Minister S R Patil's native to become country's first 'smart village'

While the concept of Smart Cities has garnered a lot of attention, Badagondi, a village in Bagalkot district, will soon have the distinction of being the State’s and probably the country’s first ‘Smart Village’.

Speaking on the sidelines of the 8th annual conference of the Karnataka Science and Technology Academy held here on Thursday, Minister for Science, Technology and IT/BT S R Patil said: “Just like the concept of Smart Cities, this is a plan for a Smart Village. Free Wi-Fi will be provided to the villagers and hopefully this will be done in about two months.”

Training residents

Patil said the initiative – in Badagondi, his birthplace – is his individual effort and not that of the IT/BT Ministry or the State government. Intel, the US-based technology company, is helping with the initiative as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR). Intel is presently training the residents of the village on the nitty-gritties of using the new technology that will be installed soon.

“It will be the first digital village in the country and optical fibre cables are being installed. The service providers behind the Wi-Fi hotspots in Bengaluru, will provide the same facility in the village,” he said.

Although it is treated as “experimental”, the same might be extended to other villages if it is successful, said Patil.

He said a digital training camp is being conducted in the village since November 2 and will go on till November 20. One person from every family of the village, with a population of 2,000, is being trained, he said.

Trained villagers will become resource persons who in turn will train others in the village.