The Hindu : `Internet connectivity for villages feasible'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Nov 16, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu

`Internet connectivity for villages feasible'

By Our Staff Reporter

Coimbatore Nov. 15. Establishing multipurpose kiosks in rural areas and interconnecting them through the regular telephone backbone will enable even far-flung villages to reap the benefits of Internet connectivity, Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the TeNeT Group, IIT Madras, Chennai, said here.

He was speaking at a seminar on information technology, organised by the Department of Computer Science of the PSGR Krishnammal College for Women, with sponsorship from the All-India Council for Technical Education, New Delhi.

Mr. Jhunjhunwala said it was important to encourage rural prosperity through micro enterprises that could create wealth at the local level. However, micro enterprises required finance, knowledge, training and insurance, as well as regular buying and selling activities. All this could be made possible through communication.

India currently had over six lakh villages, and the challenge was to serve these people, many of whom had an income less than a dollar a day. There were estimates that 75 per cent of rural households could spend barely Rs. 120 a month on telecommunication.

He described how `n-Logue', a rural service provider, could be established to connect rural places using the existing Bharat Sanchar Nigam fibre connectivity linking various taluks.

A wireless in local loop system developed at the IIT Madras could provide a telephone line and Internet connection for villages within a radius of about 30 km. This system could connect 85 per cent of Indian villages, and the start-up cost would be very low.

This kiosk could be set up at a cost of Rs. 50,000 and could provide a telephone, Internet, multimedia personal computer with web camera, printer and power back-up for the computer.

It could host an Indian language software such as a word processor, a multilingual office package, videoconferencing software and even facilities for training and maintenance. Run by a village entrepreneur on the lines of subscriber trunk dialling public call offices (STD PCOs), the kiosks would need only about Rs. 3,000 in order to break even.

Among the uses of the kiosk was that it could offer word processing facilities in Indian languages for business and commercial use and also act as a digital studio offering low cost photography. Video conferencing would ensure that advice on agricultural issues and veterinary matters were available at short notice.

Moreover, emergencies would cease to be calamities, as help would be at hand at short notice. Epidemics could be prevented as well, owing to the ability to communicate instantly with doctors and paramedics. Government doctors could arrive to render service at short notice.

It might also be possible to establish an `online clinic' for general health so that people would be able to carry out medical consultations at convenient times. To bridge the `digital divide', the kiosk could be used to conduct computer education for rural children.

The kiosks could also function as `micro banks' for purposes such as remote bill payment and rural automated teller machine facility, besides offering infrastructure for remittance of funds and transactions associated with micro finance. With credit and product marketing being one of the biggest requirements of rural India, linking villages through the Internet could provide one of the key infrastructure facilities for prosperity.

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