Digital Nation

Why in news?

Affordable smartphones and 750 million Internet connections access have made India a digital nation.

How has Fintech revolutionized India?

Citizens who are accustomed to pay their routine bills by standing in queues at utility offices started adopting fintech.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, various Digital platforms started providing goods and services, including online education and telemedicine.
Many professionals have maintained productivity by working from home.

Is it premature to call India a Digital Nation?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Bengaluru Tech Summit said that the true measure of digital nations is the readiness of governments to use technology & it must be open .
The public systems must be participatory that citizens should consider it trustworthy.
Governance must achieve a reliable system of digital welfare.
There must be seamless delivery of all citizen services.
All the above are not true to an extent.
However, a beginning has been made to provide government-to-citizen services by establishing Common Service Centres .
Legal advice are been provided to four lakh people under the

Tele-Law scheme.

Welfare benefits are provided through bank accounts digitally.
If digital methods are applied to other sectors, such as road safety,it has the potential to reduce the accident mortality rate of about 1,50,000 deaths a year.

How can technology transform the health sector ?

It would help to access ,prescribe and dispense essential medicines free.
The public procurement cost reduces to 0.1% to 0.5% of GDP.
It can help in achieving universal health coverage (UHC).
However efficient digital government depends on transforming internal processes government departments, redefining and fixing deadlines for citizen-centric service delivery.

Source: The Hindu