"In the coming 1000 days, every village in the country will be connected with optical fibre cable," Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address on the occasion of 74th Independence Day earlier today.

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PM Modi mentioned that before 2014, only 5 dozen panchayats in the country were connected with optical fiber cable. In the last five years, nearly 1.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country have been connected with the cable.

Expressing his gratitude to PM Modi for this announcement, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, "Today you have entrusted Department of Telecommunications with the responsibility to connect all the villages of India by optical fibre Internet in 1000 days. It's a game changer for Digital India. With your inspiration, we will do it."

During the 74th Independence Day speech, PM also announced that Lakshadweep will be connected with submarine optical fiber cable in the next 1000 days.

"We have around 1,300 islands. Recently, we connected Andaman and Nicobar Islands with an undersea cable for a better internet. Next, we will connect Lakshadweep."

Earlier this week, PM Modi inaugurated the first-ever undersea optic fiber link between Chennai and Andaman and Nicobar to ensure high-speed broadband connectivity for the Union Territory at par with services in the cities like Delhi and Chennai.

He had laid the foundation for 2,312-km Chennai-Andaman and Nicobar Islands (CANI) connecting submarine optical fibre cable project on December 30, 2018.

Referring to digital India, he said the importance of the mission has been realised during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In the last month only, transactions worth about Rs 3 lakh crore took place through BHIM UPI alone," he said.

During the lockdown period, digital transactions witnessed a huge surge.