Defining the advancements in digital development through network connectivity, Bharti Airtel has announced its designing and implementation of the State Wide Area Network (SWAN) for the Government of Uttar Pradesh as part of Government of India’s e-Governance initiative.
This initiative is named UPSWAN 2.0 and it is one of the largest of its kind in India. The SWAN was inaugurated by UP’s Hon’ble Deputy Chief Minister Dr. Dinesh Sharma.
Mr Alok Sinha, Additional Chief Secretary (Commercial Tax, IT & Electronics) said: “Under the leadership of our Prime Minister Sh. Narendra Modi ji India is undergoing a digital transformation and empowering its citizens through e-Governance. Uttar Pradesh, which is India’s largest state, is making rapid strides towards becoming fully digitally enabled and ensuring that government services reach every corner of the state over a digital backbone. We are pleased to partner with Bharti Airtel in this journey and congratulate them on building this key network infrastructure.”
How does the UPSWAN 2.0 matter for the citizens?
The new state wide area network implementation will include 885 Points of Presence (PoPs) across the state and these are going to be offering a secure and high-speed connectivity for delivering the government services to the citizens over a Closed User Group (CUG) network. It is meant to connect all of the headquarters including the State Headquarters, District Headquarters, Block Headquarters & Tehsil Headquarters across Uttar Pradesh and there are two purposes solved at one time, 1. Government to government services, and 2. Government to citizen services and the infrastructure will make the entire process seamless and quick.
The connectivity that will be offered by Bharti Airtel will have a speed of about 10 Gbps across the state headquarters, and the District, Block and Tehsil Headquarters will have upto 10 Mbps connectivity. The entire network performance is going to be monitored by a dedicated network operations centre that is set up in Lucknow.
Mr Ajay Chitkara, Drirector & CEO-Airtel Busienss said: “We are delighted to be able to contribute to the Digital India vision and partner with the Government of Uttar Pradesh in their digital transformation agenda. UPSWAN, which compares with the best in class networks, will be digital backbone for the state and help in building a truly connected Uttar Pradesh. On behalf of Airtel, I would like to thank the State administration for giving us this opportunity.”
My take on UPSWAN 2.0 and its services
While the government services have a wide range of offerings and several of those need a seamless network connectivity, this step taken by the government of Uttar Pradesh with one of the best network providers, i.e. Bharti Airtel is a good one for the betterment of the services as well as making it easier for the citizens of the state in many ways.
Now, where I feel this is going to be really helpful is with the citizen services that government provides, including filing of applications for pension and financial aid, registration for employment, issuance of birth and death certificates, application for new/renewal of ration cards etc. These are all the basic needs and services that users would want to see seamlessness in, and these are the things that make cities smarter across the state.
It is indeed inclining towards a better scenario for the entire state and Airtel has to play a big role not just offering the network connectivity, but also MPLS, Internet Bandwidth, Network Hardware Equipment, Security Firewalls, System Integration and Managed Services and the network provider is well capable of doing that.
