The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Engineers as catalysts for rural progress

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 21, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Engineers as catalysts for rural progress

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUCHI, DEC. 20. With a view to making engineers professionally astute along with a corresponding degree of social responsibility, the student chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and the National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi (NITT) on Sunday initiated students into realising that entrepreneurial and management skills of technically proficient engineers would act as catalysts for economic progress of rural India.

Leading academicians, including Ashok Jhunjhunwala of the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and Laxman K. Badiga, chief executive, Talent Transformation, Wipro Technologies, addressed student delegates from all over the country on topics such as career growth, working, professional responsibility and self-management at the day-long "Students' Professional Awareness Conference (S-PAC)," stated by the organisers to be the first of its kind in the country.

It is meant to compensate the absence of non-technical competencies of planning and organising presentations as components in the engineering curriculum, as also bridge the rural-urban divide caused by the tendency of leading companies to set up shop in urban areas.

In his lecture on "Internet Connectivity in Indian Villages - Towards Enabling Rural India," Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala emphasised on adapting villages to low-cost, yet latest technological developments, through establishing Internet kiosks using wireless technology. The fibre cables laid by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited in almost all the taluks in the country offered infinite bandwidth and provided wireless coverage to a distance of up to 20 km.

Over the last few years, the cost of wireless technology had become cheaper even while offering high performance, he said and cited the instance of corDECT WILL technology adopted in rural areas near Chennai.

The dedicated connections provided a bandwidth of up to 200 KBPH and one-kilowatt generators, which were at present available, could be used in the kiosks in poor power situations. Local entrepreneurs should be identified for providing the "stand alone computer and telephony services."

He said "n-logue" helped such entrepreneurs to establish their own kiosks for Rs. 50,000. The kit comprises a computer, wireless connectivity, camera, printer, micro-phone and power backup facilities. By virtue of "remote teaching tutorials," students in villages could raise their level of communication.

Likewise, e-health has been facilitated to an immense extent through ReMeDi (Remote Medical Diagnostic Kit), which, he said, was made possible through the provisions for monitoring temperature and pulse counts through video conferencing.

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