<div>Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India speech paints a compelling picture. One that I so badly want to believe in.</div><div> </div><div>Listening to him, one cannot help but be impressed with the sheer understanding of how much the world has changed today because of technology. Much like the invention of electricity and the industrial revolution, the technological revolution and the internet have changed the world forever. Except they haven't finished yet, as each day there seem to be more revolutionary advances centering around mobile.</div><div> </div><div>Pointing out that mobile access had barely touched the surface in India, the Prime Minister issued a loud and clear warning about how the country would be irrevocably left behind if it didn't immediately prepare to go digital in every way. Even war, he warned, would now be fought in a bloodless way in the digital domain.</div><div> </div><div>No Indian leader in recent times has had such a visionary and large-scale plan for the betterment of the country - and one that is actionable. Rather than empowering ordinary citizens, leaders have been concerned with solely their own empowerment.</div><div> </div><div>IT corporations and the country's biggest companies immediately pledged massive amounts in the building of this digital India. And why not. It's an opportunity beyond all opportunities.</div><div> </div><div>Some components of the Digital India initiative have already kicked in and may not be so difficult to achieve as other aspects. The Digital e-locker, for example, and the paperless initiatives that extend to school text books, hospital records, identity documents, and more. So is the accessibility of civic authorities to the common man.</div><div>Except that the common man in India is an uncommon mix, living in widely varying circumstances, as we all know.</div><div> </div><div>The biggest piece of the jigsaw puzzle that will come together to make Digital India is connectivity, reaching the furthest corners of this vast land. And that's where I find myself stirring awake from this dream.</div><div> </div><div>Because, after all, the implementation of the backbone that is needed for a country strongly connected by information highways, is still in the hands of those who are responsible for the existing mess.</div><div> </div><div>Today, nearly 20 years after mobile phones came in, I have had to reactivate my landline. This is in the heart of the capital city, not in a challengingly remote hilly village where fiber hasn't reached yet.</div><div> </div><div>Flitting between our two largest cellular service providers has been to no avail. While everyone worries about call drops, I find myself mirthlessly joking that I don't have that problem - I can't get or make calls for them to drop in the first place. Internet connectivity is a distant second to that.</div><div> </div><div>All the same, the speech, the intention, the understanding, all give me hope that we will achieve at least some of that digital life that will make things easier, provide jobs, and create transparency and accountability in the way all business is done.</div><div> </div><div>While exemplary smart cities may be a way off yet, at least some of the digitisation that will be empowering is beginning.</div>
BW Reporters
Mala Bhargava has been writing on technology well before the advent of internet in Indians and before CDs made their way into computers. Mala writes on technology, social media, startups and fitness. A trained psychologist, she claims that her understanding of psychology helps her understand the human side of technology.
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