NEW DELHI: The Indian government on Monday said that 5,000 villages would be turned into digital villages where Internet services would be offered the Wi-Fi Choupal project, which would go a long in empowering people as also expose them to a host of e-governance and entertainment services.  

“Delighted to launch 5000 Wi-Fi choupal services. People in these villages will be able to use high speed public WiFi at low cost, Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a tweet yesterday flagging off a host of digital initiatives being developed by the government using the ambitious Bharat Net optical fiber that promises to connect all villages in India.

“We all know about the person who worked as coolie (porter) at a Railway Station in Kerala (and) who cleared state Public Service Commission exam by using Rail WiFi. I will be happy if such inspiring stories through use of @wifichoupal also come to our notice in future,” Prasad said another tweet.

Department of Telecoms Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said the digitization of villages will not only create a common services centers, which can develop into a powerful content delivery network, but rural India will benefit from technology advancement and the BharatNet project. The infrastructure created under Wi-Fi choupal will be a “national asset” that will be accessible to various service providers. 

Choupal can be described in English as a common meeting place for people in villages.