The Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi inaugurated the Digital India Week 2022, whose theme is ‘Catalyzing New India’s Techade’ in Gandhinagar today. During the programme, he also launched multiple digital initiatives aimed at enhancing the accessibility of technology, streamlining service delivery to ensure ease of living and giving a boost to startups. He also announced the first cohort of 30 Institutions to be supported under the Chips to Startup (C2S) Programme. Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Bhupendrabhai Patel, Union Minister, Union Ministers Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw and Shri Rajeev Chandrasekhar, state ministers, people’s representatives, startups, and other stakeholders of the sector were among those present on the occasion.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said today’s programme gives a glimpse of continuously modernizing India in the 21st century. Through Digital India, India has exemplified how revolutionary the correct use of technology is for the growth of humanity. “I am glad that this campaign, which started eight years ago, has been expanding itself with the changing times”, he said.

The Prime Minister said “With the passage of time, the country which does not adopt modern technology, time moves ahead leaving it behind. India was a victim of this during the Third Industrial Revolution. But today we can proudly say that India is guiding the world in the fourth industrial revolution, Industry 4.0. The Prime Minister praised Gujarat for taking the lead in this regard also.

Remembering the conditions of 8-10 years ago. The Prime Minister said that from the situations of lines for birth certificate, bill payment, ration, admissions, result and banks, India has removed all these lines by getting online. So many services like, life certificate, reservation, banking etc have become accessible, fast and affordable. Similarly, through technology, under Direct Benefit Transfer, more than 23 lakh crore rupees have been directly transferred in the accounts of the beneficiaries, in the last 8 years.”Due to this technology, 2 lakh 23 thousand crore rupees of the country have been saved from falling into the wrong hands”, he added emphasizing role of Digital India in curbing corruption.  He said Digital India has brought the government to the doorsteps and phones of the citizens. More than 1.25 lakh Common Service Centres and Grameen Stores are now taking e-commerce to rural India, he said. Similarly, property documents for rural properties are being provided by use of technology.

On the use of technology during the pandemic the Prime Minister said that the power that Digital India has created in the country in the last eight years has helped India a lot in combating the Corona global pandemic. “We have transferred thousands of crores of rupees to the bank accounts of crores of women, farmers, labourers of the country at a single click. With the help of One Nation One Ration Card, we have ensured free ration to more than 80 crore countrymen.” We have run the world's largest and most efficient covid vaccination and covid relief program. Through our Cowin platform about 200 vaccine doses have been administered and certificates given, said the Prime Minister.

Furthermore, the Prime Minister said “India’s FinTech endeavour is truly a solution by the people, of the people, for the people. The technology in it is India's own i.e. by the people. The countrymen made it a part of their life i.e. of the people. It made the transactions of the countrymen easy i.e. for the people.” 40 percent digital transection at global level takes place in India, the Prime Minister added. “There is scale, security and democratic values in our digital solutions”, he said.

The Prime Minister informed about the focus of skilling, upskill and reskilling the 14-15 lakh youths for Industry 4.0 in the coming 4-5 years. He said “be it space, mapping, drones, gaming and animation, many such sectors which are going to expand the future of digital technology, they have been opened for innovation. Provisions like IN-SPACe and new drone policy will give new energy to India's tech potential in the coming years in this decade.”

The Prime Minister informed “today, India is working on the target of taking electronics manufacturing to more than $ 300 billion in the next three-four years. India wants to become a chip maker from a chip taker. Investment is rapidly increasing in India to increase production of semiconductors”.

The Prime Minister expressed the hope that Digital India Campaign will keep on adding new dimensions to itself and will keep serving the citizens of the country.

Details of the initiatives launched:

‘Digital India Bhashini’ will enable easy access to the internet and digital services in Indian languages, including voice-based access, and help the creation of content in Indian languages. The key intervention in building AI-based language technology solutions for Indian languages will be the creation of multilingual datasets. Digital India Bhashini will enable massive citizen engagement to build these datasets through a crowdsourcing initiative called BhashaDaan.

‘Digital India GENESIS’ (Gen-next Support for Innovative Startups) - a National Deep-tech Startup Platform, to discover, support, grow and make successful startups in Tier-II and Tier-III cities of India.  A total outlay of ₹750 Crore has been envisaged for the scheme.

‘Indiastack.global’ - a global repository of key projects implemented under India Stack like Aadhaar, UPI, Digilocker, Cowin Vaccination Platform, Government e-Marketplace (GeM), DIKSHA Platform and Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission. This offering of India to the Global Public Digital Goods repository will help position India as the leader in building Digital Transformation projects at a population scale and prove to be of immense help to other countries which are looking for such technology solutions.

‘MyScheme’ - a service discovery platform facilitating access to Government Schemes. It aims to offer a one-stop search and discovery portal where users can find schemes that they are eligible for. He will also dedicate to the citizens ‘Meri Pehchaan’-  National Single Sign On for One Citizen Login. National Single Sign-On (NSSO) is a user authentication service in which a single set of credentials provide access to multiple online applications or services.

The C2S Programme aims to train specialized manpower in the area of design of semiconductor chips at Bachelors, Masters and Research levels, and act as a catalyst for the growth of Startups involved in semiconductor design in the country. It offers to mentor at the organisational level and makes available State-of-the-art facilities for design to the institutions. This is part of the India Semiconductor Mission to build a strong design ecosystem in semiconductors.

Digital India Week 2022 will have physical events from 4^th to 6^th July in Gandhinagar. The programme will celebrate the anniversary of Digital India and demonstrate how public digital platforms like Aadhaar, UPI, Cowin, Digilocker etc., have enabled ease of living for citizens. It will showcase India’s technological prowess to the global audience, explore collaboration and business opportunities with a wide range of stakeholders, and present the Techade of opportunities for NextGen. It will witness the participation of Startups and leaders from Government, Industry & Academia. A Digital Mela is also being organised with over 200 stalls that will showcase digital solutions enabling ease of living and also the solutions that Indian Unicorns and Startups have developed. Digital India Week will also have India Stack Knowledge Exchange in virtual mode from 7^th to 9^th July.

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