As part of the Digital India project, the government wants to ensure that every Indian has a smartphone by 2019. This was revealed by telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in an interview with the Economic Times, a business news daily.
“We want to ensure that all the services can be provided through a mobile handset, especially, health, education, various government services and retail,” Prasad told the newspaper. “We want it (handset) to be used as a tool for empowerment. We will need to incentivise its usage in order to promote the social and the economic objectives of the government.”
The minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi believed that the information technology would play a crucial role in pushing India forward. “During a presentation, the PM remarked IT+IT equals IT. This means India Today plus Information Technology will yield India Tomorrow,” said Prasad.
Prasad added that once people have access to smartphones and reliable internet connection, it would also give a boost to e-commerce in the country.
