The Hindu : National : “Devote some time to suffering India”

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Friday, Jan 04, 2008
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“Devote some time to suffering India”

Special Correspondent

Alleviate difficulties of the poor, M.S. Swaminathan asks scientists

Bridging digital divide a powerful tool to bridge gender divide
IT-based knowledge system will be helpful to e-chaupals

VISAKHAPATNAM: Agricultural scientist and father of the Green Revolution M.S. Swaminathan on Thursday urged scientists to devote some time to the suffering India and alleviate the difficulties of the poor.

He was speaking on “Towards rural knowledge revolution” at a public lecture arranged as part of the ongoing 95th Indian Science Congress on the Andhra University campus here.

Dr. Swaminathan, who is chairman of the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, spoke about the Village Knowledge Centres and the Village Resource Centres promoted by it. These were later strengthened in the form of Jamshedji Tata National Virtual Academy for Rural Prosperity. This was consolidated into “Mission 2007: every Village a Knowledge Centre” and the movement later became the Grameen Gyan Abhiyan.

Since the launch of the Mission 2007, the Department of Information Technology decided to establish one lakh common service centres in rural areas, while the Centre would provide e-governance facility to all 2.40 lakh panchayats in the country. ITC’s plan to provide e-chaupals in about 50,000 villages was one of the initiatives from the private sector.

The Information and Communication Technology-based knowledge system would be helpful to the e-chaupals and the last-mile and last-person connectivity would be facilitated with broadband Internet, community radio or Internet-mobile phone synergies.

Dr. Swaminathan said a need assessment must be made to know whether a programme meant for an area was really useful to locals. It was necessary to have area-specific information, and use of local language was essential. Also important was building the capacity of local managers.

Bridging the digital divide was a powerful tool to bridge the gender divide as it was found that villagers preferred women to head the Knowledge Centres.

Earlier, talking about the pathways of the Green Revolution and evergreen revolution, he said the latter was a system-based approach, and integrated pest management and limited use of chemical fertilizers were allowed.

Prof. K.V. Madhava Rao introduced Dr. Swaminathan. Vice-Chancellor L. Venugopal Reddy presented a memento to Dr. Swaminathan.

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