Cabinet has approved an outlay of Rs.1.39 lakh crore for BharatNet, the government’s project for last-mile connectivity across 6.4 lakh villages in the country.

• According to government sources, the Cabinet, in its meeting, had approved the latest round of funds for the project. Giving the latest updates on the ongoing project, sources said around 1.94 lakh villages have been connected at present and rest of the villages are expected to be connected in the next 2.5 years.
• Cabinet has approved Rs. 1,39,579 crore fund for providing last-mile optical fibre-based connectivity to homes in all the villages of the country.
• BharatNet is one of the biggest rural telecom projects in the world, implemented in a phased manner to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats (GPs) in the country for last-mile broadband connectivity.