Kerala Becomes India’s First Digital State

Kerala becomes India’s first Digital State in the country by President Pranab Mukherjee, formally at Digital Empowerment Campaign in Kozhikode.

• The state’s initiative will bridge the Country’s Digital Divide by 2020.
• Kerala having linked all villages in the state with broadband connectivity under the National Optical Fibre Network Project.
• Kerala state boasts of many first in the Human Development Index and the Administrative works of the state to go digitally that makes the work more transparent and efficient.

Kerala E- Literacy:

Kerala government has launched two major projects in 2002 that made breakthrough, namely

1. Akshaya Project which aims making at least one person in every family E-literate.
2. The IT@school project with the objective of providing basic computer Knowledge to every high school student.

E-governance in Kerala:

• The Digital state has over 600 e governance applications covering almost all departments and delivering E services to the citizens.
• The state has over 95 % mobile density and Internet Access covering over 60 % of the population.

Digital Literacy Campaign:

• This Campaign aims at the Digital Empowerment of citizens from all walks of life and enable ordinary citizens to access government and private services in secure manner.
• Once the Campaign extended throughout the state it will cover about three million citizens in the age group of 30-60 years.
• The state is on track towards becoming a fully Digital Society by 2020.

NOFN Project:

• Kerala is the first state in the country to complete NOFN project imitated in 2011.
• The Department of Telecom is set to Complete NOFN rollout to 2.5 lakh villages and Panchayats in India by March 2016.
• About 70,000 km of Optical Fibre is to be laid for this project and the total cost of the initiative is Rs. 30,000 crore.

Kerala:

• Capital: Thiruvanthapuram
• ChiefMinister: Oommen Chandy
• Governor: Sathasivam. P