Rewari:WiFi 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 fiber network, Our target is to take this to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. To promote utilisation of BharatNet services, we will provide WiFi free in all villages connected through BharatNet till March 2020," the minister said.
Currently, 48,000 villages connected under the BharatNet project have WiFi access.
The minister said all common service centers (CSCs) will offer banking services. As such, CSCs act as access points for delivery of digital services and the number of these centers has increased from about 60,000 in 2014 to 3.60 lakh currently. Haryana itself has 11,000 CSCs offering an array of 650 services.
CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd is implementing the Digital Village initiative in rural and remote areas of the country. 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 Ltd CEO Dinesh Tyagi said, "The Digital Village scheme has the potential to truly transform the village economy and reduce the digital divide."