The Indian government has announced an expansion of its existing digital India plan, with investment expenditures of 149 billion Indian rupees (1.79 billion US dollars) over a five-year period from 2021-22 to 2025-26. The areas of focus are retraining, cybersecurity, startups, and promoting the use of the Indian language.
Digital India “was launched in 2015 and is a comprehensive plan covering multiple e-government initiatives, including the Bharat Broadband Network, Public Service Center, and Bharat Currency Interface for rural broadband connectivity.
This statement was announced as India prepares to hold elections next year. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, “This will promote our digital economy, provide better services, and strengthen our IT ecosystem. In the past few years, the Indian government has launched several initiatives to promote a digital lifestyle.”
As part of the expansion plan, the government will invest in retraining and skill enhancement for 256000 IT professionals under the Future Skills program. The government will also train 265000 information security personnel in accordance with the “Information, Security, and Education Awareness” phase plan. There is an increasing need for retraining personnel in fields such as IT, as the development of artificial intelligence and automation may make many positions in other fields redundant.
In addition to training and retraining, this funding will also be used to expand the scope of the Bashini project to 22 languages. Bhashini is an artificial intelligence translation tool currently available in 10 Indian language versions. The purpose of this plan is to enable “all Indians to easily use their own language internet and digital services, and to increase the content of the Indian language”.
In addition, some of the funds will also be used to support 1200 start-up enterprises in second and third tier towns. The government will also launch a cybersecurity awareness program targeting 120 million people.
The other part of this funding will be used to add 9 supercomputers to the already deployed 18 supercomputers, as part of the national supercomputer mission. Part of the funds will also be used to establish three centers of excellence for research on the applications of artificial intelligence in healthcare, agriculture, and sustainable living.