All villages to have free WiFi services by March 2020; Centre targets to convert 15% villages into DigiGaon

Rewari, December 26: Ahead of the new year, giving the celebrations a digital touch, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Thursday said that free WiFi services would be provided to all villages across the country through Bharatnet till March next year.

 

Inaugurating Digital Village Gurawara in Rewari in Haryana, the Union Minister said, the Ministry has already connected one lakh 30 thousand gram panchayats through Bharatnet. "The target is to take this to two lakh 50 thousand gram panchayats. Ravi Shankar Prasad also said, the target of the government is to convert at least 15 per

cent of villages to the digital village in the next four years", he said.

 

 

The Minister said, the process of empowering villages is on track and day is not far off when rural India will take the lead in shaping the country's of dreams. 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.

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 tele-medicine consultations under allopathy, homeopathy 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 WiFi 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.