During the Interim Budget speech, acting Finance Minister Piyush Goyal stated that by 2030, India’s digital infrastructure and economy will be built on the work done in digitisation of government processes and private transactions. As part of this ongoing initiative, the government plans to build 1 lakh digital villages over the next five years with the help of Common Service Centres (CSCs), a public-private initiative that offers digital services to villagers.

So far, more than 1 lakh village councils have been connected with optical fibre under the Digital India programme and around 40,000 village councils have also been provided with Wi-Fi hotspots. In 2017, the government launched the DigiGaon project, whose target was 700 digital villages by the end of 2018. Under this project, there are 206 programmes available for the people. This includes a Wi-Fi Chaupal, LED bulb manufacturing, a unit to make sanitary pads and the PM’s digital literacy initiative.

Today, three lakh CSCs employing around 12 lakh people are digitally delivering several services to citizens and creating digital infrastructure in villages, including connectivity, to convert them into digital villages.

What is a digital village?

A digital village is one that has both voice and data connectivity, with a reasonably high quality, bandwidth and speed available to the people to use across form factors, be it desktops, laptops, tablets or mobile phones. Digital villages would enable the government to establish last-mile connectivity with the people, and thereby, further its development agenda. The target of spreading connectivity to villages will further narrow the digital gap, and spur digital entrepreneurship in rural areas.

Let’s look at some of its practical applications. For starters, the agriculture sector will be the biggest beneficiary. Digital connectivity can have tremendous impact on farmers’ lives, be it information regarding weather, agricultural inputs, sowing and harvesting methods, among others. Moving to the education sector, digital villages can play a role in digitisation of records, attendance and evaluation of exam papers; and students can gain access to instant information on diverse subject matters. Similarly, in the health care sector, connectivity can make it possible to save lives by calling ambulances and doctors quickly, make appointments with doctors and discuss people’s cases. Lastly, in the banking and fintech sector, digital villages would enable quick processing of loans, more deposits in banks, and will help move more people into the formal banking and credit system.

Lessons from other nations

Samsung Electronics launched its digital villages model in Libreville, Gabon. The project encompassed a solar power generator, a tele-medical centre and a mobile clinic that will move from one village to another, offering treatment for most common diseases such as diarrhoea and malaria.

Germany is also leveraging digital services and bringing it to rural areas. For example, in a rural town, two apps have been created locally. One app is being used as a local online marketplace - where local vendors can order their products and services online, including food items such as vegetables and organic products, and non-food items such as sports good stores, drug stores, pharmacies, laundries and book stores. Once an order is registered, the system generates deliveries, which volunteers can help with using another mobile app. The idea is that people travelling on the required route could deliver a parcel to their neighbour. The app motivated voluntary deliveries, as those participating earned a virtual currency that they can spend on other essential items and reap benefits out of it.

How to meet the target

Today, rural India is far more digitally savvy than ever with the advent and deep penetration of mobile phones. A report by Cisco showed that smartphone users in India are projected to double to 829 million by 2022 from 404.1 million in 2017. With this growing penetration of smartphones and even feature phones, a wide range of apps and content relevant for rural consumers must be made accessible on mobile devices at a low cost. Now, availability of Internet services to access such content, through handheld devices, is a pre-requisite to achieve this goal.

Regrettably, telecom infrastructure providers find rural towers quite uneconomical due to lack of government subsidy and support. This is where the government needs to intervene fast, and in collaboration with the private sector or leveraging the PPP model, should focus more on providing the necessary support, frame conducive policies, open new funding avenues and build the right digital infrastructure.

Further on, to leapfrog data connectivity, Wi-Fi hotspots are a key enabler and other wireless technologies instead of optic fibre can help hasten the process. India needs to manufacture more easily transportable and erectable towers that can be placed in remote villages for better voice and data connectivity. Additional towers will also offer an entrepreneurial opportunity to set up cyber cafes and other businesses that require Internet connectivity. On the backend, to ensure the base stations that is enabling the connectivity is functional 24x7 and adequately powered, solar energy can be leveraged to generate cheap and consistent source of energy.

Once a village is digitally connected, it becomes a fertile ground for the residents there to achieve better productivity in all aspects of life, be it agriculture, health, education and governance as well as enabling the government to reach the last mile with its future development and growth agenda.

Sayan Banerjee is a marketing communications professional. The views expressed here are personal.