India will help Bhutan develop its third international internet gateway. According to the Embassy of India in Bhutan, as part of their expanding digital partnership, the Government of India will facilitate a concessional rate to bring down the cost of operations of the gateway. The gateway is expected to enhance redundancy, connect remote pockets of Bhutan, increase internet bandwidth, and reduce the cost of internet connectivity for users.

Bhutan and India are cooperating on a number of initiatives in digital technology, such as (i) providing an optical fiber backbone across all 20 districts of Bhutan up to the gewog (village) level; (ii) peering arrangement between India’s National Knowledge Network and Bhutan’s Druk Research and Education Network, for the benefit of users in Bhutan in the fields of telemedicine services, research and education; (iii) harnessing space technology for the benefit of society, India-Bhutan e-Library project, cross-border fin-tech integration, mutual investments in the tech sector, and STEM education initiatives for Bhutanese youth.

The Government of India is contributing around Rs 198 crore during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2018-2023) to support Bhutan’s digital transformation, focusing on people-centric projects in education, e-governance, trade, service delivery.

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India announces support to Bhutan for 3rd international internet gateway