India, March 10 -- The Government of India has issued a release:
As informed by the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, for providing high bandwidth capacity internet/broadband connectivity and mobile services to remote & rural villages and islands in the country that currently lack coverage, a number of steps & projects have been taken up with funding from Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) [erstwhile Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)], Department of Telecommunications (DoT). BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country. As of February 2026, about 2,17,805 GPs have been made service ready under BharatNet project in the c...