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A Common Place For The Common Man #DigitalIndia

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When a tea seller made his way to the highest seat of the country, like billions of people I rejoiced too. Having only seen promises all these years and never seen them getting fulfilled, I thought that the new Prime Minister would bring a change in a good way. If not everything, atleast something would change was the hope. The reason I voted for Narendra Damodardas Modi was that he has the right vision for the country. He has held on his cultural middle class roots and yet embraced technology and is so wonderful at it. His PR team is the most enthusiastic team ever and I love to see the tweets they churn out every second. It did not happen during the Congress reign. Let us face it, boon or bane, we are a slave to technology. If there is one place that everyone is present, then it has to be the online world. Every Tom, Dick and Harry has found his way out here and is making the most of it. And I'm glad that the head office of the country is encouraging this as well.

In this era of one-day delivery or same day delivery, the only thing that has remained stagnant and almost useless are the government offices. I remember taking three days off from work to renew my passport and yet it was not done. I stood in long queues outside the passport office, bribed the officials and yet nothing was done. Finally I had to use influences and get a letter from the commissioner to get my passport renewed. It worked like a charm. How, I do not know? All that mattered to me was that my work got done. And this is the exact mentality of every single Indian out here. And we cannot blame them either. Nobody has the time to waste these days. Everyone is busy trying to make a living and live a life, that no one has the time nor the patience to wait for their things.

What India needs the most now is to put the foot on the pedal and rise up to technology. It is not only about the head office and we IT employees who should go online. Every nook and corner of the country needs to get digital too. Digital India is a dream now in the eyes of every India. But if every Indian does a bit for it, then the dream shall be realised soon. Digital India is an initiative of the Government of India to integrate the government departments and the people of India. This is vital and I cannot stress the importance of this enough. It aims at ensuring that government services are made available to citizens electronically by reducing paperwork and ensuring transparency and zero corruption. No one would be denied of any information now while everything is present online for everyone to see. This also means that measures would now be taken to connect rural areas with high speed Internet network. About time this happened.

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Digital India has three core components. These include the creation of digital infrastructure, delivering services digitally and digital literacy. The most important one here is digital literacy. Education should be the key here and this is the only thing that will expedite the dream of Digital India. People of the country need to be educated about why technology is important and they should stop looking it as taboo or as something alien. It is about time people gave up their ignorance and embraced something new, for themselves. Awareness camps should visit rural areas and cite the importance of technology in day to day lives. If the government is willing to provide the infrastructure and the services, then what is the harm in getting educated to use them? Especially when it is the citizens who are benefited out of it. And you do not need a masters degree to check out a site and its services online. Basic literacy is enough to understand these things. The above statistics should increase and not only in population.

Once the Government services come online, then there is no looking back. Every citizen can just login and check what is happening with his/her applications now. And thanks to E-Governance, there will no longer be the painful task of giving bribes. Earlier a bribe would be required to get past each level, from the peon to the clerk to the assistant to the manager. And this is exactly why people like me loathe the Government services. At every step they expect money. E-Governance will ensure a transparent and seamless service to the common man. There should also be a platform online to register any complaints the common man is facing and fast action should be taken on them. The common man has just a few basic needs from the Government. There is no need for him to struggle so much to get his own things done. Especially when it is his tax money that is contributing to the salaries of the Government servants.

Yes, I used the term servants on purpose. This is to open the eyes of almost all of them who think that they rule the Government and how the common man is their slave. Some people feel powerful by turning away a few people. E-Governance would change all that. There needs to be a central monitoring system where every request and every petition should be monitored. E-Governance would also open up the employment scheme in India where a large number of people can be recruited to run Digital India. If the Government is only a click away then people would be more than eager to literate themselves on technology at its uses. It is about time, that few people realize that there is more than porn out there on the Internet.

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E-Governance can easily accelerate the vision of a digital India. If every one of us support it. When almost everything is now available online, why not the Government services too? Every farmer, carpenter, driver, mason, clerk, manager, IT consultant, businessman would be able to use this with just a click. There is no prejudice based on caste or creed here. As educated individuals it is our duty to spread awareness about technology. Educate your neighbor, maid, security guard on how to access Internet and its uses. Talk, talk and continue to talk. By the time this is ready to be implemented we should have had created enough curiosity and awareness. People should wait for this to take off and help in maintaining it. Stringer rules should be put into place, making Governance a serious job and enabling a common place for the common man. R.K. Laxman would be proud of this, I'm sure.

The #DigitalIndia project is slated for completion by 2019. But if we do our bit in educating people about this, this dream can be realized sooner than we all think.

Intel supports the Digital India Vision. Intel is committed towards our government's vision of a Digital India. Through its ‘Digital Skills for India’ and ‘Innovate for India’ initiatives, Intel has been fostering technology as the enabler for creating a digitized India.

Comments

  1. I certainly think of India being in the forefront of technology. So many of our IT help lines are outsourced to your country. I also think of India being in the forefront of medicine too. Practically every specialist I see these days is of Indian origin.

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