BUSINESS
The target is to have Wi-Fi choupals in all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by offering last-mile connectivity
People residing in about 5,000 villages will be able to access internet through Wi-Fi services under the aegis of Common Service Centers project of Wi-Fi choupals.
Common Service Centers (CSC) will announce the launch under its W-Fi choupal project on Monday.
The target is to have Wi-Fi choupals in all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by offering last-mile connectivity. This is in addition to laying of optical fibre network under BharatNet, which is connecting 2.5 lakh gram panchayats through broadband.
Both the projects are part of an ambitious plan of connecting India digitally. Till now, about 7-8 villages have been connected digitally through set of WiFi hotspots.
CSC has also tied up with IRCTC for booking of railway tickets. This will enable people in rural areas/villages to book tickets through CSC rather than going to the booking centres mainly located in cities, according to a senior official.
Currently, 7,000 gram panchayats have Wi-Fi infrastructure. CSC is in the process of expanding this infrastructure in additional gram panchayats of the country.
Wi-Fi choupal also enables a village level entrepreneur to expand his/her scope of services besides giving employment opportunities to a few people.
CSC has been entrusted by the government to set up communication infrastructure in rural areas and leverages the end-points of the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) of BharatNet and other telecom operators, available at the gram panchayat level and extends it using a WiFi based network, the official said.
However, at locations where BharatNet infrastructure is not yet available, CSC SPV has a parallel agreement with service providers including Airtel, Vodafone to utilise their infrastructure to provide connectivity in gram panchayats.
The launch of Wi-Fi hotspots under BharatNet has seen 190% jump in data usage to 95 terabyte in six months of the service. A report by the Department of Telecommunications said on April 30 this year, "About 190% increase in data consumption has been recorded during the last six months in rural areas where broadband internet is provided through Wi-Fi hotspots running on BharatNet Infrastructure. While the first half of last 12 months saw a data consumption of around 33 TB, the second half witnessed a consumption of around 95 TB." It is currently available in 7,183 gram panchayats.
Till now, CSCs have been set up in 1.8 lakh gram panchayats and will be extended to 2.50 lakh gram panchayats by the year-end. In all, as many as 2.91 CSCs operate in the country today. These Wi-Fi services will also enable villages to be digitally ready.
About 700 digital villages will be established by the end of this year, as per the government plan. This is part of DigiGaon project to improve health and education services in rural areas. Besides, provisioning of community access to IT-enabled resource centre, Wi-Fi and LED street lighting at a commonplace in the village will create a conducive environment for digital literacy, financial inclusion and digital access to knowledge and services
CSC, an important part of the government's Digital India initiative, functions as a single access point for delivery of services electronically, including passport and Aadhaar enrollment. It also enables people to access government services such as submission of various forms and bills online and other state government services.
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