The move follows PMO's directions to all ministries and states through cabinet secretariat to link all DBT disbursal with Aadhaar by December 31, 2016 and bring all subsidies and welfare schemes under direct cash transfer by March 2017.
Next time you get an SMS in your regional language on one of the Central subsidies – be it related to food, farm, kerosene or LPG – don't be surprised. For, Prime Minister Narendra Modi is pitching for effective implementation of all 57 direct benefit transfer (DBT) schemes with mobile connectivity, as a game-changer to win the 2019 general elections.
The Prime Minister's Office, in a recent communication, asked department of electronics and information technology (DeitY) to include feature of sending SMS in three languages – English, Hindi and one local language – in low-end (sub Rs.1,000) mobile phones and provide message readability in all 22 scheduled Indian languages.
The move follows PMO's directions to all ministries and states through cabinet secretariat to link all DBT disbursal with Aadhaar by December 31, 2016 and bring all subsidies and welfare schemes under direct cash transfer by March 2017.
Earlier, after a review of DBT and Aadhaar in May by PM Modi, the cabinet secretariat had shot a letter to all the ministries instructing them to open internal DBT cells and in the states for facilitating transfer of their schemes on DBT by June 30, 2016.
"The messaging facility will allow beneficiaries to see cash transfers taking place in the bank accounts of food grains, gas, fertiliser, education, kerosene, subsidy etc. and job work undertaken schemes like MGNREGA. As the incoming SMSes of cash transfers will bear the stamp of the Prime Minister or the Central government, it will have a direct impact on the popularity of the incumbent government," said a source related with the DBT project.
According to a survey undertaken by the department of telecom, most cash transfer beneficiaries have low-end mobile phones. As against 180 million users of smart phones, that fall in lower middle class and above categories, there are 600 million users of low-end mobile phones, which includes nearly all 310 million beneficiaries of DBT schemes.
Making things urgent, the PMO, in a recent note, asked the DeitY to talk to phone manufacturers and network providers and sort out glitches to ensure that SMS are sent in three languages to low-end mobile phones.
In its recommendations, the PMO has told the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to notify Indian standard for specific requirements for Indian language support in mobile phones within a month.
Also, it has ordered DeitY to amend within three months relevant notification seeking compulsory compliance of mobile phones being sold in India to the new standard.
"All mobile devices sold in India after December 2016 to have this multiple language facility," says the note.
"The third language to be supported by mobile phones shall be decided by phone manufacturer/supplier, who can decide it based on the market demand. Message readability in the phones shall be provided for all 22 Indian official languages and script supporting these languages."
Explaining the challenges and rationale for the step, the note said, "SMS service, while prevalent in urban English speaking population, is not used extensively among citizens who do not know English language. Unfortunately, low-end feature phones do not support local language. Inputting of text in local language requires a local language keyboard and local language font support."
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