Skip to main content

Govt to start Rs 34,000 crore Bharat Net phase2 from today

Govt to start Rs 34,000 crore Bharat Net phase2 from today
The government will start its second and final phase of Bharat Net project on Monday —with an outlay of around Rs 34,000 crore— to provide high speed broad band in all panchayats by March 2019, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said on Sunday.Under the project, the government aims to connect 150,000 panchayats through 1 million km of additional optical fibre and give band width to telecom players at nearly 75 per cent cheaper price for broad band and WiFi services in rural areas.
“We will tomorrow launch phase2 of BharatNet to connect 150,000 gram panchayats (GPs) with high speed broad band by March 2019. Phase1 of the project, under which 100,000 GPs were to be connected, will be completed by the end of this year.We expect telecom operators to provide at least 2 megabit per second speed to rural households,” Sundararajan said.
Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar will launch the project on Monday.
The telecom ministry will sign agreements with seven states —Maharashtra, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Jharkhand— which will roll out the project on their own with partial funding from the central government.“The total project cost of BharatNet is around Rs 45,000 crore, of which Rs 11,200 crore have been used for the first phase.
After the rural exchange rollout in the country when telecom services started, this is the biggest project involving domestically manufactured products for the entire project,” Sundararajan said.
She said around Rs 4.5 lakh crore value can be added to the national gross domestic product on completion of Bharat Net phase2, asastudy has suggested that every 10 per cent usage of internet in India drives up GDP by 3.3 per cent. BSNL will roll out optical fibre in yet to be covered locations of eight states —Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim that were not covered under the first phase of Bharat Net.
The government aims to connect 150,000 panchayats through 1 mn km of additional optical fibre
The Business Standard, New Delhi, 13th November 2017

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Budget: Startup sector gets new Fund of Funds, FM to allocate Rs 10K cr

  The Indian startup sector received a boost with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announcing the establishment of a new fund of funds (FoF) in the Budget 2025. The minister unveiled a fresh FoF with an expanded scope, allocating Rs 10,000 crore. The initial fund of funds announced by the government with an investment of Rs 10,000 crore successfully catalysed commitments worth Rs 91,000 crore, the minister said.   “The renewal of the Rs 10,000 crore commitment to the Fund of Funds for alternative investment funds (AIFs) is a significant step forward for the Indian startup and investment ecosystem. The initial Rs 10,000 crore commitment catalysed Rs 91,000 crore in investments, and I fully expect this fresh infusion to attract an additional Rs 1 lakh to Rs 1.5 lakh crore in capital,” said Anirudh Damani, managing partner, Artha Venture Funds.   Damani further added that this initiative will provide much-needed growth capital to early-stage startups, further strengthenin...

After RBI rate cut, check latest home loan interest rates of top banks for loans above Rs 75 lakh

  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has reduced the repo rate by 25 basis points from 6.50% to 6.25% in its monetary policy review as announced on February 7, 2025. After the RBI repo rate cut, banks such as SBI, Canara Bank, PNB, and Union Bank among others have cut their repo linked lending rates. Most other banks are also expected to cut their lending rates in line with the RBI rate cut. After banks cut their lending rates, their home loan borrowers will have to pay less interest. Normally, when a lender cuts the lending rate, borrowers get two options: Either to go for a reduction in EMIs or reduce the tenure of the loan. The second option will help the borrowers clear their home loan outstanding faster. In case, the borrower goes for reduction in EMI then the lower lending rate of the lender would mean lower Equated Monthly Installment (EMI) for borrowers.   EMI is the amount you will pay on a specific date each month till the loan is repaid in full.A repo rate-linked home ...

GST collections rise 9.9% to exceed Rs 1.96 trillion in March 2025

  Gross GST collection in March grew 9.9 per cent to over Rs 1.96 lakh crore, government data showed on Tuesday. GST revenue from domestic transactions rose 8.8 per cent to Rs 1.49 lakh crore, while revenue from imported goods was higher 13.56 per cent to Rs 46,919 crore. Total refunds during March rose 41 per cent to Rs 19,615 crore. After adjusting refunds, net GST revenue stood at over Rs 1.76 lakh crore in March 2025, a 7.3 per cent growth over the year-ago period.       - Business Standard 02 th March, 2025