Soon, 250,000 villages across India will have solar-powered internet under the Common Service Centres (CSCs) program. This initiative by the government is aimed at providing banking, pension, digital literacy, and tele-medicine services to rural and remote villages, reported Mercom India.
“CSCs are working in 1.8 lakh gram panchayats and very soon it will reach 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by end of the year,” news agency PTI quoted Information and Technology minister Ravi Shankar Prasad as saying.
Solar power has become an effective instrument in realizing the Digital India program. Under the program, DigiGaon or Digital Village is conceptualised as a connected village where people can access different e-services of both central and state governments. It also enables private sector to reach rural and remote parts of the country.
The purpose of DigiGaon is to bring an overall change in rural India by promoting entrepreneurship and creating capacities and livelihoods through local and community participation.
Dhanauri Kalan village in Gautam Budh Nagar, Uttar Pradesh is the sixth digital village in the country. Piyala and Dayalpur (in Haryana), Chandankiyari East and Shivbabudih (in Jharkhand), and Dhanauri Kalan and Sultanpur (in Uttar Pradesh) have been chosen for the pilot phase. Another 700 digital villages will be established by the year end.
