Lok Sabha Question No. 608 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-16
Subject: Digital Facilities in Border Areas
Ministry: ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
Asked by: Jaskaur Meena, Nihal Chand Chauhan

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 608

TO BE ANSWERED ON: 16.09.2020

## DIGITAL FACILITIES IN BORDER AREAS

## 608.   SHRIMATI JASKAUR MEENA: SHRI NIHAL CHAND:

Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state: -

- (a). the steps taken by the Government for better dissemination of digital facilities under Digital India in border areas/villages of the country including Ganganagar and Dausa of Rajasthan;
- (b). whether the Government proposes to take help of private sector for  better dissemination of digital facilities in the said border areas/villages;
- (c). if so, the details thereof;
- (d). whether  the  Government  proposes  to  promote  information  and  technology  infrastructure  for providing digital connection to village panchayats; and
- (e). if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

- (a):  The  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  (MeitY),  Government  of  India  has initiated the 'Digital India' programme with the vision to transform India into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy. Digital India is an umbrella programme that covers multiple projects of various Central Ministries/Departments and States/UTs. Some of the key initiatives taken by the Government  for  better  dissemination  of  digital  facilities  in  border  areas/villages  of  the  country including Ganganagar and Dausa of Rajasthan are as follows:
- Common Services Centre (CSC): MeitY is implementing 'Common Services Centre (CSC) 2.0' under Digital India Programme, which aims to set-up at-least one CSC at 2.50 lakh Gram Panchayats (GP) across the country, for delivery  of  various  Government  to Citizen  (G2C)  and  other citizen centric e-Services to citizens. It is a self-sustainable entrepreneurship model which is run by Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs). As on July, 2020, total 3.64 lakh functional CSCs across the country, of which, 2.66 lakh are functional at Gram Panchayat (GP) level. It includes 35,094 functional CSCs at the border areas/ Villages.
- Digital Village: MeitY has also initiated the 'Digital Village Pilot Project' in October, 2018.   700 Gram Panchayats(GPs)/ villages with atleast one Gram Panchayat/village per District per State/UT are being covered across the country. The digital services being offered are Digital Health Services (Tele-Health & Tele-Veterinary consultation), Education Service (NIELIT courses on BCC/CCC, Tally), Financial Inclusion Awareness Programme, Skill Development, Solar panel powered street lights including Government to Citizens Services (G2C), Business to Citizen (B2C) Services. The pilot  project  covers  33  villages  of  Rajasthan  (one  each  from  the  33  districts)  which  includes Ganganagar and Dausa district.
- (a) and    (c):  The  Government  is  already  using  services  through  private  participation  in  various initiatives such as Common Services Centre, Digital Village, Cloud Service Provider(CSP), Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA), India BPO Promotion Scheme & North East BPO Promotion Scheme etc. to carry out various activities under Digital India programme.
- (d) and (e): BharatNet project is being implemented by Department of Telecommunications to provide broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats( Approx 2.5 lakh) in the country.  So far, a total of 1,43,885 Gram Panchayats are made service ready for high speed broadband services.

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