New Delhi [India], July 26 : Around 7.35 crore candidates were enrolled and 6.39 crore were trained, out of which 4.78 crore candidates were certified under the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Jitin Prasada informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question on Friday.
The government implemented the scheme to promote digital literacy in rural India.
The beneficiaries were provided with 20 hours of training consisting of five modules: Introduction to digital devices, Operating digital devices, Introduction to the internet, Communications using the internet, Application of the internet (including citizen-centric services), and the use of financial tools for undertaking digital cashless transactions.
The training content was made available in 22 scheduled languages and English. The content was accessible in both online and offline modes.
Additionally, considering the government's emphasis on promoting cashless transactions through mobile phones, the training included content on digital wallets, mobile banking, the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), the Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), and PoS.
After the training, a third-party assessment of the trained candidates was carried out by recognised certifying agencies, namely the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), the National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS), the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC), Haryana Knowledge Corporation Limited (HKCL), and the ICT Academy of Tamil Nadu (ICTACT). Digitally signed certificates were issued to all successful candidates and directly uploaded to their Digi-Locker accounts.
Furthermore, the National Institute of Electronics and Information Technology (NIELIT), an autonomous scientific society under the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), is imparting various skill development programmes in information technology and electronics domains through its 52 centres, along with more than 720 accredited institutes and over 9,500 facilitation centres, the minister said in his reply.