India launches $265 million Digital Literacy Mission
India will be launching a $265 million Digital Literacy Mission to educate as many as 60 million people in rural areas on internet and computer usage.
The National Sample Survey Organisation found in 2014 that 94 percent of people living in rural India did not own a computer. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley thus proposed steps to address the issue during his budget speech in February. CSC e-Governance Service India has been promoted by the Department of Electronics and Information Technology to implement the National Digital Literacy Mission
Dinesh Kumar Tyagi, chief executive officer, of CSC e-Governance Service India said: "The objective of these centres is to provide non-discriminatory access to e-services for rural citizens, utilising the backend infrastructure already created in terms of other mission mode projects."
"Till June, we have already set up 170,000 centres across the country. The target is to reach out to 250,000 gram panchayats by the end of this year. Every gram panchayat gets one centre."
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SOURCE: [Business Standard]
