Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pet project — Digital India — is to be launched on July 1 with the who’s who of India Inc in attendance. The week-long event, to be held in the capital, will see at least one major e-governance project being unveiled each day and is expected to attract 10,000 people. In terms of scale and grandeur the programme will match the biennial Vibrant Gujarat Summit that Modi started during his stint as the chief minister of the state.
The venue for the inaugural ceremony, sources said, is the Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, and around 400 top CEOs have been invited. Chief among them are Tata Group chairman Cyrus Mistry, Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani, Wipro chairman Azim Premji, Bharti Group chairman Sunil Mittal and Adani Group chairman Gautam Adani. Sources said that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is also likely to be present on the occasion.
The captains of industry are likely to announce their association with some of the projects, which include portals on telemedicine and e-hospitals — one partnership with the Apollo Hospital Group has already been forged. A portal on agriculture will also be unveiled as will e-basta, a platform to provide study material for students.
For common citizens, there will be the Digital Lockers initiative to help them store important documents like PAN cards, passports, mark sheets and degree certificates. “Digital Locker would provide secure access to government issued documents. It uses authenticity services provided by Aadhaar,” a source explained, adding that it was aimed at eliminating the use of physical documents and enabling sharing of verified electronic documents across government agencies.
Similarly, the e-hospital portal will allow citizens to make appointments with the doctors.
As reported by FE earlier, a project aimed at digitising land records, birth and death certificates, mark sheets and other such utilities would also be unveiled. While such projects have been taken up by the central government by way of pilot projects and some state governments have taken the initiative to digitise land records, this would be the first time that the project would be taken up on a pan-India level in a cost-effective manner.
Sources said that the show will be innovative. “There won’t be only speeches on the projects but also demonstrations on how they can be used,” a source said.
