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

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telecom infrastructure. An earlier program of the Foundation for community asset building
based on biotechnologies had been fully operational in this region and the ICT project was
expected to complement this program.
Project Description
The implementing agency for the project is M S Swaminathan Research Foundation
[MSSRF], Chennai, with funding support from IDRC [the International Development
Research Centre], Canada. The project has the following objectives:
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Setting up of villages information kiosks that enable rural families access a basket of
modern information and communication technologies
Training educated youth, especially women, in rural areas to operate the information
shops;
Training the rural youth in the organization and maintenance of a system that generates
locally relevant information from generic information;
Maintenance, updating and dissemination of information on entitlements to rural families
using an appropriate blend of modern and existing channels of communication;
Conducting impact assessment based on organization of surveys, participatory rural
appraisal, and other appropriate methods of data gathering;
Building of a model in information dissemination and exchange in rural areas that uses
advanced information and communication technologies.
This project has established a hub-and-spoke model of data-cum-voice communication in a
group of ten villages in the Pondichery State of Southern India. The village centres can
communicate with each other as well as to the Internet. A mix of technologies is used, hybrid
fashion: wired with wireless for communication and solar with mains for the power supply.
The hub provides connectivity to the Internet through dial-up telephone lines, and the staffs
also generate locally useful content.
The Village Knowledge Centres (VKCs) receive queries from the local residents and transmit
information, collected from the hub, back to them. Information provided is area specific, in
the local language, and relates to prices of agricultural inputs [such as seeds, fertilizers,
pesticides] and outputs [rice, vegetables], market [potential for export], entitlement [the
multitude of schemes of the central and state governments, banks et al], health care
[availability of doctors and paramedics in nearby hospitals, women’s diseases], cattle