DNA Money Edit: Digital India has a long way to traverse

India has over one billion mobile users, but only half of them are connected through the internet. To connect the unconnected, the second phase of Digital India, which the government had started in its first term, will be rolled out soon.

Digital Villages, or Digi Gaons, are the main part of this ambitious project which aims to bring the rural hinterland under the internet umbrella.

The target is to set up 100,000 digital villages in the next two years. The villages will be linked through optical fibre provided by BharatNet, another project of the government to provide connectivity in rural areas. Apart from this, the government has plans to set up 500,000 public WiFi hotspots using BharatNet.

About 700 digital villages have already been set up by Common Service Centers (CSCs), under Ministry of IT and Electronics headed by Ravi Shankar Prasad. Conceptually, a digital village means it will have a digital banker, a digital doctor and a digital teacher with internet WiFi access point.

Out of 3.5 lakh CSCs operating across the country, about 2.20 lakh are in the rural areas, giving them access to various digital services of the government. With an aim to provide virtual health and education services to rural people, apart from creating digital literacy, Digital India -- through Digital villages and WiFi hotspots -- has to traverse a long way before India can become a fully internet enabled country.