Government taking steps to be leader in digital revolution

"India missed the industrial revolution. India missed the entrepreneurial revolution of the 50s, 60s and 70s due to license raj and quota raj. We don't want to miss the digital revolution. We want to become the leaders in that," Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

In his address at the Regional Editors' Conference organised by Press Information Bureau (PIB), Prasad, who also holds the Law portfolio, listed out the various digital initiative schemes undertaken by the BJP-led NDA government.

He underlined the government's focus on cyber security, saying it was "alive" to the issue and was coordinating with other countries.

"As the Prime Minister said cyber security is a bloodless war. We are quite alive to it. We are coordinating with various countries of the world. The Prime Minister himself is taking the lead," he said.

"We are going to set up a Cyber Coordination Centre in a big way. We are going to train judges, police officers and human resources in the field of cyber security," he added.

Indicating that India had made rapid strides in electronics, Prasad said a "big revolution" was happening in this sector.

While annual domestic usage of electronics was estimated to be about USD 80 billion in monetary value, it was expected to touch USD 400 billion by 2020, he said.

He said when the NDA came to power in 2014, investment promised in electronics market was around Rs 11,000 crore but had now grown to Rs 1.23 lakh crore.

Further, while six crore mobile handsets were manufactured in 2014-15 at a value of Rs 19,000 crore, the number had jumped to 11 crore the next year at Rs 54,000 crore, he said adding, this year production was expected to touch around Rs 94,000 crore.

Such growth was possible because government had talked to manufacturers and encouraged them while being committed to ensuring ease of doing business in the country, he said.

The government was making quick progress in areas likelaying of optical fibre cable under Bharatnet while 23,000 post office branches had been equipped with Core Banking Solutions.

Plans were underway to open 650 portal payment banks all over the country using postmen who would render banking and third party delivery services under the arrangement. About 50 national and international consortium were keen to participate in the scheme, he added.

Prasad said many digital services such as e-nakhsa (maps), e-mandi for farmers and computerisation of land records of 31 states were among the many digital initiatives launched to aid the citizens even as the government was committed to ensuring transparency.

On BJP sticking to Aadhaar card for various welfare schemes despite criticising it while in the opposition, he said, "We don't deny it that we criticised (it). But after we came to power we revisited and went deep into the matter and it shows our liberal, modern outlook of open mind that if something good has to be done, do it in a better way."

"The results are there," he said. Even the Prime Minister has appreciated whoever has done good for India, Prasad said, adding, "being in politics don't practise political untouchability."