March 11, New Delhi — Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw stated on Wednesday that the Digital India program has significantly advanced digital inclusion across the country.
Speaking during Question Hour in the second phase of the Budget Session of Parliament, the minister said that over the past 10 years, the Prime Minister has worked on digital inclusion through Digital India on three fronts: increasing access to the internet; second, making the internet affordable; and third, providing digital public infrastructure.
Minister Vaishnaw said that in 2014, only around 25 crore people in India had access to internet connectivity. He added that the number has risen to nearly 103 crore people today.
In line with the Prime Minister's vision to democratize technology and empower citizens, the Government of India launched the Digital India program in July 2015.
Digital India includes many flagship programs that span across sectors: DigiLocker for secure document access, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) for cashless transactions, Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) for accessing digital services through a mobile app, CoWIN for vaccine management, and Government e-Marketplace (GeM) for procurement transparency.
Byte: Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister on Digital India
