He said this in his opening remarks while Chairing the meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry held late last evening to discuss the National Broadband Plan of Department of Telecommunications.
An official release said today that the meeting was attended by Ministers of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora. Mr. Sibal said that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a significant role in bridging the divide between poor and non poor. He said such a network would truly help in realising the objective of inclusive growth.
He also said that Mobile Broadband will be delivered to the palm of an individual through hand held devices which one can carry easily and is available round the clock. The Minister, however, expressed concern that despite the known benefits of broadband, India had just 12.32 million broadband connections in the country at the end of June 2011 as against the target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, set by the Broadband Policy 2004.