Private sector would have a huge opportunity in creating the last mile wireless connectivity to villages from the countrywide fibre optic broadband network (FOBN) that would come up by the financial year 2016-17 connecting 2,50,000 panchayats, said Rakesh Garg secretary, telecommunication at an Assocham event.
Business opportunity was also evident in providing content in local languages that alone would enthuse the grass roots people to get involved in utilizing the connectivity, said Garg, who is also chairman, telecom commission at an Assocham event on e-Governance and Digital India.
"Digital India was Prime Minister Narendra Modi's largest programme and was targeting to reach every single home with broad band access in India," Garg disclosed.
Detailing what the Digital India programme meant for the common people, Garg asked private sector enterprises to enable village homes to connect to public services in health and education among others through localised content created for the purpose. "Government had already completed surveys of two lakh villages to create a database of what they required from public services. As for the optical fibre network, more than 50,000 panchayats had already been connected," said Garg.
Describing Digital India as a private-public-panchayat partnership (PPPP) Ravi Shankar, Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms, Public Grievances and Pensions said that computer literacy could eliminate illiteracy in the country. He pointed out how even illiterates were able to manage smart phones. Digital India would create a citizen centric administration conferring empowerment, entitlement and engagement opportunities to all the citizens. The portal like My.Gov created last month would enable citizens to engage in public affairs and provide inputs to government.
He expected Indian industry to take up the challenge of making sub Rs 2,000 a piece smart phone so that smart phones could become the normal connectivity devices across the villages of the country enabling rural people to access the whole range of services made available on the broadband network and last mile wireless connectivity.
Meenashi Lekhi, Member Parliament endorsed digital literacy as a greatest equalizer and defined transforming her constituency as a 100% Wi-Fi enabled zone and make all the people, especially the senior citizens and women as digitally literate. "Already the Khan Market had been made Wi-Fi enabled and Connaught Place would follow," added Lekhi.
Last mile connectivity to the villages from the optical fibre network would have to be wireless, said Amit Sharma, EVP & President Asia, American Tower Corporation. He cautioned against wholly unnecessary costs being imposed on this sector by various authorities including state governments and municipalities when the critical factor was to reduce the costs of deployment of the countrywide network.
