Commercial Internet Connectivity in every village - Towards Doubling Rural GDP in India

Commercial Internet Connectivity in every

village - Towards Doubling Rural GDP in India

Ashok JhunjhunwalaTeNeT Group, IIT Madras, Chennai, [email protected]

IETE Symposium at Agartala 2

The Dream

Current Rural GDP in India = Rs 650 Crore

For a Population = 65 Crore people

GDP / Person = Rs 10000

DOUBLING Rural GDP

Rs 20000 / Person

Rural Prosperity


Agriculture

AnimalHusbandry

Agricultural Processing

Industry

IT-Based Services

Trade & Commerce

Rural Wheel of Prosperity - The Wealth Creators


•Finance•Commerce•Training &

Information

Rural Wheel of Prosperity – The Enablers

Agriculture

AnimalHusbandry


Industry

IT-Based Services

Trade & Commerce


Agriculture

AnimalHusbandry


Industry

IT-Based Services

Trade & Commerce

Enabling Finance, Commerce and Training and Information

The Key Enabler

is

Communications


How does one connect Rural India

India has 600,000+ villages 650 million people

can Rural India afford Connections?

Need Technology Sustainable Business Model Organisation which can think and act Rural


102.1

1710

3.9 1.9 1 0.3 0.30

20

40

60

80

100

120

3 9 13 18 26 42 65 112

HH Income in thousand Rs/month

Nu

mb

er o

f H

H in

mill

ion

s

Serving people with incomes ofless than a dollar a day

75% rural households can spend barely Rs 120 per month on telecom

Rs spend per month on Telecom by HH assuming 4% of income can be spent on Telecom

120 360 520 720 1040 1680 2600 7000


n-Logue uses innovative Technology to connect Rural India

To PSTN

To Internet35/70 kbps Internet plus simultaneous telephone

• Rs 8000 per line price

•1 million lines in 03-04

BSNL has fibre connectivity to most Talukas CorDECT WLL developed at IITM

• provides a telephone line and Internet connection in 30 Km radius

• can connect 85% of Indian villages• start-up costs very low


Aggregate Demand

Entrepreneur-driven telephone booths (STD PCOs) introduced in 1987

• night-time long distance charges reduced by a factor of 4

Today• 950,000 STD PCOs covering every street of

smallest town• generate 25 % of total telecom income• 300 million people use these PCOs


N-Logue : A Rural Service Provider aggregate demand into a kiosk using

Rs 50000 (including taxes) per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC

• plus Indian language software, video conferencing software, training and maint

set up by a village entrepreneur on the line of STD PCOs• needs only Rs 3000 per month to break even

Organisations with Innovative Business Models


1] - Equipment

A Computer

With Speakers and Microphone

A Web Camera

Printer

An Internet Connection

A Power Backup

Local Language Applications

At under Rs 50,000

n-Logue Deployment Strategy

Application & Content Providers

Telephone Backbone

Internet Backbone

Scope:•1 –3 Talukas•25 Km radius, 2000 sq km•4 – 500 K population•2 - 5 towns•300 -400 villages

LSP

Banks

ACCESS CENTRE

500 + Connections (at least 1 in each village)

Connections:•Individuals•Government

— schools and PHCs• Kiosks

$ 1000 / KioskKIOSK

OPERATOR

BanksMicro Finance Organisations

Word-processor in Indian Languages

Multi-lingual Office PackageIITM -

Chennai Kavigal


Video-conferencing from OOPS/IITM

Communicating with the Communications Minister (Shri Thirunavakarasu)


The Agricultural Expert is no longer far away …

AfterBefore

In a Village in Madurai, the Lady’s Finger (Okra) crop

was turning white

The problem was sent to the

experts at the Department of

Rural Extension, Madurai

Agricultural College and

Research Centre who diagnosed it

as “Yellow Mosaic disease”


Savings

The Farmer’s

Field

Saving to farmer - Rs 1.5 Lakhs

Cost of Information - tens of Rupees


The Vet is On The Net …

•This goat had a wound near its mouth and could not eat for a week

• The advice from the doctor cured its problem in 2 days


Emergencies are no longer Calamities …

In the village of T Pudupatti, all hens are dying one by one. The symptoms for these hens are: First, their weight reduces and finally, their necks shrink. At this stage they die immediately. Until now, 300 hens have died in this way. How do we stop this? Please give us a solution immediately. From A. Sakkarai"


… because Help is at Hand

A visit from the Government Veterinary Officials to vaccinate all hens


Epidemics can be prevented with a Doctor on Call

A potential epidemic of Chicken Pox was halted by a simple email to the right people

Instant response from the Government Doctors


Ordinary People have a Voice …

This is Veeramani - a man with disabilities

His job was to operate the pump for the Village Overhead Tank

The Village Head removed from his job and gave the post to one of his relatives

Through the kiosk, he sent an email petition to the Chief Minister’s Cell, attaching a photograph of himself


Even the Chief Minister is not far away …

A letter came back from the CM’s Cell asking that he be reinstated

In response to the CM’s letter, the BDO sent instructions to the Village Head that he given back his job - permanently

58276


Eye Care

• An email is sent to the Aravind Eye Hospital with a photograph attached

• The patient is told that her problem was not serious and could wait for some time

• The Benefits?1) She saved a visit to the

hospital2) She knows she has to

make that visit after 2 months


Online Consultations


General Health – An Online Clinic with a Doctor


Talking to an Agricultural Expert


Video-conferencing (6 kiosks in conversation)


Bridging the Digital Divide – Computer Education for Rural Children



Digital Studio – Low cost Photography

Photograph taken with a Web Camera

Photograph at Printing


Can Kiosks become Micro-banks?

TeNeT and n-Logue working with ICICI Bank Remote Bill Payment Rural ATM Micro-finance Remittance

Credit and Product Marketing is one of the biggest requirement of Rural India


Knowledge and Training

Another Driver of Rural Prosperity Information Dissemination and Knowledge

Enhancement

Need a Virtual University in every Districtto enable this

Basic Structure would• Consist of a Central Hub • And Knowledge Extension Centres in every village


The Extension Centre

• Virtual Extension of the University

• Located in Every Village

• Enhanced Village Internet Kiosk equipped with

•Computer(s)•Internet Connection•Web Camera and Multimedia

•Power backup•Local Language Software

• Run by a local person who is trained to facilitate the learning process

There will about 1000 such Extension Centres in Every

District


To Sum Up

Doubling of Rural GDP will change India

Finance, Commerce, Training & Information are key

Wireless Internet can enable these

Internet in Rural Area is the key Infrastructure for a prosperous India

Commercial Internet Connectivity in every village - Towards Doubling Rural GDP in India

Documents

rural connections

rural telecom

rural households

rural indiaindia

rural teledensity targetper

rural wheel of prosperity

rural targetin mn7

peoplecan rural india