MillenniumPost
Editorial

Connectivity revolution

In a bid to modernise infrastructure and services, the Vice President of India, M Venkaiah Naidu has emphasised afresh the need to bring in a "connectivity revolution" to raise India by notches on the development scale. Connectivity has come to be the arterial factor in modern societies and it makes moving forward easier. The value and significance of connectivity may be assessed by drawing a contrast with India as it was nearly a decade or two ago when access to the internet or mobile phone was minimal. When 3G came about, little did we know that this would facilitate a whole new level of basics and here we are moving towards 5G. Connectivity plays an indispensable role in bringing people, societies, and regions closer together while making unimagined development in the farthest and the most unthought-of places easier or possible. Connectivity in terms of rail, road, air, water, and even technology together can potentially transform a country or a place to unrecognisable extents. It was the Vajpayee-led BJP government that initiated pan-India connectivity within the territories and it is the present Narendra Modi-led BJP government that gave a reinvigoured push to not just rail, road, and air connectivity, but revolutionised digital connectivity, making access to internet not just the prerogative of the wealthy and the educated but to just about anyone possessing a mobile phone and some spare change. This transformational change comes at a time when India is a globally watched economy for the speed of its growth. In the domestic arena, easy data and connectivity have helped the common man like never before, and internationally, this has created ample scope for foreign investments. Keeping in line with physical connectivity, the Vice President inaugurated a super fast inter-city express train between Gudur and Vijayawada and made a point of taking industrialisation and commercialisation to a new level, the benefits of which will be ultimately shared by the common man. The 6.7-km-long tunnel is presented as an engineering marvel which will provide viable rail connectivity between the Krishnapatnam Port and the hinterland for the seamless movement of freight. This is the very impetus of speeding up connectivity revolution. Quoting the inspiring example of Estonia becoming a digital society, Naidu dedicated the longest electrified tunnel in the country on the Venkatachalam-Obulavaripalle railway line between Cherlopalli and Raipur to the nation, saying that the priority of the railways now is to speed up Nadikudi-Srikalahasti railway line. He also made a very relevant emphasis on the cumbersome matter for the State government to expeditiously address problems pertaining to land acquisition to ensure rapid growth of the state hinterland. Bringing into picture the Direct Benefit Transfer scheme as the largest financial programme, the benefits of 400 schemes are said to be transferred online to weed out ineligible persons knocking away with the benefits. Railways, particularly are credited with delivering the fruits of connectivity. Expressing staunch intolerance of any kind of rowdiness on train, the Vice President stated that 400 stations are now WiFi-enabled. All stations are soon to be installed with this facility, as goes the assurance. There is no underestimating the power of good and effective connectivity in taking a nation to higher levels of performance. It is commendable that India is moving swiftly in that direction.

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