The state government has launched a broadband policy for growth of telecom infrastructure in West Bengal and boost ways to provide universal and affordable access to high-quality internet services for the common citizens.

The policy will lead to technological innovation, increased job creation, increased competitiveness and entrepreneurship development leading to ease of living for the common citizens and reducing the urban rural digital divide.

The policy aims at further strengthening digitally enabled governance in the state by providing high-speed broadband access to key service institutions even in rural areas along with schools, colleges, health centres, anganwadi centres, police stations, government offices and other public service delivery institutions.

This will also promote increased participation of local manufacturing industry / services leading to proliferation of wireless broadband services.

A single-window clearance for telecom-infrastructure development to industries will ensure connectivity even to the farthest point in the state and state government’s services can be easily accessed even by the citizens living on the fringe. After proper implementation, the recently launched ‘Bangla Sahayata Kendra’ across the state will easily leverage this seamless telecom as well as internet connectivity to ensure government services are accessed by everyone.

Fees payable for setting up Base Tower Stations (BTS) and laying Optical Fibre Cables (OFCs) have been rationalised and revised to make it uniform across the state. The entire application process for issuance of NOC will be done through an Online Single Window Clearance Portal ~ ANUMATI.

The policy lays down guidelines for creation and growth of drone manufacturing. Drones are the most soughtafter IoT (Internet of Things) devices which are widely used in a host of sectors namely Health, Transport, Law, Enforcement, Agriculture and Land Reforms.

This will also be a significant boost for investment and employment in the IT/ITeS sector in the state. Data Centre storage sharing guidelines have been proposed to offer state MSMEs and start-ups (to be selected through a transparent selection process) access to storage space and computing infrastructure of the Data Centre against a minimal service charge.

This will act as an incentive toward growth of state IT/ITeS industry. Moreover, Electronic Data Retention guidelines will ensure that the available storage space of various Public Data Centres remain at optimal level by filtering out non-essential data which can be reused in other avenues including through the Public Transactional Data Sharing System.