One crore people now digitally literate: Ravi Shankar Prasad

With one crore villagers being made digitally literate across the country, Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad today said Assam accounts for less than half a per cent of them.

"We had set a target of making six crore villagers digitally literate. I'm happy to inform that one crore people are now digitally literate. Out of that, 49,000 are from Assam," the Union Information Technology Minister said at a function here.

The 'Common Service Centres' performing various duties digitally in rural areas have an important role in this regard, he said.


Prasad said currently 2,892 active CSCs are functioning on Assam, imparting services in Aadhaar Card, PAN Card, insurance services along with host of other areas involving digital expertise.

"Out of these, 2,311 CSCs are working in gram panchayats. Across India, 10 lakh youths are working in such centres. These will also start selling fertilisers in coming days," he added.

The CSCs are also imparting legal counselling to villagers with 7,980 cases across the country, of which 2,054 are from Assam.

The Union Minister also informed that BPOs will be opened in Majuli, Silchar, Kokrajhar, Nagaon and Diphu, for which tender process has been initiated.

"Already three BPOs have opened in Guwahati and one in Jorhat. I'm very happy to know that the ones in Imphal and Kohima are getting orders from the US," he added.