Cabinet approves extending Digital India program with Rs 14,903 cr outlay: 1,200 startups, 9 more supercomputers and re-skilling of 6.25 lakh IT professionals planned - check details

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw informed on Wednesday that the Union Cabinet has approved the extension of the Digital India programme. Briefing the media after the Cabinet meeting, he said that an outlay of Rs 14,903 crore (for a five-year period between 2021-22 to 2025-26) would be allocated to boost digital initiatives in areas like skill development, cyber security, high performance computing and simplifying technology for masses. 

He said, "The budget was allocated from time to time as per requirement. We have made changes in the schemes for which approval was required," adding that the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved the extension of the programme with the outlay of Rs 14,903 crore.

Digital India program: Plans under focus

• 6.25 lakh IT professionals will be re-skilled and up-skilled under the FutureSkills Prime Programme;
   
• 2.65 lakh persons will be trained in information security under the Information Security & Education Awareness Phase (ISEA) Programme;
   
• 540 additional services will be available under the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) app/ platform. At present over 1,700 services are already available on UMANG;
   
• 9 more supercomputers will be added under National Super Computer Mission. This is in addition to 18 supercomputers already deployed;
   
• Bhashini, the AI-enabled multi-language translation tool (currently available in 10 languages) will be rolled out in all 22 schedule 8 languages;
   
• Modernisation of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) which connects 1,787 educational institutions;
   
• Digital document verification facility under DigiLocker will now be available to MSMEs and other organisations;
   
• 1,200 startups will be supported in Tier 2/3 cities;
   
• 3 Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence on health, agriculture and sustainable cities will be set up;
   
• Cyber-awareness courses for 12 crores college students;
   
• New initiatives in the area of cyber security including development of tools and integration of more than 200 sites with National Cyber Coordination Centre

PM @narendramodi Ji’s Digital India programme is democratising technology. #CabinetDecision pic.twitter.com/q2rmFlakxV

— Ashwini Vaishnaw (@AshwiniVaishnaw) August 16, 2023

In March 2015, the government approved installation of 70 supercomputers under NCM by 2022 with an outlay of Rs 4,500 crore.

The minister said that the Digilocker app will also be extended to micro, small and medium enterprises to help them avail credit and other services by verifying their document stores in the app.

Under the approved programme, 6.25 lakh IT professionals will be reskilled and upskilled, and 2.65 lakh persons will be trained in information security under the Information Security and Education Awareness Phase (ISEA) Programme.

He said cyber awareness courses for 12 crore college students will be conducted under the Digital India programme.

"CertIn, which does cyber forensics, emergency response and cyber diagnosis will be expanded massively," Vaishnaw said.

Further, the minister said the National Knowledge Network, a network of 1,787 universities and research and development institutes, will be further developed into Digital India Infoways.

"A centre of excellence will also be set up in the field of artificial intelligence for its use in agriculture, health and sustainability," the minister said.

Under the extended Digital India programme, new initiatives in the area of cyber security, including development of tools and integration of more than 200 sites with National Cyber Coordination Centre, will be carried out.

The extended programme has a provision for funding support to 1,200 startups based in tier 2 and 3 cities, the minister added.

(With Agecny Inputs)