NEW DELHI: Marking the beginning of the 74th year of independence from the ramparts of the Red Fort on Saturday, prime minister Narendra Modi announced his plans to connect all villages in India with optical fibre cables in the next 1000 days. Lakshadweep too would be connected with submarine optical fibre cable.

Modi had recently inaugurated the first undersea optical fibre cable project for Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

He noted that only five dozen panchayats in the country were connected with optical fibre cable before 2014 and in the last five years, 1.5 lakh villages have been provided the facility.

He took the opportunity to announce a new policy on cyber security, which will soon be unveiled.