The expansion of the Digital India Programme, which includes a ₹14,903 crore boost for e-governance services, cybersecurity, and the use of artificial intelligence, was approved by the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
Initiatives under the expanded Digital India programme would prioritize cybersecurity. The Information Security & Education Awareness Phase (ISEA) Programme will provide training on information security to about 265,000 citizens.
The Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), the government’s official organization for cyber forensics, emergency response, and cyber diagnostics, would be greatly expanded, according to Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister for Communication, Electronics, and Information Technology. Along with developing cybersecurity technologies, the plan will also integrate more than 200 locations with the National Cyber Coordination Centre.
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As previously stated, the government intends to construct three Centres of Excellence (CoE) for the growth of the nation’s ecosystem for AI research and innovation, under this program. These centers will concentrate on sustainable cities, agriculture, and health. Moreover, 22 official Indian languages will all be supported by the AI-enabled multi-language translation tool Bhashini, which is currently offered in 10 languages.
Under the National Supercomputer Mission, the government will also install nine additional supercomputers for AI modeling and weather forecasting. This will be in addition to the existing 18 supercomputers.
To enable digital delivery of services to residents, the Digital India programme was introduced in July 2015. The programme will now run for a total of five years, from 2021–2022 to 2025–2026. Over 1,200 startups from Tier-II and Tier-III cities will receive help from the government throughout the extended time.
Approximately 625,000 IT employees will receive new training and up-skilling for next-generation technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, data analytics, and more, as part of the second phase of the government’s digital push.
