Union Budget 2015: Government sets aside Rs 500 crore for IT skills training under Digital India

NEW DELHI: A National Rural Internet and Technology Mission with a budget of Rs 500 crore will soon be set up to impart training in IT skills in villages, especially in schools under the Digital India programme.

Delivering his Budget speech on Saturday, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that there is an imminent need to further bridge the divide between digital haves and have-nots, for which the government had launched the Digital India programme.

The ambitious project launched last year hopes to digitally connect all the 2. 5 lakh gram panchayats across the country and provide essential social infrastructure such as education and basic health care services digitally in form of e-education, e-health respectively.

The government further hopes to even provide essential government services digitally through E Kranti.

“This would ensure improved access to services through IT enabled platforms, greater transparency in government processes,” Jaitley explained, while referring to the Digital India initiative. He added that the programme would further lead to an increased indigenous production of IT hardware and software for exports and also an improved domestic availability of these goods.

The government hopes to also put a special focus on supporting software product startups. This is in line with the government’s larger objective of encouraging domestic manufacturing of electronic goods in the country.