Union IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (File photo)

REWARI: The government said on Wednesday that it will provide free Wi-Fi services across villages connected through the Bharat Net optic fibre till March 2020.

“We have already connected 1.3 lakh gram panchayats (GPs) through Bharat Net... Our target is to take this to 2.5 lakh. To promote utilisation of Bharat Net services, we will provide Wi-Fi free in all villages till March 2020,” telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said while inaugurating a Digital Village in Rewari, Haryana . He said the target of the government is to convert at least 15% of villages to digital hubs during the tenure of this government. The minister said the process of empowering villages is on track, and addition of digital services will help them participate in the growth of the economy.

The digital village initiative focuses on empowering rural communities by providing access to education, health or financial services through the digital medium. “In a Digital Village, eligible citizens are made digitally literate. Youth and students can access a range of educational and skilling courses. Citizens can avail quality healthcare through tele-medicine consultations under allopathy, homeopathy and ayurvedic systems,” said common service centre (CSC) CEO Dinesh Tyagi.

