Union Cabinet approves outlay of Rs 14,903 crore to expand Digital India programme

Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 16 approved the expansion of the Digital India programme worth Rs 14,903 crore, said an official statement.

The Digital India programme was launched on July 1st, 2015 to enable digital delivery of services to citizens which proved to be a very successful program.

''The Union Cabinet, chaired by Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, today approved the expansion of the Digital India programme. The total outlay is Rs 14,903 crores,'' the statement added.

With this development, around 6.25 lakh IT professionals will be re-skilled and up-skilled under the FutureSkills Prime Programme and 2.65 lakh persons will be trained in information security under the Information Security & Education Awareness Phase (ISEA) Programme.

Besides this, 540 additional services will be available under the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) app or platform. 

''At present over 1,700 services are already available on UMANG. 9 more supercomputers will be added under National Super Computer Mission. This is in addition to 18 supercomputers already deployed,'' the statement added.

It further said claimed that the Bhashini, the AI-enabled multi-language translation tool (currently available in 10 languages) will be rolled out in all 22 scheduled 8 languages and modernisation of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) which connects 1,787 educational institutions.

''Digital document verification facility under DigiLocker will now be available to MSMEs and other organisations and 1,200 startups will be supported in Tier 2/3 cities,'' the statement added.

As per the statement, around three Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence on health, agriculture and sustainable cities will be set up while there will be Cyber-awareness courses for 12 crores college students.

The government also decided on new initiatives in the area of cyber security including the development of tools and integration of more than 200 sites with the National Cyber Coordination Centre.

''Today’s announcement will give a boost to the digital economy of India, drive digital access to services and support India’s IT and electronics ecosystem,'' it added.

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