Nokia announces project to develop 500 digitally integrated smart villages in India

In phase 1 of the project, a pilot has been rolled out in Haryana and Tamil Nadu with Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) as the implementation partner to develop 10 such villages in each state.

Finnish multinational company Nokia has announced today 'Smartpur project' that aims to develop 500 digitally integrated and sustainable villages across India in line with government's vision of Digital India.

Smartpur is a rural entrepreneurship-based model designed to create ideal smart villages in India. Initiated by New Delhi-based Digital Empowerment Foundation and supported by Nokia, Smartpur is a one-year pilot project based on a hub-and-spoke model.

In phase 1 of the project, a pilot has been rolled out in Haryana and Tamil Nadu with Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF) as the implementation partner to develop 10 such villages in each state. The pilot in Tain village in Mewat district in Haryana was inaugurated today ambassador of Finland, Ms. Nina Vaskunlahti, the company informed via press release.

Smartpur has adopted a rural entrepreneurial-based approach under which the project seeks to create a social enterprise model driven by rural youth and supported by community members, government bodies, private institutions and other relevant stakeholders.

According to the International Telecom Union ICT Facts and Figures, 20 percent of households in developed countries and as many as 66 percent of households in developing countries do not have internet access, leaving almost 4 billion people from developing countries offline.

Nearly a billion of these unconnected people live in India, and mostly in rural India. As a telecommunications technology leader, Nokia is committed to improving people's lives through connectivity. With the Smartpur project, Nokia aims to create a sustainable ecosystem where community members can leverage digital tools to bring efficiency in daily lives, transparency in governance, economic prosperity for households and ease of access to various government services and information.

The project will work under the five key areas of development - health, education, livelihood, governance and finance - to build a holistic, digitally integrated village.

According to the company release, in phase 1 of the project, 20 villages will be digitally integrated in Haryana and Tamil Nadu in a hub and spoke model. Tain village in Mewat district, Haryana and Asoor in Kanchipuram district, Tamil Nadu will serve as hubs which will host a digital center with telecom connectivity to provide ICT-enabled, primary services across each of the 5 pillars to the rural community. The spoke centers will further extend these services to 9 other villages. In phase 2, the project will be scaled-up to up to another 80 villages across various states. Subsequently, it will be extended to another 400 villages over a period of 5 years.

"At Nokia, we believe connecting the unconnected opens up opportunities in many areas and has tremendous potential to enable the socio-economic empowerment of individual as well as communities. Globally, Nokia works with governments, NGOs, our customers and vendors to drive access for all. The Smartpur initiative is our contribution to delivering the benefits of broadband infrastructure and services to the 'telecom-dark' areas and support the government's vision of Digital India for a more inclusive growth," told Sanjay Malik, head of India Market, Nokia.

The rural entrepreneurs at the hub centers provide primary services under the six key areas of development—health, education, livelihood, governance, finance and entertainment, rural entrepreneurs at the spoke centers will further redistribute these services in their respective villages.