Make in India, Digital India and NIXI

In this rather unconventional post, I’ll discuss Indian PM’s “Make In India” initiative, the “Digital India” initiative and how NIXI fits into the scheme of things.

What PM Modi’s “Make in India” initiative is about?
The first reference of Make in India was made by the Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi in his maiden speech from the ramparts of the Red Ford in New Delhi from where he appealed all the people world-over, “Come, make in India”, “Come, manufacture in India” and just after 40 days of it, he launched it on 25th September 2014. As a comprehensive set of nation-building initiatives, the “Make in India” programme has been devised to transform India into a global manufacturing hub.
What was the need of Make in India?
In the year 2013, India recorded its lowest growth rate in a decade, the beam of BRICS nations had dimmed, and India was tagged with the so-called “Fragile Five”. It became a subject of debate among the Global investors that whether the investment to the world’s largest democracy was a risk or opportunity. To conclude, India was on the brink of severe economic failure.
Objectives of Make in India
Its primary purpose is to encourage national as well as multi-national companies to manufacture in India. Another main goal is to focus on skill enhancement and job creation in 25 sectors of the economy. The initiative also aims to achieve a high level of standards and minimum impact on the environment.
Targets
The following targets have been cited as the achievable objectives in the Make in India programme:

• To increase the share of manufacturing sector in the country’s GDP from 16% to 25% by 2022.
• Creation of 100 million additional jobs in manufacturing sector by 2022.
• To create appropriate skills among urban poor and rural migrants for inclusive growth.
• To enhance the global competitiveness of the Indian manufacturing sector.

What is the plan?
The make in India programme incorporates a comprehensive plan to attract the national and multinational investors by formulating some attractive policies like – ease of doing business, enhancing the limits of FDI, safeguarding the intellectual property rights, labour reforms, land reforms, creation of economic zones like Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor (DMIC) and many more.
Sectors
The main focus of the Make in India programme is in the following 25 sectors of the economy:

• Aviation
• Automobile components
• Automobiles
• Biotechnology
• Construction
• Chemicals
• Defence manufacturing
• Electronic system
• Electrical Machinery
• Food Processing
• Information Technology and Business Process Management
• Leather
• Mining
• Media and Entertainment
• Oil and Gas
• Ports and Shipping
• Pharmaceuticals
• Renewable Energy
• Railways
• Roads and Highways
• Space and Astronomy
• Textiles and Garments
• Tourism and Hospitality
• Thermal Power
• Wellness

Except for News Media (26%), Defence (49%) and Space (74%), in all the other sectors 100% FDI is permitted.
In a nut-shell, Make in India programme is a litmus test for the economic upheaval of the country. It also envisages the ethics of manufacturing as the PM Modi visions in his slogan – “Zero Defect, Zero Effect” which signifies that the mechanism of production wherein products have no defects, and the process of manufacturing has zero adverse ecological and environmental effects.

What is PM Modi’s “Digital India” initiative?
The “Digital India” is campaign-cum-flagship programme of the Government of India having a vision to transform India into a knowledge economy and digitally empowered society. Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 2nd July 2015, Digital India is an umbrella programme which covers multiple government departments and ministries. A large number of ideas and thoughts are weaved together by it into a solitary comprehensive vision so that each of them can be implemented as part of a larger goal. The Digital India programme will be implemented in phases till 2018.
What was the need for Digital India?
Although, a number of initiatives to empower India digitally were taken earlier also for instance, E-governance initiative in the mid 1990s which incorporated citizen-centric services such as land-record-computerization, railway-computerization, etc., they could not make the desired impact because of their limited features. These failures commanded the need for a more comprehensive planning to establish a more connected government.
Vision of Digital India
There are basically three key visions on which The Digital India Programme is centred:

• Creation of digital infrastructure
• Digital delivery of government services
• Digital empowerment of citizens

Pillars of Digital India
To achieve the growth on multiple fronts, Government of India has identified specifically nine pillars of Digital India:

• Universal access to mobile connectivity
• eKranti – electronic delivery of government services
• Broadband Highways
• Information for all
• Public Internet Access Programme
• Early Harvest Programme
• IT for Jobs
• Electronics Manufacturing
• e-Governance – Reforming Government through Technology

Services provided by Digital India
Some of the major facilities which will be enabled through the initiative of Digital India are:

DigiLocker
It will help citizens store their documents like passport, PAN card, mark sheets and degree certificates. Its primary aim is to eliminate physical documents and allow citizens to share documents in electronic form across the government agencies.

e-Education
It aims to provide education related materials in online mode like e-Books, lecture-videos, ICT-enables study materials, etc.

MyGov.in
It provides a platform to citizens to share inputs and ideas on policy and governance related matters. Citizens may engage themselves with governance through “discuss”, “do” and “Disseminate” approach.

Attendance.gov.in
It incorporates a common Biometric Attendance System (BAS) in the central government offices and keeps a record on a real-time basis of the attendance of government employees.

eSign
It allows citizens to sign a document digitally using Aadhaar authentication.
As the world is almost being engulfed in the arms of digital technology and every sphere of life is being controlled by this digital figure, the success of Digital India programme will make India stand as a harbinger to the digital world. The programme has immense potential to generate ICT-enabled jobs and can make India digitally empowered in the delivery of government services like education, health, agriculture, banking, etc.
Let’s see whether the vision statement of The Digital India programme will be justified or not in the times to come i.e. “Power to Empower”.

NIXI, which will help play a role in Digital India endevaours, runs the INRegistry. NIXI stands for National Internet Exchange of India and formed in 1956 is a Not-for-Profit company constituted by the Government of India. Under the ambit of NIXI, the INRegistry is responsible everything related to .IN domains. In the past few months, the registry has launched an online social media campaign to promote adoption of .IN domains. Enjoy some the of the amazing images obtained from the twitter account of .IN Registry: