Number of broadband connections cross 13 mn

The number of broadband connections in India stood at 13.35 million by the end of December 2011, with Maharasthra (including Goa) accounting for the highest number at 0.23 million.

"The number of broadband connections provided by the end of December 2011 are 13.35 million," Minister of Communication and IT Sachin Pilot said.

As per the draft National Telecom Policy 2012, the government has set a target to achieve 175 million broadband connections by 2017 and 600 million by 2020 at minimum 2 Mbps download speed.

Maharashtra (including Goa) leads the race with 23.55 lakh broadband connections, followed by Tamil Nadu (including Pondicherry) with 16.62 lakh connections as on December 30, 2011, he said in a written reply to Lok Sabha.

Karnataka with 13.44 lakh connections was at the third position, while Andhra Pradesh  with 13.42 lakh connections took the fourth spot. Delhi was placed at fifth position with 10.15 lakh connections.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands have the least number of broadband connections at 5,899. Entire North-east region (Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Manipur) has 53,399 broadband connections.

Replying to a question on government schemes for promotion of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in rural areas, Pilot said the government has approved the scheme of Common Service Centre (CSCs).

CSCs are equipped with computers and provide public services along with facilities like internet and e-mail.

"The scheme envisages setting up one CSC for each cluster of six villages in all states and U/Ts of the country. CSC scheme has been approved for 33 states/UTs. UTs of Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu have been requested to submit their proposals for funding," he said.

The scheme has an outlay of Rs 5,742, of which Rs 1,649 would be provided by the government and Rs 4,093 by the private sector. A total of 97,159 CSC have been rolled out as on January 31, 2012, from the target of 1,26,949, Pilot said.

Further, replying to another question, Pilot said number of internet frauds involving Rs 1 lakh and above in 2012, till March 12, were 12 and involved Rs 1.80 crore. Of these 5 incidents of internet frauds involving Rs 1.22 crore took place in Delhi.

In 2011, a total number of 1,798 internet frauds took place involving Rs 7.87 crore, less than 2,232 internet frauds involving Rs 12.35 crore in 2010.

Last year, maximum fraud incidents were seen in Maharashtra with 45 frauds involving Rs 2.47 crore, followed by Delhi with 15 frauds involving Rs 28.19 lakh and Karnataka with 14 frauds involving Rs 1.16 crore.