Digital Village Pilot project' covering 700 gram Panchayats, says R S Prasad

The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology is implementing a 'Digital Village Pilot project' covering 700 gram Panchayats or villages with at least one gram Panchayat or village per district per state/union territory, Electronics and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said here on Wednesday in the Lok Sabha.

He also said the implementation period will be three years and a total of Rs.98.32 crores will be spent on the project.

Faizal P.P. Mohammed and Benny Behanan had asked the minister whether the government is planning to set up one lakh digital villages in coordination with the Ministry of Electronics and IT, to which he said that no such plan is presently under consideration.

Replying to a query on the details of spectrum auction held during the last three years, he said: "One spectrum auction was conducted during the last three years, in October 2016, in which a quantum of 2354.75 MHz of spectrum was put to auction and a quantum of 964.80 MHz of spectrum was sold. The total bid amount for the spectrum auction was Rs.65789.12 crores."

While responding to whether the government proposed to roll out five lakh public Wi-Fi hotspots on priority basis, the Union Minister said: "Cellular Operators Association of India, Internet Service Providers Association of India and Virtual Network Operators Association of India have jointly submitted a proposal for seamless and interoperable internet and broadband services through public Wi-Fi hotspots."

"As a part of the proposal, they have submitted a roadmap for achieving 5 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots within six months and 1 Million Wi-Fi hotspots within a period of one year," he added.