BharatNet Deal Brings Rs 10,520 Crore to Rural Maharashtra

The correct answer is Rs 10,520 crore. That is the financial support the Government of India has approved for running the Amended BharatNet Programme in Maharashtra under the state-led model, and the agreement signed at Sanchar Bhawan puts it into effect through MahaNet Digital Infrastructure Limited. Options A, B and D are invented amounts and none of them matches the sanction. Candidates slip here because the release carries several other large numbers that are not money at all: 28,237 gram panchayats in scope, 15,799 villages to be connected on demand, 15,171 Phase I panchayats being moved to ring topology, 12,740 Phase II panchayats and 326 new panchayats. Keeping the rupee figure separate from the panchayat and village counts is the whole trick in this question, so C is correct.

The correct answer is MahaNet Digital Infrastructure Limited, usually written as MDIL. The project in Maharashtra will be implemented through MDIL, which is why it is one of the five parties to the agreement. Option B is wrong: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited signed the agreement and its Director for Enterprise Business attended, but the execution rests with MDIL. Option C is wrong for the same reason, as MahaIT is a signatory whose Managing Director was present, not the implementing agency. Option D is wrong because that company is not among the five signatories at all; the others are Digital Bharat Nidhi of the Department of Telecommunications and the Government of Maharashtra. Reading the list of signatories and the line naming the implementing agency separately is how you avoid the trap, so A is right.

The correct answer is the Universal Service Obligation Fund. The fund was created under the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Act, 2003, and the Telecommunications Act, 2023 renamed it Digital Bharat Nidhi. It is an attached office of the Department of Telecommunications and its mandate is to support telecom access in underserved rural, remote and urban areas. Options A, C and D are plausible sounding names but none of them is the earlier name of this fund. Remember what the fund pays for besides BharatNet: the 4G Saturation Project and mobile services in uncovered parts of aspirational districts, Left Wing Extremism affected areas, Himalayan and border areas, islands and the North Eastern states. The Maharashtra agreement for the Amended BharatNet Programme was signed by this very fund, so B is the answer.