While India has made strides in its digital transformation journey, there is still a long distance to cover. In the 8th edition of CNBC-TV18's exclusive campaign, "Digital India Vision", organised in partnership with Google Workspace, a panel of experts shared their perspectives on India's technological evolution, and the integral role of technology in driving social transformation.

While Osama Manzar, Founder & Director of the Digital Empowerment Foundation, stressed the inevitability of digital adoption, Aniket Doegar, Co-Founder & CEO of Haqdarshak, a social impact startup, highlighted the need for a technology-assisted approach and recognize India as an "assisted tech country".

"Over the last five years, we have no choice but to go digital. New legislation assumed that we all live in a digital world," remarked Osama Manzar, underlining the imperative of embracing digitalisation. However, he said, "When we talk of only digital, we need to ask questions over whether we are meaningfully connected."

Reflecting on the current landscape, he highlighted concerns about digital inclusivity, "We must be concerned about the population that is unable to conduct digital transactions...Only 33 percent of UPI transactions are from rural India," Manzar said.

Further, Aniket Doegar said, "We have to realize that India is an assisted tech country...Agents can enable more tech access at the ground level."

Emphasising the vital role of digital infrastructure, Doegar said, "In the last two-three years, we have been hearing about digital public infra and digital goods. UPI has become the poster child of actual use of digital infrastructure." However, the panel also called for more comprehensive measures. Osama Manzar stressed the need for digital access at an institutional level, stating, "We need digital public infra at the institutional level." He added, "Working with women multiplies impact five times over."

Simranpreet Singh Oberoi, Co-Founder of Punjab Education Collective, discussed the role of data in enhancing systems, saying, "Systems can't improve without adequate data capture...The first step really is to make sure that the data capturing is happening on a platform, so that you can then analyse it and do something about it."

Oberoi emphasized their journey, noting, "Our goal has been to ensure data capture and ensure teacher support...So far our journey has been to ensure exactly this...there is a cadre of people who play a very crucial role to ensure teacher motivation, to ensure teachers are supported. And whatever they are observing, whatever they are doing every day on the school needs to get aggregated at a state level so that the leadership exactly knows where to pay attention," he added.