essay on Digital India for Aatmanirbhar Bharat: Opportunities on COVID-19 and Beyond
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“It is not possible for civilization to ow backwards, while there is youth in the world”. Helen Keller Today, a virus has spread turmoil in the world. Category - Youth It has made us realize how shallow the materialistic pleasures are in life and preeminent, the life itself. Before this, people in the world believed that the cardinal was the jobs they were doing, the places visited, the cars owned or the clothes worn. Most of all, the younger generations fall in this trap of creating a virtual reality for themselves while there is a war going on in the world, there is a sudden spur of radical nationalism in the country, or the forests are on re. All that matters to most of the youth is the social life they are maintaining. Even after all of this, one cannot deny that young people are the drivers of change. They are the ones who shape the future. Time and again, it has been proven that whenever the world was in shackles, youth used to come forward, took charge and changed the course of history. Be it Malala Yousafzai, who took a bullet through her head to ght for educating women in Pakistan, and become an inspiration for millions of women around the globe who were denied their rights. Mark Zuckerberg, who established that it is not necessary to be 50 to build something as huge as Facebook or, be it someone as young as Greta Thunberg who protested in front of the Swedish Parliament building, giving rise to worldwide concentration on environmental issues like Global Warming. Who would have thought that a mutant virus could crash the world economies and result in all people being locked up inside their homes? Yet, here we are, in this situation. It is time for young people to come forward and take charge. It is necessary to understand here that the enemy is invisible, it cannot be fought and it cannot be tamed. So how do we ght with an enemy like that? The answer is simple: by being prepared, by being sensitive, by becoming aware. The youth needs to focus on things that they were already doing before the pandemic and how they can improve in their jobs to help the world regain what it has lost. Once normalcy is established, the world is going to face another crisis, which is going to be as challenging as this one if not more. A crisis wherein we face a lack of resources like decreasing groundwater levels, as well as a fall in economy like stock markets crashing, small businesses being vulnerable and high rise in unemployment rates. According to a study by the ILO, almost 25 million jobs could be lost due to COVID-19. As the youth is the biggest part of our workforce, everyone doing their part with utmost honesty and with a view of catering to others is going to be of utmost help in a situation like this. Everyday life has been disturbed because of COVID-19 and the whole world is at a halt. When we look at the present situation, every person is conned to their own homes. The billions of dollars that we have invested in real estate are of no use at this time because we spent money on building fancy facades, ornate landscapes, tall structures, and posh amenities, but all we are doing now is staying indoors, and our houses are not ecient enough. Architects and builders have left us with inexible spaces; our houses are neither well ventilated nor well lit with natural lighting. We are conned within compact and non-workable spaces. Had the designers paid more attention to these things, we would have had some comfort, workability and exposure to the outer world while staying inside. This is just one example of how we have failed as professionals in doing our jobs. We need designers, professionals, business people and workers who bring a creative approach in doing traditional work and this responsibility lies on the shoulders of the youth. We cannot dismiss the consequences of this pandemic. Hence, if each young person focuses on working with more empathy and dedication in their work, the world will soon be able to recover from the inevitable losses that it is going to bear.
DIGITAL INDIA OPPORTUNITIES IN COVID 19 AND BEYOND
Digital India opportunities in COVID 19 pandemic lockdown proved to be a silver lining behind the lockdown cloud. When almost everything stalled, digital services remained functioning and kept everyone connected. The effects of the pandemic lockdown would have been far worse in the absence of digital facilities. Let’s see how digital services kept people and economy afloat during the lockdown storm.
Banking Services: During the lockdown, when everything was shut, banks continued to provide digital services. Online transactions through UPI, Phonepay, online banking, etc. facilitated day to day transactions and didn’t let people feel shortage of cash.
Basic Services: Gas booking, electricity bill payment, etc. proved quite helpful as people got their cooking gas cylinder booked and delivered using digital services; similarly, electricity bill payments were also done through digital portals.
Education: Digital services proved boon to both students and teachers during the lockdown. With the schools shut for an indefinite period of time, schools provided education using digital tools such as MS Teams, Google meet, Zoom, etc. Even the online tests were conducted digitally.
Government Services: The government remained in touch with the people through digital channels. The packages that the government launched to help people, were made available to the needy people digitally.
Work from Home: During the lockdown most of the work was done form home. This was possible only because of the digital services.
Entertainment: Digital services didn’t let people feel depressed by providing them enough entertainment through digital platforms. People watched their favourite TV serials, movies, programmes, etc. using digital services.
These digital services are going to play a big role in the post-pandemic era. They are going to play a pivotal role in reviving the economy and bringing life back to normalcy.