{"id":24858,"date":"2026-09-11T11:51:38","date_gmt":"2026-09-11T06:21:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=24858"},"modified":"2026-09-11T14:54:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-11T09:24:42","slug":"digital-bharat-nidhi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/digital-bharat-nidhi\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Bharat Nidhi"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Digital Bharat Nidhi Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) under Department of Telecommunications (DoT) signed an Agreement for implementation of the Amended BharatNet Program (ABP) in the State under the State-led model today at Sanchar Bhawan, New Delhi.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Digital Bharat Nidhi<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It was formerly known as the <\/span><b>Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It now operates under the <\/span><b>Telecommunication Act, 2023.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Mandate:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0 It has a mandate to <\/span><b>support universal service<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through promoting access and <\/span><b>delivery of telecommunication<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> service in <\/span><b>underserved rural, remote and urban areas.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is an <\/span><b>attached office of the Department of Telecommunications<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (DoT), Ministry of Communications.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Objectives of Digital Bharat Nidhi<\/b>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Support universal service<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> through promoting access to and delivery of telecommunication services in underserved rural, remote and urban areas;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Support research and development<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of telecommunication services, technologies, and products;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Support pilot projects<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, consultancy assistance and advisory support towards provision of service under clause (a) above;<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Support introduction of telecommunication services<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, technologies, and products;<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Funding: <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The contributions made by telecom companies towards the Digital Bharat Nidhi will first be credited to the <\/span><b>Consolidated Fund of India (CFI).<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The balance to the credit of the DBN <\/span><b>is not lapsed at the end of the FY.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"2\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Funds collected under the DBN will be used to support promoting access to and <\/span><b>delivery of telecommunication services<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> in underserved rural, remote and urban areas; fund research and development of telecommunication services, technologies, and products.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Administration:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> Administration of <\/span><b>DBN is managed by the Administrator<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> appointed by the Central Government of India.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The administrator selects <\/span><b>\u201cDBN implementers\u201d through \u201cbidding\u201d or invitation<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of applications from eligible persons.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.pib.gov.in\/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=2308726&amp;reg=3&amp;lang=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PIB<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Digital Bharat Nidhi now operates under the Telecommunication Act, 2023. Read more about Digital Bharat Nidhi, Objectives, Funding, Administration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":124006,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10179],"class_list":["post-24858","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","tag-digital-bharat-nidhi","no-featured-image-padding"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24858","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24858"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24858\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124037,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24858\/revisions\/124037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/124006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24858"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24858"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24858"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}