Connecting all Village Panchayats in India

Very soon, every panchayat in the country will have an internet equipped service centre to ensure rural access to various online services like railway reservation and weather information for farmers.

The information technology department is working on a plan to have 2.5 lakh such centres across the country – one in every panchayat – by 2012. While this is an extension of the original plan to have one lakh telecentres – one each at the block level – the department is banking on the recently unveiled National Broadband Policy to provide access to high speed connectivity.