Digital India is an initiative of the present Indian Government, launched on 1st July 2015. The objective has been to connect rural areas of India with internet access at high speed and also to make Indians more digital literate. The aim is not limited to rural areas and villages but also to enable the citizens of the country to use all government and utility services electronically. As of 2015, only 26% of Indians had access to internet. This means that there was an upheaval task for the Indian government to provide digital and internet services to the remaining parts of the country.
One of the main issues that were addressed by Digital India was to make available as many services as possible to the common man through the online medium – e-governance and e-services being two of the major highlights of this program. By building enhanced infrastructure, Wi-Fi spots, broadband services to villages, universal phone connectivity, the government aimed at empowering the citizens with digital power. And thus dawned the new-age where people with internet connectivity on their personal computers, laptops and mobile phones could, within minutes, by clicking on few buttons conduct mundane yet essential things like recharging a mobile connection or paying gas bill to conducting activities like movie ticket booking, purchase products and services online etc.
So, if you are one of those who is still not convinced with digitization and electronic payments, then you need to change fast. As more and more people get connected via internet in India, online transactions and digital payments is going to completely replace all things offline soon. What is essential to understand is that getting your movie tickets booked online really does not mean that you need to be very tech savvy and have enough computer knowledge. On the contrary online payments and booking for services online or ordering for products and services online needs basic knowledge of operating a computer or a smart phone. The process is so simple that even teenagers and elderly people can get the movie tickets bookings done easily. So, educate your family and friends on the basic operations of computers and smart phones so that they are self sufficient in such a way that they can conduct the basic activities of recharging the DTH services, making payments for electricity and water bills, order food from the restaurant, order for medicines online etc. Hence the vision of Digital India gets more nearer to getting fulfilled.
Something as simple as booking of online movie tickets may not really be the objective of Digital India – but the process behind the same – that of online payment – that of being able to use electronic mode of payment is surely a part of the larger motive. Digitization encompasses cashless transactions and using internet to pay for various services using credit/debit cards, Netbanking or virtual wallet is a way towards achieving the same. While cash is our preferred mode of payment still, Digital India dreams of empowering Indians in a cashless manner.