Government to invest 30 billion dollar to ensure 4G, 5G connectivity to every village

Vaishnaw summarised the government's three main fintech priorities, which included developing a solid digital infrastructure, a digital regulatory framework, as well as social inclusion.

Ashwini Vaishnaw, India's telecom minister, announced at the Global Fintech Fest on Thursday that his country will spend 30 billion dollars to ensure that every hamlet has access to 4G and 5G services for the final mile. For 4G and 5G last mile network accessibility in every town across the nation, we are investing close to 30 billion dollars said Vaishnaw.

Over 1.5 lakh gram panchayats have so far been reached by us, he further informed. "We are currently constructing a highway by establishing an entire ecosystem of village entrepreneurs, focusing the energies of children to bring high-speed, high-quality data access to every village in the nation, while involving them in the growth process," he continued.

We have tried this concept, and it is presently facilitating about 80,000 new connections per month," the speaker noted. Speaking about the digital regulatory framework, he stated that telecom was the cornerstone of Digital India and that the Prime Minister had given the department a clear directive to update India's regulatory framework in order to make it competitive with other countries' regulatory frameworks globally.

"We are currently examining three to four pieces of legislation collectively, including the new telecom bill, the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill, and the IT Act of 2000, in order to establish an interactive framework in which the government addresses the concerns of the industry and the industry duly takes those concerns into consideration. 

The modulation of technological navigation is necessary to safeguard end users' interests, he stated. Vaishnaw summarised the government's three main fintech priorities, which included developing a solid digital infrastructure, a digital regulatory framework, as well as social inclusion and the societal demands that go along with it.