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Rural TN joins the IT revolution
Published on Thu, Nov 09, 2006 at 10:13, Updated on Thu, Nov 09, 2006 at 11:19 in India section
Tags: The Golden South, Tamil Nadu , Tiruvellore
Tiruvellore: Twenty-eight-year-old Meera lives in a remote village in Tiruvellore district. However, she is not just another village girl. Meera has become the face of the IT revolution here.
Meera learnt computers and soon put together an Internet kiosk. Now she coaches villagers on how to use the computer and the Internet, earning Rs 6,000 a month.
"If ten people like me start off on something like this, then our villages will become like our cities," says she.
In another neighboring village, 21-year-old Balakumaran who has a diploma in electronics wants to start his own three computer BPO.
He hopes to do the basic data entry work along with projects on Computer aided design.
"There are B.Techs and Diploma holders in our own village. If we just give them basic training, they can learn a lot," says he.
What's fueled their dreams is an experiment that was put together nearly a decade ago by an informal group of professors and alumni at IIT Madras - called Tel Net.
Tel Net indigenously created technology, which enabled wireless Internet connectivity. Tel Net hubs transmit data to Internet kiosks with receivers in villages putting them on the information highway.
While getting the Internet to villages is now technologically possible and feasible, making rural India a part of the IT boom has another challenge - and that is to ensure little kiosks in villages become successful business models.
Says CEO, N Logue communications Pvt Ltd, Sharad Brahmane, "We need to ensure that we provide services to these village kiosks that can help people earn that minimum amount to keep the business going. Only then will this business model be sustainable."
Taking IT to rural areas is an endeavour that is still in its nascent stage, but it has the power to change the face of the Indian village.
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