All Panchayats to have Broadband Connectivity by March 2020

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister Electronics and Information Technology informed the Parliament that all Gram Panchayats will be provided high-speed broadband connections under the BharatNet Project by March 2020.

Details:

• As per the Government, as of today, 1,28,870 Gram Panchayats have been connected with optical fibre under the BharatNet Project.
• In Phase I of the BharatNet Project, the Government connected 1 lakh Gram Panchayats and the Phase II of the project is under implementation, and a total of 2 lakh GPs (Gram Panchayats) are targeted to be completed by March 2020.

What is BharatNet?

• The Project seeks to provide affordable last-mile high-speed broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats across the country.
• The Nodal Ministry for implementation of the Project is the Ministry of Communication.
• The objective of the Project is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-education, e-health, e-banking, Internet and other services to rural India.
• It is being funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
• Till date Wifi spots have been installed in 44,140 Gram Panchayats.
• The Project's Phase I was completed in December 2017 and 1 lakh Gram Panchayats were made service ready.
• Phase II is under implementation with the target of covering a total of 2 lakh Gram Panchayats by March 2020.

Question:

Q. All Gram Panchayats will be provided high-speed broadband connections under which Project by March 2020?
a. GramNet
b. PanchNet
c. IndiaNet
d. BharatNet