In July 2015, the Indian government launched the Digital India programme in an effort to turn the country into a knowledge-based economy with a strong digital foundation. This was the beginning of India’s digital revolution. The Digital India programme, in the words of Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi, was created to enhance the lives of common people. It sought to make technology “useful, inexpensive, and accessible” for the populace of the nation. The initiative was split into four separate sections: governance, on-demand services, and citizen digital empowerment. Digital infrastructure was viewed as a utility for all citizens. The nation has established a solid basis for digital infrastructure and increased internet access across its entire economy after six years of this effort.
As new digital applications permeate and transform a variety of activities and types of work on a national scale, India is set for the next phase of growth, the production of enormous economic value and the empowerment of millions of Indians.
India’s digital revolution benefits
The digital revolution in India has greatly helped the nation. The government has used its digital environment to better the lives of its residents during the past six years. Through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) initiatives, India has transferred a total of Rs. 22 lakh crore (US$ 300 billion) through the JAM ecosystem. The method of electronic payments has also been revolutionised by the government. With 48 billion transactions in 2021, India will have the most real-time transactions globally.
This is 6.5 times larger than the combined populations of the US, Canada, France, and Germany, and it is approximately three times larger than China, which has 18 billion people. The measures taken by the Indian government go beyond transaction standardisation. Through the GST, the government was able to integrate more than 63 million MSMEs into the formal economy in 2019. As a result of this formalisation, businesses are now required to use technology for tax filing and other purposes, which is assisting India’s expanding internet use.
Important Forces Behind India’s Digital Revolution
India’s digital economy is now the second-fastest-growing in the world. The following factors are the main contributors to India’s digital ecosystem’s rapid growth:
• Increasing Use of the Internet: With an average cost of Rs. 50 (US$ 0.7) per GB and an average per-user consumption of 14.1 GB, India has the lowest data consumption costs globally.
• Demographic Dividend: With an average age of just 29, India has the youngest population in the world. More than 68 percent of its population is under 40, and 70 percent of its internet users fall into this age group.
• Rising Smartphone Adoption: A Deloitte study estimates that by 2026, there will be roughly 1 billion smartphone users in India.
• India’s thriving IT industry is anticipated to develop at a rate of 15.5 percent, which is twice that of the overall economy. By 2021–2022, the business is projected to generate US$227 billion in sales.
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Tarun Kumar Taunk
Editor-In-Chief
