Kerala has emerged as first ‘Digital State’ in the Country, a feat realized through the visionary measures of the Government to open up the doors of digital literacy to its citizens to make God’s own country the first ‘e-literate’ State, through launching the Akshaya Project and IT@School programme way back in 2002.
The proactive policy of the State Government in allowing the telecom service providers to network the State through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) has enabled its citizens to get online, both through broadband and mobile. Kerala had established its first State Data Centre (SDC) in 2005 to deliver e-governance services. This was further strengthened with the setup of second SDC in 2011, which is offering industry leading cloud infrastructure and enhancement to core connectivity infrastructure such as Kerala State Wide Area Network (KSWAN), National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) and National Knowledge Network (NKN).
The Digital Empowerment Campaign is a project formulated by Govt. of Kerala to empower the citizens to reap the benefits of various e-Governance initiatives to ensure digital inclusion, befitting the achievements made by the State. Digital empowerment campaign is targeted to touch 3 million citizens in the state in a phased manner covering the courseware on digital literacy, e-Services and information security.Though this empowerment campaign, ordinary citizens will be trained to use e-Governance systems and services to avail entitlements without any intermediary and, thereby, boost the selfesteem of citizens. This silent revolution in citizen empowerment helps the citizen realize the potential of e-Governance and democratization of the society.
As a result of these proactive policies and projects, Kerala has achieved major progress in the transformational journey towards “Digital State”. A few of the achievements include:
- Kerala emerged as the FIRST Digital state in the country, announced by the Hon’ble President of India in February 2016
- Government of India Commissions India's FIRST Hi-Speed Rural Broadband Network (NOFN) in Idukki, Kerala
- Malappuram is the FIRST e-Literate District in the country
- FIRST state in the country to issue over 2.4 Crore e-Certificates
- 100% of the Gram Panchayats are connected through optical fibre network
- Over 2600 Akshaya Centres(CSCs) in the state operational for the last one decade - Over 3.44 Cr Aadhaar enrolments
- Adoption of Aadhaar based identification & DBT services
- Established CERT-K in 2010 to improve State’s cyber security posture
- ~ 100% compliance to civil registrations on-time
- Over 9000 ATMs across state enabling ease of access to Banking
- High tele-density of 99%, with a rapid increase in the usage of smart phones
- High internet penetration of 40.18 % Digital Kerala © Government of Kerala Page 4
- Over 30,000 km OFC laid across the state, which is growing
- Shared Government Citizen Contact Centre in operation for last one decade
- Kerala Fiber Optics Network to provide internet connection to BPL families, government offices, hospitals and schools
The complex and changing technology landscape, growth in internet and smart mobile phones penetration in the State, together with the proactive measures of the Government to digitally empower the citizens had helped the State to make significant strides in turning Kerala a digital state. With its continued focus on digital infrastructure and various ongoing digital initiatives, the Government's vision is to further bridge the digital divide by 2020 towards a state with digitally empowered society.