Be part of transforming digital India: Javadekar to academia

Asserting that India was undergoing a huge digital transformation, Union minister Prakash Javadekar on Thursday appealed to the academic community to become part of the country's growth story instead of being mere witnesses to the changing social order.

Reiterating the Prime Minister's vision of a "cashless India", the Union HRD Minister also launched a nation-wide campaign on spreading digital financial literacy to various strata of people. Javadekar through a video-conference at the NIC here, addressed around 10 lakh students and faculty spread across 18,000 institutions, including over 200 premier ones like IITs, IIMs, NITs and central universities.

"The demonetisation is a move towards a cashless society. And, this huge digital transformation that India is undergoing at the moment, will bring greater transparency, in eradication of black money and corruption. You will work hard but someone tomorrow may get a job through corruption. So, this is the opportunity for you all to be a partner in this growth story of India, instead of just being a witness to the social change unfolding in front of you," he said.

As part of the campaign – Vitta Saksharta Abhiyan (VISAKA), launched by the HRD ministry, a dedicated webpage has been set up, and the government has also sought feedback, suggestions from people in academia and other fields, and encouraged them to share relevant material in boosting the awareness drive.

Later speaking to reporters, Javadekar said, this "massive campaign" would be spread across the country, including in high schools.

"We want to reach out to 3.5 crore students, over 160 central institutions, 800 universities and 46,000 colleges. And, we believe this campaign will grow well from here. We would physically visit institutions across the country and also virtually reach out to them to spread this financial literacy and help the country achieve ease in transactions," he said.

"There are one billion mobile phones in the country, one billion banks accounts, 40 crore are seeded through Aadhar cards. This is nothing short of a revolution. And, with this campaign we want to let people smoothly make transition to a different India," the union minister said.