The News Minute | December 23, 2014 | 12.10 pm ISTThe state of Kerala is all set to be declared the first Digital State of the country. The Digital India scheme launched by the Union government envisaged connecting all government offices digitally via internet. It the works go ahead as planned Kerala will be declared the first digital state of the country by April 2015, Manorama Online reported. As of now all block and gram panchayats are being linked using a 1 GBPS optical fibre broadband internet connection. This job has been entrusted to Indian government owned Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL). Among all states, it is in Kerala where the maximum work of the National Optical Fibre Network scheme under BBNL has been completed. In all the 857 panchayats and 132 block panchayats the work has been progressing in good pace. When completed, the digitization will enhance the citizen friendly e-governance system that is already in usage in the state. The southern state already runs digital schemes like e-tendering and e-district. On a pilot basis it is also running e-office in the Secretariat whereby the state tries to bring in transparency and enhance administrative efficiency. The state owned Akshaya Centres also play a pivotal role in disseminating all government schemes related information to the citizens. When the panchayat linking is completed the government will start working to set up WiFi in public places.