Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) is the scheme to make 6 crore persons in rural areas digitally literate, reaching to around 40% of rural households by covering one member from every eligible household.
The scheme is aimed at empowering the citizens in rural areas by training them to operate computer or digital devices (tablets, smart phones, etc.), send and receive e-mails, browse Internet, access Government services, search for information, undertake digital payment, etc. and hence enable them to use the Information Technology and related applications especially Digital Payments to actively participate in the process of nation building.
Thus, the scheme aims to bridge the digital divide, specifically targeting the rural population including the marginalised sections of society Scheduled Castes (SC)/Scheduled Tribes (ST), Minorities, Below Poverty Line (BPL), women, and persons with disability.

Basic requirements to become a training partner under PMGDISHA scheme are:
• A training partner must be an organization registered in India, conducting business in the domain of education/IT literacy for more than three years and having Permanent Income Tax Account Number (PAN) and audited statements of accounts for at least last 3 years.
• The institution/organization should be registered under any act of law in India e.g., in the case of a company it must be registered with the Registrar of Companies; in the case of Society, it must be registered with the Registrar of Societies and so on and so forth.
• The partner must have clearly defined objectives, well-documents processes and procedure covering the entire range of education/IT literacy training.

Role of a training partner under the scheme is:
• A training partner shall be responsible to own or set up the Training Centres in the identified Districts/Blocks/Gram Panchayats that would impart digital literacy training to the candidates.
• A training partner shall be responsible for ensuring that the training centres adhere to the scheme requirements.
• A training partner shall be accountable for monitoring the overall working of the centres under its purview.
• A training partner shall be liable for accurate and timely reporting of the aforementioned work ascribed in respect of its Centres
• Detailed Norms for the Training Partners shall be as per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) published by CSC-SPV.

The Training Partners shall set up the Training Centres in the selected Gram Panchayats with the appropriate manpower and requisite and infrastructure. They are required to meet the following criteria:

• A training centre must be part of a registered organization in India with proven training and facilitation credentials in the domain of education/ IT literacy
• After all the documentation is completed by Training Partner, a Screening Committee constituted by CSC-SPV would visit the Training Centre and on receipt of satisfactory report of the Screening Committee, accreditation will be granted.
• Detailed Norms for the Training Centres shall be as per Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) published by CSC-SPV.

All CSCs working with CSC-SPV will be considered as Training Centre and same norms and guidelines as in case of Training Centre will apply to CSCs also.

The Training Centres are responsible for the following:
• Enrolling the candidates for the course
• Imparting appropriate training to candidates
• Marking the attendance and conducting continuous assessment using the Online Monitoring Application-cum-Learning Management System
• Keeping a record of all candidates enrolled in the course, certifying their attendance and ensuring that the candidates appear for the online examination
• Training centre shall provide support and assistance for at least two years after the training is over
• Ensuring achievement of learning outcomes for each candidate.

The target beneficiaries under the scheme are:

• Eligible Household: A household is defined as a unit comprising of Head of family, spouse, children and parents. All such households where none of the family member is digitally literate will be considered as eligible household under the Scheme.

• Entry criteria:

1. The beneficiary should be Digitally Illiterate
2. Only one person per eligible household would be considered for training
3. Age Group: 14 – 60 years

• Priority would be given to:

1. Non-smartphone users, Antyodaya households, college drop-outs, Participants of the adult literacy mission
2. Digitally illiterate school students from class 9th to 12th, provided facility of Computer/ICT Training is not available in their schools
3. Preference would be given to SC, ST, BPL, women, differently-abled persons and minorities

• The identification of the beneficiaries would be carried out by CSC-SPV in active collaboration with DeGS, Gram Panchayats, and Block Development Officers.

Under the scheme, it is envisaged that the examination will be conducted by a national level certifying agency. Various certifying agencies are empanelled under the scheme:

• National Institute of Electronics & Information Technology (NIELIT)
• National Institute of Open Schooling (NIOS)
• ICT Academy of Tamilnadu (ICTACT)
• Haryana Knowledge Corporation Limited (HKCL)
• Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC)

The duration of the training program is for 20 hours which has to be completed in a minimum of 10 days and maximum of 30 days.

The training partner will be accredited for a period of 1 year under PMGDISHA project and its accreditation will be renewed after accessing the work done during that period.

An accredited training partner would be assigned with a specific area of operation and target preferably within the same state.

The passwords for the students can be reset by the training centers by going to the student summary. Also, for generating passwords of training centers a ticket can be raised on CSC Helpdesk and new password will be generated by the team.

Following are technical requirements for conducting examination:
• Minimum 3-5 operational computers (laptop or PC) with genuine/licensed software
• Out of 3-5 computers one of the computer shall be low-end server
• All computers should be connected on a local network
• One high resolution web camera is required (minimum: 0.5 megapixel, recommended 1280 x 720 resolution)
• Reliable internet connectivity with minimum speed of 256 kbps
• One printer and scanner
• 3-5 tablets/mobile phones
• Biometric devices prescribed by PMU

A training fee of Rs. 300/- per candidate is payable directly to respective Training Partners/Centres through CSC-SPV on successful certification of candidates trained by them.

Independent external evaluation will be conducted by a National level certifying agency like NIELIT, NIOS & NIESBUD etc.

The content developed for the purpose of digital literacy training is available in all official languages of India.

Different modules that comprise the program are:

1. Introduction to Digital Devices
2. Operating Digital Devices
3. Introduction to the Internet
4. Communications using the Internet
5. Applications of Internet