Government to develop 100 digital villages soon: Minister

The government will soon enable 100 villages with world-class digital infrastructure to empower the citizens as the country aims for a digital economy, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here on Monday.

With an aim to promote e-governance initiatives, Prasad conferred "Digital India Awards 2016" to 28 winners in eight categories at an event organised by the National Informatics Centre (NIC), under the aegis of Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), at Vigyan Bhavan here.

"The government is working towards the concept of digital villages. To start with, we would like to enable 100 such villages with virtual world facilities in the field of infrastructure, education and healthcare," Prasad told the gathering.

PP Chaudhary, Minister of State for Law and IT, formally launched the government services portal https://services.india.gov.in/ at the event.

The portal has been developed with an objective to enable a single-window access to services being provided by the various Indian government entities.

"I must congratulate NIC for instituting this award for the architects of the digital transformation of the country and to the participants as well for their relentless work towards this digital revolution," added Chaudhary.

Prasad recommended NIC to add three more award categories to "Digital Awards" from next year: Departments/ Districts encouraging cashless transactions; Departments/ Districts/Municipal Corporations promoting Digital Education and Healthcare; and Young Entrepreneurs developing Smartphone Apps for new business opportunities.

"The volume of digital transaction in India has crossed Rs 1,000 crore in 2016 which only indicates the speed and scale at which digital governance and digital transformation is taking place across the country," noted Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, MeitY.

--IANS

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