Digital India is a flagship programme of the Government of India with a vision
to transform India
into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Digital India is an umbrella
programme that covers
multiple Government Ministries and Departments. It weaves together a large number of ideas and thoughts into
a
single, comprehensive vision so that each of them can be implemented as part of a larger goal.
Each individual element stands on its own, but is also part of the larger picture. Digital
India is to be
implemented by the entire Government with overall coordination being done by the Department of Electronics
and
Information Technology (DeitY).
Digital India aims to provide the much needed thrust to the nine pillars of growth areas,
namely Broadband
Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme, e-Governance: Reforming
Government through Technology, e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services, Information for All, Electronics
Manufacturing, IT for Jobs and Early Harvest Programmes. Each of these areas is a complex programme in
itself and cuts across multiple Ministries and Departments.
Launched on 1 July 2015, by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is both enabler and beneficiary of other
key Government of India schemes, such as BharatNet, Make in India, Startup India and Standup India,
industrial corridors, Bharatmala, Sagarmala.
As of 31 December 2018, India had a population of 130 crore people (1.3 billion), 123
crore (1.23 billion)
Aadhaar digital biometric identity cards, 121 crore (1.21 billion) mobile phones, 44.6
crore (446 million)
smartphones, 56 crore (560 million) internet users up from 481 million people (35% of the
country's total
population) in December 2017, and 51 per cent growth in e-commerce.