Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Ministry of Electronics, Minister of State for Electronics & IT, graced today the ‘Launch Program of PMGDISHA Drive & Announcement of 100% Digital Literacy of all digital villages’ under AzadiKaAmritMahotsav. Shri Ajay Prakash Sawhney, Secretary, Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology and senior officials from ministry also attended the virtual event.

The PMGDISHA drive has been launched under PMGDISHA scheme, a flagship Digital Literacy scheme of the Government for rural areas. Under the campaign, a three day certification drive for rural citizens especially women and disadvantaged communities will be conducted from September 8^th to 10^th. From September 11^th to 13^th September, a certification  drive for PMGDISHA scheme will be conducted in a similar manner.

Apart from this Common Service Center (CSC) also proposed to make all the Digital Villages 100 percent Digital Literate. 

Speaking at the event, Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said that India is a unique country where we have used technology for digital inclusion and CSCs role in this is of paramount importance. PMGDISHA and CSCs have emerged as the enablers for digital literacy and they are important in realizing the vision outlined by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, to transform lives of common people and to bridge the gap between government and citizens through digital technology. He also stressed upon expanding the digital footprint of VLEs to create an enabling environment for digital inclusion.

The Government of India introduced its flagship Digital Literacy Programme, “Pradhan MantriGramin Digital SakshartaAbhiyan (PMGDISHA)” in February, 2017. The Scheme envisages to make six crore persons in rural areas, across States/UTs, digitally literate, reaching to around 40% of rural households by covering one member from every household where there is no digitally literate person.

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RKJ/M