How the Internet can advance the lives of people in rural India

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How the Internet can advance the lives of people
in rural India

• -Talk at Toronto

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Can we begin with a dream ?

• Dream of
• A collaboration between Britney Spears
• in the US and an unknown old lady in a
• remote village in India to produce
• fusion music ?

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Rural Opportunity

• India has 600,000 villages
• 650 million people, 130 billion Rural annual GDP
• Can we double the Rural GDP in the next ten
  years.

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What Should We Aspire For?
Current Rural GDP in India 130 billion For a
Population 650 million people GDP / Person
200
Rural Prosperity
DOUBLING Rural GDP
400 / Person
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Rural Wheel of Prosperity - The Wealth Creators
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Rural Wheel of Prosperity The Enablers
Agriculture
Animal Husbandry
Trade Commerce

• Finance
• Commerce
• Training Information

IT-Based Services
Agricultural Processing
Industry
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Enabling Finance, Commerce and Training and
Information
The Key Enabler is Communications
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Income and Telecom Spend of Rural Indian
households
Monthly telecom expenditure (assuming 4 income
can be spent on telecom) 3.2 6
8.8 12 17 25 42
100

• 75 (119 million) households can spend barely
  3.2 per month on telecom

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To Connect Rural India

• We need
• Low cost technology
• Aggregation of demand
• Multi-service establishments

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Low Cost Technology
Rural India requires

• Telecom Infrastructure at a Capital Expenditure
  (CAPEX) of under 200 per line
• Not a problem of the West, as affordability there
  is much higher
• a task of scientists of Developing Countries
• In doing so and serving the large potential
  market of India and other Developing Countries
• we can be amongst the world leaders in telecom
  technology

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Where have we come so far ?
Cost front

• Innovative Technologies (CorDECT) and better
  buying has reduced CAPEX to around 325 per line
• moving towards 200 per line enabling 50 of
  Indian homes to afford telecom
• rural connectivity cost reduced from 1500 to
  about300 per connection

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Where have we come so far ?
Technology Front

• BSNLs Contribution on the average one fibre
  connected rural exchange for every 150 sq km
• a wireless system with 10 km range at existing
  fibre
• connected exchange would cover 80 - 85 of
• villages in India
• CorDECT Wireless in Local Loop developed by IITM
  and Midas Communications, Chennai
• provides a telephone line and Internet connection
  in 30 Km radius

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corDECT Wireless in Local Loop
IITM - Midas
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Aggregation of Demand
Two big success stories of Indian
Entrepreneurship in the recent years

• Cable TV revolution
• Run by a local businessmen over a small area
• 50 of TV households are CS homes
• STD PCO revolution
• Run by an individual working 16-18 hrs
• 30 of population has access to phones today

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Highlights of these models

• Local and small entrepreneurship
• service customised to local needs
• Affordable
• operation cost about a third of that of corporate
  sector and benefit of lower operation cost passed
  on to the customer
• Can we repeat this success in rural internet
  connectivity ?

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Multi-service establishments
Rural Internet requires

• Contents and applications in local language
• remote jobs and services
• education, training, literacy
• health and veterinary services
• communication and entertainment
• commercial services, micro-credit, money orders
  and banking, agricultural management, forest
  products
• e-governance
• voice mail, video mail, voice enabled chats,
  bulletin board
• Development activities
• Water harvesting, Inter-village chat

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To enable these India needs

• A communications company which
• would focus and operate only in Rural Areas
• looks at rural areas as large potential business
  and provides wireless Internet connectivity in
  villages
• thinks and acts rural

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n-Logue Comunications - A Rural Service Provider

• aggregate demand into a kiosk using
• corDECT Wireless in Local Loop
• ISP in a box Minnow
• Reliable power back-up
• 1000 (including taxes) per kiosk providing
  telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with
  web-camera, printer and 4 hour power back-up for
  PC
• plus Indian language software
• set up by a village entrepreneur on the lines of
  STD / PCOs
• needs only 60 per month to break even

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n-Logue Deployment Strategy
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What is the monthly income?

• STD PCO 20
• Children learn typing
• all kinds of on-line and off-line education
  10
• Kiosk is a photography shop 6
• also a video parlour on weekend evenings 6
• email and browsing
• voice mail and video mail 10
• e-governance access
• connect to taluka Government office for
  services 4
• and much more

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Word-processor in Indian Languages
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Multi-lingual Office Package
IITM - Chennai Kavigal
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Mundi . . . .

• A 60 year old from a village near Melur had lost
  vision for 2 years
• through tie-up with Aravind eye-care hospital,
  vision was restored in one eye
• IITM trying to develop Remote Diagnostic tools
• Blood Pressure, Sugar Iron, ECG Monitor,
  stethoscope
• at total cost of 200

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Consultancy on Crop Disease

• Top Ladies Finger Diseased with yellow
  mosaic
• Below Post treatment
• Savings of 3000
• Cost of information 050

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E- Dr Vet ?

• In Attapati village , Priyas chicken was limping
• Photo sent to Veterinary college
• Identified as Curled toe paralysis
• Cost for process
• Earlier 4
• This case 040

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The Power of multi-party video communication
IITM - OOPS
Low bit-rate Video Conferencing (audio video
text at 20 kbps and more)
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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

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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

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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
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To Sum up

• Internet is Power
• Every village in India needs Internet
• Connecting 600,000 Indian villages can happen
• only with commercially viable connections
• Telecom will
• help in doubling Indian rural GDP
• make rural prosperity a reality

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and .recalling our dream in the beginning

• we are not being so starry- eyed after all in
  dreaming thus