High speed broadband connectivity to more than 1,50,000 GPs by 2017-18

NEW DELHI: The Finance and Corporate Affairs, Arun Jaitley said that  high speed broadband connectivity on optical fiber will be available in more than 1,50,000 gram panchayats by the end of 2017-18 while presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in Parliament.

Calling Telecom sector as an important component of the infrastructure eco-system, he noted that the recent spectrum auctions have removed spectrum scarcity in the country. This will give a major fillip to mobile broadband and Digital India for the benefit of people living in rural and remote areas.

"Further, for the BharatNet Project, the allocation has been stepped up to Rs.10,000 crores in 2017-18 and 1,55,000 kms of Optical Fiber Cables have been laid.By the end of 2017-18, high speed broadband connectivity on optical fiber will be available in more than 1,50,000 gram panchayats, with wifi hot spots and access to digital services at low tariffs," said Jaitley while presenting the General Budget 2017-18 in Parliament.

"A DigiGaon initiative will be launched to provide tele-medicine, education and skills through digital technology,"he added.

Jaitley further stated that the Government is creating an ecosystem to make India a global hub for electronics manufacturing. Over 250 investment proposals for electronics manufacturing have been received in the last 2 years, totaling to an investment of Rs.1.26 lakh crores.

A number of global leaders and mobile manufacturers have set up production facilities in India, hence the Finance Minister said that allocation for incentive schemes like M-SIPS and EDF have been exponentially increased to an all-time high of Rs. 745 crores in 2017-18. Further, a new and restructured Central scheme, namely, Trade Infrastructure for Export Scheme (TIES) will be launched in 2017-18 to focus on our export infrastructure in a competitive world.