Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP): An Opportunity for Funding Rural Internet Connectivity in India
| Autor | Sarbani Banerjee Belur, Abhishek Raj and Ritu Srivastava |
| Páginas | 129-147 |
129
Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP):
An Opportunity for Funding Rural Internet Connectivity in India
10 Gram Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP):
An Opportunity for Funding Rural Internet
Connectivity in India
Sarbani Banerjee Belur79, Abhishek Raj80 and Ritu Srivastava81
10.1 Abstract
Internet connectivity has become important for socio-economic
development of any region, especially the rural and remote regions.
However, a major population of the world including India still remains
unconnected to the internet. The traditional ‘top-down’ approach
for enabling connectivity has proved to be insufficient for rural and
remote areas. In this paper, we discuss an alternative ‘bottom-up’
sustainable multistakeholder model for enabling connectivity in
rural India which has an active involvement of the village community
through ‘Gram Panchayats’ (also known as Village Council). We
also discuss the funding mechanism for this model through ‘Gram
Panchayat Development Plan (GPDP)’. We suggest that ‘Internet for
Development’ be included as one of the cross-cutting development
areas in the GPDP to fund access to the internet in villages.
10.2 Introduction
The Internet is considered to be the decisive technology of the
information age (Castells, 2014). No longer is access to the internet
a luxury only, it has proven to be a necessity for socio-economic
development in both developing and developed countries (World
Bank, n.d.; Song et al., 2018, p. 8). Broadband (or high-speed)
internet access is a powerful tool not only for delivering essential
services such as education and healthcare but also offering increased
opportunities for women empowerment and environmental
sustainability, and contributing to an enhanced transparency and
accountability of government (World Bank, n.d.). Research suggests
that an increase of 10 percent in mobile broadband penetration
yields an increase of 1.8 and 2.0 percent in GDP respectively for
79 Sr. Research Scientist, IIT Bombay & Asia Regional Coordinator, Association for Progressive
Communications (APC), sarbanibelur@iitb.ac.in.
80 Researcher, The Centre for Internet and Society, abhishekraj2020@gmail.com.
81 Independent Researcher & Director, Jadeite Solutions, ritu.instablogs@gmail.com.
130 Community Networks: Towards Sustainable Funding Models
middle and lower income countries (Katz & Callorda, 2018). Stressing
upon the importance of the internet, the United Nations General
Assembly (UNGA) in its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development
has listed down ‘Universal and affordable access to the Internet’
as a Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).82
However, this goal is still far from being achieved. As of January 2021,
there were 4.66 billion active internet users (AIU) worldwide ~ 59.5
percent (Johnson, 2021) of the global population. The situation in India
is not encouraging either. As of March 2021, there were 778.09 million
(Telecom Regulatory Authority of India [TRAI], 2021) broadband
subscribers in India and an internet subscriber density (total internet
subscribers per 100 population) of 60.73 (TRAI, 2021). With a rural and
urban internet subscriber density of around 36.24 and 107.30 (TRAI,
2021) respectively, a digital divide is clearly evident between rural
and urban India. The rural connectivity solution in India is entrapped
in a vicious cycle. Barriers and challenges pose difficulty for internet
penetration in rural areas thus discouraging usage of internet services.
Low adoption of internet services results in poor Return-on-Investment
(RoI) for service providers which in turn discourages internet coverage
in rural areas. Hence, even if connectivity would reach the villages in
India due to technological advancement, it would be difficult to sustain
itself at the village level without a sustainable funding model.
The Government of India, in order to increase internet penetration as
well as bridge the rural-urban digital divide, has undertaken various
initiatives under the umbrella of Digital India (Department of Telecom,
2019). Among such initiatives, BharatNet Optical Fibre Network
83
and
Prime Minister Wireless Access Network Interface (PM- WANI) are
notable. BharatNet, earlier known by the name of National Optical
Fibre Network (NOFN), is a flagship project of the Government of India
which aims to link 2,50,000 ‘Gram Panchayats (GPs)’
84
to optical fibre
network (Bharat Broadband Network Limited [BBNL], n.d.). BharatNet
provides a middle-mile connectivity from Block Headquarters85 to
82 See SDG 9. Accessible at .
83 To know more about Bharat Net, please see
84 ‘‘Gram Panchayat’ is an administrative unit in the local self-government system of India. It may
consist of one or more villages depending upon the population size of villages. Bharat Net
provides connectivity at ‘Gram Panchayat’ offices. For more details on Gram Panchayats and
local government system in India, see Section 3.2.
85 Blocks are the second level in rural local self-government.
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