Faster fiberisation is what India needs to embrace innovation and connect the masses

Radha, a ten-year-old schoolgirl, is sitting beside the main door of her small house in a village in rural India, waiting for the gates of her school, situated on the other end of the road, to open. It is the sixth consecutive month and the only primary school in the village is still closed.

This is the story of thousands of kids who are not able to attend classes, as schools are shut in order to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Radha, and thousands of children like her, cannot switch to ‘distance learning’ in virtual classrooms as they simply do not have access to internet connectivity or sufficient bandwidth to support online learning.