In the Independence Day address to the nation by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he talked of a number of welfare measures and development programs that will be undertaken. However, I feel the most important of the announcements was that of connecting all the six lakh plus villages with fibre optical cable. The opportunities this move will provide are manifold.
It will uplift the economy, specially of rural India, tremendously. The income of farmers will rise as they will be able to use the eNAM platform provided by the government in a better way and even reach the consumer directly. Imagine the vegetables that a farmer grows can reach his customer directly, fresh every morning, once internet facilities are available.
Retail shops will open in villages which would help in reaching the products that were not available till now to the villagers. Common Service Centres will open in all villages and provide the residents many facilities, for which they had to run to block or district headquarters.
In the last six months we have seen growth of online education in the cities because of Covid_19 pandemic. Educational institutions have closed and no one knows when they will open. There are reports that the rural children are not getting the full advantage of digital education that the schools are providing. They do not have smart phones and the connectivity issues are there. Some have come out with 2G solutions, but still the connectivity is an issue. The education of rural children is suffering. It is feared that when the schools reopen, maybe we will see a good number of students dropping out. In these six months the parents have engaged the children in some work giving them a little extra income. And when the schools reopen (when?) they will be reluctant to join back. We will have to start another campaign of “Chalo School”.
in such a scenario the broadband connectivity through optical fibre would become a game changer, even for education.
Jobs will be created in lakhs, not only in the cities but also in rural India. The best outcome will be that the local youth will not have to migrate to cities to look for jobs. This will even help in reducing the burden on urban centres manifold. The amount saved from creating infrastructure in cities can then be diverted to be invested in rural area.
The Prime Minister has given a deadline of a thousand days for achieving this connectivity to each village. We have so many villages in remote, hilly and other difficult areas. It is a mammoth task, but with the determination and will power of all, we are on our way to create a New Bharat.
5 comments:
Very appreciable observation Sir 🙏
Modi hai toh mumkin hai. This will really be a Game Changer for India.
There's absolutely no doubt that we are fortunate in having a visionary at the helm. There are several initiatives that the PM has taken, which his predecessors couldn't ever think of. India is slated for phenomenal changes in the times ahead
This time is very crucial and for the changes to take place not only inside India but for Global position of India as well. All those who want to take lead must come forward others may sit in side corners. Gr8 day ahead.
While I appreciate the initiative, it would be impractical to think of achieving this target without thinking about our Education System. As long as our farmers remain uneducated they won't be able to take benefits of this marvelous task.
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