Skip to main content

All villages connected through BharatNet to get free Wi-Fi till March 2020: IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad

Wi-Fi services being provided through BharatNet in villages across India will be free of charge till March 2020, Telecom and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Wednesday.

"We have already connected 1.3 lakh gram panchayats through BharatNet optical fibre network... Our target is to take this to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. To promote utilisation of BharatNet services, we will provide Wi-Fi free in all villages connected through BharatNet till March 2020," the minister said.

Currently, 48,000 villages connected under the BharatNet project have Wi-Fi access. The minister said all common service centres (CSCs) will offer banking services. As such, CSCs act as access points for delivery of digital services and the number of these centres has increased from about 60,000 in 2014 to 3.6 lakh currently. Haryana itself has 11,000 CSCs offering an array of 650 services. CSC e-Governance Services India is implementing the Digital Village initiative in rural and remote areas of the country.

Vandana Potdar (centre) with other internet saathis. Rupali Pangtey/Tech2

Overall, one lakh villages are set to be transformed into digital villages.

Gurawara village in the Rewari district of Haryana has been developed as a digital village by CSC. The CSC unit there, operated by village level entrepreneur Sonu Bala, facilitates access to government-to-citizen services through the digital seva portal. CSC e-Governance Services India CEO Dinesh Tyagi said, "The Digital Village scheme has the potential to truly transform the village economy and reduce the digital divide."

A DigiGaon or digital village was conceptualised as a connected village where citizens can avail various e-services of the central government, state governments and private players. These villages are projected to be change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and livelihoods through community participation and collective action.

(Also Read: BharatNet implementation has been slow, riddled with shortcomings; needs urgent remedial action to democratise internet access)

The scheme focuses on empowering the entire village community by providing access to education, health or financial services through the digital medium. In a digital village, residents are encouraged to become digitally literate. Residents can avail quality healthcare through telemedicine consultations under allopathy, homoeopathy, and ayurvedic systems.

The digital village also promotes a financially inclusive society by providing banking, insurance and pension services at the doorstep of citizens. In addition, the entire village is Wi-Fi enabled, so residents are digitally connected. Such villages are also equipped with an LED assembly unit, a sanitary napkin unit, a paper bag-making unit and a rural BPO to promote employment among the youth.



Udimi - Buy Solo Ads from Firstpost Tech Latest News https://ift.tt/2tUDKAt
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

9 VCs in Madrid and Barcelona discuss the COVID-19 era and look to the future

Spain’s startup ecosystem has two main hubs: Madrid and Barcelona. Most observers place Barcelona first and Madrid second, but the gap appears to close every year. Barcelona has benefitted from attracting expats in search of sun, beach and lifestyle who tend to produce more internationally minded startups. Madrid’s startups have predominantly been Spain or Latin America-focused, but have become increasingly international in nature. Although not part of this survey, we expect Valencia to join next year, as city authorities have been going all-out to attract entrepreneurs and investors. The overall Spanish ecosystem is generally less mature than those in the U.K., France, Sweden and Germany, but it has been improving at a fast clip. More recently, entrepreneurs in Spain have moved away from emulating success in pursuit of innovative technologies. Following the financial crisis, the Spanish government supported the creation of startups with the launch of FOND-ICO GLOBAL, a €1.5 billi
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Stay Creative and Keep SEO in Mind

Information Technology Blog - - How to Stay Creative and Keep SEO in Mind - Information Technology Blog Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to customizing your website’s content to ensure that web browsers give your website a high SEO score. The sites with the highest SEO scores are featured on the search engine’s first page of search results for relevant searches.  71%  of the click-throughs happen with articles listed on the first page of results on the search engine. This means that if your website’s article is the second (or third, or fourth page), it’s less likely the search user will even see your article. You want your article to be ranking as close to the top of the first page of results as possible. In order to have a good SEO score your site’s content needs to feature keywords and relevant phrases. It must be optimized for easy navigation between pages. It also needs to be referenced via external links that drive traffic to your site. Incorporating all of these elem
Post a Comment
Read more

Digital World And SEO Challenges In 2020

Information Technology Blog - - Digital World And SEO Challenges In 2020 - Information Technology Blog Can you imagine a life without any digital intervention? Certainly not! We are dependent on the assistance of smart gadgets from ordering food to our tables to book tickets for vacations. Humans are utterly reliant on a masterpiece they have built with their incredible intellects. I am amazed by this. Let’s have a broader look into it. The Era Of Digital Marketing We exist in a time where every single business entity requires assistance from the digital market. It has now put an end to conventional marketing practices. To get your product the desired popularity, one must choose an E-commerce business approach. According to a survey , almost 3.4 billion people (approx. 85% of users) spend about six and a half hours browsing the web. Your customers will be more likely to do an online purchase rather than buying it from a nearby store. So, get a cool website built, use the best pos
Post a Comment
Read more