Vol. II: Shaping Information and Communication ... - IMA,ZLW & IfU

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Taking note of the increased awareness about computers and IT in the district the Indira
Gandhi National Open University [IGNOU] has also opened a study centre for undergraduate
and postgraduate courses.
The Government of Madhya Pradesh has instituted an award amounting to Rs. 2,00,000 to be
awarded every year to a project in the state, which takes IT to the masses. The state IT policy
has been re-oriented based on the impact of the project.
The project has demonstrated a new model for a more effective, accessible, prompt and
transparent governance, which benefits not only the citizen but also the government by
effectively making the citizen a partner in the process of governance. The system is costeffective
and has set a goal of 45,000 kiosk owners by 2003.
Contact Information
URL: http://www.drishtee.com
2.5 CASE STUDY # 5: The Information Village Research Project: Pondichery State
Background & Context
The Information Village Research Project was developed by the M.S. Swaminathan Research
Foundation as part of its program of taking the benefits of emerging and frontier technologies
to the rural poor. Modern Information & Communication Technologies [ICTs] were perceived
to have great potential to contribute in this regard. But to be of use to farm families, the
generic information found in the networks, including the Internet, should be rendered into
locality-specific knowledge that farm families, and rural women and men, can act upon. This
was the model adopted for implementation in this project.
According to the Foundation's president Professor M.S. Swaminathan: "whatever a poor
family can gain benefit from, the rich can also gain benefit; the reverse does not happen".
Thus the involvement of the ultra-poor in rural areas in managing the use of ICTs was
considered essential for the success of this project. The other critical issue was the need to
involve rural women.
The project was started in 1998 in Pondichery in South India. Pondichery was chosen because
it has certain initial advantages to begin with: an accessible government and reasonable