The Telangana government after launching the ambitious Mission Bhagiratha scheme to provide tap connection to each and every household, has decided to include internet and broadband connections in it to realise the dream of Digital Telangana within the next two years.
Minister for IT and Municipal Administration K. Taraka Rama Rao made this announcement at Huzurabad after inaugurating the Telekha Networking Technologies Private Limited, the first rural-based start-up software company in the State on Wednesday.
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Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Rama Rao said that the government had decided to lay optic fibre grid on the lines of Mission Bhagiratha water grid measuring a distance of 1.5 lakh kilometres in the State and provide broadband connectivity to every household to make Telangana a digital State.
As part of the measures to promote IT in rural areas, he said that they had taken up last-mile connectivity to provide internet facilities in rural areas.
The last-mile connectivity will help the rural masses access modern medical care by linking the PHCs with corporate hospitals.
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Another aim is to improve quality of education through e-classroom with lectures from expert faculty members of various institutions in metros.
Digital literacyThe government was improving digital literacy in the State and so far it had provided digital education to one lakh people.
The government had provided digital literacy to 5,000 people within the GHMC limits and was taking all measures to ensure at least one person per family in Telangana was digitally literate. The aim is to bring at least a crore of families under this fold.
Highlighting the need for improving skills and knowledge of rural students, the Minister said that the students from this background were unable to present themselves properly due to lack of proper communication skills.
He asked them to join the Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge (TASK) to hone their skills and make them employable.
Minister for Finance and Civil Supplies Etala Rajender requested the IT Minister to open IT start-ups in other towns such as Jagtial, Sircilla and Ramagundam to provide employment locally.
He also said that the IT sector should be decentralised and promoted in rural areas instead of concentrating only in Hyderabad.
Zilla Parishad Chairperson Tula Uma, Rajya Sabha MP V. Laxmikantha Rao, Peddapalli MP Balka Suman, former MPs G. Vivenanda and Ponnam Prabhakar, IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Telekha CEO Rohit Chandra Ponnam and others were also present.