Rural Areas To Get Subsidized Internet by The Indian Government
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The Indian Government started the National e Governance Project (NeGP) in 2003. According to this, a number of services of the government will be completely digitized for speeder operations and better access. Some of the services that were to be digitized were income tax, Passport/VISA, Land records, Road Transport, Land Registration, Gram Panchayats, etc.
Nearly five years after the undertaking, the Indian government has missed many of its targets it set for itself. Major reason for this is cited as the lack of Internet connectivity, primarily in the rural areas. It is for this reason that the government has decided to take this part seriously. ET reports that the Government of India is planning to subsidize the setting up of broadband Internet facilities in the rural areas. The subsidies will be upto 50%. In addition, the running cost of Internet in the rural areas, will be half of what it is in the urban areas.
The project will be carried out in a phased manner. Deportment of Telecommunication (DoT) and Department of Information technology (DIT) will be involved in the project. DIT has already set up many Common Service Centres (CSCs) in many villages in the country. A Common Service Centre is a high-speed Internet kiosk, where host of services can be offered.
Reportedly, DIT could not adequately use the full budget allocated to it. Out of Rs. 719 crore allocated to it, only Rs. 617 crore were utilized. DIT returned Rs. 102 crore due to under-utilization.
India badly needs better governance. Though the government is shouting egovernance, I strongly feel strong corporate governance ethics should be imbibed first. E-governance, will anyways be a part of it. The failure of DIT to use the full budget properly once again projects the inefficiency inherent in our system. For things to change, what has been planned has to be executed, and executed at a pace that suits the task. It’s here that we usually fail. Let’s just hope that sooner than later, we see a wholly-connected India.
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