WiFi services will be free of charges across villages connected through BharatNet in  India till March 2020, Telecom and Information Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told reporters.

“We have already connected 1.3 lakh gram panchayats through BharatNet optical fibre network.  Our target is to take this to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats. To promote utilisation of BharatNet services, we will provide WiFi free in all villages connected through BharatNet till March 2020,” the minister said.

Currently, 48,000 villages connected under the BharatNet project have WiFi access. The minister said all common service centres (CSCs) will offer banking services. As such, CSCs act as access points for delivery of digital services and the number of these centres has increased from about 60,000 in 2014 to 3.60 lakh currently. CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd is implementing the Digital Village initiative in rural and remote areas of the country. Overall, one lakh villages are set to be transformed into digital villages.

CSC e-Governance Services India Ltd CEO Dinesh Tyagi said, “The Digital Village scheme has the potential to truly transform the village economy and reduce the digital divide.”

A DigiGaon or digital village was conceptualised as a connected village where citizens can avail various e-services of the central government, state governments and private players.

The scheme focuses on empowering the entire village community by providing access to education, health or financial services through the digital medium. In a digital village, residents are encouraged to become digitally literate. Residents can avail quality healthcare through tele-medicine consultations under allopathy, homeopathy and ayurvedic systems. The digital village also promotes a financially inclusive society by providing banking, insurance and pension services at the doorstep of citizens. In addition, the entire village is WiFi enabled, so residents are digitally connected.