Can Modi’s ‘Digital India Week’ Revolutionize the Education Sector?

The Digital India programme, launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on July 1, 2015, aims to transform the country into a digitally-empowered knowledge economy.

As part of this programme, Modi has announced a slew of digital initiatives to make government services more efficient, easily accessible and hassle-free.

These initiatives include digital lockers to store documents, e-Sign using Aadhaar, e-Hospital systems, National Scholarship Portal, Centre of Excellence on Internet on Things (IoT) and a high-speed digital highway.

According to Modi, this programme has the potential to improve systems, remove bureaucratic sloth and reduce red-tape that often delays processes and decision-making, and encourage start-up enterprises.

"I dream of a digital India where high-speed digital highways unite the nation; 1.2 billion connected Indians drive innovation; technology ensures the citizen-government interface is incorruptible," Modi said.

The two main initiatives being taken in the education sector are:

E-Education:

As part of this initiative, high-tech education will be provided to all using state-of-the-art technology. This programme can be used to reach out to people living in remote areas where it may not be possible for teachers to be physically available. The education can be imparted through virtual means as part of the programme.

National Scholarship Portal:

The National Scholarships Portal is an important tool of the Digital India initiative. It is a one-stop solution for end-to-end scholarship process. Students will be provided with a common application form and one-time registration and they would receive SMS and e-mail alert at every step of scholarship process. Therefore, it simplifies the procedure of scholarships provided by the government to a large extent.

With inputs from hindustantimes.com