The extended scheme will boost the homegrown digital economy, drive digital access to services and support the local IT and electronics ecosystem, IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said
The government will also roll out AI-enabled multi-language translation tool, BHASHINI, in all 22 scheduled languages
The government will establish three CoEs in the area of AI, catering to health, agriculture and sustainable cities
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday (August 16) approved the expansion of the Digital India initiative and earmarked a total outlay of INR 14,903 Cr for the scheme.
The announcement was made by Union IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw during a press briefing in New Delhi. Speaking to reporters, said that the expansion of the scheme will boost the homegrown digital economy, drive digital access to services and support the country’s IT and electronics ecosystem.
The government has also announced a slew of sops for startups under the expanded Digital India scheme. The higher outlay will go towards backing 1,200 startups in the Tier-II and Tier-III cities. Besides, the centre will also establish three Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in the area of artificial intelligence (AI) catering specifically to health, agriculture and sustainable cities.
The revamped scheme will also deploy the outlay towards Bhashini, the AI-enabled multi-language translation tool. The AI service will be rolled out in all 22 scheduled languages from 10 currently. The Cabinet also approved the deployment of nine additional supercomputers to the National SuperComputing Mission’s current kitty of 18 supercomputers.
Digital document verification facility via DigiLocker will also be rolled out to micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and other ‘organisations’ to streamline the process of validation. This will likely enable small businesses to access credit and government services without being physically present.
Under the Future Skills Prime Programmere, the government will upskill and reskill nearly 6.26 Lakh IT professionals. In addition, another 2.65 Lakh persons will be trained in information security under the Information Security & Education Awareness Phase (ISEA) programme.
The development comes barely a day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in his Independen
He further added that the world is tech driven today and the coming era is going to be influenced by technology. “This gives a platform to showcase the prowess of India’s talent in technology who is going to play a new key role,” the PM said in his speech.
Also, talking about the Digital India initiative, he said that many developed countries had shown interest in it during his visit to Bali in 2022.
