Nokia opens 24 new ‘Smartpur’ centres in Jammu & Kashmir to drive digital enablement in rural areas

Finnish telecom gear maker Monday said the company has opened 24 new ‘Smartpur’ centres in Jammu & Kashmir to drive digital enablement in rural areas. This is part of the company’s expanded efforts under its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.

The 24 new ‘Smartpur’ centres have been opened in various Panchayat jurisdictions in Samba (18 centres) and Anantnag (6 centres) districts of Jammu & Kashmir, bringing the total number of ‘Smartpur’ centres across India to 350, said Nokia in a statement.

Smartpur is a digital village ecosystem project aimed at integrating technology into the daily lives of people living in remote villages. Using digital connectivity technology, the project intends to empower licensed local entrepreneurs and provide them with facilities to make services accessible at the village level through panchayat-level Smartpur centers.

The initiative connects people with the five essential pillars of development including education, health, livelihood, governance and financial inclusion, enabling villages to be more sustainable and self-reliant.

The new centres were inaugurated by Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha. “He acknowledged the potential of the Smartpur program, and expressed hope that Nokia would be able to establish at least two such centers in the remaining districts of the state,” said Nokia.

“We derive great pride from the fact that we have been able to keep our promise and scale up from one to twenty-five Smartpur centres in Jammu and Kashmir in a year. We are thankful to the local administration for all their assistance and encouragement,” said Amit Marwah, Head of Marketing & Corporate Affairs at Nokia India.

Nokia, within the last year, expanded the project to 90 more villages increasing the number of Smartpur centers to 350 villages across India in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh.

The Smartpur program is implemented by two of Nokia’s nonprofit partners – Save the Children and Digital Empowerment Foundation.