A nation wide initiative to bridge the rural-urban digital divide by accelerating ICT penetration in rural and remote areas |
One of India 's largest telecom companies, BSNL, and HCL Infosystems, one of India 's premier information enabling ICT System Integration companies announced that they will be working together on the National Broadband Penetration Program (NBPP), a nationwide initiative to accelerate IT proliferation in rural India . The project aims to accelerate PC and broadband penetration by offering a complete solution and to create new markets in the interiors of the country.
The NBPP project, believed to be the largest government program to promote rural connectivity till date, aims to break through the affordability barrier. The project aims to power the next million PC+ Broadband connections in untapped market space through the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) under DOT which has granted a subsidy to BSNL for providing wire line broadband connectivity in rural and remote areas. USOF will be providing a subsidy of Rs. 4500/- per broadband connection that BSNL will be rolling out through their existing 27,789 rural and remote telephone exchanges.
With this ambitious program, HCL and BSNL aim to address the significant untapped demand in rural markets by providing a complete solution to the customer This solution will be available to customer at a nominal payment of Rs. 2,250/- followed by Rs. 300/- per month for the PC and subsidized broadband package at Rs.99/- or Rs.150/- per month.
This program is seen as an initiative from Government of India and USOF to support inclusive growth. Different countries across the globe have adopted this model of partnering with IT companies to infuse PC-Broadband growth for national development. As India is poised for growth, this program will significantly contribute in ensuring sustained economic growth. There is a direct and favourable correlation to the number of Personal Computers (PCs) per inhabitant to the per capita GDP of the country. A study shows that for country like China , the per capita GDP is expected to increase from $ 8000 to $ 18000 as PC penetration increases from 5% to 24% from 2005 to 2015. Countries like Korea , Singapore and Sweden attribute their inclusive economic growth over the past decade greatly to the increased PC & broadband penetration.
“This is indeed the one of the major initiatives to bridge the digital divide by offering PC + Broadband at a subsidized rates to our customers. We are delighted to partner with HCL Infosystems for this nation wide program. The missing pie in PC and broadband proliferation was the affordability and service which are now being provided jointly by us and HCL, with support from USOF to increase desirability.” said Mr. Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL.
Complementing BSNLs need for a partner with extensive rural reach, experience & servicing ability, HCL Infosystems continues to lay more emphasis on creating appropriate programs and solutions for the Indian rural markets . Committed to bridge the ‘Digital Divide' in the country HCL has been one of the pioneers in India to create special ICT products and solutions for the rural markets. Over the years, HCL has innovated and developed various products and solutions to address rural market including rural PC that works on a car battery, special products for milk co-operatives in rural India, packages for education and literacy in rural India, the development of special software and hardware products for addressing financial inclusion for the unbanked in the rural India, programs for panchayat computerisation & support for community service centres through government schemes and the ITC e-Chaupal program.
"Today, the need to create a progressive environment of growth is more than ever before. Indian economy, in the past few years, has grown but the growth can be accelerated and made more inclusive by providing an impetus to PC & Broadband penetration in rural India . This project for BSNL is in line with our strategy for mass adoption of PC + Broadband to promote India 's GDP growth” said Mr. Ajai Chowdhry, Chairman & CEO, HCL Infosystems Ltd.