It’s Official – Kerala Becomes India’s First Digital State After Achieving 100% Broadband Connectivity of Villages

 

Kerala has just been declared as India’s first digital village. This was formally announced by President Pranab Mukherjee while launching Digital Employment Campaign and inaugurating UL Cyber Park, which is an IT park under the Uralungal Labour Contract Cooperative Society.

Under Digital Employment Campaign, 40,000 student police cadets will train 10 lakh people across various villages and towns about aspects of digital life, and empower them to be employed under this sector.

President said, “Kerala is also a pioneer in e-literacy having launched two breakthrough projects as early as 2002. The Akshaya Project was launched with the objective of making at least one person in every family e-literate. The IT@school project aimed at providing basic computer knowledge to every high school student,”

The primary reason for declaring Kerala as India’s #1 digital state is the fact that each and every village in the state is now connected with high speed broadband; a vision supported by National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, which was recently renamed to BharatNet.

BharatNet’s mission is to connect 2,50,000 villages by high speed broadband, and a budget of Rs 20,000 crore has already been allocated for the same.

Last year, Idukki taluka in Kerala became the first such taluka to be 100% connected using broadband under BharatNet mission.

Kerala is already India’s most literate state with 93.91% literacy rate which highest in India since last two decades.

Other prominent reasons which make Kerala as India’s first and only 100% Digital State:

• State of Kerala has set a new benchmark in e-Governance, after 600 applications were developed, to cover every department under e-Governance in the state.
• Kerala is the only state in India with 95% mobile density
• 60% of all citizens in Kerala access Internet via mobile/tablet; laptop/desktop
• The state has 2300 Akshaya Centers, where anyone can use Digitalized services for e-Governance such as bill payments, issuing PAN Cards, Aadhar Cards and more.
• Department of Education in Kerala had launched a unique IT@School project, under which 39 lakh students have learn computers and know how to access Internet.
• More than 3000 Government offices in Kerala are paperless

Last year, we had reported how Kerala has become India’s most digitally advanced state, after their CM Oommen Chandy announced their digital accomplishments. With the declaration from President of India, Kerala has indeed made India proud; and has set a new benchmark for other states where ecommerce transactions are still charged a draconian tax of 10%; and some states where e-shopping of more than Rs 5000 is not allowed!

If you are from Kerala, then do share your experience of Digital India by commenting right here.