President Ram Nath Kovind today said the digital India initiative of the government should continue to strive towards reducing the digital divide. He said a large segment of the population is still not able to derive the benefits of digital services. Kovind said, the number of such people needs to be minimised by extending digital access to them through effective innovations. He, however, said, India utilised the Corona Pandemic crisis as an opportunity to march ahead in various arenas. Conferring the Digital India Awards 2020 through video conferencing, Kovind said, it was possible only because the digital infrastructure has been strengthened in recent years. He said, this pandemic has changed the world in terms of social relations, economic activities, health care, education and several other aspects of life. President expressed happiness that from the judiciary to tele-medicine, scores of sectors switched to the virtual mode. Saying technological advances are often termed as disruptions, President highlighted how in this year they helped overcome the big disruption to a great extent. Kovind said digital inclusion has touched our lives in most simple ways . Kovind said technology and ICT-driven innovative solutions must be leveraged to aid economic inclusiveness and social transformation even in the remotest corners of the country. The President also called for exploring innovative solutions for the functioning of government offices in paperless and contactless mode for security and benefit of every citizen He said that NIC has been running many technology-driven initiatives for making interaction between the government and citizens seamless and hassle-free. Hailing the role of digital warriors, the President said they helped the country overcome challenges posed by the pandemic. He said, proactive implementation of platforms such as Arogya Setu, e-office and video conferencing services backed by a robust ICT infrastructure has helped the country reduce the pandemic hardships. In line with Digital India’s vision, this is the first time that the entire process of the Digital India Awards is being conducted online from nominations to screening to the final awards ceremony. National Informatics Centre under Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology has been conducting the biennial Digital India Awards to promote innovation in eGovernance and digital transformation of government service delivery mechanism.
