The government is planning to provide free WiFi to around 1,050 villages across the country under its Digital Village initiative with an initial outlay of Rs 500 crore.
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The shortlisted villages will be offered services such as e-medicine, e-education, internet connectivity and LED street lighting through their own WiFi hotspot mounted on a special tower.
"This project moves away from the traditional approach of e-Governance projects (that focused on creating infrastructure) and adopts a service based approach for the pilot of the Digital Village," a communication issued by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) said.
For e-education, a group of rural schools is proposed to be parented by a lead school. Each of these e-education classrooms will be equipped with a video-conferencing facility.
Under the e-medicine service, a group of three primary health centers (PHCs) in a particular block will be parented by a lead hospital. Each chosen PHC would have e-medicine solution, including medical diagnostics kit, video conferencing kit/inbuilt system for medical consultation sessions, and other IT devices/peripherals.
States will select an agency to implement the pilot of Digital Village. In case there is a lack of internet connectivity, the draft document proposed by the ministry also outlines penalties for the operator responsible for providing internet in the area.
Over the next six months, each village is expected to get its own WiFi hotspot using which villagers can connect their mobile phones.
In November last year, India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank said it will convert 100 villages across the country into digital villages. The move aims at enabling villagers to use digital channels for banking and payments transactions.
Additionally, the bank, in association with ICICI Foundation for Inclusive Growth, will extend credit facilities and impart vocational training to nearly 10,000 villagers, especially women, to help them earn a sustainable livelihood.
Chanda Kochhar, MD and CEO, ICICI Bank said, "We strongly feel that technology can play an important role in putting development on a fast lane. By leveraging technology, we converted Akodara in Gujarat from a village to India's first digital village last year."
Additionally, state-run Vijaya Bank has adopted Chandagalu village in Karnataka's Mandya district as the first digital village. The bank aims to not only to provide cashless banking services to the villagers but also ensure use of technology in daily life.
