The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the expansion of the Digital India program with a total outlay of ₹14,903 crores.
The expansion will enable the following:
- Reskilling and upskilling of 6.25 lakh IT professionals under the FutureSkills Prime Programme.
- Training of 2.65 lakh persons in information security under the Information Security & Education Awareness Phase (ISEA) Programme.
- Making 540 additional services available under the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) app/ platform.
- Deploying 9 more supercomputers under the National Super Computer Mission.
- Rolling out Bhashini, the AI-enabled multi-language translation tool, in all 22 schedule 8 languages.
- Modernizing the National Knowledge Network (NKN) which connects 1,787 educational institutions.
- Making the digital document verification facility under DigiLocker available to MSMEs and other organisations.
- Supporting 1,200 startups in Tier 2/3 cities.
- Setting up 3 Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence on health, agriculture, and sustainable cities.
- Providing cyber-awareness courses to 12 crores college students.
- Launching new initiatives in the area of cyber security, including developing tools and integrating more than 200 sites with the National Cyber Coordination Centre.
The expansion of the Digital India program is expected to give a boost to the digital economy of India, drive digital access to services, and support India’s IT and electronics ecosystem.