On December 17, 2019 The Minister for Communications, Law & Justice and Electronics and Information Technology(IT), Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad launched National Broadband Mission (NBM) in New Delhi. The mission’s aim is to enable all the people to engage in digital communication infrastructure. The minister also launched logo of NBM and a booklet on the occasion.
National Broadband Mission:
i.Mission Objectives: The Mission has adopted certain objectives based on 3 principles such as universality, affordability and quality. The objectives are as follows:
- Aim: The mission aims to provide broadband access to all villages in the country by 2022, where the current no. of towers in the country i.e., 5.65 lakhs will be increased to 10 lakhs.
- Investment: $100 billion (Rs 7 Lakh Crore) investment from stakeholders including Rs 70,000 crore from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) through the mission will be done.
- Route for OFC: Laying of incremental 30 lakhs route kilometers of Optical Fiber Cable(OFC) and increasing the tower density from 0.42 to 1.0 tower per thousand of population by 2024.
- BRI: Developing Broadband Readiness Index (BRI). It measures the availability of digital communications infrastructure and conducive policy ecosystem within a State/UT (Union Territory).
- Digital fibre map: Creating digital fibre map for digital communications including OFC & tower nationwide.Fiberisation of towers to 70% from 30% at present will be done.
- Models for RoW: Developing innovative implementation models for Right of Way (RoW). RoW is legal right, established by usage or grant, to pass along a specific route through grounds or property belonging to another.
ii.NBM vision: The vision of NBM is to track the growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital empowerment and inclusion and provide affordable and universal access of broadband for all.
iii.Members Present: Minister of State(MoS) for Communications, Human Resources Development(HRD) and Electronics & IT, Shri Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre; Shri Anshu Prakash, secretary of Telecom and other senior officials were present in the event. Click here to know more
About Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology(MeitY):
Founded- 1999.
Headquarters- New Delhi.
Union Minister- Ravi Shankar Prasad (Constituency- Patna, Bihar).
Minister of State(MoS)- Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre (Constituency- Akola, Maharashtra).
Secretary- Ajay Prakash Sawhney.
