great potential for self-employment for digital education and various initiatives of the
and empowerment for the most marginalized government in the area. Promoting widespread
sections of rural society. usage of digital platforms for farmers such as eNAM
The rural job scene is undergoing radical requires both campaigns for awareness as well as
transformation with organized players taking jobs imparting training on digital literacy. Digital training
into villages and helping rural youth find gainful centres for farmers could function to impart such
employment. In one such instance, Rural Shores, a training and create awareness on digital platforms.
company that specializes in employing rural youth Educational hoardings should be placed at main
in Knowledge Process Outsourcing (KPO) jobs after locations in rural areas.
imparting relevant training to them, has provided Free to air skill and employment related
employment to over 2500 employees (almost 50
channels should be started. Local T.V. channels can
per cent of them women) in 17 centres in 10 states,
run scrolls about vocational training providers and
delivering over 45 processes to more than 30 blue
schemes while showing films etc.
chip clients. Rural Shores is currently equipping
itself to provide last-mile business connectivity to Bridging the Gender Divide through
Corporates, who are eyeing rural India as their next Technology: A conscious attempt needs to be made

to give women opportunities in non-traditional References:
skill sectors such as electrician, welding, masonry,
BharatNet, Vikaspedia (http://vikaspedia.
mechanics, plumber, repair of pumps, TVs, mobile
in/e-governance/digital-india/national-optical-fibre-
phones and not limit to gender typical occupations
network-nofn)
like tailoring, beauty care , papad making. Technology
can play a vital role in this. Training women in the use Chatterjee, Somnath, ‘The Development
of computers, internet and information technology Challenge in Rural India,’ The Hindu April 4, 2007
applications can enhance their employability for (updated Sept. 28, 2016).
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financing, providing safe transportation, adequate the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology,
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July 6, 2015.
Strengthening Self-Help Groups: Self-Help
Kajekar, Ashu ‘Rural India is the Next Destination
Groups are examples of the new “social economy”
for Digital Transformation,’ June 1, 2017 (https://
emerging in India.15 These self-help groups need
www.linkedin.com/rural-india-next-destination-digital-
to be further strengthened and given further
transformation-ashu-kajekar).
encouragement as they form collectives of rural
entrepreneurship that can generate steady income Labour Bureau (2017) ‘Report on Fifth Annual
Employment - Unemployment Survey (2015-16),’
for rural citizens, particularly women. Digital literacy
Ministry of Labour and Employment, Government of
can play a crucial role in this. Educating rural people,
India.
particularly the youth and women, can empower
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collective enterprises. Under the National Rural Chief Ministers on Skill Development,’ NITI Aayog,
Livelihood Mission, the government is planning more Government of India, New Delhi.
rural women led Ajeewika stores to provide them NITI Aayog (2017), ‘Interim Report of the
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directly to consumers. These women can be trained NITI Aayog, Government of India, New Delhi.
in digital technology skills and mode of payment, NSSO (2015), ‘Key Indicators of Social
thereby giving a further boost to production activities Consumption in India: Education,’ NSS 71st Round
of self-help groups. (January-June 2014), Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation, National Sample
Best Practices in Technological Development Survey Office, Government of India.
in Rural Areas: A mechanism should be devised
Press Information Bureau, Government of India,
whereby success stories/innovative measures taken
‘Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) crosses
by different states are documented, shared, up-
the target of Rs. 1.8 lakh crore for 2016-17,’ April
scaled and replicated on a regular basis by local 13, 2013 (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.
bodies/NGOs. aspx?relid=161016).
While the rural landscape is experiencing a great Press Information Bureau, Government of
wave of digital and information technology, it also India, ‘Digital India – A Programme To Transform
presents abundant opportunities for employment India Into Digital Empowered Society And Knowledge
generation. Skill development and up-gradation plays Economy,’ August 20, 2014 (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/
an important role in enhancing employability of men PrintRelease.aspx?relid=108926)
and women, particularly the youth. Concerted and Press Information Bureau, Government of
fast-tracked efforts can ensure that we are able to India, ‘Cabinet approves ‘Pradhan Mantri Gramin
tap the vast potential that rural areas have for skill Digital Saksharta Abhiyan’ for covering 6 crore rural
development and employment as well as raise the households,’ February 8, 2017 (http://pib.nic.in/
standards of existing employment. newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=158292).

Press Information Bureau, Ministry of 7 Press Information Bureau, Government of
Electronics & IT, Government of India ‘A Digital India, ‘Rural Transformation through Inclusive
Friendly Budget aimed at accelerating India’s Development,’ May 20, 2017 (http://pib.nic.in/
Transformation into a Digitally Empowered Society: newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=161985).
Ravi Shankar Prasad,’ February 10, 2017, (http://pib. 8 Ashu Kajekar, ‘Rural India is the Next
nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=158376) Destination for Digital Transformation,’ June1,
Press Information Bureau, Special Service and 2017 (https://www.linkedin.com/rural-india-
Features, Government of India, ‘Digital India for next-destination-digital-transformation-ashu-
Inclusive Growth and Sustainable Development’ by kajekar).
Ratnadeep Banerji, May 12, 2017 (http://pib.nic.in/ 9 Press Information Bureau, Ministry of
newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=161724). Electronics & IT, Government of India ‘A Digital
Press Information Bureau, Government of Friendly Budget aimed at accelerating India’s
India, ‘Rural Transformation through Inclusive Transformation into a Digitally Empowered
Development,’ May 20, 2017 (http://pib.nic.in/ Society: Ravi Shankar Prasad,’ February 10,
newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=161985). 2017, (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.
RuralShores (official website of Website of aspx?relid=158376)
RuralShores) (http://www.ruralshores.com/) 10 Press Information Bureau, Ministry of
Electronics & IT, Government of India, ‘A Digital
Endnotes Friendly Budget aimed at accelerating India’s
1 Press Information Bureau, Government of India, Transformation into a Digitally Empowered
‘Digital India – A Programme To Transform India Society: Ravi Shankar Prasad’ February 10,
Into Digital Empowered Society And Knowledge 2017, (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.
Economy,’ August 20, 2014 (http://pib.nic.in/ aspx?relid=158376)
newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=108926) 11 Press Information Bureau, Special Service
2 BharatNet, Vikaspedia (http://vikaspedia. and Features, Government of India, ‘Digital
in/e-governance/digital-india/national-optical- India for Inclusive Growth and Sustainable
fibre-network-nofn) Development’ by Ratnadeep Banerji, May 12,
2017 (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/printrelease.
3 Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Electronics
aspx?relid=161724).
& IT, Government of India, February 10,
2017, (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease. 12 Press Information Bureau, Government of
aspx?relid=158376) India, ‘Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY)
crosses the target of Rs. 1.8 lakh crore for 2016-
4 Press Information Bureau, Government of
17,’ April 13, 2013 (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/
India, ‘Cabinet approves ‘Pradhan Mantri
PrintRelease.aspx?relid=161016).
Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan’ for covering
6 crore rural households,’ February 8, 2017 13 Press Information Bureau, Government of
(http://pib.nic.in/newsite/printrelease. India, ‘Rural Transformation through Inclusive
aspx?relid=158292). Development,’ May 20, 2017 (http://pib.nic.in/
newsite/printrelease.aspx?relid=161985).
5 Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (DISHA), Website of the
Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology 14 Website of RuralShores (http://www.
Government of India (http://www.digitalindia. ruralshores.com/)
gov.in/content/digital-saksharta-abhiyaan- 15 Somnath Chatterjee, ‘The Development
disha) Challenge in Rural India,’ The Hindu April 4,
2007 (updated Sept. 28, 2016).
6 Press Information Bureau, Ministry of Electronics
& IT, Government of India, February 10, (The author is Adviser, NITI Ayog , Government
2017, (http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease. of India. Dr Sakshi Khurana is YP(RC) in NITI Ayog ,
aspx?relid=158376) Government of India. Email:[email protected])

Revolutionizing Indian Agriculture: Use of ICT
Sameera Saurabh
E-agriculture continues to evolve in scope as new ICT applications continue to be harnessed in the agriculture sector. More
specifically, e-agriculture involves the conceptualization, design, development, evaluation and application of innovative ways to
use ICTs in the rural domain, with a primary focus on agriculture. Provisions of standards, norms, methodologies, and tools as well
as development of individual and institutional capacities, and policy support are all key components of e-agriculture.
T
he future of rural India is full of promise. through the soil health card scheme, to provide
By 2025 it is forecasted that 55 per cent improved access to irrigation and enhanced water
of India’s rural population will have access efficiency through Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai
to the Internet. The average villager living in Yojana (PMKSY), to support organic farming
rural India already has a basic awareness of the through Paramparagat Krishi Vikas Yojana (PKVY)
Wonders of the World Wide Web and is willing to and to support for creation of a unified national
explore the Internet to satisfy his queries about the agriculture market to boost the income of farmers,
world and issues which impact his livelihood. It is and to mitigate the risk in agriculture sector the
reported that in 2016, 234 million internet users new scheme of Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
in India were local language users. This number (PMFBY).
is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18 per cent. The
National Policy for Farmers emphasizes the use of National e-Governance Plan in Agriculture
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) (NeGP-A): NeGP-A is proposed to be implemented
at village level for reaching out to the farmers with across the country and aims at offering Government
the correct advisories and requisite information. to Citizen/Farmer (G2C or G2F), Government to
Business (G2B) and Government to Government
Agriculture plays a vital role in India’s (G2G) agricultural services in an integrated manner
economy. 54 per cent of the population is engaged through the Central Agriculture Portal (CAP) and
in agriculture and allied activities (Census 2011) State Agriculture Portals (SAPs).
and it contributes 17 per cent to the country’s
Gross Value Added (current price 2015-16, 2011- Objectives:
12 series). Given the importance of agriculture
l Bringing farmer centricity and service
sector, Government of India took several steps
orientation to the programs.
for its sustainable development. Steps have been
taken to improve soil fertility on a sustainable basis l Enhancing reach and impact of extension
services.
l Improving access of farmers to information &
services throughout crop-cycle.
l Building upon, enhancing and integrating the
existing ICT initiatives of Centre, and States.
l Enhancing efficiency and effectiveness of
programs through process redesign.
l More effective management of schemes of
DAC.
l Promoting a common framework across
states.

Duration and Nature of GoI Support under While physical infrastructure (e.g. storage,
NeGP-A: logistics), regulatory (e.g. APMC act, agri input/
marketing licenses) and socio-economic (e.g.
l Hardware and System software with
financial inclusion, aggregation) issues need to be
comprehensive onsite warranty for 5 years.
addressed, a professionally managed ICT platform
l Basic IT training to end users in various can bring the various pieces of agri value chain
government organisations and Village Level together and act as the catalysts for agricultural
Entrepreneurs in Common Service Centres. growth.
l Full support for site preparation of Training
Information and communication technology
Centres and 55 per cent share for other
in agriculture (ICT in agriculture), also known as
sites.
e-agriculture, is developing and applying innovative
l 100, 70 and 50 per cent for manpower cost ways to use ICTs in the rural domain, with a primary
for first three years. focus on agriculture. ICT in agriculture offers a wide
l Connectivity charges with SWAN (for intranet range of solutions to some agricultural challenges.
& internet) or direct internet connectivity. It is seen as an emerging field focusing on the
charges for end user locations for a period of enhancement of agricultural and rural development
3 years at an average of Rs. 11000 per location through improved information and communication
per year. processes. In this context, ICT is used as an
l An amount of Rs. 7500 per block, Rs. 10,500 umbrella term encompassing all information and
per district headquarter and Rs. 30,000 per communication technologies including devices,
State head quarter per year has been kept for networks, mobiles, services and applications.
consumables like printer cartridges etc. for a E-agriculture continues to evolve in scope as
period of three years. new ICT applications continue to be harnessed
l Support for IT infrastructure at selected in the agriculture sector. More specifically,
Mandis and integrated e-Mandis. e-agriculture involves the conceptualization,
l Hand-held devices for e-Pest surveillance. design, development, evaluation and application
of innovative ways to use ICTs in the rural domain,
Information on Agriculture and marketing with a primary focus on agriculture. Provisions of
channels: standards, norms, methodologies, and tools as
India’s farmers live in rural areas and well as development of individual and institutional
agriculture & allied activities still constitute the capacities, and policy support are all key
largest share of India’s employment. It is estimated components of e-agriculture.
that 72 per cent farmers do not have access to Digital India envisions empowering citizens
reliable sources of information and this prevents with e-access to government and related livelihood
them from accessing credit & realizing high crop services. The project has 3 core components - digital
productivity. Around 94 per cent of farmers in India infrastructure, digital services and digital literacy.
depend upon ‘fellow farmers’ as the preferred Mobile phone is the preferred delivery medium
source of information, followed by 10 per cent under Digital India with focus on mGovernance
on agri retailers, 4 per cent of TV/Radio and only and mServices. Out of the 7 components covered
3 per cent on agri-extension officers .Information under mServices, mAgriculture and mGramBazar
provided by extension services are perceived directly impact agricultural extension.
to be unreliable or less actionable due to lack
of accuracy. This is a bottleneck for adoption of An end-to-end ICT led agri platform has been
modern agri-practices, hence crop yields in India created:
are still just 30 per cent to 60 per cent of the best l Pan-India, telco and handset neutral agri
sustainable crop yields achievable in the farms of information service delivered through sms,
developed as well as other developing countries. voice and mobile app;

l 10,000+ information sources managed by areas, each of which is administered by a separate
team of 300+ on-ground agri market reporters Agricultural Produce Marketing Committee (APMC)
and state / national level agri experts with which imposes its own marketing regulation (including
PhDs and public/private sector agri industry fees). This fragmentation of markets, even within the
experience; State, hinders free flow of agri commodities from
l Dedicated agri call center with 90+ team one market area to another and multiple handling
members speaking 9 languages; of agri-produce and multiple levels of mandi charges
ends up escalating the prices for the consumers
l Custom designed CRM and ERP solutions for without commensurate benefit to the farmer.
Indian farmers;
l Agri e-commerce platform with agri produce Objectives of NAM:
aggregation and demand/supply matching l A national e-market platform for transparent
capability; supported by technologically sale transactions and price discovery initially in
enabled on-ground agri marketing team. regulated markets. Willing States to accordingly
enact suitable provisions in their APMC Act
Kisan Call Centre (KCC) initiative:
for promotion of e-trading by their State
With the increase in choices of farm inputs, Agricultural Marketing Board/APMC.
pesticides, herbicides, high yielding varieties of
l Liberal licensing of traders / buyers and
seeds, a farmer today requires guidance of expert
commission agents by State authorities without
agriculturists more than anything else. Some one with
any pre-condition of physical presence or
whom they can share their crop related issues and
possession of shop /premises in the market
learn preventive measures. Kisan Call Center (KCC)
yard.
is a pioneering initiative started in Madhya Pradesh
by the Indian Society of Agribusiness Professionals l One license for a trader valid across all markets
(ISAP). The Kisan Call Centre is a combination of in the State.
ICT (Information Communication Technology) and
l Harmonisation of quality standards of
Agriculture technology. It uses a backend data
agricultural produce and provision for assaying
support system, which is inbuilt into the overall MIS
(quality testing) infrastructure in every market
(Management Information System). KCC enables
to enable informed bidding by buyers. Common
farmers to have direct discussions with the subject
tradable parameters have so far been developed
matter experts who are able to analyze the problem
for 25 commodities.
effectively and provide the solution directly.
l Single point levy of market fees, i.e on the first
National Agriculture Market (NAM): wholesale purchase from the farmer.
It is a pan-India electronic trading portal which l Provision of Soil Testing Laboratories in/ or
networks the existing APMC mandis to create a unified near the selected mandi to facilitate visiting
national market for agricultural commodities. The farmers to access this facility in the mandi
NAM Portal provides a single window service for all itself. The broad role of the Strategic Partner
APMC related information and services. This includes is comprehensive and includes writing of the
commodity arrivals & prices, buy & sell trade offers, software, customizing it to meet the specific
provision to respond to trade offers, among other requirements of the mandis in the States
services. While material flow (agriculture produce) willing to integrate with NAM and running the
continue to happen through mandis, an online platform.
market reduces transaction costs and information
asymmetry. National Agriculture Market (NAM) — Making
a difference to farmers?
Agriculture marketing is administered by the
States as per their agri-marketing regulations, under The current state-level APMC laws permit the
which, the State is divided into several market first sale of crops — after harvesting by farmers

if they devised strategies for aggregating produce
on their own, bypassing the arhatiya and the local
mandi in the process. This is where Farmer Producer
Organisations and Cooperatives can facilitate in
creation of volumes that is intrinsic to the success of
any online marketplace initiative.
Major Applications of ICT In Agriculture:
GPS Receivers: In agriculture, the use of the
Global Positioning System provides benefits in geo-
fencing, map-making and surveying. GPS receivers
dropped in price over the years, making it more
— to take place only in regulated market yards or popular for civilian use. With the use of GPS, civilians
mandis. It, thus, restricts buyers to operate in the can produce simple yet highly accurate digitized map
mandi under the concerned APMC’s jurisdiction. without the help of a professional cartographer.
Even traders have to procure separate licences to
Geographic Information Systems, or GIS:
operate in different mandis within the same state.
are extensively used in agriculture, especially in
NAM would essentially be a common electronic
precision farming. Land is mapped digitally, and
platform allowing farmers to sell their crops to buyers
pertinent geodetic data such as topography and
anywhere in the country and vice versa. The benefits
contours are combined with other statistical data
to buyers is that they can log into the platform and
for easier analysis of the soil. GIS is used in decision
source from any mandi in India connected to it.
making such as what to plant and where to plant
However, farmers do not take their produce using historical data and sampling.
to the mandis; they sell off to the local arhatiya or
Smartphone Mobile Apps in Agriculture:
produce aggregator even before that. Even the ones
The use of mobile technologies as a tool of
who take would hardly offer enough to interest
intervention in agriculture is becoming increasingly
distant buyers bidding online. To that extent, the
popular. Smartphone penetration enhances the
possibilities for better price discovery through a
multi-dimensional positive impact on sustainable
widened choice of buyers, both local and online,
poverty reduction and identify accessibility as the
are quite limited for them. Farmers can, benefit main challenge in harnessing the full potential
in agricultural space. The reach of
smartphone even in rural areas extended
the ICT services beyond simple voice or
text messages. Several smartphone apps
are available for agriculture, horticulture,
animal husbandry and farm machinery.
Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana
(PMFBY): PMFBY has been launched for
implementation from Kharif 2016.The
scheme envisages a uniform premium of
only 2 per cent to be paid by farmers for
Kharif crops, and 1.5 per cent for Rabi crops.
The premium for annual commercial and
horticultural crops will be 5 per cent. There
is no upper limit on Government subsidy
for this scheme. Farmers will get claims
against the full sum insured, without any
reduction.

Challenges of Current Insurance Schemes: platform to harvest the advantages of space
l Low penetration of Financial Institutions also technology in agriculture & allied sectors.
adds to the cause of poor insurance coverage. l Space and Information Technologies will be
leveraged to improve efficiency, speed &
l Currently, the infrastructure to measure crop
accuracy of Crop Cutting Experiments (CCEs)
loss accurately is outdated which makes it and ensure timely settlement of claims of the
difficult to make loss assessments uniformly. farmers in accordance with prescribed timelines
l The existing insurance schemes are unable to in the Guidelines, to be ensured in 2017-18.
protect the farmers against price fluctuations.
Conclusion:
l Getting data on reliable yield and price is difficult
because it keeps on fluctuating from season to Agriculture is one of the most important
season. sectors in India, and could benefit tremendously
with the applications of ICTs in improving the
l The time taken to fulfill claims is quite high. This
socioeconomic conditions of poor in backward
is despite the rules stating settlement within 45 areas. Though India has a strong and fast Growing
days. IT industry, access to ICTs remains very low,
l Financial Stability Report by RBI highlights that particularly in rural areas. If right information
linkage of loans with insurance doesn’t meet is provided timely, it can help to develop the
good response from banks as the burden of agriculture sector. It helps to take timely action,
Priority Sector Lending is already there on prepare strategies for next season, speculate
banks the market changes, and avoid unfavorable
circumstances. Development of agriculture
Boosting Productivity: depends on how fast relevant information is
l Expand the services of Kissan Call Centres for provided to the end users The present indicators
easy reach to farmers (2018-19). of IT penetration in Indian society need to step up
l Make provision to enable the companies with consistent efforts to bridge the urban- rural
investing in Agriculture Technology Management divide.
Agency (ATMA). (The author, an IES officer is Director, Ministry
l ‘National Programme for Space Application of Rural Development, Krishi Bhawan, New Delhi.
in Agriculture (NPSAA)’ as a comprehensive Email: [email protected])

Smart Villages: A Way Forward
Madhura Roy
The Ministry of Rural Development is adopting a scientific process of cluster selection which involves an objective
analysis at the District, Sub District and Village level, of the demography, economy, tourism and pilgrimage
significance and transportation corridor impact. While the Ministry, following this analysis, would provide a suggestive list
of sub districts to the State, the State Governments would then select the clusters following a set of indicated principles included
in the Framework for Implementation.
S
wami Vivekananda, the young monk who had to keep a pace with the modern technological
wandered through the length and breadth of innovations like mobile phone, internet etc.
India had observed-“Let new India arise out of which are essential for making the country digital,
peasants’ cottage, grasping the plough, out of huts, Indian villages are lagging much behind. Holistic
cobbler and sweeper.” Such is the power of Bharat development of any village would mean addressing
that has been the foundation to the emerging India these basic needs. Different Governments over
of today. successive years have tried to address the issues.
Villages form the building blocks of our country. However, the first concrete step in
Agriculture, considered to be the principal source empowering the villages was in 1992 when the 73rd
of income in the villages, contributes to around Constitutional Amendment was adopted. It decreed
17 per cent of Indian GDP, which is much higher the organization of village panchayats so that they
than the world average of 6.1 per cent. However, can function as the local self-governments.
a trend to migrate from village to city has steadily
It was not before a decade that a Fundamental
increased over the past couple of years, leading to
Duty was added by the 86th Constitutional
the question of how the reverse migration can be
Amendment in 2002, which urged parents or legal
done. guardians to provide opportunities for education to
Infrastructure in the Villages: their child, or as the case may be, ward between the
ages of six to fourteen years. The Right to Education
Most Indian villages are yet to avail the basic was passed in 2009 making education compulsory
necessities to lead a healthy life like access to for children between the ages of 6 to 14 years.
education, healthcare, drinking water, electricity,
toilets (both domestic and public) with proper water The National Rural Health Mission was
launched in April 2005 with a vision to provide
supply and proper road infrastructure. In addition,
effective health care to rural population throughout
the country. The NRHM, as it is popularly called, is
continuing till date, bringing lots of changes in the
rural life.
Road connectivity was facilitated through the
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana. Pradhan Mantri
Grameen Awas Yojana ensured housing for all. More
such schemes have been undertaken by the Union
Government and the various State Governments to
improve the quality of life in rural India.
Smart India:
With improved quality of life comes the need
of better living. While urban India has leapfrogged

into an age of digitization, embracing the concept
of “Smart City”, the need to convert villages into
“Smart Villages” was also felt. The first step in this
direction was taken in September, 2015. In a bid to
transform rural areas to economically, socially and
physically sustainable spaces, the Shyama Prasad
Mukherji Rurban Mission was launched by the
Union Government.
Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission

(SPMRM):
The Mission aims at development of rural
growth clusters which have latent potential for
growth, in all States and UTs, which would trigger
overall development in the region. These clusters Skill development training linked to economic
would be developed by provisioning of economic activities, Agro Processing/Agri Services/Storage
activities, developing skills & local entrepreneurship and Warehousing, Digital Literacy, Sanitation,
and providing infrastructure amenities. The Rurban Provision of piped water supply, Solid and liquid
Mission will thus, develop a cluster of Smart waste management, Village streets and drains,
Villages. Street lights, Fully equipped mobile health unit,
Cluster Identification and Development: Upgrading school/higher education facilities, Inter-
village road connectivity, Citizen Service Centres-
The State Governments would identify the for electronic delivery of citizen centric services/
clusters in accordance with the Framework for e-gram connectivity, Public transport., LPG gas
Implementation prepared by the Ministry of Rural connections.
Development. The clusters will be geographically
contiguous Gram Panchayats with a population of Development Process of Different
about 25,000 to 50,000 in plain and coastal areas Components:
and a population of 5000 to 15000 in desert, hilly A large number of schemes are being run by
or tribal areas. There would be a separate approach the Union Government to address the fourteen
for selection of clusters in Tribal and Non-Tribal components earmarked essentially to make Smart
Districts. As far as practicable, clusters of village Villages:
would follow administrative convergence units of
Gram Panchayats. • Skill Development: The Pradhan Mantri
Kaushal Vikash Yojana, under the Ministry of
The Ministry of Rural Development is adopting a Skill Development and Entrepreneurship aims
scientific process of cluster selection which involves to enable a large number of Indian youth to
an objective analysis at the District, Sub District and take up industry-relevant skill training that will
Village level, of the demography, economy, tourism help them in securing a better livelihood.
and pilgrimage significance and transportation
• Digital Literacy: Pradhan Mantri Gramin
corridor impact. While the Ministry, following
Digital Saksharata Abhiyan is expected to be
this analysis, would provide a suggestive list of
one of the largest digital literacy programmes
sub districts to the State, the State Governments
of the world.As the thrust of the Government
would then select the clusters following a set of
is on cashless transactions through mobile
indicated principles included in the Framework for
phones, the course content would also have
Implementation.
emphasis on Digital Wallets, Mobile Banking,
To ensure an optimum level of development, Unified Payments Interface (UPI), Unstructured
fourteen components have been suggested as Supplementary Service Data (USSD) and
desirable for the cluster, which would include Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), etc.

Mantri Gramin Parivahan Yojana would
involve women Self-Help Groups and train
them to operate mini-buses to serve village
blocks not served by public transport. Rural
Self Employment Training Institutes, will now
teach driving to women from the SHGs.
• LPG gas connection: The Pradhan Mantri
Ujjwala Yojana aims at providing deposit-free
LPG connections to BPL family in the name of
adult women.
Challenges:
• Agro-based Scheme-SAMPADA (Scheme for
Agro-Marine Processing and Development India is a vast country with a lot of challenges.
of Agro-Processing Clusters) under the The components needed to make smart villages are
Ministry of Food Processing Industries aims to definitely well-designed. However, the challenge
supplement agriculture, modernize processing lies in implementing the programmes effectively. It
and decrease agro-waste. Implementation of needs to be kept in mind that only if other socio-
the scheme will result in creation of modern economic indicators are good and the basic needs
infrastructure with efficient supply chain of the village are already met, then can a smart
management from farm gate to retail outlet. It village with a digital future be made possible. A
will not only provide a big boost to the growth digital future can only be built on top of a physical
of food processing sector in the country ,but one.
also help in providing better prices to farmers
The preparedness of the villages needs to
and is a big step towards doubling of farmers’ be taken into account for any programme to be
income. implemented. It needs to be checked that each
• Sanitation: The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan village has a primary school for the children where
(Gramin) aims at making rural India open- there is separate toilets for both male and female
defecation free by 2019 by encouraging children. The basic sense of hygiene needs to be
households to build toilets, thus improving the imparted to the children through the schools. Mid-
level of cleanliness in rural India. day meal provided to the children should be enough
• Drinking Water Supply: The National Rural to supplement their nourishment. For secondary and
Drinking Water Programme aims at providing higher secondary education, it may not be possible to
piped water supply to rural households. The have higher secondary schools in each village. As the
programme aims at providing piped water to 90 Government wants to upgrade the education facility,
per cent rural households by 2022, at least 80 it needs to be ensured that at most, five villages
per cent of rural households should have piped within a radius of 10 kms gets a higher secondary
school and a Degree College.
water supply with a household connection. less
than 10 per cent use public taps and less than The different scholarships like Pre-Metric,
10 per cent use hand pumps or other safe and Post-Metric for SC/ST and OBC students are directly
adequate private water sources. credited to the bank accounts. These accounts are
• Street Light: To improve street light conditions, linked with the Aadhaar number of the students,
the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy has which has been made mandatory for receiving the
installed solar PV through the National Solar scholarships. Such a step has helped in reducing the
Mission. ghost beneficiary and interference of middleman
and hence is definitely a step towards smart village.
• Road Connectivity and public transport:
The Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana is The Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA)
meant to provide good road connectivity in workers are appointed under the NRHM. They
rural India. Complementing this, the Pradhan are trained to provide basic medical care to the

villagers. The ASHA workers along with the Auxiliary The other important area is street lighting. The
Nurse Midwife (ANM) form the first interface use of non-renewable source of energy, especially
between the village community and healthcare. If solar energy is designed for electrifying most villages.
the health records of the individuals of a village can India, being a tropical country is blessed with
be digitised, then the medical care offered to them sun. However, affordability of solar panels is a big
can be tracked. But what is more important is that question. The initiative of the Central Government
a smart village cluster should have ambulances to needs to reach the common man more effectively
ferry patients to referral hospitals. Mobile medical so that they can have access to electricity.
vans can also be arranged for the village clusters
to provide basic medical help. Under the Janani Way Forward:
Suraksha Yojana, eligible pregnant women are News regarding achievement of the individual
entitled for cash assistance irrespective of the components often are highlighted.
age of mother and number of children for giving
birth in a government or accredited private health l Akodara village in Sabarkantha district of
facility. This will help in the reduction of Infant Gujarat has been declared as India’s first digital
Mortality and Maternal Mortality and in turn, will village.
lead to a healthier society. l Dhasai village in Thane district of Maharashtra
Through the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, toilets has become India’s first cashless village.
are to be constructed in every house of the village. l Karang, a small lake island in Manipur, has
Providing toilet and piped water is a basic necessity. become the country’s first cashless island.
Usage of toilet would stop the age-old practice of l Sikkim was the first state in India to be declared
manual scavenging and at the same time, ensure open defecation free followed by Himachal
the safety of women. This in turn, will also increase Pradesh.
the hygiene level in the family which is essential for
l Pandri village in Purulia district of West Bengal
sustaining a healthy family.
became the first solar village in the country.
The agricultural yields by the farmers need
to reach the market in time so that the farmers Many such examples can be sited when it is
can recover the investments they have made. For observed that a particular village or a particular
this, connectivity to the nearest mandi is essential. district has achieved a critical milestone. All such
Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana-Har Khet Ko achievements are indeed laudable and can be used
Paani ensures bringing more agricultural land under to replicate in other parts of the country.
irrigation. Many schemes in the agriculture sector But only when such a village with all such
are undertaken using the Long Term irrigation Fund facilities can be developed, it would be termed as
under NABARD. The benefits of the same need to a Smart Village. A holistic approach is needed to
reach the farmers. develop such a village. Involvement of the Panchayat
Financial inclusion will play a key role in to implement the Government programmes
making villages smart. The JAM trinity of Jan dhan successfully along with community participation is
Account, Aadhaar number and mobile connectivity of utmost necessity to develop the village.
is expected to be with every Indian. Aiming to As Mahatma Gandhi said, “The true Indian
provide bank account to every Indian, the Jan civilisation is in the villages…..Take the village
Dhan accounts were opened which had Aadhaar people and slum-dwellers in your hands and give
number linked and mobile number updated for any them the benefit of your knowledge, skill, insight,
transaction. Although, every bank is mandated to constructive work and patriotic spirit…”.Then only
have 45 per cent rural penetration, having a bank can a Smart Village develop and sustain.
account still remains elusive to many persons.
Banking correspondents or Bank Mitras were (The Author belongs to Indian Statistical
appointed by banks to tackle this situation. The Service, 2011 Batch, and presently serving as
same needs to be strengthened so that every Senior Research Officer in NITI Aayog. Email:
person can have a bank account. [email protected])

Financial Inclusion in Rural Areas through ‘Digital India’
Dr. Dibakar Lenka
One of the reasons for slow progress in financial inclusion is the absence of reach and coverage of Government and financial
system. This gap now can be bridged through the use of Information and Communication Technology. Sufficient budgetary support
for creation of such a massive digital infrastructure to reach 2.80 lakh gram panchayats through digital connectivity to reduce
digital gap can take the country into a different direction. PMJDY accounts, Mobile hand set, Aadhaar etc through various Government
initiatives can help in achieving the last mile connectivity for the prosperity of the country.
T
he focus of Financial Inclusion is ensuring to the poor by various innovative channels where
coverage of each household in the country there are no leakages and pilferages. Effective
by opening saving accounts and providing implementation of pro-poor programmes by using
Banking services such as micro credit, RuPay card, available digital path is now the armory.
Aadhaar based services, financial literacy and
Financial inclusion is usually construed in two
empowerment of women, Direct Benefit transfer,
ways:
Insurance and pension services. It is the endeavor
of all stake holders including Government to focus a. Countering the exclusion from the payment
system.
on issues like putting in place an effective system
of tackling technology issues, solving connectivity b. Countering the exclusion from the formal
problems, spreading financial literacy in public, financial services.
innovating suitable products to suit needs of The approach is based on the following
public and above all, going digital in all process. principles:
The combination of IT and Mobile can only allow 1. Adequacy and Availability of financial services
circumventing the cost problem to connect 1,250 to all sections of the society.
million people and 180 million households of the 2. Awareness of financial services.
country.
3. Affordability and Accessibility of appropriate
Approach to Financial Inclusion: financial products through a combination
of conventional and alternative delivery
it is realized that the effectiveness of welfare channels and technology enabled services and
measures can only be visible by coming closure processes.
Now, the Government has taken various
initiatives to reach the rural masses by implementation
of all pro-poor programs through cost effective digital
technology.
Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana: It is India’s
National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure
access to financial services, namely Savings & Deposit
Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, and Pension
in an affordable manner. This financial inclusion
campaign was launched by the Prime Minister on 28
August 2014. 28.99 Crore (17.32 crore rural and 11.67
crore urban) bank accounts have been opened till
June 2017 (Figure 1). The scheme targets to provide
Basic Banking Accounts with overdraft facility of `
5,000 after six months and RuPay Debit card with

Figure: 1- Rural urban composition of PMJDY Continuous progress in Aadhaar seeding and issue
accounts of RuPay card is recorded. There is tremendous
Progress in PMJD
DY Accou
unts in Crore progress in balance outstanding in PMJDY accounts.
35
In the month of December 2016, there was a sudden
28.99
30
26
6.2 rise in outstanding balance (Rs 71.03 thousand crore)
25
19.83 PMJDY accts.R
R/SU
in PMJDY accounts because of parking of funds by
20
17.32
PMJDY accts.U
U/M manipulators during demonetization move. Zero
15.96
balance accounts are declining from 7.65 crore to
Total PMJDY accts.
a
15 10.45 Linear (PMJDY
Y accts.R/SU )
12.1
10
7
7.73
10.24 11.67
Linear (PMJDY
Y accts.U/M )
Linear (Total PMJDY
P accts. )
5.95 crore from December 14 to June 17 (Figure 2).
6
6.23
4.22
5
Mobile banking has registered a volume of
0
14-Dec 15-Dec 16-Dec 17-Jun
n
106.18 million transactions with value of Rs1612.12
billion as of April 2017 (Table 1).
(Source: DFS site, Govt. of India) (R-Rural, SU-Semi urban,
JAM (Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-Mobile) trinity: It
U-Urban, M-Metro)
refers to the Government of India initiative to link
Figure: 2, Progress of RuPay card, increase in balance Jan Dhan accounts, Mobile numbers and Aadhaar
outstanding, decline in zero balance and increase number of Indians to plug the leakages of government
Aadhaar seeding in PMJDY accounts subsidies. With the introduction of new technology
introduced by National Payments Corporation of
80
India (NPCI), a person can transfer funds, check
70 71.03
64.13
balance through a normal phone which was earlier
60
RuPay card in PMJDY accts (cr)
limited only to smart phones. Mobile banking for the
50
Balance O/S in PMJDY accts.
poor would be available through National Unified
40 (000 cr)
USSD Platform (NUUP) for which all banks and mobile
Zero Bal.accts in PMJDY (cr)
30 29.22
20.7
companies have come together.
22.42 Aadhaar seeding in PMJDY (cr)
20 16.85 14.88 18.97
10
8.35
6.18
8.46 8.45 Direct Benefit Transfer or DBT: It is an attempt
to change the mechanism of transferring subsidies
6.25 5.95
7.65 6.31
0
Dec-14 Dec-15 Dec-16 Jun-17
launched by Government of India. This program aims
to transfer subsidies directly to the people through
inbuilt accident insurance cover of `1 lakh and their bank accounts. It is hoped that crediting
RuPay Kisan Card, micro insurance & pension etc. subsidies into bank accounts will reduce leakages,
are also added to it. So far, 22.42 crore RuPay cards delays, etc. The primary aim of Direct Benefit Transfer
are issued under PMJDY accounts. program is to bring transparency and terminate
pilferage from distribution of funds sponsored by the
Aadhaar: The Unique Identification Authority Government. Payment is made in the bank accounts
of India is a Central Government agency. Its objective of the beneficiary using the Aadhaar Payment Bridge
is to collect the biometric and demographic data of of NPCI.
residents, store them in a centralized database, and
issue a 12-digit unique identity number called Aadhaar In reality, over Rs 36,000 crore were saved in
to each resident.18.97 crore (65.44 per cent) PMJDY last two years by disbursing subsidies straightway
accounts are Aadhaar seeded as of 30.06.2017. to the beneficiaries accounts under Direct Benefit
Table 1: Progress card of mobile banking and ATM card use
Volume in million numbers Value in billion Rs

July15 Jan16 July16 April17 July15 Jan16 July16 April17
Mobile Banking 24.96 42.80 64.44 106.18 235.71 465.21 668.04 1612.17
Debit card
Use at ATM 655.17 707.63 752.13 660.32 2077.85 2181.88 2191.65 2168.60
Use at POS 94.97 109.88 129.67 268.00 140.07 146.11 170.92 374.82
(Data from RBI site, payment and settlement indicators)

Transfer (DBT). As many as 84 schemes including Digital-locker-India: This initiative eliminates
Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment the need for people to carry the hard copies of the
Guarantee Act have been included in the DBT certificates issued by states, municipal agencies, and
scheme. Over 1,200 schemes were studied to see if other bodies. Birth certificates, school and college
they could be brought under the DBT scheme and it leaving certificates, residence and marriage proof,
was found that within a very short period, around and even PAN cards will be digitized. For this, the
550 schemes could be incorporated in the scheme. government has rolled out a national depository
Number of beneficiaries, getting subsidies through that will hold these records. Each private locker will
Direct Benefits Transfer (DBT) into their bank store all the important documents of users, which
accounts has crossed the 30-crore mark and the are digitally verified by the government. Now rather
government has now fixed a deadline to transfer all than sending physical copies, the link of that cloud
subsidies through an Aadhaar-enabled DBT. folder having digital copies of verified certificates
can be shared.
Digital Boost to MGNREGA: Digital boost to the
flagship rural job scheme, MNREGA is a commendable PRAGATI: It is an interactive platform launched
initiative. A total of 35,000 Gram Panchayats are for public grievances redressal. It is aimed at
covered to ensured better implementation through monitoring and reviewing programs and projects of
mobile monitoring system. This initiative will help the Government of India as well as state government
the implementation agencies with live data from the initiatives and also addressing common man’s
worksites, an online and real-time updation of data grievances. This step is expected to make governance
base, real-time visibility of the data for complete in India more efficient and responsive.
transparency, and location of assets with geo-tagging Digidhan mela: This ants about various digital
for easy verification. payment channels including Unified Payments
e-Money: The Department of Posts has planned Interface (UPI), Aadhaar Enabled Payment System
to provide electronic money order service to 70 per (AEPS), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data
cent of its total post offices. This service will enable (USSD) and RuPay cards. The event will focus on
India Post to remit money next day to the doorstep ways and benefits of the system and will also address
that earlier took about a week. Also, it will make the concerns regarding payments and commissions
the whole process secure and fast. People can send charged by the respective organizations. To Make
maximum of Rs 5,000 through e-money order. Digital Payments a Mass Movement, more than 14
lakh consumers and 77,000 merchants were rewarded
Twitter Samvad:- This will enable the citizens to with Rs. 226 crore (Rs 177 crore to consumers and
know about new government initiatives and actions. Rs 49 crore to merchants) for using Digital Payments
It is a service that lets leaders and government through two incentive schemes for Digital Payments
agencies communicate with the people through Lucky Grahak Yojana and DigiDhan Vyapar Yojana.
tweets and SMS. DigiDhan Melas are also being organized in 100
Digital Life Certificates:- The ‘Jeevan Pramaan’ cities over a period of 100 days in 26 States and 7
scheme has given a scope of relief to a million of retired Union Territories. Over 5000 financial institutions
government employees. With this, the pensioner have reached 15 lakh citizens through the Melas and
will do away with the requirement of submitting a at least 16,000 government and private institutions
physical life certificate in November each year and have been declared cashless. Since demonetization,
can now digitally provide proof of their existence to there has been a phenomenal growth in digital
authorities for continuity of pension every year. transactions.
Table 2: Transactions through some new digital apps
Dec16 Mar 17 June 17
Digital Apps Vol. in lakh Value in cr Vol.in lakh Value in cr Vol.in lakh Value in cr
BHIM 0.42 1.90 24.60 823.10 46.17 1486.70
UPI 19.67 706.16 61.61 2391.40 101.55 3067.50
IMPS 605.32 46524.88 596.38 61105.58 686.09 60015.50
(Source, NPCI site)

• Transactions increased through UPI from 19.67 DigiGAON: Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital
lakh to 101.55 lakh with value of transaction Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) is extended to six
Rs 706.16 cr to Rs 3067.50 cr respectively. crore rural households for imparting knowledge on
(Table 2) basic education and health services.
• APBS (Disbursement by UIDAI no.) during FY BHUVAN: It is a satellite based geo platform
14-15 was Rs 61.43 billion and increased to Rs by ISRO, reaching out to the rural people. It acts
286.63 billion in FY 16-17. (Table 3) like a clearing house for satellite data. Essentially
• AEPS recorded Rs 22.82 billion during FY 16- a software that integrates and processes ground
inputs with satellite data for diverse needs. Three
17.Further, 6 fold increase up to April 17 after
important applications are there which have remote
demonetization.
reach for use of rural population:
• The BHIM App, launched by the Prime Minister
on 30th December 2016 has recorded a) CHAMAN (Coordinated program on Horticulture
transaction in volume and value term during Assessment and Management using Geo-
Informatics. It will help in:
FY 16-17 as 46.17 lakh and Rs 1486.70 crore
respectively. (Table 2) l Digital inventory of all horticulture zones in the
• There has been an increase of nearly 13 per country.
cent in the number of PoS machines sold since l Deciding cold storage hubs.
October 2016 indicating that more number l Managing inflation through accurate data of
of merchants across the country are willingly food stock.
accepting digital payments.
b) FASAL (Forecasting Agricultural output using
BHIM App for e-transactions, Aadhaar seeding Space, Agro-meteorology and Land based
etc.: Through this App, the customer can access his observations). It will do the following:
bank account and then make payment or send a l Monitor crop health.
request to collect payment by directly approaching
the settlement system. In BHIM, there is no need of l Can be used directly to study crop locations.
writing account number. All an individual needs is c) NADAMS (National Agricultural Drought
just a virtual financial address of the receiver such as Assessment and Monitoring System)
his mobile number or Aadhaar number or a virtual l Remote sensing real time information on
name. His real financial address is discovered by the current or developing drought at state, district
National Payment Corporation of India. Now the and sub district level.
sender doesn’t need to know the account details
to send money but he can now use BHIM app and Android Apps:
use recipient’s mobile number, Aadhaar number Many Android Apps are new tools in the hands
or Virtual Payment Address to send money. Today, of the officials and farmers, helping them to connect
there are more than 100 crore mobile phones, 110 with the digital platforms at the comforts of their
crore Aadhaar numbers in the country to use the app homes through mobile devices such as smartphones
effectively. and phablets.
Table 3: Retail Payment Statistics on NPCI Platform
FY 14-15 FY 15-16 FY 16-17

Vol. in mn Value in bn Vol. in mn Value in bn Vol. in mn Value in bn
Aadhaar payment bridge system 168.43 61.43 717.46 185.98 949.28 286.63
(APBS) Disb. based on UIDAI no.
Aadhaar enabled payment system -- -- 0.36 0.86 16.29 22.82
(AEPS) over micro ATM (cash debit/
credit)
IMPS 78.44 581.89 220.81 1622.29 506.84 4116.24

CCE Agri: Revenue officials now use this Conclusion:
android app to estimate crop damage and yield
Sufficient budgetary support for creation of
loss at 1100 locations in 12 states.
such a massive digital infrastructure to reach 2.80
Ground Truth: To monitor crop health. lakh gram panchayats through digital connectivity
At present, it is being used by 18 State
to reduce digital gap can take the country into a
Governments.
different direction. PMJDY accounts, Mobile hand
Bhuban Hailstorm App: This ISRO app is being set, Aadhaar etc through various Government
used to capture hailstorm losses in states such as
initiatives can help in achieving the last mile
Madhya Pradesh.
connectivity for the prosperity of the country.
mKisan: Nearly 90 million farmers are now
enrolled for farm advisories, such as weather (The Author is Centre Head, Union Bank
and pest updates on their phones through such of India, Staff Training Centre, Bhubaneswar.
apps. Email: [email protected])
UMANG App
UMANG (Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance) is envisaged to make e-governance
‘mobile first’. It is developed by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and
National e-Governance Division (NeGD). It is an evolving platform designed for citizens of India
to offer them access to the pan India e-Gov services from the Central, State, Local Bodies, and
Agencies of government on app, web, SMS, and IVR channels. Its key features include:
l Unified Platform: It brings together all government departments and their services on a
single platform to provide better and easier services to citizens.
l Mobile First Strategy: It aligns all government services with the mobile first strategy to
leverage mobile adoption trends.
l Integration with Digital India Services: It provides seamless integration with other Digital
India Services like Aadhaar, DigiLocker, and PayGov. Any new such service will automatically
be integrated with the platform.
l Uniform Experience: It is designed to enable citizens to discover, download, access, and
use all government services easily.
l Secure and Scalable: It supports Aadhaar-based and other authentication mechanisms for
service access. The sensitive profile data is saved in encrypted format and no one can view
this information.
Following are its key Services:
l CBSE: All CBSE Students can locate the exam centers and view their exam results
l NCERT: It enables students, teachers, parents, and schools to view class-wise and subject-wise content provided by NCERT in
online and offline modes.
l AICTE: Citizens can search for AICTE approved institutes and courses.
l Soil Health Card: SHC helps in crop-wise recommendations of nutrients and fertilizers required for the individual farms to help
farmers to improve the yield of production. Citizens can view their Soil Health Card using this application in UMANG.
l PMKVY: The objective of Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY) is to enable a large number of Indian youth to take
up industry-relevant skill training that will help them in securing a better livelihood. Citizens can apply as a candidate under
PMKVY and view their application.
l MoHUPA: The Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation is an agency responsible for urban poverty, housing, and
employment programs. Citizens can apply for PMAY scheme using this application in UMANG.
l Crop Insurance: Crop Insurance helps to protect against either the loss of crops due to natural disasters, such as hail,
drought, and floods, or the loss of revenue due to decline in the prices of agricultural commodities.
l ORS: Online Registration System (ORS) links various hospitals across the country to enable citizens to book/cancel
appointments and view lab and blood availability reports.

Changing Conditions of Women in Digital Age:
Possibilities and Prospects
Prof Gita Bamezai
“Most of the SDGs mirror India’s own national policies”, including the Food Security Act, housing for all, Clean India campaign,
National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, programme for the girl child. Progress on education cannot be achieved without
the focus on women and girls. “Gender equality and empowerment of women and girls is an imperative for the SDGs and also an
imperative for India,” Now is the time to pick up the tools of digitization and start putting them to work. If we can do so, the prize
is immense: more robust and inclusive growth and better lives for women and their families.
T
he rapid pace of digitisation today has been broadband connection across the country is helped
aided by megatrends in the form of technology by this understanding that technology is a great
push, consumer pull and its economic leveler and can bridge the gap in any development
benefits. It foretells what awaits any society waiting sector. This effort to reach the ‘last mile’ has been
to see insurmountable challenges melt in the aided by private network operators who see this as
face of induction of automation, use of software a big business opportunity with almost close to 1+
robotics and artificial intelligence for personal billion becoming users of mobile.
use or for large businesses and organisations. As
digital practices become the norm in our world, Digital India programme :
it would become more evident who is ‘digitally Governments have viewed these megatrends
connected’ and who is not. The phenomenon of as an opportunity to restructure the edifice of
digitization is set to reach an inflection point since governance with an overt commitment to provide
it will determine how economic development can a robust, responsive and transparent system for the
be achieved with greater alacrity and efficiency. people to avail services and benefits. In order to
In view of such projections, it is important to transform the entire ecosystem of public services
reconsider in what ways citizens can reap the through the use of information technology, the
benefits and become partners in the process of Government of India has launched the ‘Digital
social and economic development. By 2020 an entire
India programme with the vision to transform India
generation, ‘Generation C’ (Connected) would grow
into a digitally empowered society and knowledge
in a digitized culture dominated by computers, the
economy’. The basic attempt is to establish digital
internet, mobile phones, texting and social media
infrastructure as a core utility to all citizens, aided
(PWC report). In India, rapid efforts to provide
by e-governance and Digitised services which
would lead to digital empowerment of citizens.
Digital rights have the potential to harness
new energies and bring about a more equitable
society. One of the strong components of the
Digital India programme is ‘Information to All’
which underpins the efforts to provide services and
improve the infrastructure. It can be argued that
once mobile connectivity has been established and
broadband access is available, the natural corollary
is that information will be sought by anyone and
everyone. This may seem as a probable possibility
but has remained elusive for women, even in
urban areas as well. Women constitute half the sky

all women and girls”; women, primarily in societies
that have a rigid patriarchal system, are disregarded
as relevant to “the balance the three dimensions
of sustainable development: the economic, social
and environmental” (UN, 2015).
Bridging the Gender Gap:
In Women in the Workforce: An Unmet
Potential in Asia and the Pacific, the emphasis
is on policymakers to examine specific reasons
behind the gender gap with the aim to develop
but have remained either invisible or relegated to and implement effective policies for women’s
being inconsequential in scheme of things in the economic empowerment: “This will go a long way
past. in levelling the playing field between men and
women as well as unleash a country’s full potential
A 2015 report by the Asian Development Bank for sustainable economic growth and prosperity”
(ADB) rationalizes that women’s low participation (ADB, 2015). Achieving gender equality is the
in the labour force in Asian countries is attributable single biggest opportunity for inclusive growth and
to choices favouring domestic or non-commercial all 193 UN Member Countries have signed on to
activities, which in turn are reinforced by social UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 to achieve
norms that promote domesticity as a woman’s
gender equality and empower all women and
primary responsibility, “constraining women’s
girls. Recent research demonstrates as much as
social activities, mobility, and severely limiting
$28 trillion could be added to the global economy
opportunities for women to achieve financial
by 2025 if all countries bridged the gender gap -
growth or to venture into entrepreneurial activities,
a magnitude equivalent to the combined US and
or both” (ADB, 2015). According to the report
China economies today. Yet 90 per cent of countries
based on a simulated model by the ADB, “closing
- including fifteen of the G20 countries - still have
the gender gap could generate a 30 per cent
increase in the per capita income of a hypothetical discriminatory legislation preventing women from
average Asian economy in one generation” (ADB contributing fully to economic growth.
2015). In India, opportunities to tap the potential Increasing visibility of women’s
of women in acceleration of economy has been marginalisation in access to education, healthy
left unexplored. Perspective on inclusion of lifestyle and financial inclusion opportunities has
women in building economy has been treated as allowed governments to debate and discuss the
a perfunctory idea since the assumption is women impediments which detract societies to alter
require facilitation and assistance in availing social policies and programmes which can attend to the
and economic benefits. widening gender gaps. This is evident from the
The United Nations Women’s report, Gender attention given by the World Economic Forum by
Equality, the New Urban Agenda (2016), emphasizes introducing the Global Gender Gap Index for the
multiple challenges women face (especially in urban first time in 2006 as a framework for capturing the
areas), exacerbated by the non-acknowledgement magnitude of gender-based disparities and tracking
or under-resourcing of their contributions in their progress. ‘The Index benchmarks national
creating sustainable cities. The United Nations’ gender gaps on economic, political, education and
reiteration of the tectonic linkages between gender health criteria, and provides country rankings that
equality and sustainable development has been allow for effective comparisons across regions
corroborated by its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable and income groups. The rankings are designed to
Development. The Preamble to SDG clearly states create greater awareness among a global audience
that its sustainable development goals and targets of the challenges posed by gender gaps and the
“seek to realize the human rights of all and to opportunities created by reducing them’ (Global
achieve gender equality and the empowerment of Gender Gap Report 2015).

All development sectors like education, harness the minds and abilities which can translate
health, livelihood and agriculture, just to name into more knowledge based skills. Girls are less
some, are inextricably linked to lives of women. likely to study STEM subjects and hence, women
We have to recognize the contribution of women are less likely to be active in technology related
as an integral agent in the process of achieving fields. This active approach to use digital literacy
the minimum standards in development. For programmes for improving participation of girls in
example, maternal mortality and morbidity ratio in STEM programme bespeaks of a holistic approach
India have parallels with poorest countries in the to education for girls. Digital technology was
African continent or with strife-ridden neighboring expected to deliver women out of drudgery and
countries. But significant gains have been made provide possibilities of learning but have belied
with Maternal Mortality Ratio at 167 (2011-13) hopes so far. Even today, worldwide some ‘2.3
as compared to 254 in 2004-06 and India’s Under billion women do not have internet access and are
Five Mortality (U5MR) declined from 125 per 1,000 14 per cent less likely than men to own a mobile
live births in 1990 to 49 per 1,000 live births in phone, impeding access to financial services,
2013 (Niti Aayog). A critical element in changing business information and opportunities’ A report
lives is the role information plays in critical and by McKinsey Global Institute reports that bridging
emergency situation as well as a regular process the gender gap could add $700 billion to India’s
of information sharing. This can be effectively GDP by 2025. In a report titled, Power of Parity:
achieved if digital platforms are not just used for Advancing women’s equality in India’, projects that
providing information, but assist through a network 70 per cent of the increase would come from raising
within women’s social and cultural context. These India’s female labour-force participation rate to 41
‘glocal networks’ are more sustainable and require per cent in 2025 from 31 per cent at present.
less capital intensive measures.
Financial Inclusion of Women:
Educational Opportunities:
As commented by one of financial expert,
While we have done well in terms of an overall issues of diversity and inclusion are important
economic growth, the dividends of growth have not elements of digital culture. ‘E-commerce has
percolated to the lives of women to a large extent. a transformational impact with opportunities
A similar situation is evident in the area of literacy emerging in areas such as made-to-order meals
which has repeatedly shown that girls drop off the and handicrafts among others, which women
education radar because of social and prejudicial could capitalise on. But the picture appears more
cultural practices. How do we spur change which dismal than encouraging since women continue to
will translate in making women an equal contributor contribute to only 17 per cent of India’s GDP, below
in the economy? More importantly, they should the global average, despite accounting for 50 per
get to participate in the development process since cent of the population and having the potential to
social-political and economic stakes are higher for
represent a much larger part of the workforce.
them. Improving access of women and girls to
digital technologies is no longer an exaggerated or As a first step, financial inclusion of women
distant proposal. What can help to bring in change can be accelerated by digital literacy and ability of
is to bring women in mainstream by linking literacy banks to become more proactive in setting digitised
and learning through digital platforms to fostering operational norms for a transparent, effective and
better informed citizenry. timely response system in marginal settings as well.
Within a digitised ecosystem, ‘financial inclusion’
Bias in women’s education opportunities have
for women can have a multiplier impact on their
led to an arguably stalled situation where not only
entrepreneurship, economic growth and wealth
the girl child is taken off from school at an early age,
creation. How can one talk about “inclusion”
but she is restricted to opt for specialisation and
without including rural women and how their
learning which would restrict her to domesticity
lives need to go beyond just using mobile for
in a restrictive way. The STEM subjects, such as
entertainment and in making calls. This projection
Australia’s SAGE program, require a huge boost to
has to be seen in conjunction with how women

in rural India can be part of the change and bring mobile service providers has also contributed to a
in gender equality in rural areas. The literacy of significant increase in mobile phone as a preferred
women in India as a goal remains rather elusive device for Internet access”.
and has only widened the gender gap in terms of
It is estimated that in“urban India with an
participation and empowerment of women. The
estimated population of 444 million already has
ability of digital technology to reduce this gap has
269 million (60 per cent) using the Internet. Rural
become a possibility and can effectively erase the
India, with an estimated population of 906 million
gaps of disparity and dispossession which govern
as per 2011 census, has only 163 million (17 per
lives of women largely in marginal conditions.
cent) Internet users. Thus, there are approximately
Technology seems like a great leveller which no
potential 750 million users still in rural India who
other transformative social change has been able to
are yet to become Internet users; if only they can
achieve in such a short time. Access to information
be reached out properly.” A recent study points
is critical to women’s lives and lack of it causes
out that 77 per cent of urban users and 92 per
impediments and confines them to a static instead
cent of rural users consider mobile as the primary
of a dynamic life.
device for accessing the Internet, largely driven by
India is at the cusp of a revolution which is availability and affordability of smart phones. The
unfolding now with becoming the second largest pattern of usage, however, starkly differs across
country of mobile users having crossed the one rural and urban populations. While services such as
billion mark last year in 2016. The number of smart e-mails, social networking and online shopping are
phones maybe less than China and US but with prevalent in urban India, it is entertainment in the
prices of smart phones and attractive network offers form of video and audio content driving Internet
and competitive prices, is making the transition consumption in the rural counterpart of the
easier to smart phones. Possibilities of graduating country. Rural India is claimed to have leapfrogged
from just making a call to innumerable possibilities to mobile technology with lower penetration of
make the digital revolution a very exciting period computers as a medium to access Internet.
in our lives.
Contrary to those kinds of claims, careful
Any such technological opportunity has had a and broad-based statistical tests in 25 different
catalytic effect on societies. In India, since we have countries have revealed that the reason why fewer
not been able to meet the challenge of bridging women access and use digital media is a direct
the gender literacy gap makes the proposition result of their unfavorable conditions with respect
of making a difference a rather challenging task. to employment, education and income. Therefore,
Growth in internet penetration will have several women have and use less digital media not
ramifications, including on internet commerce, because they are women per se, but because social
delivery of financial and healthcare services as practice provides them with less employment, less
well as eGovernance. Overall Internet penetration education and less income, which again leads to less
in India is currently around 31 per cent, but is digital media access and usage. When controlling
on an ascendancy drive. Notwithstanding slow for these variables, women turn out to be more
progress of broadband networks in rural areas, active users of digital tools than men. In her report
has off-set prospects of marginalisation with on Increasing Digital Opportunity for Women, Erin
help of local ingenuity by using low-rate offers M. Fuller emphasises the fact of being a woman
by networks keen to tap hunger for more digital contributes positively to using digital media.
content in rural areas. “Different mobile handset Women, traditionally thought of as being better
manufacturers have focused on introducing low communicators than men, seem to have a natural
priced handsets and tablets compatible to access proximity with these new tools for communication.
the Internet. More and more companies are So a different way to view a “digital-gender-divide”
getting into this segment and this has resulted in is as a “digital-gender-opportunity.
competition primarily based on retail price and
features of the device. Fall in the rates for Internet “Most of the SDGs mirror India’s own national
access due to cut throat competition among policies”, including the Food Security Act, housing

for all, Clean India campaign, National Rural socially and economically. Digital platforms have
Employment Guarantee Scheme, programme for the potential to transcend the limitations imposed
the girl child. Progress on education cannot be by regressive societal mores in more ways than
achieved without the focus on women and girls. one. Women have a tendency to form informal
“Gender equality and empowerment of women networks to facilitate challenges that they face
and girls is an imperative for the SDGs and also an and mobiles provide a berth and an opportunity to
imperative for India,” Now is the time to pick up enlarge the circle of these networks. This process
the tools of digitization and start putting them to of sharing of information among themselves does
work. If we can do so, the prize is immense: more get compromised if it is not based on legitimate
robust and inclusive growth and better lives for sources and verifiable points of access.
women and their families.
It is increasingly realised that digital
Women need information critical to their technology’s attributes as an interactive platform
health and their family for a sustainable life. and device (artificial intelligence in the form of
Women see themselves as primarily custodian of digital voice assistant) will unfold new ways of
‘family and health’ and more importantly, they
governance and business. The new initiative taken
have a seminal role to play in sustaining family
by the government of e-Kranti (Transforming
values and traditions. These issues have been
e-Governance for Transforming Governance) in
overlooked largely and women have been treated
2015 is a reflection of an emerging perspective of
as recipients of development and technological
holistic development rather than sectoral approach.
changes.
‘The National Portal of India provides an ideal
More than computers, access to mobiles front-end for these initiatives as it is a single window
allows an ability to transcend limitations imposed access to information and services being provided
by structural disadvantages both within the larger by the various Indian Government entities’. The
governance set-up and the limited horizons of great beneficiaries would be women who would
the society in which women spend their lives. have a higher stake in such transformative changes
The know-how and the skills women possess since their lives require a upend direction of social
have been marginalized with the advent of the and economic change.
new knowledge. Digital devices can blend these
two aspects in a way that can allow women to (The author is Head, Department of
emerge more confident and have an ability to Communication Research, IIMC, New Delhi. Email:
form networks of business or of mutual benefit [email protected])
National Bamboo Mission renamed as

National Agro-Forestry & Bamboo Mission (NABM)
National Bamboo Mission renamed has been renamed as National Agro-Forestry & Bamboo Mission
(NABM).It is being implemented as per the set objectives and targets of the Mission. As per available
reports, 3,61,791 ha. area has been covered in forest & non-forest land, 91,715 ha. area has been taken
up for improvement of existing stock for higher productivity (forest & non-forest areas) under the Mission
against the targets of 3,62,848 ha., 69,410 ha. respectively.
Under the Mission, 108 nos. of markets (Bamboo wholesale & retail markets near villages, etc.)
have been established for providing marketing avenues to bamboo farmers for their raw bamboo as
well as finished products. Besides, efforts are being made to popularize bamboo products through
participation in domestic/national/international trade fairs. Steps are being taken to provide assistance
to farmers/bamboo growers for nursery establishment, plantations in non-forest area, imparting training
for preparation of nurseries & bamboo plantations, establishing of bamboo markets for farmer products,
etc.

Digital Rural Revolution: Rethinking education
Dr. Tanu Kathuria, Abhishek Mukherjee
Education in digital rural India is an indisputable step forward to empower rural communities with capacity building & training
programmes and make them digitally literate. It is a foundation to facilitate deployment of rural citizen services through digital
means. To match with the need of the day, it is important to create a digital data house at every rural community level to make
them economically viable, and digital rural education is the right way to approach that. It is for sure a fundamental move to
generate social, cultural and economic advantages for rural communities.
T
he process of imparting education has gone years. Further, many of these areas are either
through a sea change if we look in the last two prone to natural disasters or are hubs of violent
decades. Our life has become technology- political activities, making it difficult to transfer
driven and the onset of online courses came as a skilled educationists to these areas.
path-breaker. No longer did one need to have access
to schools, time or a lot of money! All one needed Considering such limitations, the Government
was a good internet connection. Digital learning in December 2015 expanded its Digital India
has seeped into the system considerably and has programme, launching new initiatives and
a far-reaching impact towards educating the vast broadening the scope of existing ones, to make more
population of India, but the stagnant state of rural services accessible to the masses. Launched by the
education has been a major point of concern for Prime Minister, the 22 initiatives under the Digital
educational policy-makers in India. 67 per cent of India programme include projects in the areas of
India’s population belongs to rural areas. The ratio rural digital education, digital infrastructure, digital
of rural-urban enrolment of students is a massive empowerment, on-demand Government services
7:5. Despite such a high rate of enrolment, nearly and promotion of industry.
60 per cent of students in rural areas up to the age
Empowering Education through Technology:
of 10 do not possess basic reading skills nor can
they solve simple mathematical problems. The It is essential to implement the new digitized
high rate of dropouts, nearly 50 per cent by the age education tools in rural India. Introduction of
of 14, compounds this problem. Amongst female such tools can solve the problems of mass reach,
students, the dropout rate increases even further quality and relevant education. Teachers will be
due to the prevailing socio-economic conditions. available via virtual classrooms, thereby plugging
The main reasons behind poor quality of rural the problem of unwillingness in educationists to
education are dismal standards of rural education, be physically present in many such areas.
infrastructural inequities, lack of connectivity
and unavailability of teachers: The availability of One of the major pillars of Digital India is
trained resources and their willingness to teach in e-Kranti, under which immense emphasis has been
far-flung villages has taken a severe hit in recent given to digitizing rural India through e-technology,
especially in the domain of education. In line with
the Government’s Digital India Initiative, some
of these programmes were initiated to empower
rural communities in many different way smaking
them digitally literate.
e-Basta:
This project has created a framework to make
school books accessible in digital form as e-books
to be read and used on tablets and laptops. The

main idea is to bring various publishers (free as
well as commercial) and schools together on one
platform. Students can easily access interactive
and dynamic content augmented with text, charts,
graphics, videos and auxiliary resource. eBastas
are delivered through the internet instantly and
are portable. Teachers can choose and bundle
content according to their teaching methods. It
also provides a single point interface to publishers
for reaching out to multiples of schools.
National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM):

In India, approximately 30 per cent country, providing 100 mbps link to be used as
population lives below poverty line, illiteracy information highway to be utilized diversely by
rate is more than 25-30 per cent and percentage all kind of stakeholders to ensure that digital
of digital literacy is in single figures. However, inclusion has reached in all villages across the
there’s a growing desire among people in rural country.
India to be part of its modernization process.
Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta
To make India digitally literate, National
Digital Literacy Mission Programme is being Abhiyan (PMGDISHA):
launched by the Government with a aim of not As per the 71st NSSO Survey on Education
only bringing dynamic and integrated platform 2014, only 6 per cent of rural households have
of digital literacy awareness, but also to build a computer. This highlights that more than 15
education and capacity programmes that will crore rural households (94 per cent of 16.85
help rural communities to take lead in the global crore households) do not have computers and a
digital economy and help them in maintaining the significant number of these households are likely
competitiveness and also shape a technologically to be digitally illiterate. The ‘Pradhan Mantri
empowered society. Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan’ (PMGDISHA) is
For this initiative, the Universal Services being initiated to make 6 crore rural households
Obligation Fund (USOF) has established Bharat digitally literate thus, empowering citizens by
Broadband Network Ltd. (BBNL) to roll out the providing them access to information, knowledge
National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) plan. and skills for operating computers / digital access
BBNL will lay out the optic fiber cable terminating devices.
in each of the 250,000 Gram Panchayats in the PMGDISHA is expected to be one of the
largest digital literacy programmes
NDLM Components in the world. Under the scheme,
275 lakh candidates will be trained
in the FY 2017-18, and 300 lakh in
the FY 2018-19. To ensure equitable
geographical reach, each of the
250,000 Gram Panchayats would be
expected to register an average of
200-300 candidates.
The implementation of the
Scheme would be carried out
under the overall supervision of
Ministry of Electronics and IT in
active collaboration with States/

There is a focus on developing Massive Online
Open Courses (MOOC) to help rural students
pursue any course of their choice from institutions
all over the country and abroad. These courses
comprise the latest syllabus taught by eminent
academicians as well as industry leaders via
virtual classrooms. SWAYAM is a ‘Made in India’ IT
platform which offers interactive courses free of
cost from Class IX to post graduation, which can be
accessed by anyone, anywhere at any time.
UTs through their designated State Implementing Online Education:
Agencies, District e-Governance Society (DeGS), etc.
The education market in India currently
Digital Classroom: standing at USD 100 billion presents an opportunity
With no or negligible access to the internet, for technological advancement in terms of online
the education provided in rural schools lacks education. There has been a significant rise in
any sort of relevance. While urban classrooms the internet population in past five years, with an
are upgraded with modern technology such as overall internet penetration of 31 per cent.
digital classes, meritorious rural students are The spread of online education in Rural
deprived of such facilities. To bridge the gap, the India will provide an opportunity for social
Central Government has collaborated with various learning, employability and entrepreneurship,
telecom service providers such as Google and thus, making them job ready. Online education
Facebook to empower geographically-remote especially in rural areas is driven by the demand
areas of India with basic infrastructural set-ups for quality education. The online channel provides
for internet services. Still, much needs to be done a conducive educational avenue for students
since only 9 per cent of rural India is connected to coming from distant villages who require focused
the Internet, according to the latest report by the and individual learning. Most importantly, online
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. education does not discriminate between rural
Such initiatives taken by the Government and urban population. Any course is equally
of India have been well-received in rural areas. accessible for a student from a metro city and
Rural schools have been made ready for new-age for another student from a distant village. Thus,
teaching methods through digital classrooms. online education bridges the rural-urban gap.
The digital classroom refers to the classroom
Biometric Teacher’s Attendance:
where student learning and interaction with the
instructor and peers are fully supported through The Economic Survey has pointed out that
strategic use of information and communication an important concern that is often raised in the
technologies (ICTs). The implementation of this context of school education is poor learning
initiative in larger scale will further ensure quality outcome. Although there have been improvements
education. in access and retention, the learning outcome
for a majority of children is still a cause of
SWAYAM:
serious concern. Some of the underlying causes
India enters a new era of digitized education contributing to low quality of education in the
through its initiative named SWAYAM (Study Webs primary sector are teacher absenteeism and the
of Active –Learning for Young Aspiring Minds). shortage of professionally qualified teachers. An
SWAYAM is implemented by Ministry of HRD and option to address teacher absenteeism that can be
aims at offering online courses to Indian citizens by explored is biometric attendance of all teachers in
Professors of distinguished educational institutions primary schools for each scheduled class/lecture/
like IITs, IIMs, and other Central Universities. session/distinct from the present system, where it

is morning and evening to ostensibly record arrival collaborative online learning, students get the
and departures with little control on the activities on-campus experience and get ‘the best of both
during the working hours. worlds’. ’Live and interactive’ digital learning
According to the UNESCO – EFA (Education empowers the learners to receive par excellence,
for All) Monitoring Report for 2014, teacher quality education anytime and anywhere. Free
absenteeism in India varies between 15 percent online courses open up avenues for both education
(in Maharashtra) to 42 per cent (in Jharkhand). providers and students. Such offerings are changing
The implementation of biometric attendance at the way India learns by giving students an edge in
schools will be of great help not only in addressing learning, benefitting their careers.
the problem of absentee teachers, but also in Social media is also being used as a learning
strengthening students’ strength. tool. Students can critique and share feedback on
Free Wi-Fi in all schools: each other’s assignments, work in collaboration to
create content that can be easily accessed. This also
The Central Government plans to provide gives them an opportunity to ask questions and have
free Wi-Fi to 2.5 lakh schools within the next
multiple responses shared on real-time basis. Social
five years. Devices such as tablets, as provided
media helps in making the students aware of the
to students in Central universities, are to be
current happenings, concerns, issues, social activities
distributed among rural students as well.
and prospective employment.
Digital Literacy:
Digital education is breaking the numerous
In keeping with the Skill India initiative, barriers that are preventing students in rural India
soft-skill courses regarding computer literacy, from receiving quality education in the physically
functioning and hardware-software solutions bound classrooms. ‘Direct to Device’ technology will
are being planned at rural centres. The aim is empower these students to get quality education,
to gradually develop students learning in these anytime and anywhere. It will enable them to save
centres as future instructors, in a bid to enrich rural time, by having more freedom to move at their own
digital education through own human resources. pace.
Digital learning is slowly but definitely With the Digital India programme’s vision to
becoming the direction everyone is stepping transform India into a digitally empowered society
towards. Though India is at a nascent stage when it and knowledge economy, the education sector in
comes to digital education compared to developed
India is poised to witness major growth in the years
nations, nonetheless it’s growing at a substantially
to come. Technology-led reach and easy access will
rapid rate of 55 per cent. Ed-tech is certainly ushering
bring about a socio-economic difference in the lives
the new age of learning in India. It is estimated that
of Indian learners.
the ed-tech market will double in size to USD 40
billion by the end of 2017. The main reasons for Conclusion:
the growth of digital learning can be summed up
as follows. With nearly a billion people on mobile Digital Literacy is the ability of individuals
phones and over 200 million mobiles connected and communities to understand and use digital
to the Internet, there has been a considerable technologies for meaningful actions within life
rise in digital learning. The use of best-in-class situations. Digitally literate persons would be able
content, real-time learning and feedback methods, to operate computers/digital access devices (like
and personalized instructions has encouraged tablets, smart phones, etc.), send and receive emails,
online learning. Digital learning aims to break the browse internet, access Government services, search
numerous barriers that are preventing people from for information, undertaking cashless transactions,
receiving quality education in the physically bound etc. and hence, use IT to actively participate in the
classrooms. process of nation building.
Hybrid, collaborative and online learning The online channel for education in India
processes are changing education. With hybrid, explores almost everything from primary and

secondary education to hobbies such as cookery It is for sure a fundamental move to generate
classes and language learning both in formal and social, cultural and economic advantages for rural
informal forms. It also provides an important communities.
platform for preparation of various competitive
Digital rural education not only initiate
examinations in national as well as international entrepreneurship and bring uniform digital literacy
level. There are five major categories of education but also impacts the socio-economic strata in rural
with potential for significant online adoption. regions. It uplifts the rural standards and play an
Reskilling and online certification courses important role in alleviation of poverty, gender
currently accounts for a significant part of the discrimination in villages.
online education market in India with a share of
38 per cent. References
Education in digital rural India is an “Online Education in India: 2021”,KPMG
indisputable step forward to empower rural Report, May 2017.
communities with capacity building & training
“How Digital Education is taking over
programmes and make them digitally literate. It India: Impact of social media, increased learner
is a foundation to facilitate deployment of rural application power and more”, Institute of Digital
citizen services through digital means. To match & Mobile Marketing, January 11, 2017.
with the need of the day, it is important to create
a digital data house at every rural community level (The authors are Economic Officers in NITI
to make them economically viable, and digital Aayog, Govt. of India. E-mail: tanu.kathuria@nic.
rural education is the right way to approach that. in, [email protected])

Rural Health: IT Initiatives
National Health Portal (NHP):
l Functioning as citizen portal for health related information in different languages (currently six
languages).
l Voice portal, providing information through a toll-free number 1800-180-1104 and;
l Mobile App launched.
ONLINE REGISTRATION SYSTEM (ORS):

l Framework to link hospitals for online registration, payment of fees, appointment, online
diagnostic reports etc.
l Around 7 lakh appointments transacted.
l Around 71 Hospitals on board.
l AIIMS (New Delhi, Jodhpur, Bihar, Rishikesh, Bhubaneswar, Raipur, Bhopal).
l RML Hospital.
l Safdarjung Hospital.
ELECTRONIC VACCINE INTELLIGENCE NETWORK (eVIN)

l Indigenously developed technology system that provides real-time information on vaccine
stocks and flows, and storage temperatures across all cold chain points through a smart phone
application.
l Through maintenance of the right temperature, it helps to ensure the quality and efficacy of the
vaccines.
l Implemented across 12 states.
‘MERA ASPATAAL’ (MY HOSPITAL) APPLICATION:

l Collects information on patients’ level of satisfaction through SMS, Outbound Dialing (OBD),
Web Portal, and Mobile Application.
l Contacts the patient to collect information on their level of satisfaction.
l Under Phase I, around 141 hospitals covered.
MOBILE ACADEMY:
l Launched: 2016
l Free audio training course to improve the knowledge base and

communication skills of ASHAs.
l More than 75,000 ASHAs have started the Mobile Academy course.
l Approximately 84 per cent have completed the course.
l States: Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttarakhand.

MOTHER AND CHILD TRACKING SYSTEM (MCTS)/REPRODUCTIVE CHILD HEALTH (RCH)
APPLICATION:
l Individual-based tracking system across all the States & UTs.
l Objective: Improve IMR, MMR & morbidity.

l Aim: Facilitate timely delivery of antenatal and postnatal care services and immunization to
children.
l Approximately, 12.08 crore pregnant women and 10.56 crore children registered.
NIKSHAY:
l Tracks individuals for treatment-adherence of TB.
l Missed call facility with Toll Free No: 1800-11-6666 started to reach TB patients for counseling
and treatment support.
l Implemented across all states.
l More than 70 lakh patients been notified till date.
Tobacco Cessation Programme:

l Initiative for counseling and helping people to quit tobacco by giving a missed call to
011-22901701.
l Currently, over 20 lakh total missed calls have been captured and more than 14 lakhs users
registered.
mDiabetes Program:
l Initiative for prevention and care of diabetes by giving a missed call to 011-22901701.
l Currently, more than 1 lakh users are registered for mDiabetes.
eAushidhi:
l Deals with purchase, inventory management and distribution of
drugs, sutures and surgical items to :
l District Drug Warehouses of States/UT.
l District Hospitals (DH), their sub stores at CHC,PHC etc.
eRakt Kosh:
l Being rolled out for all the licensed blood banks in public and private
health facilities in States/UTs.
l Piloted in blood banks of Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and IRCS Delhi.

MOBILE APPS:
l Various mobile apps have been launched namely:
l Indradhanush Immunisation: Immunisation tracker:
l India Fights Dengue : Enables a user to check

Dengue Symptoms, get nearest Hospitals/Blood
bank information.
l NHP Directory Services: Provides information related
to Hospital and Blood banks across India.
l NHP Swasth Bharat: Information dissemination on
Disease, Lifestyle, First Aid.
l No More Tension Mobile App: On stress management
related aspects.
l Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan Mobile
App: Reporting pregnancy care related information
from across states.
TELEMEDICINE
l Tele-Medicine Nodes at Pilgrim places:
Satellite communication based telemedicine
nodes at various unreachable geographical
locations including Chardhams and other
important pilgrimage centres (Amarnath,
Ayappa and Kedarnath) for health awareness,
screening of non-communicate disease (NCD)
and for providing specialty consultation to the
devotees visiting these places.
l National Medical College Network
(NMCN):
Satellite communication based telemedicine
nodes at various unreachable geographical
locations including Chardhams and other important pilgrimage centres (Amarnath, Ayappa and
Kedarnath) for health awareness, screening of non-communicable disease (NCD) and for providing
specialty consultation to the devotees visiting these places
l Tele-Evidence:
A modality via which doctors can testify in the judicial process utilizing the video conferencing facility
without visiting the courts in person. Services operational in PGIMER, Chandigarh since March
2014. Till Feb 2015, more than 500 Tele-Evidences have been successfully conducted and around
128000Kms, 3900Hrs and INR 52 Lacs was saved. MoHFW has decided to rollout this service in every
State/UT.
l National Telemedicine Network (NTN):
Providing Telemedicine Services to the remote areas by upgrading existing Government Healthcare
Facilities (MC,DH,SDH,PHC, and CHC) in States. In the current financial year, 7 States/UTs have
been provided financial assistance for providing Tele-Medicine services by established NTN.

Technology: Empowering the Rural Society
Santosh Kumar
Ours is a nation which is expected to lead the usage of technologies like Cloud, rise as a breeding ground of start-ups and be
the focal point of global spending on digital technologies. The Digital India campaign of the Government with special emphasis
being laid on digital financial transactions and cloud technologies will go a long way in evolution of better services and amenities
for the citizens. The goals of a cashless economy as well as an inclusive economy can only be achieved by harnessing the digital
technologies in a potent manner. We live in the Digital age after all.
T
he human civilization has come a long way exists a vast divide amongst our population where we
from the days of cave dwelling and bare-hand- are yet to bring our rural Bharat to the India known
hunting. The one constant which has brought to us. A study recently released places India at 43rd
about a change in human way of life is technology. position in terms of Global Connectivity Index, based
It is development in technology which has brought on a spectrum of parameters, while we score well
the humans out of cave into a world so shrunk, in terms of a knowledge economy, we lag in areas
that there rarely is a distance between corners. of broadband connection assessments. The silver
Technological evolution alone has been the single lining lies in the fact that there has been an increase
most important parameter to divide the known of 2.3 times in the number of computer households
human history into various ages of stone, bronze over the last three years. It is now an accepted
and iron. If the climbing of evolutionary ladder is any fact that investments in digital technologies is a
indication, the present age is undoubtedly of digital factor which directly impacts the GDP of the nation,
technology. The digital technology has ushered in a brings about more transparency in the functioning
new era of human existence which knows no bounds of Government, induces an upliftment in lives of
in terms of changes in the way of life. As fate would citizens and helps achieve the overall goal of citizen
have it, India with a population of 1.34 billion people centric good governance.
and about 69 per cent of that in rural areas, is both
a pioneer in digital platforms and yet a nation which Social Impact through Digital Initiatives:
needs digital technologies to bring a large part of its
The social impact of the digital technologies
population in the mainstream of fast-track economic
may be gauged by the fact that as many as two
development.
million women and men are selling / re-selling
Reaching the Rural Masses: various lifestyle and clothing products via the
means of online merchant platforms amounting to
We are a nation so uniquely placed that on one business worth 8 to 9 billion USD. This is projected
hand, we are the leaders of digital revolution with to grow anywhere between 48 to 60 billion USD by
our own home versions of Silicon Valley and yet there the year 2022. These online re-sellers are typically
women homemakers and unemployed men who
acquire these products from large stock suppliers,
then advertise these products using the social media
platforms and then earn a commission on the sale of
the product. This is a typical home based business
which is aided by the digital technology wherein
causing the home based person an economical boost
which doesn’t need much of capital. Such model
of business aided by the programs of Government
such as National Digital Literacy Mission can go long
way in economic upliftment of rural population of
the country. The thoughts of , a village lady sitting

in a small village of Madhubani district selling terms. Various initiatives of the Government such
masterpieces of Madhubani print products online or as the Rashtriya Mahila Kosh, Support to Training
a lady sitting in rural areas of Sambhalpur trying to and Employment Program for women, Dhanlakshmi
find buyers for the Sambhalpuri Pata sarees online, scheme, Swadhar, Ujjawala can greatly benefit from
do not seem very far-fetched anymore. This would be the use of digital technologies at the disposal of the
the potential of digital world unleashing economic Government today. The tools like Public Financial
empowerment like never before. Management System for funds disbursal and
monitoring under these schemes, linking of Aadhar
Facilitating e-Education: to projects like Ujjawala and Swadhar can promise a
Ours is a society wherein the literacy rates zenith in the area of women empowerment in our
stand at 74 per cent and the industry struggles to country. New initiatives like One Stop Centres and
find skilled labour and employable graduates. In Women Helpline have digital technology at the core
such a scenario, it is all the more pertinent to have of their functioning.
an atmosphere of value addition to one’s knowledge Community Mobilization has emerged as a
base and skill sets. Digital platforms of e-learning are strong means to channelize the various flows of
a one stop solution to such needs of the economy social and economic development in the rural areas
and society. The e-education industry of India is of our country. What started in 1985 under the
presently valued at 247 million USD and is set to NGO called Mysore Resettlement and Development
grow eight folds to about 2 billion USD by 2021 Agency, now has over 1.8 million Self Help Groups
according to a report released by Google and KPMG. which are promoted under the National Rural
The common people are becoming more and more Livelihood Mission. These Self Help Groups have a
aware of these digital platforms of e-education , great potential to make larger impact by making use
this is highlighted by the fact that the searches for of technology available to cater to their financial and
online education have doubled over past two years accounting record-keeping, MIS of such Self Help
and there is a four times rise in educational content Groups for Financial Institutions and Government,
on online platforms over the same period. The most mobile based banking system for these Self Help
heartening factor is that more than 44 per cent of Groups etc. These digital mediums will not only bring
such education related searches are now coming about a greater transparency in working of the Self
from beyond the top six cities. This is representative Help Groups and strengthen them ,but also make
of the Government efforts to bring in people from them more attractive for the Banks and Financial
tier 2 and 3 cities as well as rural areas of the digital Institutions. This will lead to an overall financial
platforms. The need is to popularize these channels inclusion of the rural masses and help the nation
so that geography does not hinder the yearning for overcome the menace of poverty.
education and it becomes available right at home of
the rural population as well. Ours is a nation which is expected to lead the
usage of technologies like Cloud, rise as a breeding
Women Empowerment through Digital India: ground of start-ups and be the focal point of global
spending on digital technologies.The Digital India
A true measure of evolution of a society is
campaign of the Government with special emphasis
depicted by the status women of the society have. In
being laid on digital financial transactions and cloud
this regard, the approach of successive governments
technologies will go a long way in evolution of
in our country has changed from welfare to better services and amenities for the citizens. The
development to the empowerment of women to goals of a cashless economy as well as an inclusive
ensure gender equality in society. While gone are the economy can only be achieved by harnessing the
days of protective patronage and subjective equality, digital technologies in a potent manner. We live in
the present society can not prosper unless a holistic the Digital age after all.
development based approach is successful to ensure
economic independence and empowerment of (The author is officer of Indian Civil
women. The umbrella scheme of National Mission Accounts Service. He is a director ranked officer to
for Empowerment of Women talks about use of Government of India presently posted as CA, CBDT.
digital and information technology in no uncertain Email:[email protected])

Swachhta Pakhwada update
Swachhta Pakhwada observed by the Ministry of Textiles
T he Ministry of Textiles observed Swachhta Pakhwada from May 1 – 15, 2017. The fortnight-long
observance of programmes to spread the message of cleanliness and make it a part of our lives, was
inaugurated by the Minister of State, Textiles, Shri Ajay Tamta, in Udyog Bhawan, New Delhi.
The Minister of state administered the Swachhta Pledge
to the officers and staff of the Ministry. The Minister said that
the mission of Swachh Bharat will become a reality if every one
of India’s 125 crore citizens makes up one’s mind to neither
litter nor let others litter. Having watched the Swachh Bharat
song, the Minister said that playing the song to children in the
morning would instill in them the importance and divinity of
cleanliness. Shri Tamta said that Swachhta should be looked
upon as everyone’s responsibility, not just that of the workers
involved in cleaning.
Textiles Secretary, Smt. Rashmi Verma told everyone to not let Swachhta Pakhwada be an act of
tokenism, but a programme that is done from the heart. She exhorted all officials and staff of the Ministry,
to take some initiatives in their sphere of work, home and community, to bring about some perceptible
and tangible change in cleanliness.
The list of activities undertaken by the Ministry of Textiles during the Swachhta Pakhwada includes
the following:
l Visit of Minister of State, Textiles to Powerloom Service Centres in Delhi/Haryana/Uttarakhand.
l Visit of Minister of State, Textiles to Silk Cluster in Haridwar for a special Swachhta drive.
l Seminar on the theme “Waste to Wealth” near organized.
l Films on “Waste to Wealth” were made by NIFT.
l NIFT students were promoted as volunteers to lead youth teams for Swachhta activities in all Weavers’
Service Centres.
l Awareness and motivation programmes were conducted for employees.
l Debate competition on Swachhta Abhiyan near held, for employees at various levels.
l Honouring prize winners in the competitions, by senior officers of the Ministry.
l Personal hygiene campaign were conducted at all jute mills, co-opting CGHS doctors, on all days of the
Pakhwada.
l Special drive on Swachhta in a NTC Mill Chawl area, and in a jute mill in Kolkata (cleaning of workers’
colonies to be undertaken).
l Undertaking cleaning of Office premises, toilets & wash rooms.
l Provision for supply of clean drinking water through water dispensers, to all sections.
l Providing dustbins in all sections.
l Dusting and cleaning of office equipment.
l Cleaning of common passages and open areas in Udyog Bhavan.
l Co-ordination with CPWD and DIPP to ensure that renovation work such as replacement of tiles, false
ceiling works, installation of LED lights.
l Weeding out of old files/Records/un-serviceable articles.

MDWS organizes ODF Collectors’ Conference on
Swachh Bharat in LBSNAA
Under Swachh Bharat Mission Gramin, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation organized a
two day Collectors’ Conference at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie
on June 29th and 30th. This was also a part of the Swachhta Pakhwada celebrations of the Department
of Personnel and Training, under which, LBSNAA has been rechristened the Swachh Bharat Academy
for the duration of the fortnight. The workshop concluded with an address by the Cabinet Secretary,
delivered via video conference.The Collectors’ Conference was organized to discuss the ODF verification
guidelines, sustainability, successful ODF models and best practices from successful districts and States
across the country. The conference was attended by collectors of 100 districts, 20 State representatives,
development partners working in the field of Sanitation, sectoral experts, along with other senior
officers from the Ministry.
At the conference , Secretary, Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation, Shri Parameswaran Iyer,
said, “Behaviour change and usage is at the heart of Swachh Bharat. The Prime Minister personally
championing the Sanitation Programme of the nation has been a game changer for sanitation in India.
Swachh Bharat Mission has become a true people’s movement. And this has been possible because of
sincere community led efforts and the growing behaviour change amongst the people of India. This
shift in behaviour and dedication towards a Swachh Bharat is the fundamental difference between
Swachh Bharat Mission and other sanitation programs run so far.”
The conference included group exercises amongst participants on themes such ODF process,
verification, sustainability, solid liquid waste management, behaviour change communication, and other
key aspects of Swachh Bharat Mission. Officers Trainees at LBSNAA who have each worked towards
making one village ODF during their field training also shared their experiences and best practices
learnt by them.
To highlight the IEC efforts made by different states, an exhibition on Swachh Bharat Mission IEC
material put together by participating states was also organized. Solid and Liquid Waste Management
(SLWM) is a crucial aspect of Swachh Bharat that needs to be focussed on in order to limit the waste
generated by rural India, and to convert it into wealth through proper processing. Sectoral experts
in the field demonstrated various innovative technologies being used for SLWM in the country, and
underlined the need to scale them further.
The 2-day conference concluded with the Union Cabinet Secretary, Shri P. K. Sinha, addressing the
participants through video conferencing. Shri Sinha, in his address to the participants expressed his
happiness over Swachh Bharat Champion Collectors attending the conference and mining their own
lessons in a systematic manner from each other’s field experiences. Talking about ODF sustainability
and Swachh Bharat, Shri Sinha said, “After achieving ODF, sustaining it is going to be the most important
step. This cannot happen without behaviour change and community participation. We would like to see
more innovative steps to convert waste to wealth towards Swachh Bharat.” Stressing the importance
of cross-learning, Shri Sinha said that it would be useful to document the lessons from this workshop
and share with all districts across the country. The Swachh Bharat Mission has achieved newer heights
within 3 years of its launch with more than 2 lakh villages and 149 districts turning Open Defecation
Free (ODF). The overall sanitation coverage has risen from 42 per cent to 64 per cent. As on today, five
states have been declared ODF, i.e. Haryana, Uttarakhand, Sikkim, Kerala and Himachal Pradesh.

Swachhta Soldiers
Vizianagaram’s 10,000 toilets in 100 hours campaign
T
he sanitation campaign in Vizianagaram titled “10000 toilets in 100 hours” came to a successful
close on 14th March with construction of 10,449 toilets, a little over the targeted number. The
efforts made by the community and district administration have resulted in making 44 gram
panchayats (GPs) open defecation free (ODF) out of the 71 selected for the campaign.
The 100-hour campaign was
launched and brought to an end
by the District Collector (DC), Mr.
Vivek Yadav at the Sunkaripeta
hamlet in Vizianagaram
Mandal with the traditional
rituals. “There was wide scale
participation of people from all
walks of the society – NGOs,
civil society organizations,
community based organizations
and UNICEF, all of who extended
enormous support to the district
administration,” he said.
Vizianagaram is home to 923 GPs has a mere 21 per cent toilet coverage. Prior to the start of
the campaign, somewhere close to 3,50,000 toilets were needed to be constructed. This campaign
covered 2 GPs from each of the 34 Mandals, and later three more were added at the request of the
Mandal Parishad Development Officers (MPDO) to make the total tally to 71 GPs.
As many as 20,000 masons and labourers and 3000 government officials and functionaries were
put on the job during the campaign that started at 6 AM on 10th March and ended at 10 AM on 14th
March, adding up to 100 hours, taking into consideration the nights as well.
In the process, all toilets were geo-tagged, and incentive for the same which included Rs 12,000
from the Centre and Rs 3,000 from the State Government were released to the beneficiary families.
Honeycomb leach pits were constructed at a massive scale for the first time in Vizianagaram district
- an innovative initiative, which is used as an alternative to cement rings.
The support from the community towards the campaign was overwhelming, particularly from
tribal women. They voluntarily offered their services not only in digging of pits but also taking care of
food and other needs of the masons and workers. Having participated in community meetings earlier,
they were aware of the need for toilets and this opportunity to build toilets at home.
While the campaign took on a festive atmosphere, there was enthusiasm all around. Towards the
end of the campaign, Nigrani committees were formed in every GP with many women volunteering to
be on them. These committees which have been equipped with whistles, badges and radium jackets
ensured that all people use their toilets. Although the 100-hour campaign was successful, the district
has a long way to go before it achieves ODF status.

Rural Transformation since independence
V. Srinivas
The Government’s initiatives for empowering the farmers and improving the infrastructure at the village level have been largely
successful in reducing poverty and enhancing education and health care indicators. The improvement in farm incomes and the
transparency in subsidy transfers would enable the creation of a 21st century India that is dynamic and forward looking.
R apid agriculture growth and rapid rural

employment growth were always the focus
of India’s policy makers. Mahatma Gandhi
envisaged India as a Nation of self-sufficient
autonomous village republics. Acharya Vinoba
as part of a social banking approach. The rural bank
branch expansion significantly lowered the rural
poverty and increased non-agricultural growth.
However, as time progressed, divergences emerged
between the levels of development in States. The
Bhave pursued the cause of social justice and land rich and faster growing States were Gujarat, Tamil
reforms in the Bhoodan movement. Land - the Nadu, Haryana, Maharashtra and Punjab. The
summum bonum of rural existence, and agricultural middle income States were Karnataka, Kerala, West
structure was the most important determinant of Bengal and Andhra Pradesh. The poorer States were
India’s development. Highly skewed distribution of Bihar, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and
land was responsible for agricultural backwardness. Rajasthan. The richer and faster growing States
As land was the critical income generating asset of were better at reducing rural poverty while growth
rural India, changes in agricultural holding structures was volatile in the poorer States. The faster growing
were necessary to ensure prosperity of the rural States had formulated laws for amalgamation of
population. Accordingly, India’s State policy focused farm holdings into viable units for investments,
on State Governments formulating and implementing productivity and growth. In the poorer States,
Land Reforms legislations. These included the Land the alienation of small and marginal farmers from
Ceiling Act, the Tenancy Act, the Land Revenue Act their lands and subsequent conversion to landless
and broadly adopted the land to the tiller policy. agricultural labour made them entirely dependent
Surplus arable government lands were distributed to on the vagaries of the market. Large scale labour
the poor and needy peasants for livelihoods. These migration was witnessed in areas where rainfed
policies were envisaged to promote agricultural agriculture practices were prevalent. The richer
growth and alleviate rural poverty. States also attracted higher investments and had
better infrastructural development which resulted
After the bank nationalization in July 1969, a in higher per capita incomes as compared to the
big push was given towards expansion of banking poorer States.
activities. Rapid expansion of bank branch network
into rural areas and expansion of bank credit to It was in this backdrop that the Indian State
agriculture and related activities. Priority sector implemented a series of welfare programs for the
lending targets and interest rates were introduced rural population. The programs were implemented
through the Department of Land Resources and
the Department of Rural Development. The
Department of Land Resources implemented
major area development programs including the
Desert Development Program, the Drought Prone
Area Development Program and the Watershed
Development Program. The Desert Development
Program was implemented in 21 districts in 5
States, the Drought Prone Area Development
Program was implemented in 183 districts in 16
States and the Watershed Development Program
was taken up in identified watershed areas in

a decentralized participatory developmental in this direction was financial inclusion. The Pradhan
model. The objective was to treat vast stretches Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana represents the National
of land areas with watershed treatment practices Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to
including construction of check dams, development financial services, namely banking, savings & deposit
of pastures and promotion of improved animal accounts, remittances, credit, insurance, and pension
husbandry practices. A second crop in rainfed areas, in an affordable manner. The financial inclusion
essentially meant higher farm incomes and lower campaign was launched by the Prime Minister in
migration of farm labour. August 2014 and on the first day itself, 1.5 crore bank
accounts were opened. The Jan DhanYojana provided
The Indian State also implemented several universal and clear access to banking accounts with
major direct beneficiary programs for asset overdraft facility. The Jan Dhan Scheme provided the
generation, skill development, residential housing bankers with the necessary confidence to promote
and employment generation. Over the decades, credit culture across the deprived population and
these programs were developed and further resulted in significant increases in credit flows to
modified. The Department of Rural Development rural sector.
implements the major schemes of National Rurban
Mission, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY),
Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY), the
Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana
(DDU GKY) and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural
Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) programs.
The MGNREGA is implemented in 685 districts of India
covering 6863 blocks and 2.62 lac Gram Panchayats.
A total of 12.54 crore job cards have been issued
and 25.2 crores of farm labour have been registered.
The implementation of the MGNREGA on a pan
India basis with assured employment on individual
and community based programs has resulted in
significant employment and asset generation in rural In 2016, the Aadhar Act was promulgated as a
areas. The National Rurban Mission was launched in money bill to ensure targeted delivery of financial
February 2016 as a new initiative for development and other subsidies benefits and services. The Act
of a cluster of villages that preserve and nurture provided a legal backing to the Aadhar Unique
the essence of rural community life with focus on Identification number project and provided for
equity and inclusiveness without compromising an efficient, transparent and targeted delivery of
with the facilities perceived to be essentially urban subsidies, benefits and services for all expenditures
in nature. The DDU GKY essentially focused on youth incurred from the consolidated fund of India to
between 15 years and 35 years from poor families, individuals, through assigning Aadhar identification
is tasked with the objective of adding diversity to numbers for matters connected therewith. The
the incomes of rural poor families and caters to the Aadhar Act enabled the State to ask for information
career aspirations of the rural youth. The Skill India pertaining to a person’s identity for disbursement of
Campaign along with the Make in India, Digital services/ subsidies.
India, Smart Cities and Start Up India, Stand-Up
The third major step that was initiated by
India campaigns presents a vast set of opportunities the Government in 2016 was the introduction
to train India’s young population and place them in of BHIM (Bharat Interface for Money) which
jobs across the world to best realize the demographic is a mobile application developed by National
dividend. Payments Corporation of India based on Unified
Indian farmers were always concerned about Payment Interface. The BHIM application facilitates
the availability of adequate credit at reasonable cost e-payments directly through banks and drive towards
in a timely manner. One of the major steps forward cashless transactions, enabling the user to instantly

transfer money between the bank accounts of any Market (E-NAM) to link 585 wholesale agriculture
two parties and can be used on all mobile devices. production marketing committees across the country
The BHIM application is used by 125 lakh Indian through a common e-platform. The portal has been
citizens. made available in several Indian languages and
Collectively the Jan DhanYojana – the Aadhar has empowered the farmers with vast information
Act and the BHIM Application have provided for a dissemination. The State continued to make rapid
transparent government where subsidy flows reach strides in the implementation of the Pradhan Mantri
the beneficiary in a timely and effective manner. Fasal Bima Yojana and the Pradhan Mantri Krishi
Sinchayee Yojana covering all risks of the crop cycle
A Nation of India’s size requires significant
and providing incentives for improved irrigation
increases in food production. The year 2016-17
practices.
witnessed the highest ever food grain production
of 273.38 million tons which is 6.37 per cent higher The Government’s initiatives for empowering
than the last 5 years average production and 8.6 per the farmers and improving the infrastructure at the
cent higher than 2015-16. Government introduced village level have been largely successful in reducing
the Soil Health Card Scheme (SHC) in 2015 to be poverty and enhancing education and health care
issued on a bi-annual basis to all land holders of the indicators. The improvement in farm incomes and
country with the objective to conduct farm level soil the transparency in subsidy transfers would enable
analysis. Till date, over 7.1 crore soil health cards the creation of a 21st century India that is dynamic
have been distributed. The Government launched and forward looking.
the revised Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana in 2014-
15 providing more flexibility to State Governments (The author is Chairman, Rajasthan Tax Board
for boosting investment and enhancing productivity and additional charge of Chairman, Board of
of the agriculture and allied sector. In July 2015, Revenue for Rajasthan. Email: [email protected]/,
Government introduced the National Agricultural [email protected])
Ministry of Rural Development to launch Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana

The Ministry of Rural Development will launch a new sub-scheme under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana – National
Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) which will be named as “Aajeevika Grameen Express Yojana (AGEY)”. The main
objectives of AGEY are to provide an alternative source of livelihood to members of Self Help Groups (SHGs) under
DAY-NRLM by facilitating them to operate public transport services in backward rural areas. This will provide safe,
affordable and community monitored rural transport services like e-rickshaws, 3 and 4 wheeler motorised transport
vehicles to connect remote villages with key services and amenities including access to markets, education and health
for the overall economic development of the area. The sub-scheme will be implemented in 250 blocks in the country
on a pilot basis for a period of 3 years from 2017-18 to 2019-20. The States have been informed about the number
of blocks allocated to them to take up this sub-scheme in the pilot phases. One of the options proposed to be given
under the sub-scheme is that the Community Based Organisation (CBO) will provide interest free loan from its own
corpus to Self Help Group member for purchase of the vehicle.
The Government is implementing DAY-NRLM across the country in all States and Union Territories (except Delhi
and Chandigarh). Under DAY-NRLM, till date, 34.4 lakh women SHGs have been promoted under the programme.
The financial support under the programme is mainly in the form of Revolving Fund and Community Investment
Funds, given as grants to the Self Help Groups (SHGs) and their federations. So far, the total amount released to
SHGs is Rs. 1815 crore to about 3.96 lakh SHGs. A sum of Rs. 1088 crore has also been disbursed to 7.28 lakh SHGs
as revolving Fund. DAY-NRLM also focuses on bank linkage of the institutions to enable their income The Cumulative
Bank Credit mobilized for women SHGs and their federations since inception is to the tune of Rs 1.19 lakh crores. The
programme has a special focus on women empowerment including a dedicated component for promoting farm and
non-farm based livelihoods for women farmers in rural areas. About 34 lakh women farmers have benefited under
this programme. In addition, start-up enterprises at village levels are also supported to promote entrepreneurial
activities in those areas. Projects have been sanctioned for setting up 79,814 enterprises in 5209 villages in 17 states
in the country.

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The Monthly Journal

4 Kurukshetra August 2017

W hat is e-Governance and what is its

Kurukshetra August 2017 5

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Present initiative of CSC : CSC 2.0

Implementation Principle of current CSC

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Aadhaar Educcational Financial G2C Utility IRCTC Health

Fig: Services available on Digital Seva (Apna CSC) Portal

Particulars Achievement Achievement

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Challenges against implementation of CSCs:

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Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission

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Table 1: Progress card of mobile banking and ATM card use

Volume in million numbers Value in billion Rs

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FY 14-15 FY 15-16 FY 16-17

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National Bamboo Mission renamed as

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National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM):

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ONLINE REGISTRATION SYSTEM (ORS):