New Delhi, July 10 (Mayank Nigam) The Department of Communications has asked the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to come forward and adopt villages and employ 5G technology to make the “smart” villages and create sustainable and prosperous future of India’s rural communities. Addressing a workshop on “Transforming Rural Landscape: Designing 5G Intelligent Villages”, DoT Secretary Dr Neeraj Mittal highlighted the importance of collaborative efforts in achieving the vision of intelligent villages. He discussed the concept of “smart” and “intelligent” villages, emphasizing the ability of these communities to interact, sense their surroundings, convey data, and extract knowledge, to be able to make informed decisions. Mittal urged Industry and TSPs to come forward and adopt villages and employ technology to make them intelligent villages. He expressed the hope that workshop will come out with smart solution and test use-cases for creating a sustainable and prosperous future for our rural communities.
Member (T), DoT, Ms Madhu Arora emphasised on the need to bridge the digital gap between Urban and Rural landscapes. She said the evolving technologies have the potential to enrich the lives of people in rural areas in all spheres of life, be it education, health, environment, agriculture and conservation and intelligent use of natural resources etc. Senior ministry official firmly asserted that technology must enhance the lives of people in rural areas to be truly valuable. Therefore, we need to develop innovative solutions, ranging from ‘Intelligent Display’ to micro-robots, to create 5G Intelligent Villages that will positively affect all sectors and benefit the society at large, particularly the rural population. The workshop aimed at integrating technology and rural development to enhance quality of life. The integration of cutting-edge innovations, like 5G, with traditional rural practices was highlighted as a pathway to foster sustainable growth and improve living standards in rural areas. The 5G Intelligent Village Initiative of the DoT responds to the pressing need for equitable technological advancement by harnessing the transformative power of 5G technology to uplift rural communities. By leveraging such advancements, the government aims to ensure that rural areas are not left behind in the global push for technological progress and sustainability.