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When the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, approved a project worth INR 26,316 crore in July this year, to make 4G cellular service available in 24,680 uncovered villages in remote areas of the country, those who deserve the facility but have been deprived of it all these years, didn’t show much enthusiasm. The lukewarm response was not surprising though, as there is still a huge portion of the population in rural areas that don’t have access to mobile phone network, forget about high-speed internet facility. Many might not be aware of the proposal; moreover, the government didn’t specify which areas would fall under the programme. The Union Minister of State for Skill Development, Entrepreneurship, Electronics, and Technology, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, who was on a three-day visit to Nagaland, cleared this doubt on Tuesday by announcing that no part of the Northeast will be left uncovered by internet in the coming months. He added that a minimum of 4G mobile service will be made available across Nagaland state. This is a welcomed development and a much-needed one as India has a lot of ground to cover in terms of internet connectivity despite being the world's second-largest telecommunications market with more than one billion subscriptions and the launch of Digital India campaign in 2015 to help citizens avail government's services electronically. If executed well, this project will digitally empower the people, especially those in remote areas.
A high speed uninterrupted internet connectivity is becoming increasingly important today as the young population is heavily dependent on mobile data services for various daily activities, be it accessing news and dissemination of information, or for work, education, entertainment or availing government schemes. For instance, Nagaland government has taken up several initiatives in e-governance over the past few years in an effort to maintain transparency in administration and execution of development projects, for which it has received accolades as well, but for citizens in rural areas, slow internet connection or the absence of such facility has rendered the laudable initiative useless. The online learning introduced during the peak of COVID-19 pandemic was a farce in remote places as students could not access internet. The government of Nagaland has been trying to attract investors to set up firms in the state but no sane company will do so without good internet service today. The talks about services like e-commerce, tele-banking and tele-medicine have no relevance to most rural areas in north-eastern states. In fact, there is no sector that lack of internet service doesn’t affect. Considering the growing dependency on mobile data, providing the fourth generation broadband cellular network technology may turn out to be a game changer for the Northeast. It will help almost all sectors, including agriculture, economics, education, marketing and tourism. The Centre should see to it that the project is implemented and as soon as possible.