Cabinet okays expansion of Digital India programme with outlay of Rs 14,903cr

The Digital India programme was first launched in 2015 by the Centre and now under its ambit, 2.65 lakh people will be trained in information security under the information security and education awareness phase programme.

New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the expansion of the Digital India programme with an outlay of Rs 14,903 crore. Minister for Railway, Electronics and IT Ashwini Vaishnaw, while addressing a press conference after the meeting of the Union Cabinet, said that 6.25 lakh IT professionals will be re-skilled and up-skilled under FutureSkills Prime programme.

The Digital India programme was first launched in 2015 by the Centre and now under its ambit, 2.65 lakh people will be trained in information security under the information security and education awareness phase programme.

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Also 540 additional services will be made available on the UMANG platform, the minister further said. Vaishnaw said that nine supercomputers will be added under the National Super Computer Mission. Bhashini, the Artificial Intelligence enabled multi-language translation tool (currently available in 10 languages) will be rolled out in all 22 Schedule VIII languages.

Also, modernisation of the National Knowledge Network which connects 1,787 education institutions, will be done, the minister said. Digital document verification facility under DigiLocker will be made available to MSMEs and other organisations. In tier II and III cities, 1,200 startups will be supported under Digital India scheme, he said.