Govt serious about timely implementation of NOFN: Ram Sewak Sharma

Interview with Secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagging off the Digital India Week on Wednesday, Ram Sewak Sharma, secretary, Department of Electronics and Information Technology (Deity), talks to Surabhi Agarwal about the progress of the marquee project so far, which has seen the launch of many initiatives such as Digital Locker, e-health, national scholarship portal, etc. Excerpts from an email interview:

Over the next one to three years, what shape do we expect Digital India to take? Which key schemes are likely to be launched or initiated?

The Digital India programme is centred on three vision areas -digital infrastructure as a utility to every citizen; governance and services on demand; and digital empowerment of citizens. Our programmes would be guided over the next three years by this overarching vision. As already mentioned, the products, applications and portals that have been launched so far are only the beginning of the digital journey. The launch of more applications over the next few years will be a continuing process and will help achieve the objective of Digital India and improve the quality governance in the country.

What has changed?

A big difference is that earlier, contracts were issued but land and environmental clearances were not obtained. It had to be taken by the builder himself. He knows his calculations in terms of building the road, not the duration it would take to get the clearances. That problem has been resolved now, as the government has decided to get the clearances themselves. Now, they have to find a mechanism, some lifeline and start recovering the losses.

What are the biggest challenges in rolling out the key components of Digital India?

Any ambitious programme is bound to be challenging. But there is nothing which is insurmountable. For the programme to achieve its objectives, it is crucial that every IT initiative -be it an application, a portal or a project - is relevant to the felt need of citizens, designed properly, implemented in a timely manner and adhering to the required standards. This is important, in view of the fact that several IT projects earlier did not take off due to issues relating to design, sub-optimal size, lack of interoperability and other such problems. Therefore, we are laying great emphasis on designing end-to-end solutions with open source architecture in the case of software projects, rather than creating applications on a standalone basis.

Since the national optical fibre network (NOFN) project could be a time-consuming exercise, what are the alternative technologies the government is exploring to make sure internet backbone of the project is ready?

The NOFN is an ambitious project. But the government is serious about its timely implementation. Its architecture has been modified with enhanced involvement of state governments and should be possible to implement the project on time. Also, the government is open to exploring other technological options such as use of white spaces and other technologies for spreading internet, particularly in the rural areas.

The government has come out with a BPO policy to provide support to the industry. Is the government thinking of some initiatives to support the IT sector - especially small players - and the booming start-up ecosystem?

There are specific schemes for supporting start-ups as a part of the software technology parks scheme under which Deity has approved setting up of incubators. Another scheme titled "Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs" is aimed at young entrepreneurs to create technology start-up companies for commercial exploitation of technologies developed by them. In general, the Digital India programme with its wide-ranging initiatives would provide several business opportunities for innovation by tech start-ups.