Digital India: Rajastahan’s Alwar district gets internet via solar-powered telecom towers

Despite being deprived of facilities like proper roads, hospitals, post-office, people in Alwar district of Rajasthan have internet facility. People are known to use cheaper Wi-Fi services for studying or streaming videos on YouTube.

People in remote villages of Rajasthan’s Alwar district are catching up on the ‘Digital India’ trail as many of them, including women, have started using internet being provided through unique solar-run telecom towers. Karenda, Phalsa and Bahadari, the three villages which lie close to the state’s border with Haryana, lack facilities like proper roads, hospitals, post-office and police station, but people there have been connected with internet and mobile telephony under an initiative of a private company.

While locals said gram panchayats are proposed to be connected with internet according to the Centre’s ‘Digital India’ plan, which may take at least one-and-a-half years more, some of them were already using cheaper Wi-Fi internet to download study material or enjoy video songs on YouTube. “I use internet to download study material for the exams that I am preparing for,” said Krishna Devi, who is preparing for teacher’s eligibility test (TET).

Krishna Devi, who is also the deputy village head of Karenda, said that otherwise she would have to buy the books which are not easily available near the village and are also not updated as frequently as the study material online. The government school in Karenda, which locals claimed got electricity connection about two months ago, already has a digital classroom with the study material for some of the classes optimized for ‘digital tutorials’ run on the internet provided by VNL Telecom. ALSO READ: Digital India: Free Wi-Fi facility available at Daman and Diu. Read more…