CIO & LEADER-Issue-06-September_iPad

Opinion
Digital Dream
Modi’s Digital initiative also aimed to
provide internet services to 2.5 lakh
villages and 1.5 lakh post offices which
would be converted to multi-service
centres. The government promised to
lay national optical fibre network in
all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats and take
steps to ensure that by 2018 all villages
were covered through mobile connectivity.
It also planned to train 1 crore
students from small towns and villages
for IT sector by 2020.
These measures – the nine pillars of
digitalisation – envisaged in the vision
document, were just what India had
been waiting for all these years and
what it needed to implement to become
a truly global economy.
Pat on the Back
Understandably, the initial response to
Modi’s Digital India vision from leading
global players was extremely positive.
Many of them offered to be India’s
partner in this initiative. Microsoft
CEO, Satya Nadella, for instance, said
that his company would set up low cost
broadband technology services in 5
lakh villages across the country. Sundar
Pichai, CEO, Google hoped that
with this initiative India would play a
big role in driving technology forward
and improve the lives of its citizens.
However, the digitalization of a country,
especially a country of the size and
diversity of India -- cannot be a taken
as a silo; it has to have a 360 degree
perspective encompassing all socioeconomic
parameters.
Slow Implementation
So while the Digital India initiative is
great on paper, its execution has been
far behind schedule.
There are many reasons for the PM’s
digital juggernaut rolling so slowly.
The major hurdle towards implementing
the DI mission is the wide
digital divide that exists in India. It is a
paradox that even though mobile penetration
in India is high, the internet
connectivity is one of the lowest among
countries. Without internet connectivity,
the effectiveness of digital services
is hugely compromised. Lack of
language and digital literacy in using
technology to access and use information
is also a problem. Although smart
phones are available cheap in India,
most people, especially in rural and
semi-rural areas have no idea how to
use them. The root cause of such literacy
barriers is of course our under
resourced education system and abysmally
low IT awareness among user
communities.
Nations around the world are recognizing
the transformational impact
of bringing more of their population
online and network operators and
device manufacturers are exploring
ways to further reduce the cost of
access and provide service to underserved
populations. India needs to do
this with greater urgency and speed.
Most of India is still not connected
– even if they are, the network infrastructure
is so poor and archaic that
speed is a major concern. Even in metros,
we have to put up with abysmal
speed even on 4G networks. This must
change, and fast.
How to Expedite Things
For effective implementation of the
Digital India mission the laying of
the National Optical Fiber Network
(NOFN) has to be speeded up on war
footing. At the moment, this activity
is taking place at snail’s speed. The
Bharat Broadband Network Limited
(BBNL) the special purpose vehicle
along with its implementing agencies
which are PSUs with archaic processes
and procedures and in many cases also
slow in technology adaptation. They
need to pull up their socks and work
with greater zeal and vigour to deliver
Modi’s vision of Digital India.
The infrastructure (the hardware as
well as the Network infrastructure),
too, is dated and in many cases, maintenance
of equipment not up to the
mark. Quite often, the government
does not have enough people skilled in
these domains.
Another important reason for the
slow implementation of Digital India is
lack of understanding of new technologies,
such as cloud, mobility and IoT.
Cyber security is a major issue which
is, unfortunately, not being given the
attention it deserves. This ought to be
a major concern, especially now with
sensitive data uploaded on IT systems.
The Digital India content is highly
vulnerable and needs to be secured
against cyber-attack. This becomes
even more critical with the large volume
of financial transactions moving
digital now.
Major Imperatives
To translate the Prime Minister’s
vision of Digital India into reality
speedily we need to have a multipronged
strategy and work on multidiscipline
areas to bridge the digital
divide that exists in India at present.
The simplest way of doing this is
through mass IT awareness programs.
Improving IT skills– both at user end
as well as implementation end needs to
be a major priority.
The importance of cybersecurity and
cyber defence as key pillars of Digital
India’s march forward cannot be over
emphasized. It has to be kept in mind
at every stage of implementation of the
digital India initiative. We also need to
cut down on bureaucracy in the implementation
of NOFN – this is the first
and most important step to connect
the country on high speed broadband.
And finally, there is no option but to
think of cloud-based solutions to disseminate
digital services
–The writer is Regional Director,
CompTIA, the voice of the world’s
information technology industry.
CompTIA is dedicated to advancing
industry growth through its educational
programs, professional certifications and
public policy advocacy
September 2017 | CIO&LEADER
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