Finance Minister Ms Nirmala Sitharaman makes it clear that BharatNet is to get additional funds worth Rs. 19,000 crore (US$ 2.56 billion) for expansion plans. The Digital India initiative is all set to widen the horizon

BharatNet is a national initiative established to promote Project Digital India. The aim is to provide scalable network access to the rural sector without any discrimination. The rural sector is highly in need of an on-demand, easy to afford broadband connectivity solution. The State Governments are working along with Private partners to bring this vision into existence. The goal is to provide smooth operations in

• e-governance,
• e-health,
• e-education,
• e-banking,
• High-Speed Internet

Finance Minister Ms Sitharaman recently declared that BharatNet will be handed over an additional outlay of above Rs. 19,000 crores to continue the work on the Digital India vision plan.

Back in August 2020, PM Mr Modi offered broadband connectivity to all inhabited rural areas within 1000 days. With the pandemic setting in, this project has faced some hurdles in progression. According to the reports, 1.56 lakh Gram Panchayats in a total of 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats have achieved digital independence as of May 31, 2021.

FM, Ms Sitharaman said, As of May 2021, 1,56,223-gram panchayats have been made service-ready. To meet the 1,000 days target, an additional Rs. 19,041 crore (US$ 2.57 billion) is being provided to extend the same facility to the rest of the pending areas. This is an additional amount that would take the BharatNet project total cost to Rs. 61,109 crore (US$ 8.24 billion). We plan to complete the project work with this amount.

The final phase of this project aims at linking around 1.5 lakh panchayats with additional optical fibre to spread across 10 lakh kilometres so that telecom providers would be able to provide Wi-Fi broadband services at 75% lesser prices.