DIGITALIZATION OF RURAL INDIA

Dr.Samridhi Tanwar (1ndAuthor)

Assistant Professor The Technological Institute of Textile and Sciences, Bhiwani Haryana
India

Mr.Monu Bhardwaj (2stAuthor)

Student, The Technological Institute of Textile and Sciences, Bhiwani, Haryana, India

Abstract
It is a well-known fact that digital India is the outcome of many innovations and
technological advancements. These transform the lives of people in many ways and will
empower the society in a better manner. The 'Digital India' programme, an initiative of
honorable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, will emerge new progressions in every
sector and generates innovative endeavors for genet. The motive behind the concept is to
build participative, transparent and responsive system. Digitalization is the process of
creating the digital files by scanning or otherwise converting analogue materials. It is the
factor which is encouraging the new age of transformation. It plays an important role in our
daily life. In this article the authors discuss about the Digital India, and steps taken towards
the Digitalization of rural India. The pillars, benefit, challenges, economic impact of
digitalization of rural India were also discussed.
Keywords: Digitalization, Advantages, Pillar, Reasons, Digital India, Digital Technology,
e-Kranti, e-Governance.

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INTRODUCTION

Digitalization-can be defined the process of creating the digital files by scanning or

otherwise converting analogue materials. Then the resulting copy is digitalized to form
digital material is known as digitalization.
Digitalization is the factor which is encouraging the new age of transformation. It plays
role in our daily to daily life. We can see that digitalization is making tasks faster and more
accurate. This process named “Digitalization” started five decades back with the arrival of
computer. Now a days digitalization plays role in our lifestyle e.g.; the way interact and
conduct business in all areas like communication, manufacturing etc. digitalization
increasing very rapidly. It is important to understand and appreciate this factor that how
these are impacting the modern business. We can call our era by ‘digital era’.
Digital India: It is the government program that imagines the smooth efficient network of
internet technology also including the people to take part in the development of the
country. Digital India converse up broadband highways, mobile connectivity, public access
to internet information availability Wi-Fi access etc.
Make in India - another ambitious project of the government is to be seen how inventively
the multinational giants like Facebook and Google can participate in the Digital India
program in its present form.
Facebook's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, changed his DP in support of Digital India and started
a chain on Facebook and promised to work on Wi-Fi Hotspots in rural India.
Google announced its partnership in Digital India by promising to offer free Wi-Fi in
important railways stations in the country. According to its announcement, 500 railway
stations in the country will get the benefit of high-speed internet service over two phases.

DIGITALIZATION OF RURAL INDIA

India’s population now exceeds 1.21 billion with 69% of the population located in rural
areas. Internet penetration is increasing day by day and mobile phone is playing a great role
in it. Studies conducted by IAMAI reflect some interesting patterns. 90% of those
accessing the internet were using it for entertainment, 80% were using it for
communications, 67% for online services, 65% for e-commerce and 60% for social
networking. The number of Internet users in rural India is estimated to cross 85 million by
June 2014 making India the world’s second largest market for Internet users. All these put
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together is now changing attitudes, awareness and lifestyles in rural India. A decade ago,
the awareness, information and knowledge gap between the rural youth and his urban youth
was significant. This has now rapidly narrowed and the gap is closing.
Some of the interesting experiences come from the Rural Health Connect initiative of
“NewDigm Healthcare Technologies” ,they have taken the initiative to utilize the large
pool of “Village Health Workers” (VHW) that provides a wide variety of health care
support to the last mile areas of rural India. Creating a mobile platform to collect, analyze,
offer medical advice and the next course of possible action to the VHW.
The results are well documented. In a field trial conducted with the “National Rural Health
Mission”, Tamil Nadu saw 95% pregnancies registered and monitored, 20% reduction in
outpatient costs including drugs, 75% VHWs registering an increase in diagnostic
efficiency and ease of operation. In the next three years, the target market penetration is
going to significantly increase with its impact on both healthcare and rural incomes.[1]

PILLARS
There are nine pillars of Digital India Programs.
1) Broadband Highways
2) Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
3) Public Internet Access Programs
4) e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology
5) e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services
6) Information for All
7) Electronics Manufacturing
8) IT for Jobs
9) Early Harvest Programs

1) Broadband Highways:
One of the nine pillars of Digital India program is broadband highways. Broadband
connectivity will be provided to all the 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats. The plan is to
support communication infrastructure in new urban developments and buildings.

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 Also, the National Information Infrastructure (NII) will have nationwide coverage
to provide on-demand network connectivity to government departments.[2]

2) Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity:

This initiative focuses on network penetration and filling the gaps in connectivity in
the country. There are around 55,619 villages in the country that do not have mobile
coverage. As part of the comprehensive development plan for North East, providing
mobile coverage to uncovered villages has been initiated. Mobile coverage to
remaining uncovered villages would be provided in a phased manner.
The Department of Telecommunications will be the nodal department and project
cost will be around `16,000 Cr during 2014-18.[3]

3) Public Internet Access Programs:

The two sub components of Public Internet Access Program are Common Service
Centers (CSCs) and Post Offices as multi-service centers.

(a) Common Service Centers (CSCs):CSCs would be strengthened and its

number would be increased from approximately 135,000 operational at present
to 250,000 i.e. one CSC in each Gram Panchayat. CSCs would be made viable
and multi-functional end-points for delivery of government and business
services.

(b) Post Offices as multi-service centers: A total of 150,000 Post Offices are
proposed to be converted into multi service centers. Department of Posts would
be the nodal department to implement this scheme.[4]

4) e-Governance: Reforming Government through Technology:

Government Process Re-engineering using IT to simplify and make the government
processes more efficient is critical for transformation to make the delivery of
government services more effective across various government domains and
therefore needs to be implemented by all Ministries/ Departments.[5]

5) e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services:

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 e-Kranti is an essential pillar of the Digital India initiative. Considering the critical
need of e-Governance, mobile Governance and Good Governance in the country,
the approach and key components of e-Kranti have been approved by the Union
Cabinet on 25.03.2015 with the vision of “Transforming e-Governance for
Transforming Governance[6]
There are 44 Mission Mode Projects under e-Kranti some of them are as follows;
o Technology for Education – e-Education
o 0Technology for Health – e-Healthcare
o Technology for Farmers.

6) Information for All:

Open Data platform facilitates proactive release of datasets in an open format by the
ministries/departments for use, reuse and redistribution. Online hosting of
information & documents would facilitate open and easy access to information for
citizens.[7]

7) Electronics Manufacturing:
This pillar focuses on promoting electronics manufacturing in the country with the
target of NET ZERO Imports by 2020 as a striking demonstration of
intent. Demand for electronic goods is increasing with a Compound Annual Growth
Rate (CAGR) of 22% and is expected to touch 400 Billion USD by 2020. Indian
government is also taking several steps to promote manufacturing and investment in
this sector, which puts India high on the list of potential places to invest.[8]

8) IT for Jobs
This pillar focuses on providing training to the youth in the skills required for availing
employment opportunities in the IT/ITES sector. There are some basic components
with specific scope of activities under this pillar:
 IT Trainings to people in smaller towns and villages
 Training Rural Workforce on Telecom and Telecom related services
 The target of this component is to train one crore students from smaller
towns & villages for IT sector jobs over 5 years.[9]

9) Early Harvest Programs:

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 Early Harvest Program basically consists of those projects which are to be
implemented within short timeline. The projects under the Early Harvest Program
are as follows:
 Bio-metric attendance
 Wi-Fi in All Universities
 Public Wi-fi hotspots
 SMS based weather information and disaster alerts[10]

THE BENEFITS OF DIGITALIZATION

1) Improve business process efficiency, quality and consistency:

The act of digitization itself will not improve your organizations Business
processes. However, the introduction of digitization programs often provides an
opportunity for an organization to consider its business processes and determine
how digitization can be integrated into them. A digitization program may prompt a
re-engineering of processes, improvement of quality and promotion of consistency.
Consistent classification, security and access rules and indexing can be introduced
where relevant.
2) Improve accessibility and facilitate better knowledge sharing:
Digital images are much more accessible than their paper counterparts. Location is
no longer an impediment to access. Images can be distributed across networks and
viewed concurrently, copied, disseminated to, accessed and used by multiple
stakeholders quickly and easily. Having records in digital form also increases the
capacity for knowledge transfer and the reuse of information, enabling staff to be
more efficient with their time.
3) Improve response time and client service:
If a digitization program is robust, it is much easier and quicker to retrieve and view
digital images rather than the original paper records, particularly for time-critical
matters. This can, in turn, reduce the time taken to respond to clients. Better plan for
business continuity Digital records are much easier to duplicate. Records can be
backed-up using the organization’s normal back-up procedures and included in
disaster recovery procedures. Vital records – records essential to the functioning of

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 the organization – can be protected from disaster and secured in different locations
in digital form.
4) Reduce costs:
A digitization program has the potential to reduce storage, management and access
costs. Storage costs can be reduced (from the point digitization is introduced) if the
original paper records can be destroyed after digitization. If this is an impetus for
the program, you should determine upfront whether the originals can legally be
destroyed after digitization.[11]
5) Other benefits are:
a) Better quality picture.
b) Reduce working time.
c) Awareness of persons.
d) Reduce paper work.
e) Provide information quickly.

CHALLENGES OF DIGITALIZATION

1. The digitalization processing is capital intensive :That money will be wasted or

additional risks incurred by poor selection of records. That the costs of digitization
can be underestimated.
2. How people aware with new technology: In India many people illiterate in rural
area few people are literate and not aware with technology it is difficult to tell them
about the new technology and accepted by them.
3. Initial cost of the digital equipment is high: It
includes the training program to introduce technology among the people and the
setup cost of the equipment is also high.
4. Almost all the equipment needed must be sourced abroad:
India is the developing country and not able to establish new technologies so the
equipment’s are imported from foreign countries.

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 5. Training costs must be included since the technology is new to our Engineers:
The machines technologies are imported from abroad. The Indian engineers are not
capable to work on it. The training programs are providing to the engineers to use
the technology.

IMPACT OF DIGITALIZATION OF RURAL INDIA

The economic impact of digitalization of rural India is far and wide. To quote in the words
of Kane J. Shore a Journalist “What a difference five years can make. In that time, a project
to bring the Information Age to villagers in southern India has… given 50 000 "information
shop" users in a dozen "information shop" users in a dozen communities’ high-speed
wireless telephone and Internet access. It has also helped improve more traditional Indian
communication methods, such as public loudspeaker networks and community
newspapers.”

1. Increase in Employment Opportunities:

First and foremost benefit of digitalization is increase in employment opportunities
in rural areas. Large numbers of small entrepreneurs have got employment in
provision of Internet kiosks in rural areas.

2. Improvement in standard of Living:

The second benefit is the improvement in standard of living of the people by
improving their income. Large numbers of people are getting benefitted by these
facilities. They are using internet services and other facilities provided by various
schemes like lifelines India and are getting awareness regarding various plant
diseases, new methods of farming etc. They are also getting information on various
diseases of farm animals and methods by which they can remain healthy and their
output also increases.

3. Reduction in Risk and Uncertainty:

Rural community is making full use of available techniques and is reducing risk and
uncertainty by getting market information online. Fishermen are checking weather
conditions before venturing into the sea. They are also carrying mobile phones with

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 them so that in case of any emergencies they can contact their relatives or
authorities and they can get help.

4. Increasing e-literacy in rural areas:

Large number of rural youth is getting training in using computers, MS Office and
Internet. Internet Kiosks are conducting educational and training programs for rural
youth. Under various programs large number of rural youth is being trained through
village knowledge centers. Increasing awareness about Spoken English: Rural
people have become aware of importance of spoken English, since English is the
main language required for Internet.[12]

REASONS WHY COMPANIES GO FOR DIGITALIZATION

1) Digitization allows companies to go green:

As many businesses look to embrace electronic workflow by moving things like
invoices, client records and other files online, these types of staff members are
supporting the projects. The push to digitize can help a company embrace green
living that much more, because there are a number of environmental benefits to
primarily using the Internet for record-keeping.
2) Efficiency:
Digitization allows multiple user access to centralized documents, stops duplication
and controls versions. Even when paper files are organized well, they can still be
difficult to find. If a paper file has been removed from storage – it can cause
question as to whether it has been misplaced, no longer exists, or is already in use.
These issues are eliminated when using digital documents. Files can be easily
accessed from anywhere with a complete audit trail to show who has accessed and
updated documents.
3) Disaster Recovery:
How do you currently keep all of your information safe? What would you do if a
disaster occurred that rendered your documents unusable? These are usually
afterthoughts that only become important to a company when it’s too late. It is
predicted that over 70% of businesses would fail within 3 weeks if they suffered a

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 disaster involving a major loss of paperwork. When you convert your documents to
a digitally stored format, you have several options available to reduce the risk of
problems before they occur – prevention is always better than cure! This includes
passwords, encryption, and access levels to keep the information secure from
unauthorized access, and regular backups to keep you safe if things were to ever go
wrong.
4) Improve customer service:
Having instant access to files means customers are kept waiting for shorter periods
when they call or email – consequently allowing queries to be responded to quicker
and in turn, customer satisfaction is improved and maintained. In the time that is
saved by not having to search for documents, more customers can be helped.
Documents are updated instantly, so if the customer contacts you again, their files
are always the most recent version available.

5) Reduce overheads:
No matter how fancy your storage room is, or how well it is organized, companies
still waste money through staff having to travel to the storage area, search for the
document, return to their workstation, then repeat to return the document. In fact, in
the UK alone, a study by YouGov found that small and medium-sized enterprises
waste more than £42.2 million per day searching for documents. This problem is
eliminated when documents are digitized. Everything is instantly available to the
employee without ever needing to leave their workstation.
Then there’s the cost of buying paper. If you consider that the average office worker
uses around 10,000 sheets per year, the total expenditure on paper can accumulate
to a substantial percentage of your outgoings. The costs associated with storing this
paper are never-ending – as time goes on and if the size of your company increases,
so will the amount of documents you need to store. This means buying more file
cabinets and consuming more space to store them in.
6) Create physical space:
There is a simple alternative to routinely increasing storage space to accommodate
your constantly expanding legion of paper documents. Digitizing your files means
everything is stored consistently in a single location, either within a server on your

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premises or offsite with cloud-based access. Digitizing documents also means
creating space for expansion of your core activities.

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CONCLUSION
In an effort to create a large pool of skilled workforce required to power the 'Make in
India' initiative, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Skill India Mission on
Wednesday. However, the Digital India, the Make in India and the Skill India
Mission will have to go hand in hand says S Ramodarai, Chairman, National Skill
Development Corporation (NSDC), adding “because each feeds into the other to
make it a productive nation and create the 21st century jobs rather than the 19th
century jobs". Our aim is to achieve the vision of Digital India, where every Indian is
digitally empowered and every information is digitally available. Digitize India
Platform offers an opportunity for government agencies to transform themselves into
digital enterprises and for Digital Contributors, rewards for doing simple data entry
jobs.

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 REFERENCE:
1) http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/digitalization.html#ixzz3nWUO7lBM
2)http://computer.financialexpress.com/magazine/one-of-the-nine-pillars-of-digital-india-
programe-is-broadband-highway/4007/#sthash.32e4UkWs.dpuf
3)http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/universal-access-mobile-connectivity
4)http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/public-internet-access-programe
5)http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/e-governance-%E2%80%93-reforming-
government-through-technology
6) http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/ekranti-electronic-delivery-services
7) http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/information-all
8) http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/electronics-manufacturing
9)http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/it-jobs
10) http://www.digitalindia.gov.in/content/early-harvest-programes
11)https://www.records.nsw.gov.au/recordkeeping/advice/digitisation/benefits-of-
digitisation
12) www.abhinavjournal.com

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