India to spend Rs 18,000 crore to provide broadband connectivity to all villages

The government of India is planning to spend Rs 18,000 crore over three years to lay a five lakh km optic fibre cable network to provide broadband connectivity in every gram panchayat of the country. The venture will be supported financially by the Universal Services Obligations Fund (USOF).

A committee on broadband connectivity has already been formed with officials from different ministries and the Planning Commission and has been given the responsibility of creating a roadmap for extending affordable broadband connectivity to all villages in the country.

Under the plan, an infrastructure company will be carved out of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to implement the project and work with other public sector undertakings (PSUs) like Power Grid Corporation of India and RailTel. [Source: Economic Times]