By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet led by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved Rs 2,351.38 crore against Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan' (PMGDISHA) to make 6 crore rural households digitally literate by March 2019.

This is in line with the announcement made by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in the Union Budget 2016-17.

The outlay for this project is Rs 2,351.38 crore to usher in digital literacy in rural India by March 2019.

PMGDISHA is expected to be one of the largest digital literacy programmes in the world.

Under the scheme, 25 lakh candidates will be trained in the current financial year and 2.75 crore in the next financial year, 2017-18 and 3 crore in 2018-19. To ensure equitable geographical reach, each of the 250,000 Gram Panchayats would be expected to register an average of 200-300 candidates.

According to a press statement issued by the government, digitally literate persons would be able to operate computers and digital access devices like tablets and smartphones send and receive emails, browse the internet, access government services, search for information, undertaking cashless transactions and hence use IT to actively participate in the process of nation building.

The implementation of the scheme would be carried out under the overall supervision of Ministry of Electronics and IT in active collaboration with states and union territories through their designated state implementing agencies.