New Delhi
Union Minister of Electronics and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad today said that the government will set up one lakh digital villages in the country in the next few years.
Speaking at the MeitY Start-Up Summit 2019 in New Delhi, Mr Prasad appealed to the concerned stakeholders to patronize and mentor these digital villages in their own way. He said these villages will be the centres for promoting entrepreneurship.
The Minister also stressed on the need for digital mapping of all enterprise and entrepreneurship happening in the far corner of the country.
Mr Prasad said start-up is the finest product of New India as to how the New India is changing. The Minister spoke about various initiatives including bringing of software product policy, electronic policy and digital communication policy in this regard.
The Minister said he wants digital India to become a platform for transforming rural India and to create aspirations in tier-2 and tier-3 cities. Mr Prasad also stressed the need for encouraging social start-ups.
On this occasion, Mr Prasad also launched MeitY Starting Hub- MSH and BHIM 2.0 and Indian Software Product Registry. The MSH has been envisioned as an overarching collaborative platform to act as national coordination facilitation and inter-connected centre for all activities in the tech start-up ecosystem.
Mr Prasad gave awards to outstanding women entrepreneurs in various categories and also presented Fintech and Digital Payment Awards to banks.