What is the proposed Indian Information Technology Service

Ques 34. “The government should contemplate the establishment of an Indian Information technology service. The raison d'etre is the Prime Minister’s vision of a digital India” Comment.

Ans. Almost all departments of Government of India now use Information Technology for their daily functioning as old file keeping methods are becoming outdated. Govt. departments like CBDT, CBEC, SSC, UPSC, Indian Railways have their own technical staff to run them.

In digital infrastructure India is ranked at 100 out 189 countries. Mobile users in India are around 800 million but only around 60 million of them have broadband connectivity. Less broadband connectivity means less data availability means less availability of knowledge. The PMG (Project Monitoring Group has told that around 371 projects worth around Rs. 18,47,266 crore have still not moved forward due to land, legal and regulatory issues. The fast resolving of these issues needs the proactive involvement of IT led culture of governance.

So keeping in mind above challenges it would not be unwise to establish an Indian Information technology service which will seal technical graduates through competition for a service of around 2 to 5 years. 

This fresh talent can be used for-

Monitoring project and work movement expeditiously through E-Governance to reduce time lag and Red Tapism

They would be deputed to Department of Information Technology and Electronics, National Informatics Council, National Institute of Smart Governance to learn how things work and can help the government with its E-governance tasks.

Their skills can be used in tackling the threat of cyber warfare and cyber crime same as what is China doing right now.

The concept of Digital India assumes special importance in the ambience of Global IT revolution and with increased participation and involvement, increased skilled manpower is required which can be provided by this service.