Undoubtedly, internet is one of the greatest stories of mankind. In today's digital age it has become essential that people should be able to access information and upgrade skills using digital devices. Besides, the launch of the Digital India initiative by Indian government has only reiterated a belief that digitization is the key to future success. But the huge and varied demographics of India are a huge challenge.
It won't be easy for government to implement this initiative at such a large scale without external help. One of the best options it can use is Public Private Partnerships or PPP as it is quite often called.In this article, we look at how PPP can help Indian government to achieve its goal of making India digital.
Current Situation:
As per industry projections, India will be home to about 526 million internet users and more than 105 billion devices by 2018. While this is great news for government's campaign for digitizing India, it does not possess all the resources required to meet the demands of implementing its digitization campaign. This offers a huge opportunity for the private players to help government and gain some mileage for themselves too.
As per industry projections, India will be home to about 526 million internet users and more than 105 billion devices by 2018. While this is great news for government's campaign for digitizing India, it does not possess all the resources required to meet the demands of implementing its digitization campaign. This offers a huge opportunity for the private players to help government and gain some mileage for themselves too.
We look at the benefits of this type of partnerships for digital India initiative
.
Benefits of PPP for Digital India:
Efficiency is something that is highly valued by the users and is one of the crucial factors in achieving success in today's competitive market. "The most important thing that a private player will bring to the table is efficiency" says Mr. Arun Lakhani, MD Vishvaraj Infrastructure and advisor to Government on PPP. Yes, funding will also be a crucial part but we all know efficiency is not the forte of the government.
Efficiency is something that is highly valued by the users and is one of the crucial factors in achieving success in today's competitive market. "The most important thing that a private player will bring to the table is efficiency" says Mr. Arun Lakhani, MD Vishvaraj Infrastructure and advisor to Government on PPP. Yes, funding will also be a crucial part but we all know efficiency is not the forte of the government.
As mentioned earlier, the number of internet users in India is rising steadily. Thanks to PPP, the private players will be able to avail of the government resources that will help them achieve sustainability and scalability.
Another important benefit of PPP for digitization process is that government will be able to have access to new, innovative ideas and technology. PPPs will help government and IT industry to improve the information ecosystem that will transform city operations.
To see how this works we look at the example of an app developed for Chicago city. The app regularly publishes the schedule of sweepers that lets the citizen know whether a sweeper is coming along or not.
The government IT spending is about $7.2 Billion and a huge portion of this amount will be for digital India campaign. PPPs will enable the government to roll out various initiatives on the basis of strong technology infrastructure that will be provided by private players.
Although we can be swept away by the positives of PPP, there are yet problems that plague it. Next up we look at what these problems are.
Problems faced by PPP in Digital India:
One of the biggest issues is that PPP for. It is not surprising to IT & technology is a new proposition for the Government. See that PPP is more related with domains like defence and infrastructure. One does not come across PPPs for IT sector that often.
One of the biggest issues is that PPP for. It is not surprising to IT & technology is a new proposition for the Government. See that PPP is more related with domains like defence and infrastructure. One does not come across PPPs for IT sector that often.
Another problem PPPs face is the presence of outdated laws and policies that are currently in practice. In its early days, funding for PPP was not that easy. Although government has noticed this issue recently it has now amended laws pertaining to funding.
As is the case with PPPs in other sectors, there are considerable risks for private players who are keen to participate in such an endeavour. But this can no longer be a reason to not participate in such endeavours. Government has now taken initiatives aimed at minimizing such risks for private players.
India has made progress in key developmental areas one of which is IT and the time is now ripe to make it count. If we want to successfully implement digital India campaign then PPPs are key to it.
