Benefits of Digital India reaching people – Ravi Shankar Prasad
Jan Dhan enables 22 crore bank accounts in 18 months ; Direct Benefit Transfer saves Rs 36,500 crores
Mumbai | : Union Minister for Communication & IT Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad today asserted that the government’s ambitious Digital India programme is empowering the people across the country and changing their lives for the better. Addressing a Vikas Parv event organized by the Department of Telecommunication, Post and IT in Mumbai today, Mr. Prasad said the government has been working with a mission of “banking the unbanked, funding the unfunded, securing the unsecured and pensioning the unpensioned”.
The Minister said the JAM (Jan Dhan – Adhaar – Mobile) today reaches 31 crore beneficiaries with 59 schemes involving Rs 61,822 crores. He said the Direct Benefit Transfer has helped save Rs 36,500 crores. Mr. Prasad said all the above schemes are being implemented on digital technology platform.
The Minister further said that digital technology has also promoted ‘jan bhaagidari’ (people’s participation), where 2 million people interact with government on the MyGov platform giving suggestions and sharing their thoughts.
Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad asserted that corruption free economic growth is the mission of the NDA Government. He said “I work from the Sanchar Bhawan in New Delhi, where the 2G scam had taken place. Our Government has rooted out corruption from the telecom ministry and the entry of middlemen is banned in my office”. Mr. Prasad said the Government was able to auction spectrum worth Rs 1,09,000 crores without fingers being pointed at. He said, the Coal Ministry conducted even bigger coal auction of Rs 3,00,000 crores in a transparent manner.
Underlining the government’s commitment to growth and development, Mr. Ravi Shankar Prasad gave details of performance excellence of organizations under his Ministry. He said, the Public Sector BSNL, which had posted Rs 8,000 crore loss in 2014, has managed to post an operating profit of Rs 672 crores and its mobile phone subscription has shot up from 8 lakhs to 23 lakhs.
Mr. Prasad said the India Post, which had 4 ATMs in 2014 now operates 913 ATMs across the country. “The Speed Post service of India Post has been described the best courier service in the country by the CAG” he added.
Mr. Prasad informed that India’s IT and IT enabled services today has footprint in 80 countries covering 200 cities. He said India accounted for 56% of global IT outsourcing.
Earlier, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad unveiled the Foundation Stone of India Post e-Commerce Parcel Processing Centre at Airoli, Navi Mumbai. To be built on a 4,000 sqmt plot, the Parcel Processing Centre at Airoli will have a capacity to handle 75,000 parcels per day with automated weighing and sorting systems. It is being built at an estimated cost of Rs 40 crores. He also dedicated 6 new ATMs of India Post located in Maharashtra and Goa and inaugurated the Tier 3 Data Centre of MTNL. The Minister also handed over the Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana passbooks to beneficiaries and remotely inaugurated the Rukmini Nagar Post Office building in Amravati.
Union Minister of State for Rural Development Mr Sudarshan Bhagat, MP Kirit Somayya were prominent among those present.
