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A digital wave is currently sweeping India. And none other than its government is the biggest change-agent.
After actively pushing for a cashless economy last year, Modi's 'Digital India' bus is now reaching the smallest and sleepiest towns of the country.
SEE ALSO:India's attempt to go cashless is turning food vouchers digitalAbout 7,000 railway stations in India's hinterlands will now be turned into digital hotspots, the Economic Timesreports.
These Wi-Fi-enabled stations will also serve as hubs for ordering and receiving goods from e-commerce portals. That gives Amazon a reason to smile and an opportunity to add more zip codes in its delivery ambit.
India has a rich optical fiber network which is being leveraged to set up these centers. It is a direct push for internet adoption in rural and semi-rural areas from where the next phase of internet growth is expected.
Currently, there are 450-460 million internet users in India, the second-largest in the world after China. And a chunk of them are from the big cities.
Several railway stations in big, busier locations, are being provided free internet by Google which runs "the largest public Wi-Fi project in the world" in India.
Last December, Google announced that 100 railway stations were on its free Wi-Fi network and another 100 would be added this year. About 6 million new users were availing the service every month.
India's sprawling railway network, the largest in Asia, reportedly ferries over 23 million passengers daily – equivalent to moving the entire population of Australia – connecting more than 7,172 stations. And this was two years ago.
Hence, railway stations are a critical access point for the government to influence and impact millions of lives with internet connectivity.
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