Wheels of hope bring Internet to villagers
It's ironic. We always hear things, espicially in developing nations, that the government does not do enough. A few suited/booted blokes meet up religiously, come with ideas which are great to read in the morning papers and then they are forgotten.
A few months back I had attended ELITEX 2004. A crafty seminar involving mostly government policy makers but also some technical fellows.
You see here in India, at least in Delhi, we get fruits and vegetable sellers in our colonies itself. That is the sellers go into colonies to sell their products instead of selling it only in the market place or vegetable market.
So a gentleman at ELITEX suggested why can't you sell/promote(I don't remember which term he had used) technology. He called it Info-Thela (a thela is a man pulled cart on which folks sell fruits and veggies. This became a butt of jokes there.
And yet here is this news which goes on to say that this is actually being done.
The bicycle cart is the center of a project called "Infothela," or info-cart. It aims to use technology to improve education, health care and access to agricultural information in India's villages, where most of the country's 1.06 billion people live.
The project has actuall kicked off.
Conceived in 2003 by the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, about 10 miles southwest of Bithoor, the project is funded by the national government and provides free computer classes in six villages here in Uttar Pradesh state.
Some people argue that India is mostly english illiterate. So how can people be made IT literate. This is where I believe localization can play a major role. It would be awesome to see the governmnet take up localization projects.
The current status of India in this regard is highlighted in this artcle. Hats off to the folks for initialting this movement. I am highly impressed.
A few months back I had attended ELITEX 2004. A crafty seminar involving mostly government policy makers but also some technical fellows.
You see here in India, at least in Delhi, we get fruits and vegetable sellers in our colonies itself. That is the sellers go into colonies to sell their products instead of selling it only in the market place or vegetable market.
So a gentleman at ELITEX suggested why can't you sell/promote(I don't remember which term he had used) technology. He called it Info-Thela (a thela is a man pulled cart on which folks sell fruits and veggies. This became a butt of jokes there.
And yet here is this news which goes on to say that this is actually being done.
The bicycle cart is the center of a project called "Infothela," or info-cart. It aims to use technology to improve education, health care and access to agricultural information in India's villages, where most of the country's 1.06 billion people live.
The project has actuall kicked off.
Conceived in 2003 by the Indian Institute of Technology in Kanpur, about 10 miles southwest of Bithoor, the project is funded by the national government and provides free computer classes in six villages here in Uttar Pradesh state.
Some people argue that India is mostly english illiterate. So how can people be made IT literate. This is where I believe localization can play a major role. It would be awesome to see the governmnet take up localization projects.
The current status of India in this regard is highlighted in this artcle. Hats off to the folks for initialting this movement. I am highly impressed.
posted by LinuxLala at
4:06 PM
