The government on Wednesday launched the Digital India Campaign to provide fast internet connections for all. Here is what you need to know about PM Narendra Modi's ambitious initiative.
- The government is reinvigorating an $18 billion campaign to provide fast internet connections for all, with a "digital week" aimed at popularising Prime Minister Narendra Modi's campaign promise to connect 250,000 villages in India by 2019.
- The government's tech push, which plans to provide electronic governance and universal phone connectivity across the country, aims to bridge India's digital divide, bringing in large investments in technology manufacturing.
- The digital week, being launched later on Wednesday, will involve citizen awareness programmes.
- The plan aims to stop net imports of technology and electronics by 2020, while creating over 100 million jobs.
- India's average Internet speed was ranked 115th globally in the first quarter of the year, among countries studied by services provider Akamai Technologies.
- India had just a little over 100 million broadband subscribers at the end of April, out of a population of close to 1.3 billion, according to the sector regulator, which considers Internet connections with minimum download speeds of 512 kbps.