India needs to eliminate digital divide by 2023, NITI Aayog

The NITI Aayog Report titled “Strategy for New India @75” inter-alia indicates that India needs to eliminate the Digital Divide by 2022-23. In this regard, it is stated that Skill development and creating skilled talent is an important mission to ensure that the growing digital economy of India is provided with the trained and skilled manpower that Industry requires. To further aid digital adoption, the Ministry has focused on digital literacy for citizens since 2014, across the country, especially in rural areas.

Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MeitY) has taken the following initiatives to bridge the digital divide in the country:

• In the years 2014 to 2016, two Schemes titled “National Digital Literacy Mission” (NDLM) and “Digital Saksharta Abhiyan” (DISHA) were implemented by the Government with a target to train 52.50 lakh candidates in digital literacy across the country. Under these two schemes, a total of 53.67 lakh beneficiaries were certified.
• In 2017, a scheme titled “Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA)” was approved by Union Cabinet to usher in digital literacy in rural India by covering 6 crore rural households (one person per household). So far, a total of around 5.78 crore candidates have been enrolled and 4.90 crore have been trained, out of which around 3.62 crore candidates have been certified under this scheme.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Electronics & Information Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha today.

CT Bureau