10 Years of Digital India: Transformation of Bharat from digitally divided nation to world's digital capital

New Delhi, June 30 (IANS) Despite the launch of e-governance projects way back in 1990s, the deep ‘digital divide’ -- which existed in India till about a decade back -- not only created economic disparities between those who could afford technology and those who could not, but also affected the country’s overall growth due to lack of required digital infrastructure.

The situation has, however, changed drastically in India in the past decade since Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Digital India campaign on 1 July 2015 to digitally empower the country and raise India’s stature in the world by transforming the country into a knowledge-based economy.

As we celebrate 10 years of Digital India initiative, India -- which lagged behind in technology till 2014 -- has become the world’s digital capital by improving the lives of all citizens through the digital delivery of services, expanding the digital economy and employment opportunities.

Reflecting the success of the Digital India initiative, over 95 per cent villages have now got access to Internet with rural telephone connections jumping from 377.78 million in 2014 to 536.65 million and rural tele-density jumping from 44 per cent in 2014 to 59.06 per cent in 2025.

Likewise, the Internet penetration rate in India has risen to over 55 per cent in 2025 from about 14 per cent in 2014, the number of Internet users has reached 97 crore in 2025 from 25 crore in 2014, marking a growth of around 288 per cent.

Rise of Digital Economy

As Indian economy has digitalised at a remarkable pace over the last decade, India is the third largest digitalised country in the world after the US and China- in terms of economy-wide digitalisation, according to the State of India’s Digital Economy Report 2024, thus leaving behind developed countries like United Kingdom, Germany and South Korea.

The digital economy, which contributed 11.74 per cent to the national income in 2022–23 and is projected to grow to 13.42 per cent by 2024–25.

It is further expected to grow almost twice as fast as the overall economy, contributing to nearly one-fifth of national income by 2029-30, leaving behind agriculture or manufacturing.

Digital Payments Revolution

Unified Payments Interface (UPI) payments system, one Indian innovation that has grabbed global headlines in recent years, is at present operational in seven countries including UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France, and Mauritius.

UPI’s entry into France, marking its first foray into Europe, shows how India’s digital payments revolution has left even the most advanced countries in the West in catch-up mode.

In the words of Bill Gates, chair of the Gates Foundation and co-founder and former CEO of Microsoft, “India's digital innovations such as Aadhaar and the UPI have ‘set the gold standard’ for digital public infrastructure, showing other countries how to deliver better services to their people."

India today has 87 per cent Fintech adoption rate compared to 67 per cent globally. UPI transactions reached a record high of Rs 25.14 lakh crore in May 2025 with the daily transactions during the month averaging Rs 81,106 crore, underscoring a silent digital revolution.

Optimisation of Fiscal Allocations

The Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system is one of the most ambitious reforms in the country’s public welfare landscape.

Before DBT, welfare schemes often suffered from mis-identification of beneficiaries, ghost entries, and corruption by intermediaries. But DBT has enabled direct transfer of benefits worth Rs 44 lakh crore to Aadhaar-verified beneficiaries, eliminating middlemen and ghost entries. This has resulted in cumulative savings of Rs 3.48 lakh crore, with food subsidies alone contributing Rs 1.85 lakh crore (53 per cent of total savings) through Aadhaar-linked Public Distribution System (PDS) reforms.

In pre-DBT era (2009–2013), subsidies accounted for nearly 16 per cent of total government spending, amounting to Rs 2.1 lakh crore annually, with considerable leakages in the system. By 2024, this figure had dropped to 9 per cent, while beneficiary coverage surged 16-fold from 11 crore to 176 crore.

The reduction in subsidy burden, despite a significant increase in coverage, underscores DBT’s role in optimising fiscal allocations by eliminating ghost beneficiaries and middlemen. The DBT has helped in removing over 5.87 crore ineligible ration card holders and cancelling 4.23 crore duplicate or fake LPG connections.

Connect to Rural India

As Digital India has given major push to connecting rural India, BharatNet project has brought high-speed internet to over 2.18 lakh Gram Panchayats by laying nearly 6.92 lakh km of optical fibre cable.

This digital expansion has empowered the unprivileged as initiatives like the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) have certified over 47.8 million rural citizens as digitally literate, enabling them to access information, services, and opportunities previously out of reach.

As digital technology has brought financial services closer to people even in remote areas, over half of the Fintech consumers in India are from semi-urban and rural areas.

More than a third of digital payment users are from rural regions. The entrepreneurial spirit is also thriving beyond India’s major cities with approximately 45 per cent of startups originating from Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, making India fastest-growing ecosystem for fintech innovations.

Inclusive Public Services

The introduction of e-governance initiatives has reshaped public services in India. While 4,671 e-services are functioning across 709 districts, Common Services Centres are offering over 400 digital services in digital mode in rural areas. Over 1,668 e-Services and over 20,197 bill payment services are also available at Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG).

Digi Locker -- launched in 2015- to provide digital access to authentic documents -- now boasts 51.6 crore users. BHASHINI (BHASHa INterface for India), which aims to bridge India’s linguistic diversity through technology, supports 35 plus languages with over 1,600 AI models and 18 language services.

Likewise, One Nation One Subscription (ONOS) initiative is transforming India's research landscape by offering access to over 13,000 academic journals from 30 international publishers. This is playing a pivotal role in making India the next Global Research Destination.

Digital Ecosystems for All

Apart from public services, the government has introduced e-governance initiatives in various sectors also. Launched in 2022, the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC) -- with 7.64 lakh registered sellers and service providers in over 616 cities -- has democratised digital commerce in India by creating an open, inclusive ecosystem for buyers, sellers, and service providers, especially MSMEs. This apart, the Government e-Marketplace (GeM), launched in 2016, has streamlined procurement for government departments and connected 1.6 lakh plus government buyers with over 22.5 lakh sellers and service providers across the country.

Suggestions: Promote Digital Technology as Export: Like other nations exports their technology, India should make Digital Technology tools such as UPI or Aadhar-based system to other nations and this could be one of the major source of earnings in the form of Exports.

Creation of Jobs for Developing Future Digital Technology: As India becomes the major exporter of Digital Technology, it will create millions of development related jobs for Indian Youth.

Promote Digital Technology as Tool against Corruption: India’s digital stack, led by Aadhaar and UPI, should emerge as a sovereign-friendly benign alternative to global systems especially in developing nations and world bodies to prevent corruption.

Promote Digital Currency as Global Currency: India should become the global hub for the promotion of Global Transactions where the Digital Currency or transfer of funds should become the new Global Currency for doing business.

From a nation out of technology race, in the past decade Digital India has positioned the country as a global leader and a model for the world in digital adoption.

By empowering citizens through good governance and digitalisation, Digital India is paving the way for a more inclusive, prosperous and digitally connected Bharat.

(The writer is Pro-Chancellor of Chandigarh University and the Founder of Indian Minorities Foundation)

--IANS

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