“Digital India” commonly refers to an initiative of the Government of India, which includes three areas: digital infrastructure as a utility for all citizens, governance and services on demand, and digital empowerment of citizens. This paper broadens the concept of Digital India to an innovation system for the country’s future growth. While the government initiative includes electronics manufacturing, it is too narrow, and too government-centric. Instead, digital technology can be a foundation for broad-based growth, taking advantage of ongoing innovations in hardware, and especially in software. The falling cost of computing, including processing, storage and communications, and devices that provide these functions, means that applications of digital technology no longer need to be restricted to the well-off. Inexpensive smartphones are an obvious example. This paper discusses the components of a possible successful innovation system for digital technology-based growth. These include digital infrastructure, both wired and wireless; basic education; basic and applied research; skilling; development of local language content and applications; and a start-up ecosystem. A digital technology innovation system extends beyond highly-skilled software engineers to include maintenance, repair and technical support for the hardware and software of digital infrastructure and applications. Basic education in a digitally-driven economy includes facility in using a variety of software applications. The paper also considers the impact of digitization on specific sectors such as education, health, agriculture, financial services, and retailing, as well as government. Government policies that may support Digital India as an innovation system are discussed, including tax incentives, spectrum allocation, and education policy
