Current Affairs 30th June 2019

Current Affairs 30th June 2019 - Important Points

All panchayats to have Broadband Connectivity under -  BharatNet project 
Current Affairs 30th June 2019 - Details

All panchayats to have Broadband Connectivity under -  BharatNet project 

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister Electronics and Information Technology in  Lok Sabha  well- versed Parliament that all gram panchayats will be issued high speed broadband connections under BharatNet project by March 2020.
Important Highlights

• According to the government, till date 128870 Gram-Panchayats have been linked with optical fibre under BharatNet Project.
• In Phase-I of BharaNet project, government linked 1 lakh Gram-Panchayats and the Phase-II of project is under execution, and a sum of 2 lakh Gram Panchayats are focused to be finished by March 2020.
• On 19th July 2017 Union Cabinet sanctioned a modified strategy for executing BharatNet under which, approx. remaining 150000 Gram-Panchayats in India, are to be provided broadband connectivity in Phase-II of the project.
• Delay in initial execution of project was on account of delay in initial beginning of project as the work on BharatNet project started in 2nd half of 2014 due to field survey of Gram-Panchayats and pilot testing of technology model.
• In North-East Region, Gram Panchayats are situated in widely expansive hilly and remote areas and the monsoon season is also creating a problem there. Also, only underground optical fibre cable has been utilised to cover all Panchayats.