Dhanauri Kalan: It was a scorching Sunday and Union Minister for IT and Electronics Ravi Shankar Prasad was walking through the narrow lanes of Dhanauri Kalan, a village in the outskirts of the Greater Noida under Gautam Budh Nagar district, to showcase that it has become the sixth digital village in the country with complete digital literacy.
While outlining the commendable works being undertaken by Common Service Centres (CSCs) in accomplishing the objectives of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Digital India scheme, the IT Minister said, "The network of CSCs, which acts as access points for delivery of digital services, is set to be expanded to 2.50 lakh gram panchayats by the year-end."
Hailing the CSC programme, Prasad said that the CSC programme has transformed into a movement of change bringing services like banking, pensions, digital literacy and telemedicine to rural and remote villages through electronic infrastructure.
Prasad was accompanied by Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma, who also represents Gautam Budh Nagar parliamentary constituency in Lok Sabha. "CSCs are working in 1.8 lakh gram panchayats and very soon it will reach 2.5 lakh gram panchayats by end of the year. In the country there are 2.91 CSCs which are operational," Prasad said addressing an event to showcase a host of digital services that will now be available in the digital village.
Positioned as strategic cornerstone of Digital India programme, the CSC model has adopted six villages in the country in the pilot phase. "About 700 digital villages will be established by the year-end," Prasad told reporters.
DigiGaon or Digital Village is conceptualised as a connected village where citizens can avail various e-Services of the Central government, state governments and private players in rural and remote villages in the country.These DigiGaons are projected to be change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship and building rural capacities and livelihoods through community participation and collective action. The digital villages have been equipped with solar lighting facility in their community centre, LED assembly unit, sanitary napkin unit (with active participation from Asha and Anganwadi workers) and Wi-Fi choupal (rural Wi-Fi infrastructure and a slew of suitable applications).
These villages would also have the regular CSC services like banking, health, education, financial services, and a host of other services. In the initial phase, villages Piyala and Dayalpur (in Haryana), Chandankiyari East and Shivbabudih (in Jharkhand) and Dhanauri Kalan and Sultanpur (in Uttar Pradesh) have been chosen for the pilot project.