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Abstract
The Digital India agenda has created opportunities for many ministries and departments of the government to come together and develop integrated solutions. But many technology providers, and indeed even some policy planners, have begun to consider Digital India opportunity as synonymous to the development of smart cities and the “Internet of Everything”. In reality, the benefits of a truly Digital India for rural areas are even more significant than the more trendy applications that urban planners can envisage. This point was brought home to some of us at NASSCOM Foundation in a conversation with secretary (Panchayat) and her team in Delhi a few weeks ago. During a discussion on the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) and the excitement at making over two hundred million citizens and families access and disseminate information for building better livelihoods, it emerged that the vehicles that could drive the digital literacy agenda could be used to provide various other services to the rural population.