Nirmala Sitharam, the finance minister of India, announces the expansion of the high-speed broadband connectivity under the Bharatnet project to Schools and Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) under the Budget 2025-26. This aims to enhance the connectivity of government institutions and the population in Tier-2 and Tier-III cities with high-speed broadband connectivity.   

Bharatnet Project under the Ministry of Communications, Government of India aims to connect all the gram panchayats, around 2.64 lakhs, in India with Optical Fibre or Satellite Link Internet. Through this, the government aims to provide critical services like e-health, e-education, and e-governance to rural and remote communities through telecom operators. This would enable the government of India and the people associated with such institutes to experience seamless connectivity with the far-flung areas that traditionally remain, under-connected. 

BharatNet: Previous Records 

As of now, following the completion of Phase I and Phase II of the Bharatnet project, a total of 214,283 Gram Panchayats (GPs) are service-ready. According to data released by the Ministry of Communication (MoC), Uttar Pradesh has the highest number of Gram Panchayats connected under the Bharat Net Project, with 46,729 out of a total of 57,691 GPs.

Read our previous report on Bharatnet at: How many Gram Panchayats have been Connected Under Bharat Net? Read More to Know the State-wise Data
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Finally, the project aims to increase India’s reach into the places where critical services need to be ensured in education and treatment through hospitals,