Digital India will transform the nation: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Chennai, Aug 28: The 'Digital India Project' would transform the country in terms of digitally empowering every citizen with broadband connectivity and national optical fibre network, Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday.

"Digital India will transform the Indian canvas in terms of digitally empowering every Indian with broadband connectivity and national optical fibre network," he told reporters after a 40-minute long meeting with Chief Minister and AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa, ahead of launching the Jan Dhan scheme.

Under the Project, 60,000 panchayats would be covered in the current year and one lakh next year. One more lakh panchayats will be reached in the year thereafter, he added.

"The Modi government's ambition is to bring broadband to all schools and Wifi to all universities in India," he said.

Stating that the Centre was encouraging electronic manufacturing in a big way through various measures like concessions and incentives, he pointed out that electronic clusters are being set up all over the country to make quality electronic goods. He described his meeting with Jayalalithaa as "very fruitful" and added that he had requested her to avail facilities being provided to the electronics sector by the Centre as Tamil Nadu has a very strong manufacturing base.

"She responded very positively and I am sure Tamil Nadu along with the rest of India will march ahead on the road towards progress." The minister also explained to the Chief Minister about Jan Dan Yojana, "a great exercise of financial inclusion."

"I have great regard and respect for her as a popular leader." When pressed further about the meeting, he said, "we discussed a lot of issues and every issue need not be discussed publicly." The BJP had an "enormous potential" to grow in Tamil Nadu, he said.

PTI