‘Digital India’ and ‘Skill India’ | ICSE Class 9 Economics Notes

Note: This topic is listed in the ICSE Class 9 Economics syllabus for the 2028 examination year, where its case studies are marked “not to be tested”. Use it to build understanding, and check your school’s own syllabus before relying on it for exams.

This note covers the meaning of Digital India and Skill India, the vision and nine pillars of Digital India, e-governance and digital payments in daily life, the economic gains and limits of digital access, skills and human capital, the parts of the Skill India Mission, how the Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana trains people, and how the two programmes link and differ.

What are Digital India and Skill India?

Definition: Digital India is an umbrella programme to prepare India for a knowledge-based transformation, with technology made central to enabling change. Skill India is a national mission, launched in July 2015, to train people in employable skills.

Both programmes were launched by the Government of India in July 2015. Digital India began on 1 July and Skill India on 15 July.

One programme works on the networks, services and payment systems that a digital economy needs. The other works on the abilities of people, so that they can find work.

A digital network is useful only when people can use it, which is why Digital India includes universal digital literacy, while Skill India adds training in employable skills.

Digital India and Skill India, together with Make in India (the government initiative to encourage manufacturing in India), are described as recent initiatives that are expected to help the economy in terms of exports and imports, with a steady and sustainable trade balance.

The balance of trade is the difference between a country’s exports and imports. The word “expected” states an expectation, not a guaranteed result.

As a formula, $\text{Balance of trade}=\text{value of exports}-\text{value of imports}$. When the value of exports exceeds the value of imports, the balance is called favourable. When imports exceed exports, it is called unfavourable.

What is a case study?

A case study examines one real example closely. For a government programme, five questions organise the study: what it is, what it aims to do, how it works, what examples show it at work and what limits it faces.

What is Digital India, and what does it aim to do?

Information and communication technology (IT in short) means technology in the areas of telecommunications, computers and the Internet. Digital India is built on this technology.

Digital India is called an umbrella programme because many separate efforts, such as broadband networks, online services and electronics manufacturing, are grouped under one framework. Its focus is to be transformative.

It expresses this idea through a play on the letters IT: IT (Indian Talent) plus IT (Information Technology) equals IT (India Tomorrow). Technology is meant to be central to enabling change.

The programme was launched on 1 July 2015. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) is its nodal ministry, which means the ministry that leads and coordinates the work.

What are the three vision areas?

The programme sets out three vision areas. Each one answers a different need: access to the network, services through the network and the ability to use both.

Why is internet access called a core utility?

A utility is a basic service that people expect to be available, in the way that water and electricity are. Calling high-speed internet a core utility means that access should reach every citizen, not only people in cities.

The infrastructure behind such access includes cables, wireless devices, towers, satellites and data centres. When this infrastructure is missing, services on demand and digital empowerment cannot reach people.

What are the nine pillars of Digital India?

The programme is organised around nine pillars. Each pillar is a group of projects aimed at one part of the digital task. The table lists them in order.

How can the pillars be grouped?

The nine pillars can be read as four groups. This grouping is a study aid rather than an official division.

• Access: Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity and Public Internet Access Programme.
• Services and information: e-Governance, eKranti and Information for All.
• Industry and jobs: Electronics Manufacturing and IT for Jobs.
• Quick results: Early Harvest Programmes.

Draw a roof labelled Digital India, held up by nine columns, one for each pillar, with the pillar names written below. Colour the columns in four groups: access, services and information, industry and jobs, and quick results.

How does e-governance bring services to citizens?

Definition: E-governance is the use of communication technologies by the government to deliver services to citizens.

A simple example is the DigiLocker app, which lets people store documents online. Examples of such documents are an Aadhaar card, which is an identity document, and a driving licence.

With e-governance, citizens can apply for documents, file complaints or get information more easily. Progress in communication infrastructure has promoted ease of living for communities.

Case study: how does the Election Commission use digital tools?

The Election Commission of India (ECI) manages an exercise with over 96.8 crore eligible voters (one crore is 10 million) spread across diverse regions and terrains. To carry out its functions, it makes extensive use of information and communication technologies and e-governance.

The apps in the table serve three groups: candidates, voters and election officials.

A circular emblem of the Election Commission of India sits at the centre of a ring with three coloured arcs, labelled Candidates, Voters and Election Officials.

Text boxes joined to each arc by lines describe the apps: Suvidha for candidates; ETPBS, Voter Helpline App, Saksham App and cVIGIL App for voters; ERONET and Sugam for election officials.

See Fig. 7.6 in your NCERT textbook

These apps show e-governance at work. Forms, permissions, registration and complaints are handled through an app, with real-time status and automatic location where needed.

Which other services are linked with Digital India?

Several digital services are commonly presented as parts of the programme. Each supports one or more of the pillars.

• BharatNet: a project to connect village councils (gram panchayats) with optical fibre cables, which supports Broadband Highways.
• Common Services Centres: local access points for government and business services.
• UMANG: a single mobile app through which many government services can be reached.
• MyGov: an online platform on which citizens can share ideas with the government.
• e-Sign: an online service that lets a person sign a document electronically.

How do bank accounts and digital payments work together?

A digital payment moves money from one bank account to another, so people need accounts before they can use it. The Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana, launched in 2014, aimed to give every Indian, especially low-income earners, access to a bank account without a minimum balance or fees.

Before 2014, only 15 crore Indians had bank accounts, with most relying on cash. Since then, over 50 crore accounts have been opened, mainly by women.

Workers can receive wages directly into their bank accounts, and students who perform well academically can receive scholarships in theirs. Such direct transfers have reduced middlemen and ensure the timely disbursement of funds.

Definition: A cashless society is an economic state in which financial transactions are not connected with physical bank notes or coins but are made through the transfer of digital information between the transacting parties.

What electronic payment methods exist?

A cheque requires a physical visit to a bank and takes time. Electronic modes of payment allow instant transfers from the sender’s account to the receiver’s account.

How does a UPI payment travel?

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched UPI in 2016 as a fast and secure digital payment system that enables transfer of funds. UPI gained popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic, when cashless transactions helped people keep a distance from one another.

Kumar pays Piyush, a vegetable vendor, through UPI. The payment passes through five stages.

1. Kumar scans Piyush’s QR code with a payment application on his mobile phone, enters the amount and then his UPI PIN. The application sends a payment request to his bank.
2. The payer’s bank forwards the request to NPCI.
3. NPCI decrypts the request, verifies the user’s UPI PIN and processes the transfer.
4. The funds are received by the payee’s bank.
5. The payee, Piyush, receives the payment in his bank account.

Five numbered stages are joined by arrows.

Kumar, holding a phone, starts at stage 1 beside a UPI mobile app screen that shows QR Code, Pay Contact and Pay Phone Number.

The payer’s bank is at stage 2, the UPI and NPCI logo at stage 3, the payee’s bank at stage 4 and the vegetable vendor Piyush at stage 5.

See Fig. 8.18 in your NCERT textbook

Why does the government promote digital transactions?

In November 2016, ₹500 and ₹1,000 notes were declared invalid and replaced by new notes, an event known as demonetisation. People were then encouraged to use bank deposits and digital transactions rather than cash.

Digital transactions are promoted to reduce the requirement of cash for transactions and also to control corruption. Jan Dhan accounts, Aadhaar enabled payment systems and e-wallets (digital stores of money used for payments), among others, have strengthened the government’s resolve to go cashless.

Financial inclusion means making banking and other financial services available to all sections of society. It is now seen as a realistic dream because of mobile and smartphone penetration across the country.

How do banks earn from the deposits in an account?

Interest is the amount gained by lending money, or paid for borrowing it, usually expressed as a percentage. Banks pay a lower rate of interest to depositors and charge a higher rate to borrowers. The difference between the two rates is a source of income for the bank.

In symbols, $\text{Interest}=\frac{\text{rate}}{100}\times\text{amount}$ for one year, when the rate is a yearly rate. Then $\text{Bank earning}=\text{interest from the borrower}-\text{interest to the depositor}$.

Worked example 1. Anand deposits ₹200 for one year in a bank that pays 2 per cent interest on his savings. The bank lends the ₹200 to Shreya for one year at 5 per cent interest. Find the interest the bank pays, the amount Shreya repays and what the bank earns.

Answer: Interest paid to Anand is $\frac{2}{100}\times200=4$, which is ₹4. Interest charged to Shreya is $\frac{5}{100}\times200=10$, which is ₹10, so she repays $200+10=210$, or ₹210.

The bank earns $10-4=6$, which is ₹6. This earning comes from the gap between the higher rate on loans and the lower rate on deposits. In practice, banks keep reserve money and do not lend all of their deposits.

How does saving in an account make money grow?

Interest also makes savings grow. If the interest is left in the account, the next year’s interest is earned on the larger amount. Compounding is the process of earning interest on previous interest.

Worked example 2. A student deposits ₹1,000, received on a birthday, in a bank that pays 6 per cent interest each year. The money is not withdrawn, so each year’s interest stays in the account. Find the amount at the end of the first year and at the end of the second year.

Answer: Interest for the first year is $\frac{6}{100}\times1000=60$, so the amount is $1000+60=1060$, or ₹1,060.

Interest for the second year is earned on ₹1,060, so it is $\frac{6}{100}\times1060=63.60$. The amount is $1060+63.60=1123.60$, or ₹1,123.60.

The interest rose from ₹60 to ₹63.60 because the second year’s interest is also earned on the first year’s interest. If the saving continues for 12 years, the amount grows to ₹2,012.20.

How does Digital India help the economy?

Digital tools can help the economy in several ways. Technology has eliminated geographical barriers, allowing people to access knowledge, skill development and jobs in India and abroad. The table gives five areas, each with an example.

Definition: E-commerce means buying or selling products and services on online platforms or over the internet.

How is information technology linked with the service sector?

The tertiary sector generates services rather than goods, so it is also called the service sector. In recent times, new services based on information technology, such as internet cafes, ATM (automated teller machine) booths, call centres and software companies, have become important.

Information and communication technology has also played a major role in spreading out the production of services across countries.

For example, the text of a magazine can be sent through the Internet from London to Delhi, and payment can be made instantly from a bank in London to a bank in Delhi through e-banking, which means banking done through the Internet.

What can limit the benefits of Digital India?

Definition: The digital divide is the unevenness in the opportunities that arise from information and communication technology. While developed countries in general have surged forward, developing countries have lagged behind.

How quickly a country can provide access to information and communication technology and its benefits to its citizens is the deciding factor in how unevenly the opportunities are shared between countries.

Does the divide exist inside India?

Digital divides also exist within countries. In a large country like India, it is inevitable that certain areas, such as metropolitan centres, possess better connectivity and access to the digital world than peripheral rural areas.

A programme that places services online therefore does not reach everyone at once. People without a connection, a device or the skill to use an app may be left out.

How can the gap be narrowed?

Several parts of Digital India are aimed at the gap. Broadband Highways and Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity extend the network, while the Public Internet Access Programme provides local access points.

The vision area of digital empowerment aims at universal digital literacy and services in Indian languages. The Saksham App, built for persons with disabilities, and the multi-language design of UPI show the same concern with inclusion.

What other risks need attention?

Cyberspace is the world of electronic computerised space encompassed by the Internet. One vision goal is a safe and secure cyber-space. This goal matters because every digital service, from payments to stored documents, depends on trust that personal information and money are protected.

What is Skill India, and why does India need skills?

Definition: A skill is the ability to do an activity or job well with practice and training. Training is the process of learning the skills required to do a particular job or activity.

Human capital is the knowledge, skills, experience and ability of individuals that help them perform work and create economic value. Education, training, health, the use of technology and social context make people more productive in the workforce. Productivity is the ability to do more in a particular time period.

Skill India was launched on 15 July 2015. It aimed to train over 40 crore people in different skills by 2022.

Why do young people need skills?

According to the Economic Survey of India 2024, 65 per cent of people in India are below the age of 35 years. This means India has a young, productive population, which may help the country reap the benefits of a demographic dividend.

The demographic dividend is the benefit a country gets when it has a large number of young and working people. When more people are working and earning, and fewer people depend on them, the country can grow businesses and improve living standards.

The working-age group is roughly those aged 15 to 64 years. The potential of a large working-age group becomes actual growth only if its rise is accompanied by increasing levels of education and employment.

The labour force means the people who are working or looking for jobs. If new entrants to the labour force are not educated, their productivity remains low. If they remain unemployed, they cannot earn and become dependents, who must be supported by others, rather than earners.

How does the dependency ratio show the demographic dividend?

The working-age group must support itself and also those outside it, such as children and elderly people, who cannot work and are therefore dependents. The dependency ratio is the ratio of the non-working-age population to the working-age population. A fall in this ratio creates the potential for growth.

In symbols, $\text{Dependency ratio}=\frac{\text{population of non-working age}}{\text{population of working age}}\times100$. A value of 79 therefore means 79 dependents for every 100 persons of working age.

Draw a line graph. Put the year on the horizontal axis and the total dependency ratio on the vertical axis. Plot four points: 79 in 1970, 64 in 2005, a projected 48 in 2025 and a projected 50 in 2050.

Join the points with one line. The line falls from 1970 to 2025 because the proportion of children keeps falling, and then rises to 2050 because the proportion of the aged increases. The turning point, 48 in 2025, is the lowest of the four points. It lies within the window of opportunity in which the working-age group is large compared with its dependents.

Worked example 3. India’s total dependency ratio was 79 in 1970 and 64 in 2005. It is projected to fall to 48 in 2025 and to rise to 50 by 2050. Find the fall from 1970 to 2005 in points and in per cent, and the projected changes after 2005.

Answer: The fall from 1970 to 2005 is $79-64=15$ points. As a per cent of the 1970 value, $\frac{15}{79}\times100\approx19.0$, so the ratio fell by about 19.0 per cent.

From 2005 to 2025 the projected fall is $64-48=16$ points. From 2025 to 2050 the projected rise is $50-48=2$ points, so the ratio is expected to reach its lowest value in 2025.

How do skills connect with unemployment?

The unemployment rate is the number of people who are not working and are looking for jobs, divided by the total number of people who are working or looking for jobs.

In symbols, $\text{Labour force}=\text{number employed}+\text{number unemployed}$. Stated as a per cent, $\text{Unemployment rate}=\frac{\text{number unemployed}}{\text{labour force}}\times100$.

Structural unemployment arises when the skills of workers do not match the skills that the available jobs need. Technological unemployment arises when machines or new technology replace workers.

When machines become affordable, a firm may shift from labour-intensive production, which relies more on labour, to automation, which means production carried out by machines. Training in skills that employers need is one way to reduce the mismatch behind structural unemployment.

Has employment grown fast enough for young workers?

The potential of a young labour force becomes real only when jobs grow with it. Government of India data show a sharp fall in the rate at which new jobs were created, and this is true for the young as well. Employment in the 15 to 30 age group grew at around 2.4 per cent a year between 1987 and 1994 for both rural and urban men. Between 1994 and 2004 the rate fell to 0.7 per cent for rural men and 0.3 per cent for urban men.

This suggests that the advantage offered by a young labour force was not being exploited in those years.

Draw a bar graph. Put the two periods, 1987 to 1994 and 1994 to 2004, on the horizontal axis, with two bars in each period, one for rural men and one for urban men. Put the growth rate of employment, in per cent a year, on the vertical axis.

Draw both bars for 1987 to 1994 at about 2.4. For 1994 to 2004, draw the rural bar at 0.7 and the urban bar at 0.3. The bars drop sharply between the two periods. This shows that jobs for young men were growing much more slowly in the second period, even though the young labour force was large.

Worked example 4. Employment among young rural men grew at around 2.4 per cent a year from 1987 to 1994 and at 0.7 per cent a year from 1994 to 2004. For young urban men the rates were around 2.4 and 0.3 per cent. Find the fall in the growth rate for each group.

Answer: A fall found by subtracting one rate from another is stated in percentage points. For rural men, $2.4-0.7=1.7$, a fall of about 1.7 percentage points a year. For urban men, $2.4-0.3=2.1$, a fall of about 2.1 percentage points a year.

The fall was larger for urban men by $2.1-1.7=0.4$ percentage points. The rural growth rate in the second period was $\frac{0.7}{2.4}\times100\approx29.2$ per cent of its earlier value.

What is entrepreneurship, and how is it linked with skills?

Entrepreneurship means starting one’s own enterprise (business) or creating something new to solve a problem. An entrepreneur comes up with an idea, takes risks, gathers the other factors of production (land, labour and capital) and works hard to make the idea succeed.

Skills open two routes: employment with an employer, or work of one’s own. The name of the national policy, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, covers both.

What are the parts of the Skill India Mission?

Skill India brings several parts under one umbrella. Four parts were announced at its launch. Skilling means giving people skills through training, and a demand centre means a place or industry that needs skilled workers.

What does the national policy try to achieve?

The policy was formulated in 2015 to provide one framework for all skilling activities. It has three aims.

1. To provide an umbrella framework to all skilling activities carried out within the country.
2. To align those activities to common standards.
3. To link skilling with demand centres.

Who leads the work?

The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship (MSDE), set up in 2014, is the government ministry that leads skill development. The National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) is a public-private partnership company that promotes skill training.

How does PMKVY train and certify people?

The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana was started in 2015 aiming to train one crore Indian youth from 2016 to 2020. Its objective is to encourage aptitude towards employable skills by giving quality training to probable and existing wage earners.

A wage earner is a person who earns wages for work. “Probable” wage earners are people who are likely to start earning, such as young people about to enter the workforce.

What steps does a learner follow?

In outline, a short-term skill course of this kind runs as follows.

1. The learner chooses a job role and joins a course at a training centre.
2. The learner receives short-term training in that job role.
3. The learner is assessed against a standard.
4. A learner who passes receives a certificate.
5. The scheme aims to link certified people with employers or with work of their own.

Recognition of Prior Learning is a related route. It assesses and certifies people who already have skills, for example from years of work, but who have no formal certificate.

Which bodies set standards and give training?

Common standards need institutions to define and apply them. The table lists the main bodies in the skill system.

How does online access help skilling?

Government platforms such as SWAYAM (Study Webs of Active Learning for Young Aspiring Minds) offer Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, free of cost. Learners can study at their own pace from anywhere while pursuing other jobs or courses.

The National Career Service portal helps people find job opportunities across sectors, from plumbing to accounting. Digital platforms thus let people access knowledge, skill development and jobs without being held back by distance.

How are Digital India and Skill India linked, and how do they differ?

The two programmes are meant to work together. They work on different parts of the task, as the table shows.

Where do the two programmes meet?

The pillar IT for Jobs trains people for jobs in the IT sector. The vision of digital empowerment includes universal digital literacy. SWAYAM and the National Career Service use digital access to carry learning and job search to more people.

In the other direction, Electronics Manufacturing, e-commerce and IT-based services can create work that needs trained people. Skill India aims to supply that training.

What challenges must the two programmes overcome?

Both programmes are affected by the quality of education and the spread of access. Literacy is an important characteristic of the population and helps enhance the skills and productivity of human capital.

The adult literacy rate in India is 85 per cent for males and 70 per cent for females as of 2023, as per World Bank estimates.

The adult literacy rate is the percentage of people aged 15 and above who can read and write with understanding a short, simple statement about their everyday life.

In symbols, $\text{Adult literacy rate}=\frac{\text{literate adults}}{\text{all adults}}\times100$. Here, adults are people aged 15 and above, and literate adults are those who can read and write with understanding a short, simple statement about their everyday life.

Worked example 5. The adult literacy rate in India was 85 per cent for males and 70 per cent for females in 2023, as per World Bank estimates. Find the gap between the two rates and, for each group, how many adults in every 100 could not read and write with understanding.

Answer: The gap is $85-70=15$ percentage points. Among 100 adult males, $100-85=15$ could not read and write with understanding. Among 100 adult females, $100-70=30$ could not.

The female rate is therefore 15 percentage points lower, and the number of non-literate adults in every 100 is twice as large for females as for males, since $30\div15=2$.

What challenges does Skill India face?

Despite progress in many areas, India faces challenges in developing human capital. Training must match what employers need, which is why the policy aims to link skilling with demand centres.

Standards must be common, so that a certificate means the same thing to every employer. Learners must also be able to reach courses, which is why online platforms matter.

What is the responsibility of businesses?

Businesses also have a responsibility to invest in training and education, so that workers develop the skills necessary to remain competitive in the labour market.

Digital India and Skill India set clear purposes: connect people to digital services and prepare people for work. Their benefits are expected, not automatic, and depend on access, literacy, training quality and the match between skills and jobs.

Glossary

• Digital India — An umbrella programme to prepare India for a knowledge-based transformation, with technology made central to enabling change.
• Skill India — A national mission launched in July 2015 to train people in employable skills, with several parts under one umbrella.
• Information and communication technology — Technology in telecommunications, computers and the Internet, often called IT in short.
• E-governance — The use of communication technologies by the government to deliver services to citizens, such as storing documents on DigiLocker.
• E-commerce — Buying or selling products and services on online platforms or over the internet.
• Unified Payments Interface — A fast and secure digital payment system, launched by NPCI in 2016, that enables transfer of funds.
• Financial inclusion — Making banking and other financial services available to all sections of society, including people who were left out earlier.
• Digital divide — The uneven spread of opportunities from information and communication technology, between countries and within countries.
• Skill — The ability to do an activity or job well with practice and training.
• Human capital — The knowledge, skills, experience and ability of individuals that help them perform work and create economic value.
• Demographic dividend — The benefit a country gets when it has a large number of young and working people.
• PMKVY — The Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana, started in 2015 to give quality training in employable skills to probable and existing wage earners.

Common errors and misconceptions

• Misconception: Digital India is only about the internet and mobile apps. Correct: It is an umbrella programme with three vision areas and nine pillars, which include electronics manufacturing, e-governance, IT for jobs and access projects.
• Misconception: Skill India and PMKVY are the same thing. Correct: PMKVY is one part of Skill India. The national policy, the National Skill Development Mission and the Skill Loan Scheme are other parts.
• Misconception: Digital services reach every citizen equally. Correct: A digital divide exists within countries. Certain areas, such as metropolitan centres, have better connectivity than peripheral rural areas.
• Misconception: A young population automatically brings a demographic dividend. Correct: The dividend may help, but the potential becomes growth only if education and employment rise with the working-age group.
• Misconception: A UPI payment needs no bank account. Correct: The payment moves from the payer’s bank, through NPCI, to the payee’s bank account.
• Misconception: E-governance means only putting a website online. Correct: It is the use of communication technologies by the government to deliver services to citizens, for example through apps such as DigiLocker or Suvidha.
• Misconception: The two programmes are certain to raise exports and cut unemployment. Correct: They are expected to help the economy. The word “expected” states an expectation, not a guaranteed result.

Exam-style questions with model answers

Q1. State any two of the three vision areas of Digital India. [2 marks]

1. Digital infrastructure as a core utility to every citizen: This area aims at high-speed internet, a digital identity and easy access to a Common Service Centre for everyone.
2. Governance and services on demand: This area aims at services that are integrated across departments and available in real time. The third area is digital empowerment of citizens.

Q2. Define e-governance and give one example. [2 marks]

1. Definition: E-governance is the use of communication technologies by the government to deliver services to citizens.
2. Example: The DigiLocker app lets people store documents such as an Aadhaar card and a driving licence online.

Q3. A cheque requires a physical visit to a bank and takes time. UPI allows payment through a mobile app using a QR code or the recipient’s phone number. State three differences between paying by cheque and paying by UPI. [3 marks]

1. Place: A cheque needs the person to visit a bank, while a UPI payment can be made from a mobile phone.
2. Time: A cheque takes time, while electronic modes such as UPI allow instant transfer from the sender’s account to the receiver’s account.
3. Method: A cheque is a paper instrument that has to be written out and then deposited or handed to the bank, while a UPI payment is made by scanning a QR code or entering the recipient’s phone number in a mobile app.

Q4. State three aims of the National Policy for Skill Development and Entrepreneurship formulated in 2015. [3 marks]

1. Umbrella framework: The policy provides one umbrella framework for all skilling activities carried out within the country.
2. Common standards: It aligns those skilling activities to common standards, rather than leaving each activity to follow its own.
3. Demand centres: It links skilling with demand centres, meaning the places and industries that need skilled workers.

Q5. Explain four ways in which digital access can help the economy. [4 marks]

1. Learning: Online classes, digital libraries and courses such as SWAYAM can reach remote areas and let learners study at their own pace.
2. Government services: Citizens can apply for documents, file complaints and get information more easily, for example through e-governance apps.
3. Payments: Digital payments such as UPI move money quickly, and direct transfers into bank accounts reduce middlemen.
4. Trade and jobs: E-commerce lets businesses sell across the world, and services based on information technology, such as call centres and software companies, have become important.

Q6. Kumar scans the QR code of Piyush, a vegetable vendor, with a payment application on his mobile phone, enters the amount and then his UPI PIN. Describe, in five steps, how the payment travels after he enters the PIN, until Piyush receives the money. [5 marks]

1. Request: The payment application sends a payment request to Kumar’s bank, which is the payer’s bank, because the money has to leave his account.
2. Forwarding: The payer’s bank forwards the request to the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), which runs the UPI system.
3. Verification: NPCI decrypts the request and verifies the UPI PIN that Kumar entered.
4. Processing: NPCI processes the transfer, and the funds are received by the payee’s bank, which is Piyush’s bank.
5. Receipt: Piyush, the payee, receives the payment in his bank account, which completes the digital transaction between buyer and seller.

Q7. According to the Economic Survey of India 2024, 65 per cent of people in India are below the age of 35 years, which may help India gain a demographic dividend. Explain, in five points, what a demographic dividend is, what it depends on and why skill training helps. [5 marks]

1. Meaning: A demographic dividend is the benefit a country gets when it has a large number of young and working people.
2. Condition: The potential becomes actual growth only if the rise in the working-age group is accompanied by increasing levels of education and employment.
3. Productivity: If new entrants to the labour force are not educated, their productivity remains low.
4. Earning: If they remain unemployed, they cannot earn and become dependents rather than earners, which means the young population does not turn into a dividend.
5. Demand: Skill training linked with demand centres teaches the skills that employers want, which can help young people find work.

Q8. Digital India includes the pillars Broadband Highways, Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity and Public Internet Access Programme, and a vision of universal digital literacy. Explain what the digital divide is and how these parts of the programme try to reduce it, in six points. [6 marks]

1. Meaning: The digital divide is the uneven spread of the opportunities that arise from information and communication technology.
2. Between countries: Developed countries in general have surged forward, while developing countries have lagged behind.
3. Within India: Certain areas, such as metropolitan centres, possess better connectivity and access than peripheral rural areas.
4. Network: Broadband Highways and Universal Access to Mobile Connectivity extend high-speed broadband and mobile coverage and fill gaps in connectivity.
5. Access points: The Public Internet Access Programme makes Common Services Centres viable multi-service points for government and business services.
6. Literacy: The vision of digital empowerment aims at universal digital literacy and digital services in Indian languages.

Key takeaways

• Digital India is an umbrella programme, launched on 1 July 2015, to prepare India for a knowledge-based transformation with technology central to enabling change.
• Digital India has three vision areas and nine pillars, ranging from Broadband Highways to Electronics Manufacturing, IT for Jobs and Early Harvest Programmes.
• E-governance delivers services through communication technologies; DigiLocker and the Election Commission apps such as Suvidha and cVIGIL are examples of it.
• A UPI payment passes from the payer’s bank through NPCI to the payee’s bank, so bank accounts, such as those opened under Jan Dhan, are the base for such payments.
• The digital divide means benefits are uneven: certain areas, such as metropolitan centres, possess better connectivity than peripheral rural areas.
• Skill is the ability to do a job well with practice and training, and skills add to human capital.
• A demographic dividend may help India, but the potential becomes growth only if education and employment rise with the working-age group.
• Skill India, launched on 15 July 2015, includes a national policy, a mission, PMKVY and a loan scheme, all aimed at employable skills.

Test yourself

On which dates in 2015 were Digital India and Skill India launched?

Digital India was launched on 1 July 2015 and Skill India on 15 July 2015.

What does the programme mean by calling internet access a core utility?

High-speed internet should be available to every citizen as a basic service, in the way that water and electricity are, and not only to people in cities.

Name the three groups served by the apps in the Election Commission’s digital ecosystem.

The three groups are candidates, voters and election officials. Suvidha serves candidates; ETPBS, Voter Helpline App, Saksham App and cVIGIL App serve voters; ERONET and Sugam serve election officials.

Which body launched UPI, and in which year?

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) launched the Unified Payments Interface in 2016.

What is the digital divide?

It is the uneven spread of the opportunities that arise from information and communication technology, between countries and also within countries.

How does the national policy of 2015 try to match training with jobs?

It links skilling with demand centres, meaning the places and industries that need skilled workers, and aligns skilling activities to common standards.

What was PMKVY started to do?

It was started in 2015 aiming to train one crore Indian youth from 2016 to 2020, giving quality training in employable skills to probable and existing wage earners.

Name one platform that links digital access with skill development or jobs.

SWAYAM offers free online courses, and the National Career Service portal helps people find job opportunities, from plumbing to accounting.