Digital India or Green India, Discuss
What remains behind us are the issues that we people have faced before us. Thousands of people protesting and opposing their own system of governance. Digital India is an enterprise for the transformation of India in a scale unmatched in human history. Nothing else will do in a country with 800 million impatient youths waiting for change. Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are the new neighborhoods of the world. Facebook would be the world's third most populous country; maybe the most connected of all, isn't it? In my opinion, I will say we work with existing, people-based extension systems, aiming to amplify their effectiveness through our ICT-enabled approach. Our model combines technology and social organization to maximize the potential of building the capacity of community members on improved, sustainable agriculture, livelihood and health interventions. We also facilitate knowledge exchange between community engagement for partners looking to learn, contribute and connect on social innovation practices toward improving lives in rural communities. We work with partners throughout the entire experience to share knowledge and capture feedback with supported technologies that allow partners to locally produce and share videos in villages all around the world. How we do our work can be listed as Partnership: Our focus is primarily on developing and delivering digital content to improve the cost-effectiveness and efficacy of organizations involved in agricultural and livelihood research and/or extension. Community ownership: Our goal is the adoption of our knowledge exchange model by communities for their improved well-being. By enabling them to be content producers and consumers, we empower communities to have a voice. Localization: A human-centered and contextual design approach remains at the core of our work, which helps us in successfully customizing our approach to suit diverse contexts and stakeholders. Cost realism: We often operate in environments with limited infrastructure and financial resources, which entails paying attention to costs at all levels, and limiting the investment in expensive equipment. Mediation: Videotaped demonstrations per se are not a complete extension solution since they lack the interactivity expected of good extension. Our approach relies on a local facilitator, who occasionally pauses or repeats video to engage the audience with discussion and capture feedback. Training: We build the capacity of our partners, extension staff, and village facilitators in the social aspects of our approach for effective delivery of key messages. Gender: Targets for participation of women in the intervention, for instance as local facilitators, are determined and tracked. Particular attention is paid to the gender balance in recruiting women for video production. Topics of relevance to women are included in the content, especially topics related to crops grown by women.
For the first time ever, a digital version of the calendar was also launched today in the form of a mobile phone app. Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley, who released the calendar, said two of government's key programmes had converged in the initiative to launch the app version. "The convergence of two mainstream programmes of the government is reflected in this calendar. First is a social programme - Swachh Bharat and that is why it is reflected in the visuals of this calendar....The second programme is Digital India which is a developmental programme. "And the convergence is there, as the same calendar will be available in a digital form as well," he said.
Jaitley, who is also the Finance Minister said that no one can defy technology and it should be used for the benefit of people and congratulated Department of Audio Visual Publicity (DAVP) for having brought out mobile app. Apart from having the information that the conventional calendar has, the mobile phone app would also have links that would keep users aware of latest government initiatives including that of PIB website and PMO tweets and I&B Ministry's you tube channel, officials said. Along with the visual of him wielding a broom, the calendar for the month of January also carries a quote from the Prime Minister.
"Wherever we see filth or see someone throwing garbage why don't we feel like picking that up? I know this will not be accomplished only by publicity campaign. Old habits take time to change. It's a difficult task. But we have time till 2019 when we shall be observing the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Digital Technologies which include Cloud Computing and Mobile Applications have emerged as catalysts for rapid economic growth and citizen empowerment across the globe. Digital technologies are being increasingly used by us in everyday lives from retail stores to government offices. They help us to connect with each other and also to share information on issues and concerns faced by us. In some cases they also enable resolution of those issues in near real time. The objective of the Digital India Group is to come out with innovative ideas and practical solutions to realize Hon'ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi's vision of a digital India. Prime Minister Modi envisions transforming our nation and creating opportunities for all citizens by harnessing digital technologies. His vision is to empower every citizen with access to digital services, knowledge and information. This Group will come up with policies and best practices from around the world to make this vision of a digital India a reality. Henceforth, creative development with innovative ideas keeping in mind the demands of present as well as future, we can say Digitalized Green India.
Navneet Kumar
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