Optical fibre cable (OFC) technology from Mumbai was used to power the six-minute session, which was moderated by minister of state for communications and information and technology Sachin Pilot from Rajasthan.
Kanpura is located 40 km away from Ajmer. It is one of the 10 villages of the district where e-governance was launched in September as a pilot project. The programme was initiated by Pilot who represents the Ajmer parliamentary constituency.
Hundreds of locals assembled outside the gram panchayat office, where a large screen was placed for them to watch the video-conference held inside.
The villagers shared the benefits of broadband penetration - from online medical consultation and education to local e-governance - with a visibly impressed Obama, who was at St. Xavier's College in Mumbai.
While aspiring MBA Vipul Jhanwar revealed how he was preparing for his exams by downloading reading material from the internet sparing him the need to travel 25 km for classes, local nurse Sunita Rathore narrated her experience of getting prompt medical test results.
Shiv Shankar, the gram sevak (secretary) of the local panchayat, told the President how his e-complaint about a faulty hand pump got an immediate response - as against the weeks it would have taken before.
"This is good news. In the US, we are trying to do the same thing, trying to make the government accountable and efficient," Obama said.
He observed that the digital revolution would give India a head start. "India may be in a position to leapfrog straightaway into the 21st century. I look forward to the day you will be a model for countries around the world," he said, addressing the villagers.
Obama said he wanted to have a glimpse of the information technology revolution in rural India, how citizens were interacting virtually with local government bodies using the internet, and accessing information and services such as tele-medicine and e-education.
"Many of these innovations are because of public and private collaborations between the US and India," Obama said. Elaborating on the initiative, Pilot said: " The video-conference was aimed at communicating how technology easily blends with the panchayati raj system and the concept of sarpanch (village head) in India."
The objective was to convey the message that not only Mumbai and Delhi, but even rural India could benefit from IT services and the digital revolution."
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Sudhanshu Mishra
Quelle/Source: India Today, 08.11.2010
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