Union Budget 2019: 2 crore rural Indians are digitally literate under the Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan, says FM

The Digital India programme in rural India has been given a further boost in the Budget 2019 presented for the year ending March 2020. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the roadmap for the Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA), which is a part of the Digital India programme. Sitharaman has confirmed that as many as two crores rural Indians are now digitally literally literate as part of the Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan. It is expected that as many as six crores rural households will be covered as part of the Abhiyan.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched Pradhan Mantri Gramin Digital Saksharta Abhiyan (PMGDISHA) at Gandhinagar in Gujarat. PMGDISHA is expected to make 6 crore rural households digitally literate by March 2019, making it one of the largest digital literacy programmes in the world. PMGDISHA aims at imparting digital literacy to citizens in rural areas free of cost. It aims to provide access to information, knowledge, education, and healthcare. It will create avenues for livelihood generation and financial inclusion through digital payments and help bridge the digital divide.

During the Budget 2019 speech, the finance minister said that the "BharatNet project will be expanded across India, with the target being to connect every panchayat in the country." 

The BharatNet project attempts to provide high-speed broadband connections to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to rural India.