Indian government aims to connect 700 million Indians

NEW DELHI: The Indian government said that it is aiming to connect 700 million Indians through internet by the year 2022 with the help of private telecom operators.

"With combined effort of govt and telcos, we do expect 700 million Indians will have internet access by 2022…we have an opportunity to grow together," Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said on Wednesday.

The Indian government is expecting to connect 1 lakh panchayats under the BharatNet project by the end of this year, besides installing 1 million Wi-Fi hotpots by the year 2019.

"We have witnesses 7 fold acceleration in deployment, and we are expecting to connect 1 lakh panchayats by end this year, and 1 million Wifi hotspots by 2019 in India," she said.

Sundararajan said that the Indian government is committed to ensure every Indian is a part of digital revolution. "We don’t just want to connect every Indian with broadband, but through next-gen networks," she added.