Tag: Digital India

  • Inspiring to see govt’s deep focus: Nadella

    NEW DELHI : Microsoft chairman and CEO Satya Nadella on Thursday counseled the federal government for what he known as its “deep concentrate on sustainable and inclusive financial progress”.

    “Inspiring to see the government’s deep focus on sustainable and inclusive economic growth,” Nadella wrote on LinkedIn, following a gathering with Prime Minister Narenda Modi and Minister of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) Ashwini Vaishnaw.

    Nadella, who’s on a go to to India, additionally participated in a hearth chat with Infosys non-exective chairman Nandan Nilekani in Bengaluru.

    “We are trying ahead to serving to India realise the Digital India imaginative and prescient and be a light-weight for the world,” he added.

    Following the meeting, Modi tweeted, “India’s strides in technology and innovation are ushering in an era of tech-led growth. Our youth is filled with ideas which have the potential to transform the planet.”

    Vaishnaw tweeted he “had an excellent dialogue with Satya Nadella on cyber safety, India stack, and India’s startup ecosystem.”

    Microsoft has carried out a number of packages in partnership with the Indian authorities. In September 2021, the corporate partnered with the ministry of labour and employment (MoLE) to launch DigiSaksham—a program that sought to coach 10 million individuals in computing and tech abilities.

    In August final yr, the corporate partnered with the ministry of ability growth and entrepreneurship (MSDE) to coach 2.5 million civil servants in tech abilities.

    On Thursday, the corporate additionally introduced a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro), below which it seeks to assist home house startups with free cloud instruments, and help them to promote their merchandise.

    During his tour, Nadella highlighted India’s management function within the present know-how panorama.

    “One of the issues that’s nice to see is India main in digital public items. There is India, after which there may be daylight, relating to the enlightened method during which India is constructing out digital infrastructure,” he said in an address in Mumbai on Tuesday.

    The third chief executive in Microsoft’s 47-year history, Nadella, during his trip, highlighted the role of India in the global tech economy for the coming years. In an interview with Mint on 4 January, he said, “One of the things that give me great optimism for India, quite frankly, is all the different ways in which technology is getting used… India already has the second largest number of developers, and is No.1 on AI repositories, which means Indian developers are seeking out every open-source AI repository and becoming core committers. So, in the long run, there will be a lot more intense use of AI. One of the things that you should talk about, even in India, is the intense use of new technology.”

     

     

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  • Sustainability push: Govt asks RRBs to step up digitisation, lending to MSMEs

    As a part of reforms to make Regional Rural Banks (RRBs) financially sustainable, the federal government has requested them to maneuver in the direction of digitisation, together with providing web banking companies to its prospects, and develop their credit score base additional by elevated lending to the Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector.

    “The cost of operations of RRBs were much lower as compared to scheduled commercial banks but that has increased now and the government wants them to work towards increasing their earnings,” mentioned an official supply within the know including that these are a part of the federal government’s plan to reform RRBs.

    This was mentioned in a gathering that was convened by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in July and attended by heads of sponsor banks and RRBs.

    One of the important thing causes for RRBs incurring losses is the truth that many of those branches should not have sufficient enterprise as they focus primarily on providing authorities’s schemes like direct profit switch within the rural areas of the nation.

    The supply added that the majority these rural banks are below Core Banking Solutions (CBS) which means their branches are linked with one another. “Offering internet services to customers is the next step for these banks,” he mentioned.

    According to a authorities launch submit the assembly final month, the Finance Minister urged the sponsor banks “to formulate a clear roadmap in a time-bound manner to further strengthen the RRBs and support the post-pandemic economic recovery and also suggested to conduct a workshop of RRBs and share the best practices with each other”.

    This wouldn’t be the primary time that the federal government is working to reform RRBs. After a set of reforms within the ’90s, the federal government had, in 2005-06, initiated a consolidation programme that resulted within the variety of RRBs declining from 196 in 2005 to 43 in FY21. The goal was to enhance their operational viability and to reap the benefits of economies of scale.

    After two consecutive years of losses in the course of the Covid interval, RRBs reported a consolidated web revenue of Rs 1,682 crore in FY21, and 30 of the 43 RRBs reported web income.

    The supply, quoted above, added that the plan additionally included merging branches of those RRBs with sponsor banks as soon as these branches attain a sure degree of enterprise.

    “The plan includes merging them with sponsor banks and that may happen once the sponsor bank sees advantage. Listing these RRBs on the bourses is a long-term plan that may or may not happen,” the supply additional mentioned.

  • In India’s mobile-payments growth, even beggars get QR codes

    Raju Prasad started accepting donations by way of mobile-payment apps just a few months in the past. The 42-year-old stated his takings have nearly doubled to about 300 rupees a day—that’s roughly $4, and greater than the common every day wage for a farm laborer in Bihar, India’s poorest state. Many vacationers now zap over 5 or 10 rupees with just a few faucets on their smartphones as an alternative of digging out their wallets.

    “People used to shoo me away saying they didn’t have money,” said Mr. Prasad, who makes much of his money from passengers arriving at Bettiah station from big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. “Now, they scan my QR codes and happily give whatever small amount they want.”

    The truth beggars and their donors are all a part of India’s digital finance revolution helps clarify the explosive development in cell funds—together with the problem corporations comparable to Alphabet Inc.’s Google LLC, Walmart Inc.’s Flipkart and native rival Paytm face in making the enterprise worthwhile.

    Indians have been migrating towards digital monetary providers for a while. That is partially attributable to rising wealth, higher web and more-affordable know-how—and since Prime Minister Narendra Modi put digital transformation on the middle of presidency coverage.

    Launched in 2015, “Digital India” goals for sooner and extra inclusive financial development by pushing authorities and banking providers on-line and by bringing the nation’s plenty of poor, particularly in rural areas, into the formal economic system by way of funding in know-how.

    But it was the pandemic that turbocharged the shift. Lockdowns pressured tens of millions of individuals to purchase groceries and drugs by way of cell apps as a result of they couldn’t depart their houses. ATMs ran out of money—which, in any case, many individuals shunned over fears they might catch the virus by dealing with bodily cash.

    By the second quarter of 2020, cell funds had eclipsed ATM withdrawals to account for 30% of Indian non-public consumption, in line with S&P Global Market Intelligence. Mobile funds greater than doubled to nearly $1 trillion in 2021 from the 12 months earlier than.

    “The solely silver lining of the pandemic is that everybody began utilizing digital funds much more,” stated Karthik Raghupathy, head of technique and investor relations for PhonePe, Flipkart’s fee unit. As Covid-19 reached India, PhonePe’s registered customers jumped 50%, he stated.

    Bangalore-based PhonePe now has round 165 million month-to-month energetic customers and 48% of India’s cell funds by worth, says S&P Global. Google’s share is 40%, and Paytm’s is nearly 9%.

    India’s 48.6 billion digital funds final 12 months have been greater than double these in next-ranked China, in line with an April report by payment-systems firm ACI Worldwide, which stated volumes may high 200 billion by 2026. But with the common Indian person making $80 of funds a 12 months, in contrast with $2,300 in China and nearly $8,000 within the U.S., in addition to a authorities cap on transaction charges, India’s attract is extra the potential to safe a slice of its market of practically 1.4 billion folks than near-term revenue.

    For now, digital-payment suppliers in India are probably shedding cash—and plenty of it, analysts say.

    That is partly because of the manner India’s funds system developed.

    Countries like China and the U.S.—the 2 greatest digital-payments markets by worth—relied on non-public corporations to develop the technological spine to help cellphone transactions. In India, that process was given to the National Payments Corporation of India, a nonprofit group that governs the nation’s retail funds. It had a mandate to “facilitate an reasonably priced fee mechanism to learn the frequent man throughout the nation and promote monetary inclusion.”

    The Indian authorities views digital-payment techniques as a public good, just like the facility grid, stated Dilip Asbe, NPCI’s managing director and chief govt.

    “The effectivity within the fee system is core to the economic system,” he stated, because it improves transparency, tax assortment and the circulation of cash within the formal economic system.

    NPCI launched its Unified Payments Interface in 2016. Companies have been then invited to develop apps on high of the platform, higher often known as UPI.

    India additionally had three components UPI wanted to succeed, Mr. Asbe stated: ID playing cards, financial institution accounts and smartphones. Mr. Modi’s authorities has pushed folks to get biometric ID playing cards and for each family to have at the least one checking account.

    About 80% of adults had financial institution accounts by 2017, from 35% six years earlier, probably the most not too long ago revealed central-bank information present. The variety of smartphone customers, in the meantime, has risen to 750 million, Deloitte stated in a February report.

    UPI’s platform can also be interoperable. Transactions are made by scanning a QR code linked to an individual or enterprise, or by wanting up somebody’s cellphone quantity or digital deal with. All the QR codes work on any of the apps hosted by UPI. That is a distinction to the U.S., the place somebody buying at Walmart, for instance, can’t scan the checkout QR code utilizing PayPal’s Venmo app.

    Fueled by the pandemic, UPI’s customers soared 85% to 250 million within the two years to March, with greater than 300 banks and two dozen fee apps now on the platform.

    The interoperability that helped energy adoption of cell funds, nevertheless, additionally makes it simple to modify between apps, forcing corporations to provide money rebates and different incentives to maintain clients. They have additionally spent closely on advertising and educating retailers and customers on how cell funds work.

    “It’s a rooster and egg downside,” stated Madhur Deora, Paytm’s chief monetary officer: If not sufficient retailers enroll, clients can have little purpose to take action.

    Almost 90% of India’s practically $900-billion-a-year retail market is managed by small, family-owned outlets that hardly ever settle for bank cards due to the three% to 4% fees they levy. A 2020 authorities ban on transaction charges for UPI-based funds enticed many smaller retailers to enroll—together with their clients.

    The ban can also be one of many greatest hurdles to profitability for the funds corporations. In January, a gaggle of them urged the federal government to scrap the rule, which they estimated had precipitated an industrywide lack of greater than $700 million.

    Analysts stated it could take at the least just a few years earlier than any mobile-payment firm turns a revenue in India. Meanwhile, native startups are competing towards giants like Google and Walmart that may afford to burn by way of money as they construct market share.

    In the long term, digital-payment corporations wish to promote monetary providers and different merchandise, stated Sampath Sharma Nariyanuri, an S&P Global Market Intelligence analyst.

    PhonePe is promoting insurance coverage merchandise on tv. Google Pay not too long ago let retailers open digital storefronts inside its app. Paytm, in the meantime, plans to hunt regulatory approval to promote insurance coverage.

    In Bakharia village in Bihar state, with a inhabitants of about 1,500, nearly all the 2 dozen or so shops and stalls straddling the primary street show placards or stickers with QR codes.

    Ranjan Patel, who operates a small store promoting betel nuts, stated he signed up for a number of apps after clients started demanding to pay with their smartphones. Now, nearly 80% of them do.

    “They wish to flaunt their smartphones and scan QR codes to pay,” he stated.

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  • Govt units timeline to roll out first indigenous business chipsets by 2023-24

    The authorities has set a timeline to commercially roll out the primary indigenous chipsets by 2023-24 below the Digital India RISC -V programme launched on Wednesday, Union minister Rajeev Chandrasekhar stated on Wednesday.

    The Minister of State for Electronics and IT stated that the Digital India RISC-V (DIR-V) programme goals to create future generations of microprocessors that can serve the necessity of India’s strategic deal with mobility, computing and digitisation.

    “One huge milestone that I’m very targeted on is to have the primary set of business silicon of Shakti and Vega processors accessible by December 2023 or early 2024.

    “We want at least a few companies to adopt their product designs to DIR-V products Shakti and Vega before 2023-24 and when the silicon is ready, they start manufacturing and incorporating chips in the products,” Chandrasekhar advised reporters.

    IIT Madras and the Centre for Development of Advance Computing (CDAC) have developed two microprocessors named Shakti (32 bit) and Vega (64 bit) respectively utilizing Open Source Architecture below the aegis of the Microprocessor Development Programme of the Ministry of Electronics and IT.

    The authorities has appointed IIT Madras director Professor V Kamakoti as chief architect and CDAC Trivandrum Scientist Krishnakumar Rao as programme supervisor of the DIR-V programme.

    The DIR-V programme will consolidate and leverage the continued efforts within the nation with an built-in multi-institutional and multi-location workforce, finalise the formal structure and goal efficiency of chipsets, assist authentic gear makers and design wins in India and overseas. The DIR-V initiative is a part of the federal government’s Rs 76,000 crore effort to construct a semiconductor ecosystem within the nation.

    “We also believe over the next one-and-a-half-years, the partnership between the Shakri and Vega teams and overall DIR-V programme with platform companies like HP, VVDN and Apple and large number of companies in the electronic ecosystem will help create design wins around DIR-V family of products Shakti and Vega,” Chandrasekhar stated.

  • What does CCI probe entail for Google and Apple in India?

    The director basic (DG) of the Competition Commission of India (CCI) has submitted its report on Google’s Play Store billing insurance policies. The report paves the best way for the CCI to control how corporations like Google LLC and Apple Inc. run their app shops. Mint explains:

    What does the CCI report say?

    The report says Google is imposing “unfair and discriminatory” conditions in violation of India’s regulations. It also said the company’s conduct in India is leading to “denial of market access” to different apps that use the federal government’s unified funds interface (UPI) funds system. It expresses concern that the corporate might result in a scenario the place different UPI apps are “fully excluded” from the market and Google Pay is the dominant participant. The DG investigates such issues by searching for info from rivals, clients and different stakeholders within the business.

    What occurs after the report is filed?

    Typically, the CCI critiques the DG’s report and sends it to the events concerned within the case for his or her feedback. In this case, that features Google India, the nameless complainants within the case, and the Alliance of Digital India Foundation (ADIF), an business physique representing startups within the nation. Parties, particularly Google, can problem the report from the DG. The report itself is just not binding on the CCI, which might select to rule towards the report. Competition legal professionals, nevertheless, famous that the CCI ruling differs from what’s within the DG’s report solely within the rarest of instances.

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    Does this imply Google is responsible?

    In a press release, Google stated it’s reviewing the DG’s report in the intervening time, noting that the report doesn’t essentially echo the ultimate determination of the CCI’s inquiry into the matter. In authorized phrases too, the DG’s report is just a suggestion to the competitors regulator and doesn’t mechanically imply Google might be discovered responsible.

    What might the regulator do?

    The criticism towards Google is a part of a world discourse towards the foundations enforced by the corporate on builders. It requires app makers to make use of its built-in fee methods to promote apps and companies, and therefore pay a charge to Google. Since the case started, each Japan and South Korea have directed app retailer homeowners like Google and Apple to cease this observe. Competition regulators world wide, together with the CCI, are anticipated to at the least direct platform homeowners to cease forcing builders to make use of their very own fee modes.

    How will this have an effect on Google and Apple?

    Both Google and Apple have lower the charges they cost over the previous two years. Apple has stated it should enable third-party funds for thus known as “reader apps”, whereas Google began testing third-party funds with music streaming agency Spotify final month. The corporations have achieved so in anticipation of laws which can be anticipated not simply in India however everywhere in the world. A report by market analysis agency Sensor Tower in December 2021 stated customers spent $133 billion on apps final 12 months, throughout Apple and Google’s shops.

     

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  • 95% of staff in India consider they want extra digital abilities: Report

    95% of staff in India reported that they want extra digital abilities to deal with adjustments of their jobs as a result of Covid-19 pandemic, in line with the findings of a brand new analysis report by Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com firm.

    The report discovered that over the subsequent 12 months, the variety of India staff requiring digital abilities for his or her jobs is projected to extend by 27.3 million, representing 7% of India’s workforce. Despite this, solely 45% of employers in India have a coaching plan in place, which might have an effect on their competitiveness in such areas as productiveness, innovation, and worker retention.

    The ‘Building Digital Skills for the Changing Workforce’ report, ready by technique and economics consulting agency AlphaBeta, and commissioned by AWS, surveyed 1,012 digitally expert staff in each know-how and non-technology roles, and 303 employers in India, with illustration from public, non-public, and non-profit sectors of various sizes and industries.

    The report additionally discovered that the flexibility to make use of cloud-based instruments would be the most in-demand talent required by employers by 2025, adopted by technical assist abilities, and cybersecurity abilities. During the identical timeframe, 63% of staff in India really feel they are going to require coaching in cloud-related abilities to progress of their careers.

    “Over the course of the pandemic, we now have seen organizations of all sizes speed up their digital transformation plans, driving an elevated want for employers and their staff to advance abilities coaching for cloud computing, cybersecurity, and machine studying,” said Rahul Sharma, president, Public Sector – AISPL, AWS India and South Asia. “The Building Digital Skills for the Changing Workforce report shows an urgency for workers and employers to increase digital skills knowledge and maximize the benefits of technology to individuals and organizations.”

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  • Govt plans rating for ministries on ease of doing enterprise

    The Union authorities will seemingly come out with a system to rank ministries on facilitating ease of doing enterprise by marking them on parameters reminiscent of single-window clearance of initiatives, time taken to clear recordsdata per division and the usage of Digital India instruments, amongst others, sources mentioned.
    These rankings, a senior authorities official mentioned, are being ready in intensive session with senior industrialists, trade our bodies, commerce and coverage teams in addition to representatives of startups and are prone to be introduced shortly.
    Apart from the variety of single-window challenge clearances being facilitated by a ministry, the opposite parameters embody the time taken for these approvals, the variety of permits required to arrange a brand new unit and the whole share of budgetary allocation spent.
    Factors reminiscent of variety of bodily recordsdata created, complaints raised and cleared per thirty days, and trade interactions organised will even be thought-about within the rankings.
    “The idea is to discourage creation of physical files for various obvious reasons. Government ministries at central level must accelerate the adoption of digital tools in their day-to-day work,” an official mentioned.

    The parameters would fall into two buckets. Apart from these “important” parameters, there are additionally a set of “desirable”  elements to guage efficiency. These embody ease of entry to web sites of ministry departments, software of Digital India apps inside its programmes, and use of photo voltaic and different renewable sources to energy the headquarters and different buildings .
    “While priority items such as single-window clearance or number of interactions will be given more weightage, easy accessibility of website or use of renewable energy also represent aspect of improving facilities for businesses,” one of many senior officers mentioned.
    Central public sector enterprises had been additionally ranked in an identical method lately. Companies reminiscent of Rail Vikas Nigam Ltd, National Backward Classes Finance and Development Corporation, and Shipping Corporation of India had been among the many finest performing public sector models as per these rankings.
    Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, National Research Development Corporation and Ferro Scrap Nigam Ltd had been among the many worst performers.
    Apart from these, yearly, the Union authorities additionally ranks states on their efficiency on 180 reform initiatives throughout 45 enterprise regulatory areas, together with easy accessibility to data, paying taxes, acquiring utility permits, contract enforcement, labour and development allow enablers, single-window approval methods and land administration.

    Earlier this month, in a contentious transfer, the Union Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change had mentioned that it had determined to “incentivise states” by rating them on the premise of “efficiency and timelines in grant of environmental clearances”.
    The ministry had mentioned in its order that the choice was taken following a gathering chaired by the Cabinet Secretary on November 13 final 12 months, which raised the problem of motion taken to allow “ease of doing enterprise’’, particularly within the context of “rating of states primarily based on the time taken in in accordance clearances’’.

  • Data, demographic dividend current large alternative; this decade to be ‘India’s techade’: PM

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday mentioned that information and demographic dividend mixed with India’s confirmed tech prowess presents huge alternative for the nation, and exuded confidence that this decade might be ‘India’s techade’.
    Speaking at a digital occasion to mark the completion of six years of Digital India, Modi mentioned India can also be aware of its obligations as an information powerhouse and famous that work is underway on all elements of information safety.
    “Data and demographic dividend present a massive opportunity for India… together, we will be successful in making this decade ‘India’s techade’,” Modi mentioned.
    Modi additionally spoke – by way of video convention – to beneficiaries of varied schemes of Digital India programme, together with Diksha, eNAM, eSanjeevani answer for telemedicine, DigiBunai and PM SVANidhi scheme.

    The Prime Minister spoke of the crucial function that expertise had performed throughout the pandemic to make sure continuity of schooling, entry to healthcare, and different citizen providers.

    Digital options created by India throughout COVID-19 pandemic are being acknowledged globally, he mentioned including that contact tracing app, Aarogya Setu, has performed a key function in containing the unfold of COVID-19 within the nation.
    Six years of Digital India programme marks fast strides that the nation has taken in adoption of expertise, he mentioned.

  • PM Modi at Bengaluru Tech Summit : ‘Local tech solutions have potential to go global’

    Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated the 23rd edition of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2020 via video conferencing.

    Taking to Twitter, PM Modi wrote, “Will be addressing the Bengaluru Tech Summit at 11 am tomorrow, November 19. Looking forward to interacting with the best minds from the world of technology, start-ups and innovation.”

    Here are the latest updates from PM Modi’s addresses:

    1) PM Modi at Bengaluru Tech Summit: We launched Digital India 5 years back. Today, I am glad to say that Digital India is no longer being seen as any regular Government initiative.

    2) Digital India has become a way of life. Particularly, for the poor, marginalised and for those in Government, says PM Modi.

    3) Thanks to Digital India, our nation has witnessed a more human centric approach to development. Using technology on such a large scale has brought about several life changes for our citizens. The benefits are for everyone to see: PM Modi

    4) At the BTS, PM Modi said, “Through technology, we have enhanced human dignity. Crores of farmers receive monetary support in one click. At the peak of the lockdown, it was technology that ensured that India’s poor received proper & quick assistance. The scale of this relief has few parallels.”

    5) Technology is the prime reason our schemes have transcended files and changed lives of the people at such a speed and scale: PM Modi

    6) When it comes to technology, the way ahead lies in learning and growing together. Inspired by that approach, a number of incubation centres are opening in India. Over the last few years, a culture of hackathons have been organised in India. I have attended some of them too, the PM said.

    7) Achievements of the industrial era are in the rear view mirror, and now, we are in the middle of information era.

    8) Future is coming sooner than anticipated: PM Modi

    9) In the industrial era, change was linear. But in the information era, change is disruptive, says PM.

    10) Modi also said, “In the industrial era, first-mover advantage was everything. In the information era, first-mover does not matter, the best-mover does.”

    11) Anyone can build a product any time that disrupts all existing equations of the market: PM

    12) India is uniquely positioned to leap ahead in the information era. We have the best minds as well as the biggest market: PM Modi

    13) Our local tech solutions have the potential to go global. It is time for tech-solutions that are Designed in India but Deployed for the World: PM