Digital connectivity of villages is no longer an aspiration but the need of the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Wednesday, adding that problems in the fast rollout of connectivity should be ironed out at the earliest.

“Digital connectivity of villages is no longer an aspiration but the need of the day. Broadband connectivity will not only provide facilities in the villages, but it will also help in creating a large pool of skilled youth in the villages,” said Modi while addressing a programme on the Union Budget 2022.

“When the service sector expands with broadband connectivity in the village, the country’s potential will increase further. If there are any problems in optical fiber connectivity, then we have to identify them and find solutions,” the Prime Minister said, according to ANI.

He said that the citizens of the country need to inform the rural population about the proper usage of optical fibre networks.

“We need to identify and solve all optical fibre connectivity issues across the nation’s rural areas. We also need to inform the rural population about the proper usage of optical fibre networks in villages that are now connected,” he said.

“To achieve 100 per cent target in different schemes, we also have to focus on new technology. So that the projects are also completed faster and there is no compromise with the quality,” the Prime Minister said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed a post-budget webinar on the Union Budget 2022 on Wednesday.

The theme of the programme ‘Leaving No Citizen Behind’, as per the Ministry of Rural Development’s press release, is aimed at bringing industry leaders, policymakers and government officials together to deliberate upon the positive impact of the budget and identify actionable strategies to collectively work towards furthering the common goal of upliftment of everyone, a saturation of each household and village, leaving no one behind.

The Union Budget 2022-23 has provided an impetus to the telecom sector through a budget announcement, which proposes to allocate five percent of annual collections under the USOF to promote R&D and commercialisation of technologies and solutions in order to enable affordable broadband and mobile services proliferation in rural and remote areas. In addition it has also been proposed to cover all villages on the optical fiber network by 2025.