India this week outlined a plan to conduct digital literacy training for an additional 60 million rural households.

The world's most-populous nation announced its 2016/17 budget earlier this week and among the many promises was one that all villages will be electrified by may 2018. That promise reflects India's prioritisation of development in rural areas, as does the National Digital Literacy Mission (NDLM) that has already seen over 50 million people enrol in government-sponsored training as part of a scheme targeting 520 million rural people.

Adding 60 million more households to the scheme means about another 290 million people become eligible for the training, according to India's 2011 census which found 4.9 people per household. Targeting households is important because the NDLM aims to have at least one digitally literate person in each household, rather than a completely technology-literate population.

The program offers two levels of instruction. Level one teaches how to “operate digital devices, like mobile phones, tablets, etc., send and receive emails and search Internet for information, etc.” over a 20-hour course. Level two offers instruction in using e-government services, over 40 hours.

The extra 60 million households will be targeted over the next three years.

The upshot of the expanded program is that by 2019, many millions of households will have someone capable of wielding information technology and an electricity supply to power devices, if not the means to go online regularly. And all without Facebook's help. ®