Assam has become the first state in the northeast to set up a digital village in all districts under the Digital India campaign. In the first phase of the campaign, 700 villages will be digitalised across the country with digital banking, teaching, and telemedicine being the three major features. State-owned e-governance entity CSC SPV (special purpose vehicle) under the Union ministry of electronics and information technology (Meity) is playing a key role in implementing the mission.

MAIN HIGHLIGHTS:

=> A digital village has been successfully established in all 33 districts of the state during the pandemic situation. A majority of the state’s population resides in rural areas and has no access to modern technologies. It has created great disparities between rural and urban populations.

=> The rural population has always been deprived of all opportunities and avenues of development. In order to overcome these challenges, the project digital village has been conceptualized as a one-stop service solution to empower rural hinterlands with an objective to connect digitally and deliver integrated benefits related to internet connectivity, education, skill, health, financial inclusion and sanitation to remove the digital divide and ensure comprehensive development.

=> Citizens can avail various online services of the central and state governments, and private players alike. As the world faces one of its biggest health and humanitarian crises in the form of the Covid-19 pandemic.

=> The digital villages are positioned to be change agents, promoting rural entrepreneurship, building capacities and livelihoods through community participation and collective action. In these digital villages, CSCs are creating awareness through financial inclusion awareness campaigns on useful and affordable products and digital payment tools, including kiosk banking, insurance and pension schemes.