Friday, December 26, 2014: Communications and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that PM Narendra Modi’s mandate of ‘Digital India’ will come as a ‘game changer’ for India and would have commendable impact on the entire system. While addressing a committee meeting attached to his Ministry, Prasad told that about 700,000 km of cable for broadband would be laid in the next three years in addition to the one million kms of cable already laid in the country.
The ministry further informed that 50,000 gram panchayats will be given broadband facility in the first tranche and 0.25 million within the next three years. While replying to the concerns of the members towards the poor service of BSNL network in the country, he noted that more funds are proposed to be given to the public sector telephone service providers during the VII phase to bring improvements in the working and also to make them commercially active.
Prasad, during a event at FICCI, shared that Rs 180,000 million worth investment has already been proposed under the ‘Digital India’ initiative, out of this 40,000 million have been approved and more are in the pipeline. Prasad further noted about the spectrum issues to provide high speed connectivity and regulatory control. He emphasized that India will soon become an exciting venture for the ‘Digital India’ initiative. He stated about the ‘Digital India’ importance for good governance and highlighted the turnover of $100 billion in IT industry.
