What key aspects are included in the expansion of the Digital India initiative as approved by the Union Cabinet?

Solution

Union Cabinet approves Digital India expansion with ₹14,903 crore outlay. Digital India launched on 1st July, 2015 for digital service delivery. This would enable the following: 6.25 lakh IT professionals will be re-skilled and up-skilled under the FutureSkills Prime Programme; 2.65 lakh persons will be trained in information security under the Information Security & Education Awareness Phase (ISEA) Programme;  540 additional services will be available under the Unified Mobile Application for New-age Governance (UMANG) app/ platform. At present over 1,700 services are already available on UMANG; 9 more supercomputers will be added under National Super Computer Mission. This is in addition to 18 supercomputers already deployed Bhashini, the AI-enabled multi-language translation tool (currently available in 10 languages) will be rolled out in all 22 schedule 8 languages;  Modernisation of the National Knowledge Network (NKN) which connects 1,787 educational institutions; Digital document verification facility under DigiLocker will now be available to MSMEs and other organisations;  1,200 startups will be supported in Tier 2/3 cities; 3 Centres of Excellence in Artificial Intelligence on health, agriculture and sustainable cities will be set up; Cyber-awareness courses for 12 crores college students; New initiatives in the area of cyber security including development of tools and integration of more than 200 sites with National Cyber Coordination Centre It will give a boost to the digital economy of India, drive digital access to services and support India’s IT and electronics ecosystem.