Nokia to digitise 500 Indian villages under “Smartpur” project

Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia is planning to digitize around 500 villages across five states in the country under its “Smartpur” digital village project.

“The Smartpur project is something we’ll launch here which is basically digitizing few villages and making them smart villages. It’s about creating a hub where operators don’t have connectivity or have not reached out, we will invest in digitizing about 500 villages and make them smart villages,” Nokia’s Chief Executive Officer Rajeev Suri, told ET during his recent India visit.

Under the project, the company will provide connectivity to enable applications in the domains of healthcare, governance, education, digital-finance, and entertainment. Some of the services are telemedicine and digital literacy through e-content. It will also facilitate training for vocational and life skills, besides providing digital banking tools.

The project is being kicked off in Haryana’s Tain village in Nuh District and Assor in Tamil Nadu.

“There will be a hub and a community center. In the village, we’ll provide connectivity and we’ll be able to have various applications…we’ll be selecting few states starting with some pilots. We’ll pick up about 4-5 states where we will do 100 villages each over the next 3-4 years,” he added.

According to Nokia, the Smartpur project seeks to create a social enterprise model driven by youth and supported by community members, government bodies, private institutions and other