NINE PILLARS OF DIGITAL INDIA

Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple Government

Ministries and Departments. It weaves together a large number of ideas and
thoughts into a single, comprehensive vision so that each of them can be
implemented as part of a larger goal.

Each individual element stands on its own, but is also part of the larger
picture. Digital India is to be implemented by the entire Government with
overall coordination being done by the Department of Electronics and
Information Technology (DeitY).

Digital India aims to provide the much needed thrust to the nine pillars of
growth areas, namely Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile
Connectivity, Public Internet Access Programme, e-Governance: Reforming
Government through Technology, e-Kranti - Electronic Delivery of Services,
Information for All, Electronics Manufacturing, IT for Jobs and Early Harvest
Programmes. Each of these areas is a complex programme in itself and cuts
across multiple Ministries and Departments.
Broadband Highways

This covers three sub components, namely Broadband for All - Rural,
Broadband for All - Urban and National Information Infrastructure (NII).

Broadband for All - Rural

2,50,000 village Panchayats would be covered under the National Optical

Fibre Network (NOFN) by December 2016. Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) is the nodal Department for this project.

Broadband for All - Urban

Virtual Network Operators would be leveraged for service delivery and

communication infrastructure in new urban developments and buildings
would be mandated.

National Information Infrastructure (NII)

NII would integrate the network and cloud infrastructure in the country to
provide high speed connectivity and cloud platform to various government
departments up to the panchayat level. These infrastructure components
include networks such as State Wide Area Network (SWAN), National
Knowledge Network (NKN), National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN),
Government User Network (GUN) and the MeghRaj Cloud. NII aims at
integrating all ICT infrastructure components such as SWANs, NKN, NOFN,
GUN and GI Cloud. It will have provision for horizontal connectivity to 100,
50, 20 and 5 government offices/ service outlets at state, district, block and
Panchayat levels respectively. DeitY will be the nodal Department for this
project.
Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity
  The initiative is to focus on network penetration and fill the gaps in
connectivity in the country.
 All together 42,300 uncovered villages will be covered for providing
universal mobile connectivity in the country.
 DoT will be the nodal department and project cost will be around Rs
16,000 Cr during FY 2014-18.

There are around 55,619 villages in the country that do not have mobile
coverage. Government of India wants to cover the remaining uncovered
villages with mobile connectivity. This project is heading by Department of
Telecommunication (DoT).

Government will connect all the villages to mobile till 2018. Ministry of
telecommunication grants INR 16000Cr for 100% mobile network
penetration.
Public Internet Access Programme

The two sub components of Public Internet Access Programme are Common

Services Centres (CSCs) and Post Offices as multi-service centres.

Common Services Centres (CSCs)

CSCs would be strengthened and its number would be increased to 250,000

i.e. one CSC in each Gram Panchayat. CSCs would be made viable and multi-
functional end-points for delivery of government and business services.
DeitY would be the nodal department to implement the scheme.

In rustic India, individuals regularly don’t have simple access to public aids
and basic data. Some of them live in remote and far off areas which are
frequently affected by geological, social and semantic obstructions. Data
Technology genuinely presents to them another opportunity–the Digital
Opportunity. It opens to them huge conceivable outcomes to get to data and
administrations. Presently long-separation go too far-away government
workplaces are quick turning into a relic of past times. This is being made
conceivable in the country setting through Common Services Centers (CSCs),
which are web empowered administration conveyance communities for open
and also business administrations, executed under the National e-
Governance Plan (NeGP) detailed by DeitY. The CSCs spread a wide range of
administrations including government, money related, social and private part
benefits in the territories of horticulture, wellbeing, instruction, excitement,
keeping money, protection, annuity, utility installments, and so on.

Post Offices as multi-service centres

A total of 150,000 Post Offices are proposed to be converted into multi

service centres. Department of Posts would be the nodal department to
implement this scheme.

Post Offices will be changed over to multi aids conveyance focuses. Natives
cannot just benefit customary postal aids at these focuses additionally
different government to native aids, business to native aids, money related
consideration aids (Jan Dhan Yojna) and even business to business aids.
Cross conveyance of different services and data at mail station counters.
Another helpful touch indicates for government interface straightforwardly
with subjects is not having admittance to web or other savvy gadgets.
Straightforward e-governance through government’s own channel is the real
focus of this arrangement. Operation of CSC inside of the post offices will be
giving backing to energetic business. POs will turn into the center of
hinterland conveyance places for different e-trade and other resident driven
organizations. POs are going about as bolster bodies for neighborhood self-
administration bodies at all levels regarding e-administration conveyance.
e-Governance – Reforming Government through Technology

Government Process Re-engineering using IT to simplify and make the

government processes more efficient is critical for transformation to make
the delivery of government services more effective across various
government domains and therefore needs to be implemented by all
Ministries/ Departments.

E-governance capabilities of a nation are measured the world over by the UN

e-government survey rankings. As of 2014, India’s global rank was 118, out
of 182, in these rankings.

The top 10 nations in the UN global e-government survey are as below:

India is seeing a dramatic growth in the number of online transactions
involving citizens and the government. The number of such e-transactions
has grown by more than 200% in 2 years: from 840 million in 2013 to 2580
million in 2015. The number of transactions per service category is shown in
the figure below:

The number of e-transactions is seen to vary greatly across states.

Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala lead the rest of the nation by a long
way in carrying out transactions with the government online.

The list of the top 5 states based on the number of e-transactions carried
out between Jan 1, 2015 and August 1, 2015, is given below.
eKranti - Electronic delivery of services

Background

Over the years, sustained efforts have been made at multiple levels to
improve the delivery of public services and simplify the process of accessing
them. In this regard, several e-governance initiatives have been undertaken
by various State Governments and Central Ministries to usher in an era of e-
Government. e-Governance in India has steadily evolved from
computerization of Government Departments to initiatives that encapsulate
the finer points of Governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation
and transparency.

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP)

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) was conceptualized to focus on e-

Governance initiatives at the national level with an aim to "Make all
Government services accessible to the common man in his locality, through
common service delivery outlets, and ensure efficiency, transparency, and
reliability of such services at affordable costs to realize the basic needs of
the common man". The strategy adopted was centralized planning and
decentralized planning. The Government initially approved the National e-
Governance Plan (NeGP), comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and
8 components, on May 18, 2006. 4 more mission mode projects namely
‘Education’, ‘Health’, ‘Posts’ and ‘Public Distribution System’ were added to
NeGP portfolio in 2011. As part of NeGP, core ICT infrastructure has been
created by MeitY. This includes State Data Centers, State Wide Area Network,
State Service Delivery Gateways, Mobile Seva and eGov AppStore. More than
1.2 lakh Common Service Centers were made operational as service delivery
outlets across all the States/UTs. With the learnings from the experience of
implementation of NeGP over the last 7 years and an analysis of Strengths,
Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of NeGP revealed several issues
mainly in terms of lack of proper dose of Government Process Reengineering
in Government Schemes / projects / applications / databases, lack of
integration & interoperability amongst Government Applications &
databases, limited scope of existing Mission Mode Projects, lack of
leveraging emerging technologies like Mobile and Cloud and lack of Inclusive
Mission Mode Projects like Women & Child Development MMP, Social Justice
& Empowerment MMP etc. e-Kranti has been designed to address the
aforesaid challenges.

e-Kranti (Transforming e-Governance for Transforming Governance)

Considering the critical need for transforming e-Governance and promote

mobile Governance and Good Governance in the country, the approach and
key components of e-Kranti have been approved by the Union Cabinet on
25.03.2015 with the vision of “Transforming e-Governance for Transforming
Governance”.

The key principles of e-Kranti are as follows:

1. Transformation and not Translation - All project proposals in e-Kranti

must involve substantial transformation in the quality, quantity and manner
of delivery of services and significant enhancement in productivity and
competitiveness.

2. Integrated Services and not Individual Services - A common middleware

and integration of the backend processes and processing systems is
required to facilitate integrated service delivery to citizens.
3. Government Process Reengineering (GPR) to be mandatory in every MMP -
To mandate GPR as the essential first step in all new MMPs without which a
project may not be sanctioned. The degree of GPR should be assessed and
enhanced for the existing MMPs.

4. ICT Infrastructure on Demand – Government departments should be

provided with ICT infrastructure, such as connectivity, cloud and mobile
platform on demand. In this regard, National Information Infrastructure (NII),
which is at an advanced stage of project formulation, would be fast-tracked
by DeitY.

5. Cloud by Default – The flexibility, agility and cost effectiveness offered by

cloud technologies would be fully leveraged while designing and hosting
applications. Government Cloud shall be the default cloud for Government
Departments. All sensitive information of Government Departments shall be
stored in a Government Cloud only. Any Government Department may use a
private cloud only after obtaining permission from Department of Electronics
and Information Technology which shall do so after assessing the security
and privacy aspects of the proposed cloud.

6. Mobile First - All applications are designed/ redesigned to enable delivery

of services through mobile.

7. Fast Tracking Approvals – To establish a fast-track approval mechanism

for MMPs, once the Detailed Project Report (DPR) of a project is approved by
the Competent Authority, Empowered Committees may be constituted with
delegated powers to take all subsequent decisions.

8. Mandating Standards and Protocols – Use of e-Governance standards and

protocols as notified by DeitY be mandated in all e-governance projects.

9. Language Localization - It is imperative that all information and services

in e-Governance projects are available in Indian languages as well.

10. National GIS (Geo-Spatial Information System) - NGIS to be leveraged as

a platform and as a service in e-Governance projects.
11. Security and Electronic Data Preservation - All online applications and e-
services to adhere to prescribed security measures including cyber security.
The National Cyber Security Policy 2013 notified by DeitY must be followed.

All new and on-going e-Governance projects as well as the existing projects,
which are being revamped, should now follow the key principles of e-Kranti.

Progress Status

There are 44 Mission Mode Projects under e-Kranti programme. These

mission mode projects are grouped into Central, State and Integrated
projects. The status of MMPs are as follow:

Note: e-Transaction counts can be taken from the e-Taal (Electronic

Transaction Aggregation & Analysis Layer) portal (http://etaal.gov.in(link is
external)). E-Taal is a portal for dissemination of statistics related to
electronic transactions under national and state level e-governance projects
including MMPs. It receives transaction statistics from web based
applications periodically on near real time basis. eTaal presents quick
analysis of transaction counts in tabular and graphical form.
Mission Mode Projects under e-Kranti

Sl. No Project Line Ministry/ Department Responsible

01 Income Tax Ministry of(M/o) Finance/Central Board

of Direct Tax
02 Passport M/o External Affairs

03 MCA21 M/o Company Affairs

04 Insurance Department of(D/o) Financial Services

05 National Citizen Database M/o Home Affairs/Registrar General of

India (RGI)
06 Central Excise D/o Revenue/Central Board of Excise &
Custom
07 Pensions D/o Pensions & Pensioners welfare &
Dept. of Expenditure
08 Bank in Banking D/o Financial Services

09 e-Office D/o Administrative Reforms & Public

Grievances
10 Posts D/o Posts

11 Visa & Immigration M/o Home Affairs

12 e-Sansad Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs

13 Common IT Roadmap for M/o Home affairs

Para Military Forces

Table 1: Central Mission Mode Projects (# New MMP)

Sl. No Project Line Ministry/ Department Responsible

01 Land Records M/o Rural Development

02 Road Transport M/o Road Transport & Highway

03 Property Registration D/o Land Resources and D/o

Electronics and Information Technology
04 Agriculture D/o Agriculture & Cooperation

05 Treasuries M/o Finance

06 Municipalities M/o Urban Development and Poverty

Alleviation
07 Gram Panchayats M/o Panchayati Raj

08 Commercial Taxes M/o Finance

09 Police (UTs initially) M/o Home affairs

10 Employment Exchanges M/o Labour & Employment

11 School Education D/o School Education and Literacy

12 Health D/o Health and Family Welfare

13 PDS D/o Food and Public Distribution

14 e-Vidhaan Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs

15 Agriculture 2.0 D/o Agriculture

16 Rural Development D/o Rural Development

17 Women and Child M/o Women and Child Development

Development

Table 2: State Mission Mode Projects (# New MMP)

Sl. No Project Line Ministry/ Department Responsible

 01 EDI (E-Commerce) M/o Commerce & Industry

02 E-Biz D/o Industrial Policy & Promotion

03 Common Services Centres D/o Electronics and Information

Technology
04 India Portal D/o Electronics and Information
Technology and D/o Administrative
Reforms & Public Grievances
05 E-Courts D/o Justice

06 E-Procurement M/o Commerce & Industry/ DGS&D

07 National Service Delivery D/o Electronics and Information
Gateway Technology
08 Financial Inclusion D/o Financial Services

09 National Geographical D/o Science & Technology

Information System
10 Social Benefits M/o Social Justice and Empowerment
as the leader and other welfare
departments as co-owners
11 Roads and Highways M/o Road Transport & Highways
Information System (RAHI)
12 e-Bhasha D/o Electronics and Information
Technology
13 National Mission on D/o Higher Education
Education Through ICT
(NMEICT)
14 Urban Governance Ministry of Urban Development

Table 3: Integrated Mission Mode Projects (# New MMP)

Technology for Education – e-Education

This refers to broadband and wi-fi connectivity to Schools, digital literacy
program at the national level and leveraging Massive Online Open Courses
(MOOCs).

Technology for Health – e-Healthcare

This refers to use of technology for better healthcare service delivery that
includes online medical consultation, online medical records, online
medicine supply, pan-India exchange for patient information, etc.

Technology for Farmers

This would facilitate farmers to get real time price information, online
ordering of inputs and online cash, loan, and relief payment with mobile
banking.

Technology for Security

This refers to provisioning off Mobile based emergency services and disaster
related services to citizens on real time basis so that they can take
precautionary measures well in time and minimize loss of lives and
properties.

Technology for Justice

Interoperable Criminal Justice System shall be strengthened by leveraging

several related applications, i.e. e-Courts, e-Police, e-Jails and e-
Prosecution.

Technology for Financial Inclusion

Financial inclusion shall be strengthened using mobile banking, Micro-ATM

program and CSCs/ Post Offices.

Technology for Cyber Security

National Cyber Security Co-ordination Centre would be set up to ensure safe

and secure cyber-space within the country.
Information for All

Open Data platform (http://data.gov.in)

Open Data platform facilitates proactive release of datasets in an open

format by the ministries/departments for use, reuse and redistribution.
Online hosting of information & documents would facilitate open and easy
access to information for citizens.

Government shall pro-actively engage through social media

My gov Banner Government shall pro-actively engage through social media

and web based platforms to inform and interact with citizens. MyGov.in, a
platform for citizen engagement in governance, has been launched by the
Hon’ble Prime Minister on 26th July, 2014, as a medium to exchange ideas/
suggestions with Government. It will facilitate 2-way communication
between citizens and Government to bring in good governance.
Online messaging

Online messaging to citizens on special occasions/programs would be

facilitated through emails and SMS.

Open Data platform, Social Media Engagement and Online Messaging

Open Data platform, Social Media Engagement and Online Messaging would
largely utilize existing infrastructure and would need limited additional
resources.
Electronics Manufacturing

Target NET ZERO Imports is a striking demonstration of intent.

This pillar focuses on promoting electronics manufacturing in the country

with the target of NET ZERO Imports by 2020 as a striking demonstration of
intent. This ambitious goal requires coordinated action on many fronts, such
as:

 Taxation, incentives
 Economies of scale, eliminating cost disadvantages
 Focus areas – Big Ticket Items
 FABS, Fab-less design, Set top boxes, VSATs, Mobiles, Consumer &
Medical Electronics, Smart Energy meters, Smart cards, micro-ATMs
 Incubators, clusters
 Skill development, Enhancing PhDs
 Government procurement
 Safety Standards – Compulsory registration, Support for Labs and MSMEs
 National Award, Marketing, Brand Building
 National Centres – Flexible Electronics, Security Forces
 R & D in electronics

There are many ongoing programs which will be fine-tuned. Existing

structures are inadequate to handle this goal and need strengthening.

Demand for electronic goods is increasing with a Compound Annual Growth

Rate (CAGR) of 22% and is expected to touch 400 Billion USD by 2020. Indian
government is also taking several steps to promote manufacturing and
investment in this sector, which puts India high on the list of potential places
to invest.

National Policy on Electronics (NPE)

Government of India has approved National Policy on Electronics launched in

2012 (NPE 12) which is holistic, investor friendly and market driven towards
creating a conducive environment to attract global and domestic companies
to invest towards the growing Electronics System Design & Manufacturing
(ESDM) sector in India. This gives unique opportunity for companies to
consider India as a destination in ESDM sector and be part of the next largest
Electronic Manufacturing Hub of the world and also provide value added
manufacturing involving medium and high technologies.

Significant progress has been made by Government of India to establish the

strong foundation for the (NPE) 2012 framework. This will help for value
added manufacturing involving medium and high technologies. The
highlights of the policy initiative taken by Government of India include:
 Modified Special Incentive Package Scheme (MSIPs) subsidy of 25% of
capital expenditure (20% in SEZs) is available and all excise/CVD paid on
capital equipment is reimbursed.
 Electronic Manufacturing Clusters Scheme which provides 50% of the cost
for development of infrastructure and common facilities in Greenfield
clusters (undeveloped or underdeveloped area from electronic
manufacturing point of view) and 75% of the cost for Brownfield clusters
(area where a significant number of existing EMC exists). Land can be
made readily available in several of the new Electronic Manufacturing
Clusters being supported by the Government of India. Currently around
30 Electronic Manufacturing clusters are notified and GoI is targeting for
200 Electronic Manufacturing clusters by 2020.
 Preference to domestically manufactured goods in Government
procurement. Extent of government procurement will not be less than
30%. Around 30 electronic products are already notified under this
scheme.
 Export of domestically manufactured Set top boxes and other electronic
products are eligible for 2-5 % incentive in Focus Product Scheme under
the Foreign Trade Policy.
 Electronic Development Funds for Research & Development and
Innovation in Electronics sector is under active consideration to support
start-ups in electronics and IP generation in the area of electronics.
 Department has accorded approval for setting up of two semiconductor
wafer Fabrication (FAB) manufacturing facilities in the country.
 To promote greater research in electronics and IT, Government of India
will fund PhD students in Universities across the country for research in
industry specific needs. 3000 PhDs will be generated through this
program in the area of electronics & IT/ITES.
 Providing opportunities for skill development for the private sector
through two Sector Skills Councils- Telecom and Electronics. Under the
scheme for providing support for skill development, Government of India
provides 75% to 100% of training cost for industry specific skills for
skilled and semi-skilled workers.
 Opportunities for investment in testing laboratory infrastructure under
the mandatory standards regime brought in force.
 Several State Governments, including Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka have
already announced complementary incentives as part of their State
Electronic Policies. Electronic Manufacturing Clusters have been
announced by states of Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, and
Kerala. Other states are also in process of taking similar initiatives,
thereby offering a host of incentives and facilities for ESDM investors.

In addition, to recognize and motivate the Micro Small and Medium Scale
Enterprises (MSMEs) in the Electronic System Design & Manufacturing (ESDM)
sector, the Government of India (GoI) has announced a national scheme for
the sector. The Scheme aims at providing financial support to MSMEs to
promote manufacturing, to build quality into Indian manufacturing & also to
encourage exporters. The support under the Scheme will be provided in the
form of reimbursement to the manufacturers in the MSMEs. The scheme for
providing financial support as Grant in Aid is expected to benefit the
manufacturers, domestic industry, exporters in the electronics sector. This
will also assist to attract value added manufacturing involving medium and
high technologies. The Scheme will provide GIA for the following activities:

 Reimbursement of expenses relating to compliance of electronic goods

with “Indian Standards” notified by DeitY. The total GIA for one model is
limited to `1 Lakh, only for 200 models (maximum).
 Reimbursement of expenses for testing and certification required for
export. The total GIA under the Scheme for one model is `1.25 Lac , 800
models (maximum).
 Development of Electronic Manufacturing Clusters by MSMEs for
diagnostic study, soft intervention and for preparing Detailed Project
Reports, etc. The Total GIA available under this Section of the Scheme for
Development of Clusters of `10 Lac /Cluster (max) would be available for
setting up of 20 Clusters.

All these incentives are available for electronics design and manufacturing
unit. This is also available for relocation of manufacturing plant from foreign
country. Some of the sector includes Semiconductor FAB, Telecom products,
LED FAB and products, automotive electronics, Semiconductor ATMPs,
Consumer Electronics and Appliances, Hand-held devices including
Smartphone and Tablets, Strategic Electronics, EMC, Avionics and Medical
Electronics etc. The product based R&D expenditure has also been included
under MSIPS.
IT for Jobs

This pillar focuses on providing training to the youth in the skills required
for availing employment opportunities in the IT/ITES sector. There are eight
components with specific scope of activities under this pillar:

1.IT Trainings to people in smaller towns and villages

The target of this component is to train one crore students from smaller
towns & villages for IT sector jobs over 5 years. DeitY is the nodal
department for this scheme.

2.IT/ITES in Northeastern States

This component focuses on setting up BPOs in every north-eastern state to

facilitate ICT enabled growth in these states. DeitY is the nodal department
for this scheme.

3.Training Service Delivery Agents

The focus is on training three lakh service delivery agents as part of skill
development to run viable businesses delivering IT services. DeitY is the
nodal department for this scheme.

4.Training Rural Workforce on Telecom and Telecom related services

This component focuses on training of five lakh rural workforce the Telecom
Service Providers (TSPs) to cater to their own needs. Department of
Telecommunications (DoT) is the nodal department for this scheme.
North East BPO Promotion Scheme (NEBPS)

The Indian BPO industry has witnessed significant growth over the past years
and India has gradually emerged as one of the preferred BPO destinations
globally. Several factors including operational cost effectiveness, availability
of skilled manpower and ever-increasing demand for employment
opportunities have increasingly contributed to the growth of BPO industry in
the country. However, the BPO industry has largely been concentrated in and
around large (Tier-I) cities where skilled manpower drawn from various parts
of the country including NE Region seek employment.

In large (Tier-I) cities, the recurring manpower cost to the company is

considered to be higher particularly keeping in view the relatively higher cost
of residential accommodation and larger travelling distance for employees.
Thus, it would be prudent for a BPO Company to migrate to smaller
(Tier-II/III) cities including those in North Eastern Region, as it would result
in significantly reduced manpower related expenses and thus making its
operations far more profitable. It is understood that key concerns for setting
up of BPO operations in the N.E. Region are related to various issues
including reliable internet connectivity and power supply.

Promotion of BPOs in NE Region

Current Scenario:

 Main hurdles are funding required and administrative procedures to start

a new centre

Changed Scenario

 Citizens may apply for funding under North East BPO Promotion Scheme
(NEBPS) and get 50% of the capital cost funded.

In the aforesaid background, it has been decided to give special attention to

the establishment of BPOs in the North Eastern Region through appropriate
incentives. Currently a draft Scheme titled, “North East BPO Promotion
Scheme (NEBPS)” to incentivize setting up of BPO/ Call Centres in the North
Eastern Region is under consideration. It is envisaged to create a total
seating capacity of 4000 till the end of the current five year plan, which is
expected to generate direct employment to about 12000 persons.

The broad features of the proposed scheme are as under:

Objectives

The main objectives of NEBPS are as under:

o Employment creation for educated and unemployed youths in NER

through the IT/ITES Industry particularly by promoting BPOs/Call
Centres.
o To promote investment in IT Sector in NER in order to expand the base
of IT Industry and facilitate balanced regional development.
Financial Incentives

The Scheme envisages the following financial incentives:

(i) Capital Support: Capital Support up to 50% of the one-time expenditure

incurred on admissible items with a cap of `1 lac per seat, whichever is
lower.

(ii) Rental Support: Rental Support of 50% of the actual rental expenses with
a cap of `1000 per seat per month for the first two years w.e.f. date of
commencement of operations, whichever is lower.

(Meanwhile, DeitY has proposed to initiate a Pilot Project at STPI Centres in

Guwahati and Shillong, which have available space of 10,000 sq. feet (200
seats) and 5,000 sq. ft. (100 seats) respectively with an outlay of `3.72 crore
based on terms and guidelines of the above scheme.)

Salient Features

 The applicant company must be interested in setting up a BPO unit

anywhere in N.E. Region. The applicant company must be registered in
India under The Companies Act, 1956.
 The applicant company must submit a proposal to establish at least 50
seats capacity and multiple thereof up to 500 seats.
 The applicant company must commit to operate for a minimum period
of 7 years.
 The applicant company should have been in business of running a Call
Centre/BPO in India for at least 3 years and should have a minimum
average annual turnover of `5 crore for the past 3 financial years from
BPO/ Call Centre operations.
 The application received under this scheme will be appraised on an
ongoing basis by the NEBPS Appraisal Committee under the
chairmanship of Joint Secretary (ICIP Group), DeitY.
 The capital support shall be released in 3 instalments (30%, up to 30%
and up to 40%) post commencement of BPO operations subject to
fulfilment of all formalities and compliance with various conditions laid
 down in this scheme. The Rental support shall be released on quarterly
basis.
 The applicant Company would be required to furnish a Bank Guarantee
for approved amount for a period of 2 years for each instalment under
Capital Support.
 STPI-Guwahati and STPI-HQ are envisaged to be the implementation
body of the proposed scheme.

Financial Outlay

The benefits would be available till two years from the date of notification of
scheme. The budgetary estimate is done for a period of three financial years.
The overall financial outlay will be limited to `50 crore during the 12th Five
Year Plan. A review of the scheme in the ultimate year of the 12th Five Year
would be undertaken to make a realistic estimate of the likely demand for
the 13th Five Year Plan (as necessary).
Early Harvest Programmes

Early Harvest Programme basically consists of those projects which are to be

implemented within short timeline. The projects under the Early Harvest
Programme are as follows:

1. IT Platform for Messages

A mass messaging application has been developed by MeitY that will cover
elected representatives and all Government employees. Over 1.36 crore
mobiles and 22 lakh emails are part of the database. The portal was released
on 15th August 2014. Data collection and data sanitization are ongoing
processes.

2. Government Greetings to be e-Greetings

A basket of e-Greeting templates have been made available. Crowd sourcing

of e-Greetings through the MyGov platform has been ensured. Crowd
sourcing has also been used to create designs for Independence Day,
Teachers’ Day and Gandhi Jayanti greetings. E-Greetings portal has been
made live on 14th August 2014.
3. Biometric attendance

It will cover all Central Government offices in Delhi to begin with. Over
40,000 Government employees from 150 organisations have already
registered on the common Bio-metric attendance portal at
http://attendance.gov.inOver 1000 bio-metric attendance terminals are
under installation at entry gates of various Central Government buildings
which will be connected with Wi-Fi Access points and mobile connectivity.
Government employees will be able to mark their attendance from any of the
central Government offices in Delhi.

4. Wi-Fi in All Universities

All universities on the National Knowledge Network (NKN) shall be covered

under this scheme. Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is the
nodal ministry for implementing this scheme.
5. Secure Email within Government

Email would be the primary mode of communication within government. The

government e-mail infrastructure would be suitably enhanced and upgraded.
Upgradation of the infrastructure under Phase-I for 10 lakh employees has
already been completed. Under Phase-II, infrastructure would be further
upgraded to cover 50 lakh employees by March 2015 at a cost of Rs.98 Cr.
MeitY is the nodal department for this scheme.

6. Standardize Government Email Design

Standardized templates for Government email would be prepared. This is

being implemented by MeitY.

7. Public Wi-fi hotspots

Cities with population of over 1 million and tourist centres would be

provided with public wi-fi hotspots to promote digital cities. The scheme
would be implemented by DoT and Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD).

8. School Books to be eBooks

All books shall be converted into eBooks. Ministry of HRD/ MeitY are the
nodal agencies for this scheme.

9. SMS based weather information, disaster alerts

SMS based weather information and disaster alerts would be provided.

MeitY’s Mobile Seva Platform has been made available for this purpose.
Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) (India Meteorological Department - IMD)/
Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) (National Disaster Management Authority -
NDMA) would be the nodal organizations for implementing this scheme.

10. National Portal for Lost & Found children

This would facilitate real time information gathering and sharing on the lost
and found children and would go a long way to check crime and improve
timely response. The portal is being redesigned with the following features:
 o Enhance citizen participation through mobile apps
o Mobile / SMS alert system for police (Child Welfare Officer)
o Better navigation plan for citizens
o Facility to integrate child services
o Using social media to popularize the system / web portal

MeitY and Department of Women and Child Development (DoWCD) are the
nodal departments for this project.