Govt initiatives accelerating growth of digital services & their usage: IAMAI

There has been a growth in digital services and their consequent usage due to several initiatives that the Government has undertaken in the last 5 years, finds a report, titled ‘Digital India Initiative’. The report, jointly published by the Internet and Mobile Association of India [IAMAI] and Red Seer Consultancy, maps all Government initiatives under the different schemes and programs and evaluates their impact.

The report finds that Digital Service adoption has been growing on the back of rise in public service apps launched in key sectors of health, agriculture and education. Digital Services have paved the way for integrating mobiles, financial transactions and e-governance services. Few of the applications (for example, DigiLocker, MyGov, and BHIM) have witnessed high adoption.

Some of the key highlights of the Government-led digital initiatives have been:

• A total of 227 Central and State government organisations have benefited due to integration with digital platforms for transparency in procedures
• More than 32 crore bank accounts have been opened since the initiation of Digital India initiatives
• A total savings to the tune of Rs 90,000 crore for the economy between 2014 and 2018 due to removal of fake and duplicate identities has been achieved through Digital inclusion
• Citizen Empowerment and Financial Empowerment categories have been able to achieve highest benefit creation for the citizens of the country
• Maximum impact has been created under Financial Impact and Transparency parameters for the citizens and, in turn, for the economy.

The report finds evidence that empowerment of citizens and enterprises is being enabled through (i) creation and linkage of digital identity, (ii) creation of opportunity across sectors, and (iii) offering communication platforms with governing bodies. Digital Empowerment enables citizens to verify and attest using digital documents, avail job opportunities and seek grievance redressal; and enables Enterprises to seek funds, tax subsidy and technical support.

The impact analysis exercise of the report further finds that:

• Reach & inclusion has grown at ~30%
• Financial & time saving has been ~120%
• Quality, accuracy & transparency thanks to digital transactions has been ~60%
• Opportunity creation has been almost stable

The report also includes a deep dive in the key initiatives like Aadhaar, Digilocker, Indian BPO Promotion Scheme, Jan Dhan Yojana, Direct Benefit Transfer, e-NAM, e-Basta, and SWAYAM, to name a few.

According to the report, the various services identified in this study are still works in progress, which are expected to be fine-tuned over the years. The key challenges identified in this study need to be properly addressed to ensure success of these initiatives.

With the National Digital Communication Policy (2018), a visionary document for the physical infrastructure of digital communications in India already in place, it is expected that many of these services will have higher adoption as affordable internet reaches the farthest corners to the last user in India.

IAMAI welcomes the good work done by the Government sector in promoting digital services, and expresses optimism that this momentum will be carried forward to ensure digital delivery of services to all citizens of India.