Bihar is on a growth path and has recently been on an early adopter curve – the state earlier announced using ‘Android’ Phones to monitor road construction from district headquarters and now the state plans to create a new cabinet position for an Internet Minister.
While the exact role of Internet Ministry is not yet known, it is expected that the position will be located in Nalanda district, the erstwhile center of higher learning.
In a press conference, a state official suggested that the plans for creating an exclusive ministry is in place and details would be made public after a final approval from the governor of Bihar. He did mention that the ministry’s work would mostly revolve around getting Bihar up on the broadband connectivity map of the world.
Sharing an aspirational target of getting 100% boradband connectivity in all villages of Bihar by end this year, he said that, the state cannot depend on central govt.’s plans which keep getting delayed. The Internet ministry will be also looking at strict regulation of ISPs servicing in the state and would have a centralized mechanism to check any service disruption. He suggested that regulations around possible penalties on breaching SLA would also be put in place with a fine upto 3X of subscription amount.
One other important thing mentioned was that the broadband definition would be chnaged for ISPs in Bihar from 256Kbps to 2Mbps.
Hope this movement from Bihar inspires the other states as well. What’s your opinion?