The ministry of electronics and information technology (IT) has started work on the next phase of Digital India plan, which will seek more participation from the private sector besides expanding into areas lacking digital penetration.

Called Digital India 2.0, the next phase of e-governance, this phase will focus on specific areas such as digital infrastructure, digital villages, Make in India, cybersecurity, e-Kranti and other niche technologies, according to a senior IT ministry official who requested anonymity.

Under niche technologies, the government is working in application of Internet of things in agriculture, Swachh Bharat, Clean Ganga, Smart Cities and application of drones in monitoring of projects, land survey, agriculture spraying and forest survey.

“Currently, there are many schemes and projects being implemented under the Digital India initiative. The focus is to streamline the existing projects and come up with new initiatives to get the results trickling soon across the rural hinterland,” the official said, adding the government plans to jump to the next level of digitisation.

In this regard, a meeting was held by the ministry which saw participation from minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, other senior officials and private sector experts including Microsoft’s Bhaskar Pramanik.

Another official from the IT ministry, who also did not want to be named, said the meeting was organised to reap benefits from the high knowledge capital of the country. “There are many who understand technology in a better way and how it is rapidly changing and how we can leverage these technologies for our programmes. We want to take suggestions and ideas.”

Queries emailed to the spokesperson of Microsoft on 18 November and the IT ministry on 21 November remained unanswered.

Experts believe there are many challenges involved.

“Digital India programmes are designed to offer governance services, especially to people in rural and remote areas where physical infrastructure is often poor. The next level of digitisation and network growth has to speed up to enable quick delivery and implementation of e-governance services in rural areas,” said Mahesh Uppal, founder, ComFirst, a consultancy firm.

The National Democratic Alliance government’s Digital India programme focuses on providing broadband highways, universal access to mobile connectivity, public Internet access, e-governance through technology and electronic delivery of services, among others.