🔆 GOVERNANCE | DIGITAL INDIA
📍 Digital India Completes 11 Years of Transformation (1 July 2026)
✅ The Digital India Programme completes 11 years, emerging as the backbone of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and digital economy.
📍 Key Highlights
✅ Digital Economy
• Contributes 12–14% of India’s GDP
• Expected to contribute ~20% over the next decade.
• UPI accounts for nearly 49% of global real-time digital payment transactions.
✅ Digital Connectivity
• 2.15 lakh Gram Panchayats (97%) connected through BharatNet.
• 106.58 crore broadband subscribers.
• 6.5 lakh+ Common Service Centres (CSCs) and 1.6 lakh post offices delivering digital services.
📍 Nine Pillars of Digital India
✅ Broadband Highways
✅ Universal Mobile Connectivity
✅ Public Internet Access Programme
✅ e-Governance
✅ e-Kranti (Electronic Delivery of Services)
✅ Information for All
✅ Electronics Manufacturing
✅ IT for Jobs
✅ Early Harvest Programmes
📍 Major Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)
✅ JAM Trinity – Jan Dhan, Aadhaar & Mobile
• 57.78 crore Jan Dhan accounts.
• 144+ crore Aadhaar enrolments.
• 109+ crore internet users.
• ₹51 lakh crore+ transferred through DBT.
📍 Flagship Digital Platforms
🔹 DigiLocker – 70.69 crore users; 850+ crore digital documents.
🔹 UPI – Transactions increased from 2 crore (FY17) to 24,162 crore (FY26); available in 9 countries.
🔹 eSanjeevani – 48 crore+ teleconsultations.
🔹 GeM – ₹18.4 lakh crore cumulative GMV.
🔹 ONDC
• 20 crore+ buyers
• 5 lakh sellers
• Presence in 1,000 cities
🔹 UMANG
• Expanded from 166 to 2,572 government services.
🔹 POSHAN Tracker
• Covers 13.35 lakh Anganwadi Centres
• Serves 8.9 crore+ beneficiaries
🔹 PM GatiShakti
• 352 projects worth ₹16.10 lakh crore evaluated
🔹 MY Bharat
• 2.21 crore+ youth registered.
🔹 AgriStack
• 9.20 crore+ Farmer IDs generated.
🔹 DIKSHA
• 2 crore+ registered users.
📍 Digital Skilling
✅ PMGDISHA – 6.39 crore rural citizens digitally trained.
✅ FutureSkills Prime – 26 lakh+ learners.
✅ Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) – 32 lakh+ enrolments.
✅ IndiaAI Mission – Promoting AI infrastructure, skilling and responsible AI.
📍 Global Leadership
✅ India has signed MoUs with 24 countries on India Stack & Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) cooperation.
✅ Platforms such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, CoWIN, GeM, UMANG and eSanjeevani are becoming global models of digital governance.
📍 UPSC Prelims Facts
✅ DPI – Digital Public Infrastructure
✅ JAM – Jan Dhan + Aadhaar + Mobile
✅ ONDC – Open Network for Digital Commerce
✅ GeM – Government e-Marketplace
✅ DIKSHA – Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing
✅ APAAR – Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry
#Governance #ScienceAndTechnology
📍 Digital India Completes 11 Years of Transformation (1 July 2026)
✅ The Digital India Programme completes 11 years, emerging as the backbone of India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) and digital economy.
📍 Key Highlights
✅ Digital Economy
• Contributes 12–14% of India’s GDP
• Expected to contribute ~20% over the next decade.
• UPI accounts for nearly 49% of global real-time digital payment transactions.
✅ Digital Connectivity
• 2.15 lakh Gram Panchayats (97%) connected through BharatNet.
• 106.58 crore broadband subscribers.
• 6.5 lakh+ Common Service Centres (CSCs) and 1.6 lakh post offices delivering digital services.
📍 Nine Pillars of Digital India
✅ Broadband Highways
✅ Universal Mobile Connectivity
✅ Public Internet Access Programme
✅ e-Governance
✅ e-Kranti (Electronic Delivery of Services)
✅ Information for All
✅ Electronics Manufacturing
✅ IT for Jobs
✅ Early Harvest Programmes
📍 Major Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI)
✅ JAM Trinity – Jan Dhan, Aadhaar & Mobile
• 57.78 crore Jan Dhan accounts.
• 144+ crore Aadhaar enrolments.
• 109+ crore internet users.
• ₹51 lakh crore+ transferred through DBT.
📍 Flagship Digital Platforms
🔹 DigiLocker – 70.69 crore users; 850+ crore digital documents.
🔹 UPI – Transactions increased from 2 crore (FY17) to 24,162 crore (FY26); available in 9 countries.
🔹 eSanjeevani – 48 crore+ teleconsultations.
🔹 GeM – ₹18.4 lakh crore cumulative GMV.
🔹 ONDC
• 20 crore+ buyers
• 5 lakh sellers
• Presence in 1,000 cities
🔹 UMANG
• Expanded from 166 to 2,572 government services.
🔹 POSHAN Tracker
• Covers 13.35 lakh Anganwadi Centres
• Serves 8.9 crore+ beneficiaries
🔹 PM GatiShakti
• 352 projects worth ₹16.10 lakh crore evaluated
🔹 MY Bharat
• 2.21 crore+ youth registered.
🔹 AgriStack
• 9.20 crore+ Farmer IDs generated.
🔹 DIKSHA
• 2 crore+ registered users.
📍 Digital Skilling
✅ PMGDISHA – 6.39 crore rural citizens digitally trained.
✅ FutureSkills Prime – 26 lakh+ learners.
✅ Skill India Digital Hub (SIDH) – 32 lakh+ enrolments.
✅ IndiaAI Mission – Promoting AI infrastructure, skilling and responsible AI.
📍 Global Leadership
✅ India has signed MoUs with 24 countries on India Stack & Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) cooperation.
✅ Platforms such as Aadhaar, UPI, DigiLocker, CoWIN, GeM, UMANG and eSanjeevani are becoming global models of digital governance.
📍 UPSC Prelims Facts
✅ DPI – Digital Public Infrastructure
✅ JAM – Jan Dhan + Aadhaar + Mobile
✅ ONDC – Open Network for Digital Commerce
✅ GeM – Government e-Marketplace
✅ DIKSHA – Digital Infrastructure for Knowledge Sharing
✅ APAAR – Automated Permanent Academic Account Registry
#Governance #ScienceAndTechnology
❤5
🔆 Legal Metrology (IST) Rules, 2026 — ‘One Nation, One Time’
📍 Why in News?
🟢 The Government has notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, giving Indian Standard Time (IST) a statutory framework and formally designating CSIR-NPL as its scientific custodian.
📍 Key Features
🟢 CSIR-NPL will generate and maintain India’s official time standard using atomic clocks.
🟢 Five Regional Reference Standard Laboratories (RRSLs) at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Faridabad and Guwahati will strengthen the distributed timing network.
🟢 IST will be disseminated through NavIC, NTP and PTP to sectors such as banking, telecom, power grids, transport, data centres and government ICT systems.
🟢 The Rules will come into force 180 days after 29 August 2026.
📍 Why does it matter?
🟢 Precise time synchronisation is crucial for digital payments, power-grid operations, telecom networks and cybersecurity.
🟢 Accurate timestamps help in transaction settlement, network synchronisation and cyber incident investigation.
🟢 A distributed architecture improves resilience and reduces the risk of a single point of failure.
📍 Challenges
🟢 Legacy systems and smaller enterprises may face difficulties in adopting precise time-synchronisation systems.
🟢 India’s single time zone remains a separate debate, given the country’s wide longitudinal spread.
🟢 Satellite-based timing may remain vulnerable to signal jamming and solar disturbances.
📍 Prelims Facts
🟢 CSIR-NPL: India’s National Metrology Institute
🟢 NavIC: India’s regional satellite navigation system
🟢 NTP: Network Time Protocol
🟢 PTP: Precision Time Protocol
🟢 Parent legislation: Legal Metrology Act, 2009
#scienceandtechnology #pib
📍 Why in News?
🟢 The Government has notified the Legal Metrology (Indian Standard Time) Rules, 2026, giving Indian Standard Time (IST) a statutory framework and formally designating CSIR-NPL as its scientific custodian.
📍 Key Features
🟢 CSIR-NPL will generate and maintain India’s official time standard using atomic clocks.
🟢 Five Regional Reference Standard Laboratories (RRSLs) at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Faridabad and Guwahati will strengthen the distributed timing network.
🟢 IST will be disseminated through NavIC, NTP and PTP to sectors such as banking, telecom, power grids, transport, data centres and government ICT systems.
🟢 The Rules will come into force 180 days after 29 August 2026.
📍 Why does it matter?
🟢 Precise time synchronisation is crucial for digital payments, power-grid operations, telecom networks and cybersecurity.
🟢 Accurate timestamps help in transaction settlement, network synchronisation and cyber incident investigation.
🟢 A distributed architecture improves resilience and reduces the risk of a single point of failure.
📍 Challenges
🟢 Legacy systems and smaller enterprises may face difficulties in adopting precise time-synchronisation systems.
🟢 India’s single time zone remains a separate debate, given the country’s wide longitudinal spread.
🟢 Satellite-based timing may remain vulnerable to signal jamming and solar disturbances.
📍 Prelims Facts
🟢 CSIR-NPL: India’s National Metrology Institute
🟢 NavIC: India’s regional satellite navigation system
🟢 NTP: Network Time Protocol
🟢 PTP: Precision Time Protocol
🟢 Parent legislation: Legal Metrology Act, 2009
#scienceandtechnology #pib
❤2👏1