The government has increased the outlay for the Digital India programme by 23 per cent to Rs 39.58 billion for 2020-21 compared to the actual allocation in the current fiscal. The increase has been made on account of incentives to be given for electronics manufacturing, research and development (R&D), development of manpower for the segment, cybersecurity and promotion of IT and IT-enabled services.
Earlier, in the previous budget, the finance ministry had allocated Rs 37.50 billion which was later was revised downward to Rs 32.12 billion, the budget document said.
Further, the government has increased provision for the promotion of electronics and IT hardware manufacturing through modified special incentive package scheme, electronics development fund and electronics manufacturing cluster to Rs 9.8 billion from Rs 6.9 billion in the current fiscal.
The R&D programme under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) will get 75 per cent higher fund in 2020-21 compared to Rs 4.35 billion in the current fiscal.
Meanwhile, the fund allocated for cybersecurity projects and promotion of IT and ITeS industries has also been increased to Rs 1.7 billion each from Rs 1.02 billion and Rs 900 million, respectively. Further, the allocation for the National Knowledge Network has been increased from Rs 2.74 billion to Rs 4 billion. However, the fund for Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan remained unchanged at Rs 4 billion in the upcoming fiscal year.
Government has slashed funds for the promotion of digital payment by more than half to Rs 2.2 billion for 2020-21 from the Rs 4.8 billion is allocated for the current fiscal.
