Union Cabinet approves outlay of Rs 14,903 crore to expand Digital India programme

New Delhi [India], August 17 (ANI): The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved an extension of the government’s flagship Digital India scheme with an outlay of Rs 14,903 crore for five years, starting FY2021-22 to FY2025-26.
Cybersecurity has been kept as a big focus of the expansion, which includes enhancing the capabilities of the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In).
Union electronics and information technology (IT) Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, while briefing the media said that it will boost the digital economy of India, drive digital access to services and support the country’s IT and electronics ecosystem.
“6.25 lakh IT professionals will be re-skilled and up-skilled under the FutureSkills Prime Programme while 2.65 lakh persons will be trained in information security under the Information Security and 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,” the minister said, adding that 9 more supercomputers will be added under National Super Computer Mission which will be in addition to 18 supercomputers already deployed.
He further said that 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 and Digital document verification facility under DigiLocker will now be available to MSMEs and other organisations,” Vaishanw said.
1,200 startups will be supported in tier 2 and tier 3 cities and 3 Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence on health, agriculture and sustainable cities will be set up.
He further said that the outlay will also enable cyber-awareness courses for 12 crore college students and new initiatives in the area of cyber security, including development of tools and integration of more than 200 sites with the National Cyber Coordination Centre.
Today’s announcement will give a boost to the digital economy of India, drive digital access to services and support India’s IT and electronics ecosystem, he added. (ANI)