Transforming India:A Digitally Empowered Society

The journey towards a digitally - connected India began in the early 90s and 2000s with the introduction of a range of e-governance programmes. However, its impact was limited. With a clear vision, the present government is pushing ahead the Digital India initiative to transform the country into a digitally empowered society and a knowledge economy. Empowerment of individuals and communities means increased control over life and coping skills. With information technology, people gain new abilities and ways to participate and express themselves in a networked society. This can be called digital empowerment, which is not a direct consequence of having and using the technical facilities, but a multi-phased process to gain better networking, communication and cooperation opportunities, and to increase the competence of individuals and communities to act as influential participants in the information society. The present research is done to propose a citizen-and community-oriented approach to using digital technology, whereby people are considered as participant members of the society. This empowering approach views people as subjects and actors who have abilities to develop, not as objects who lack these abilities and need one-way help from authorities. This paper presents the preliminary findings on the survey of the level of awareness of digital e-wallets as well as the adoption of these services by the customers.