Experts call for boosting to existing digital literacy programmes
Experts say that the government should create Wi-Fi zones in urban and rural areas.
National Building Corporation Ltd (NBCC) is the 15th Navratna company among 250 PSUs in the country. This Navratna status gives the company freedom to forge tie-ups in the international market and allows it autonomy on investment decisions. Its business verticals include project management consultancy (PMC), engineering procurement and consultancy (EPC) and real estate. The government has been considering a proposal to hive off real estate owned by sick PSUs such as Bengal Chemicals, National Bicycle Corporation and Richardson & Cruddas to the company and it will be using the direct sale of land or go in for joint ventures to develop this real estate. This is expected to pave the way for long-term opportunities for the company in the real estate segment. The company is also looking at strategic alliances with domestic and international players in West Asia, Europe and Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries to scout for EPC contracts as the acquisition route would be quite time consuming. NBCC has already signed a JV with an Oman based company for EPC contracts in Oman and the UAE. Also, it is looking at similar opportunities in politically stable geographies like Turkey and CIS. NBCC was incorporated as a pure EPC player, wherein it has been executing engineering and construction services for projects such as chimneys, cooling towers and various types of power plant works. However, even though growth has been subdued in the last few years, the government’s priority to boost infrastructure will create opportunities for the construction industry and NBCC is well poised to grab this opportunity. The company also expects to get rural orders from the government to make small houses under the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojna Scheme. Therefore, it is in talks with a Hungarian company to adopt technology for speedy construction of low cost housing. The present government has come out with various ambitious schemes like Housing for All, AMRUT and Smart Cities Mission aimed at urban development. NBCC will be a key beneficiary of these schemes, as it is already implementing a few smart townships in Kidwai Nagar and New Moti Bagh area of New Delhi. Also, redevelopment of old government colonies is a huge opportunity for the company. The company is also waiting for a formal approval from the government to monetise a 700-acre land of VSNL present across India, with the management hinting that it may look to redevelop the land based on its New Delhi based model. The government has recently issued guidelines for Central public sector enterprise to pay an annual dividend of 30% of profit after tax or 30% of Government of India’s equity, whichever is higher. However, this should not impact NBCC, as it has already paid 47% as dividend in the last financial year. Going forward, NBCC expects to maintain a similar dividend payout ratio. The company has received order inflows of over Rs 5,200 crore in the last six months, taking its total order book to over Rs 7,100 crore, providing strong revenue visibility. Moreover, going forward, NBCC expects order inflows of around Rs 10,000 crore in the current quarter. With a strong order book and project pipeline, the company expects top line and bottom line to grow at a CAGR of 30% and 25% respectively in the next few years. Fund managers and analysts are quite bullish on the scrip and feel that it will get a boost in the coming budget on the back of the huge infra push by the government. The NBCC stock currently quoting at Rs 230 in the Indian bourses is a strong buy with a price target of Rs 265 in the next three months. Rajiv Kapoor is a share broker, certified mutual fund expert and MDRT insurance agent. Devi Verma, 37, hails from Jharkhand and is a “digital illiterate” who works as a domestic help in Ghaziabad. She can read and write, but can use her “basic” Rs 1,200 mobile phone only to see the time and make or receive a call. Other than that, she does not know what all other activities her mobile phone can help her perform. Devi is one among the crores of people in India who come under the category of “digital illiterates” and form a desperate consumer base in need of mass digital literacy drives and community digital resource centers.
Experts have emphasised on the need for new holistic programmes and expansion of the existing schemes that can provide advanced digital literacy. Speaking about the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) which is part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Digital India” initiative, Osama Manzar, founder-director of Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), said, “Since DEF was involved in the formulation of the NDLM framework, we know that the project has been designed in such a way that it is supposed to reach the maximum number of people. Last year, the government had set a target of 0.4 crore people, and this year, they increased it to six crore people. This is a good sign. It means that the government is taking digital literacy very seriously. However, the government has been very traditional in its implementation.”
“While six crore is a big and commendable number, it would be better if the government had set this target from the perspective of institutions. Instead of targeting six crore random individuals, the government can focus on providing digital literacy to aanganwadi workers, government school teachers, panchayat representatives, government servants, selfhelp groups, etc. If this route to digital literacy is taken, the impact could be on an institutional scale. More people will be impacted through a multiplier effect,” said Manzar.
Gurumurthy Kasinathan, director of “IT for Change”, a Bangalore-based NGO, said: “Our policymakers still believe that the ‘market model’ will improve digital literacy in the country. The pipelines required for the ‘optic fibre’ have been laid by the government and cover 90% of the country. But the public sector expects that the wires in those pipelines should be laid by the companies themselves.”
Manzar said, “The government should seriously look at its ambitions National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN) project, which was supposed to connect India’s over 2.5 lakh panchayats with broadband connectivity. The government should look at creating WiFi access zones in urban and rural areas, which is totally absent at the moment.”
Kasinathan believes that digital literacy needs to be promoted by the state governments and should be funded by the public sector. “We need more government funded Community Knowledge Centers (CKCs), like the ones in Karnataka. The Kerala government’s ‘Akshaya’ initiative has already provided us with a model to make states 100% digitally literate. Other states should look to improvise it.” Educating common people about the merits of digital transactions remains a huge challenge before the nation. This has prompted the Narendra Modi government to speed up its twin strategy of establishing the communication channels with the intended populace and taking the message to them in the most simple language. Monetary incentives for migrating towards digital transactions have also being offered with more such sops likely to follow. Since migrating to digital platform would require a paradigm shift in the way people perceive the digital universe, “it would certainly be a long-drawn process. Trust needs to be built in the digital universe for adoption and continued use”, feels Sreedhar Prasad, Partner, E-commerce with KPMG India. “But the task lies well within the realm of possibility.” Privacy of personal data remains the biggest concern that the government needs to address to the satisfaction of all stakeholders.
India has about 230 million smartphone users, but many among them are not smart enough to understand the qualitative change that such a device can bring to their life. For them, the adoption rate might be faster as they have the smart device, but need a bit of tutorial. Even assuming that all the smartphone users migrate to the digital landscape fast, the smartphone as a platform for digital transactions today is possible only with one fifth (or thereabouts) of India’s population.
Analysts prescribe that efforts to digitise the economy should be applied differently for different sets of people. Over 65% (or thereabouts) of India’s GDP in value terms comes from the formal economy with stakeholders like businesses (small and big), professionals and salaried-class, with many concealing much of their real incomes. If this entire segment becomes digitized, the tax regime would become much wider and transparent. This would benefit the nation with more taxes in the government’s kitty which then can be used for many development activities. “Digitising the segment (which contribute about 65% to India’s GDP) to become cashless would be a huge success to begin with,” feels Prasad, and if the top half gets digitized, the adoption by the lower half would be even faster.” To digitise the rest (the informal economy contributing about 30% of India’s GDP), we need to educate them by using the current accepted infrastructure of post offices, panchayats, self-help groups etc by giving them a wider time horizon. The task of the government to persuade people to move towards electronic payment modes has been made a bit more challenging by rumour-mongers (who are opposed to demonetisation) who are spreading doubts among people that migrating to digital transactions would bring them into the taxation net. The government needs to dispel such misgivings quite aggressively.