The Government of India is planning to invest heavily in BharatNet’s rural internet connectivity project. Recently Information Technology and Electronics Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said this. He claimed that the government will invest a total of 13 billion dollars i.e. 1.5 lakh crore rupees in BharatNet’s Rural Internet Connectivity Project to bring internet to every village.
He also said that currently around 850 million people are using the internet, but that is not enough. So the government wants to invest Rs 1.5 lakh crore to provide high quality broadband internet service to every corner of this country. He made these announcements at the closing session of the G20 summit recently.
What is BharatNet Scheme?
Bharat Net project aims to provide fast broadband internet connection to around 6 lakh villages across the country. The scheme has been launched by the government under the ‘Digital India’ program to provide affordable high speed internet services to the rural population. This high speed digital connection will be delivered through optical fiber. Note that this is the world’s largest rural broadband connection project. Through this project, citizens of rural and remote areas will get affordable broadband services.
Apart from investing in Bharat Net, the government can also invest more in improving 4G connectivity. And the Information Technology Minister considers such investment very important for a big country like India.
Ashwini Vaishnav said that in a rapidly developing country like India, the reign of a few companies should not be at all. Under no circumstances does it make sense to hand over technology to a single or a handful of companies. Second, all people in the country need to have access to technology. So they should include internet in their daily life areas. And so the central government has taken this step to develop digital public infrastructure.
