India has chosen the path to digitize the entire country. To achieve so, the government continuously comes up with various initiatives. The end goal is to make services available to all the people in the country and remove the digital divide that so widely existed a decade ago. In achieving this, one might even credit the telecom service providers like Jio as they disrupted the market with their ever so cheap mobile services.
Even in budget 2022, the union government came up with several key initiatives to promote digital India aiming at financial inclusivity and services for all.
Post offices on the standard banking platform
In the country, especially in rural areas, many people still use post office to save investment and send money orders. The lack of infrastructure made it very difficult to transfer money across post offices. The government decided that 1.5 lakh post offices will come on the core banking system to tackle this issue. This means that in FY23, 100 per cent of the post offices will be connected to the banking network and will give access to accounts through net banking, mobile banking, ATMs. It is expected that this will give a significant impetus to farmers as now they will be able to get direct benefit of government schemes. By bringing the post office on the core banking platform, seamless transfer of money across bank and post offices will be a possibility, leading to financial inclusivity.
Crypto Rupee- Digital Rupee
The launching of digital rupee was in talks for a long time. With budget 2022 addressing this, it bodes well for all tech enthusiasts as the government is making strides towards building the future of blockchain technology in the country. It is expected that the launching of digital currency will boost the digital economy and lead to a more efficient and cheaper currency management system in the country. It is expected that this will put India in the front seat of innovation and digitization. It is speculated that the digital rupee will further promote financial inclusivity as people will be able to send and receive money like SMS.
Healthcare- National Digital Health Mission
The government further looks to strengthen the entire health infrastructure via digitization. They aim to do this in a holistic healthcare programme approach leveraging IT & associated technologies and supporting the existing health systems in a ‘citizen-centric’ approach. The objective is to establish state-of-the-art digital health systems, to manage the core digital health data. The aim is to create a system of personal health records, based on international standards, easily accessible to individuals and healthcare professionals and services providers, based on individual’s informed consent. This will boost the Indian healthcare system as it will help ensure quality healthcare to all.
5G rollout- BharatNet
To handle the growing internet needs and to provide equitable access to the internet to all, the Indian government launched the bharatnet plan. In Budget 2022, it was announced that the laying of fibre optics across villages will be completed by 2025, as part of this project. Contracts for laying optical fibre will be awarded through Public-Private Partnership (PPP). This is being done to provide equitable and affordable access to internet for all. The end goal is to provide the same level of E-services to all villages, as are there for people in urban areas. At the same time, the government understands the need to bring our economy at par with the level of technology available globally and therefore 5G spectrum rollout was also announced.
Data centres
As india makes strides towards a digital economy, the data’s backbone also needs to be formed: the data centres. For the same, the government has decided to give data centers in the country- infra status. The grant of infrastructure status to the data centre industry will lead to rapid growth on the back of a sizeable flow of foreign investment and private capital and hopes of acceleration in digital businesses. According to industry experts, it will boost fintech, healthtech, and edtech, which generate a large quantum of data. The infrastructure status allows data centres to play a key role in enabling a digital economy. It provides access to foreign investment and private capital, helps borrow funds at a lower cost, and thus allows rapid deployment of data centres across the country.
All these initiatives by the Indian government towards a digitized economy will only help India make further strides as a global superpower. Taking key steps at the right time will further accelerate this shift. It will be interesting to see how these initiatives pan out in the upcoming future. The center is actively working on different sectors to tap and digitize aiming for more inclusive space wherein everyone has equitable access to all the different schemes of the government and also to remove the digital divide that exits in the country.
Aditya Aggarwal
Investment Operation Intern
Aditya works in the operations team at green portfolio. He researches and prepares content and also handles communication and marketing. He is currently pursuing B.Com (Hons) from Sri Venkateswar College, University of Delhi. He has also completed CFA Level 1 and is preparing for Level 2.