Digital North East Vision 2022

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TOPIC: General Studies 2

• Government policies and interventions for development in various sectors and issues arising out of their design and implementation.
• Welfare schemes for vulnerable sections of the population by the Centre and States and the performance of these schemes

The simmering North East has awaited a healing touch since the Independence. Centre’s decision to include the North-Eastern ‘Seven Sisters’ in the vision document of India’s ‘Trillion dollar digital opportunity’ is a welcome move.

The government has released ‘Digital Northeast Vision 2022’ in which it is spending around Rs. 10,000 crore in the next four years.

• Under this vision, the government is expected to roll out 400 programmes in the next four years; 8,621 unconnected villages in the region to get special attention.
• The idea is to leverage digital technologies to transform the lives of the people of the north-eastern region and ensure inclusive and sustainable growth.
• This is the first time that the central government has conducted an in-depth analysis of the strength and weaknesses of the various states in the north-eastern region before finalising a comprehensive investment programme as part of the ‘Digital North-East Vision 2022.
• The motto of the government is “reform, perform and transform” and it is working to bridge the gap between “digital haves and have-nots” and improve digital inclusion.

Objectives:

• Emphasises on leveraging digital technologies to transform lives of people of the North East
• Enhance the ease of living
• Empower the people of the North Eastern region
• State-wise roadmaps for implementing digital initiatives have been developed

The document identifies eight digital thrust areas namely

• Digital infrastructure
• Digital services
• Digital empowerment
• Promotion of electronics manufacturing
• Promotion of IT and ITes including BPOs
• Digital payments
• Innovation & start-ups
• Cyber security

State-wise roadmaps for implementing digital initiatives in the NE States have been developed –

• Foundation stone was laid for four NIELIT (National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology) permanent centres in Guwahati, Shillong, Lunglei and Gangtok.
• Simultaneously, a foundation was laid for the Common Facilitation Centre and Smart Meter Manufacturing facility in Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) in Tech City, Bongara Village in Assam for promotion of electronics manufacturing in the North East.
• NIC (National Informatics Centre) is launching the Secure, Scalable and Sugamya Website as a Service (SwaaS) websites for Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.
• To take participative governance to last mile citizen, State MyGov portals are being launched for Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Tripura.
• STPI (Software Technology Park of India) incubation facility is being inaugurated in Agartala, Aizawl and Shillong.
• A BPO centre under the North East BPO Promotion Scheme (NEBPS) is being inaugurated in Majuli, Assam.
• Manipur State Data Centre is being migrated to the Cloud Platform. ERNET (National Research and Education Network) India is enabling virtual classroom facility in Tripura.
• Digital Locker is being integrated with Secondary Education Board Assam and with Nagaland e-District.
• A comprehensive GIS-based Decision Support System for North East States and North Eastern District Resource Plan Geo-Portal is also being launched.
• Six medical college including Gauhati Medical College, Dibrugarh Medical College will get the benefits of e-class
• This vision will play the role of a catalyst to energise the communication of North East with the ASEAN and BBN countries in the face of Act East Policy

Conclusion:

Integrating North East has always been critical to the digitisation of socio-economic sphere of the country. This is a unique territory in many aspects including geographical terrain, rich and variegated culture of the people and their requirements. Each State has its set of critical requirements demanding special attention. It is in this context that the Government’s resolve should be commended. The opportunities for growth and development would be leaping now and the youth are on par with the rest of India and improving their skills and securing jobs.

The Way Ahead:

The government needs to plan to encourage the setting up of start-ups in the region in line with major technology hubs such as Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune and Gurugram. Start-ups and innovation hubs need to be set up to provide a comprehensive ecosystem and support to new digital initiatives.

Must Refer: Link 1

Connecting the Dots:

“North East has been two decades behind in digitalisation process.” Do you agree that with the current initiatives justice has been delivered at last? Discuss.