Well the Lok Sabha Polls are nearing and the time for politician promises and rally for support have started. One interesting move by BJP which is probably running the most web/social media oriented campaign has been the announcement of promises regarding tech enabling the future of India. It has released an IT vision document in which it has stated what it believes can be achieved if BJP comes to power.
Here is what BJP is promising to do if it comes to power:
- Multipurpose National Identity Card with unique Citizen Identification Number for every Indian citizen in 3 years
- 10 million students to get laptop computers at Rs 10,000
- All schools and colleges to have Internet-enabled education
- Digital Security Agency to be set up for cyber counter-terrorism
The party has also claimed that it would undertake a National Digital Highway Development Project to create India’s Internet backbone, and the Pradhan Mantri Digital Gram Sadak Yojana for last-mile access even in the remotest of villages.
The tallest claim of them all is the following:
BJP is forecasting that in 5 years that it will be in power it would increase the number of mobile subscribers from current 40crore to 100 crore (i.e. from 400 million to 1 billion). What it also stated is that the number of internet users would be equal i.e. in 5 years internet users would increase from current 4-5 crore to 100 crores!! i.e. from 40-50 million currently to 1 billion!
Our take on the claims
How much ever we hope and pray that these promises are met its difficult to fathom how the same would be achieved. It seems nearly impossible to believe that in 5 years BJP can grow the internet users from 40 million to a billion. I mean they plan to wifi the entire country is it? 
I would suggest we all take these claims with a pinch of salt as its pre election time and promises are the need for the hour. That said even if half of what is claimed in the IT Vision document is achieved that would be great for the ICT industry in India.
One can download the entire document here
Whats your take on the BJP document?
One take on the mobile and internet penetration rates of China will show you that such numbers are possible in India. Political parties need to focus on infrastructure and IT/Telecom is nothing but infrastructure.
As far as an IT specific vision statement. Now that’s a start. Finally after decades of caste/religion/reservation/freebies based non sense, finally somebody is putting forward a policy intent statement during election campaign.
Rajeev, could you dig out a similar document by the Congress and compare the two?
Thanks,
Sri
good article, thanks for this useful info, I have dug and stumbled this article. I will keep visiting for more useful information.