In fact, IT MNCs have taken the lead in launching applications for the rural areas. Microsoft, Intel and HP, all have something to offer to the rural India.
Contrary to popular perception, information technology seems to be making a far greater impact in rural areas than urban centres. Here's a peep into how IT is revolutionising rural India.
etterly, butterly emul
IT has played a critical role in the development of the Amul brand. IT leads the logistics behind the co-ordination of approximately six million litres of milk per day from about more than 10,000 separate village co-operative societies throughout Gujarat, and storing, processing and producing of milk products at the various district dairy societies.
The installation of over 3,000 Automatic Milk Collection System Units (AMCUS) at village societies to capture member information, milk fat content, volume collected, and amount payable to each member. In addition to the EIAS, Amul has also been using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in an innovative way.
The company uses GIS in its head office and key marketing offices. Using the Indian map in GIS, the company is in a position to plot zone/depot boundary as well as a pointer for zone, depot and distributor locations, which are superimposed by product-wise sales data. This data is then used for sales and distribution planning according to the various zones.
e-farming: direct on the field
Taking the Internet to the villages and empowering rural India with information at the click of a button is what best describes ITC's much acclaimed initiative - e-Choupal. ITC's unique web based initiative offers farmers of India all the information, products and services they need to enhance farm productivity, improve farm-gate price realisation and cut transaction costs.
With the e-Choupal farmers can access latest local and global information on weather, scientific farming practices as well as market prices at the village itself through this web portal - all in Hindi. It also facilitates the supply of high quality farm inputs as well as purchase of commodities at their doorstep.
Given the literacy and infrastructure constraints of Indian farmers, the scheme provides physical service support through a Choupal Sanchalak - who himself is a lead farmer. The Choupal Sanchalak acts as the interface between the computer terminal and the farmers.
Banking increased
Farmers in a remote village in Honavar, 600 km away from Bangalore, are using ATM machines to open a bank account. A mobile ATM machine goes around over five villages allowing 22000-odd farmers to open an account, request for a loan and be able to deposit as well as withdraw cash at will in the near future.
The ATM machine is linked wirelessly through Reliance Infocomm's network to the backend server of the participating bank, which includes Syndicate Bank and State Bank of India. The software on the ATM is simple - in regional languages and very easy to decipher.
Combo offer: mobile telephony with letters
Started under the governement's Grameen Sanchar Sevak scheme, a postman totes mobile phone along with letters. Postmen carry WiLL (wireless in local loop) phones while delivering mail. Residents can use the phone to make calls, both local and STD for a charge. The service is targeted at people who do not own a telephone.
These phones have in-built display units which show the number of pulses for determining the duration of an outgoing call. Once the call is over, an on-the-spot bill is presented for instant payment by the person making the call. For easy calculation, a ready reckoner is also been provided along with the phone in the local language.
Thinking box
Jai Kisan, an NGO set up to introduce rural IT technology in Uttaranchal - is hoping to put up over 3000 Kisan Soochna Kendras (a digital hub) across the state. All 13 districts will be covered under the new scheme, the model for which is loosely based on e-Choulpal. A Soochna Kendra will have facilities like the Internet, basic telephony, a full-fledged home theatre, call centres and other IT-enabled services that are related to weather and agriculture.
Already 45 Soochna Kendras have been installed acrposs the state. Each Pradhan of a rural panchayat will be entitled to nominate one entrepreneur who can set up the KSK at his village. A KSK would employ nearly 11 to 12 people. For the benefit of tourists, a number of Soochna Kendras will also be set up on the roads leading to Badrinath, Kedarnath, Yamunotri and Gangotri.
Similarly, Chennai-based n-Logue Communications, part of the Telnet group, has already rolled out over 2,500 kiosks across the country using C-ordect technology (wireless and local loop) to provide broadband connectivity to the villages. Villagers can pay and use the Internet. Typical uses are sending and receiving e-mails, telemedicine, browsing for job opportunities and video games.
Kudumbashree Project
The Kudumbashree project, started as a 10-year programme as part of the Kerala's State Poverty Eradication Mission, have left an indelible mark in many arenas. Helping them on the way is IT. The 'Kudumbashree' IT units do data entry, DTP work and provides some computer training in the 61 Kudumbashree IT units functioning across Kerela.
This entire network of IT centers is run by 600-odd women who battle poverty and build a life by logging on to a computer. Most of the centres are already connected through e-mail so the data entered into the computers can be sent immediately to the respective offices. Computer hardware units have also come up, that assemble computers and take up maintenance.
Health is wealth: telemedicine made economical
Bangalore based Neurosynaptic Communications and the TeNeT (The Telecommunications and Computer Networks) group at IIT, Chennai, have developed a low cost telemedicine solution for rural areas. It includes a remote diagnostic kit and a personal computer to provide basic healthcare infrastructure in rural areas, and help people sitting in villages to get advice from doctors in urban areas.
The Rs 10,000-kit can be installed at villages having Internet connection. It can measure basic physiological parameters like temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate and multichannel ECG. It also has an electronic stethoscope. The kit is six to seven times cheaper than the currently available products, if each feature is bought on a stand-alone basis.
Doctors in secondary or tertiary healthcare centres and patients at remote locations can be connected to each other over a videoconferencing link. The data from the kit is communicated to a computer through a wireless infrared link. The fully battery operated kit also has an integrated video/audio conferencing capability, and a central database can store all patient records and history. Measurements made using the kit can be sent to the doctor in a remote location over the Internet. Using the data, the doctor can diagnose the patient and make a more informed decision.
Postmen goes hitech
E-post introduced by India Post has also helped bridge the digital divide. Until recently, only city dwellers and corporates were within the reach of the World Wide Web, although a majority of the Indian population continue to live in rural areas.
With E-post in place, messages, pictures or graphics can be scanned at the designated e-Post centres and sent as e-mail through the Internet. The destination ePost centres print and deliver the message to the addressees through postmen. The popularity of this service can be gauged from the average number of hits registered on the e-Post Web site every day. A service charge per A4 size printout is collected. The billing is based on the number of characters.
It is not just individuals. Institutions and organisations also use this service to send bulk mails and to advertise their products.
‘Weekly haat’ charm on web
RuralBazar is a web store that allows online marketing of the rural products. It can be configured to address different requirements – can act as a show case for rural products; allow buying and selling with offline/traditional mode of payments (bank draft or postal order); further scaled to allow online payments along with offline payment.
Pilot implementations of RuralBazar has been done at Kanyakumari and Kancheepuram districts of Tamil Nadu. Government of Tamil Nadu has also provided a server to host RuralBazar software and the data of products of afore stated district is being uploaded.
Going Soft
RuralSoft2000 is a GUI-based scalable solution and can be installed at the levels of Panchayats, Blocks, DRDAs and States depending upon the availability of computing and communication environment. The software allows online monitoring through web-based reports and also facilitates periodic exchange of reports to facilitate offline monitoring as well.
The pilot level implementation and training of the software was conducted at 15 pilot districts provided with VSAT connectivity by MRD.
e-mpowered accounts manager
PriaSoft or Panchayati Raj Institution Accounting Software (PriaSoft) is a software package that addresses the monitoring of allocated funds, expenditure pattern, local revenue generation and allows transmission of intended reports to various monitoring agencies.
The software captures monthly data at grass-root level, subject to availability of computing infrastructure and transmits the consolidated data to the next higher formation through e-mail. PriaSoft empowers the administrators to monitor the fund receipt, availability, and expenditure at all levels of three-tier administrative set up of Panchayati Raj Institutions.
It generates a number of reports and has an in-built decision support system to analyze any of the account heads. The software is used by Tamil Nadu and Government of Madhya Pradesh.
Quelle: Indiatimes Infotech, 11.04.2006
