'All Kerala gram panchayats to be connected to NOFN by March'

All gram panchayats in Kerala would be connected to the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) by March 2015, Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said here today.
The assurance in this regard had been made by officials at a meeting here, the minister told reporters after visiting the Startup Village, a not-for-profit business incubator, near Kalamassery here.
The central government has initiated the NOFN programme to provide broadband connectivity to about 2.50 lakh gram panchayats in the country in the coming three years.
Kerala was doing "quite well", the minister said, adding he had been assured that by the end of March 2015, all the 978 gram panchayats in the state would be connected to NOFN, and e-education, e-health and e-commerce will ride on that.

The Narendra Modi government has launched the Digital India programme to bridge the gap between 'the digital haves and have-nots', he said, adding to make it successful the central and state governments have to work together.
Reminding that 65 per cent of India was 35 years of age and below and 50 per cent of India was 25 years and below, the minister said, "Young India is trying to explore new frontiers in IT. We wish to promote entrepreneurship in IT... Digital India is politically and ideologically neutral and is only pro-people."

On the Electronic Development Fund, the minister said the central government would partner with the Angel funds to fund start-ups in IT and manufacturing. "Kerala has done a good work and we need to replicate it," he said.

Noting that the government was now promoting electronics manufacturing in a big way, he said the country consumes electronic goods worth 100 billion dollars every year and by 2020 it could touch about 400 billion dollars.
Till now, the government has received several investment proposals worth Rs 18,000 crore for the Digital India programme, of which about 4,000 proposals have been approved, he said.