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 Connecting Rural India
Generating wealth in rural India
The benefits of the Internet is unquestionable to a country with over 6,00,000 villages, which need telephone and Internet connectivity at the earliest.
Rural magic: True stories
Sixty-year-old Palaniammal, a native of Melur (a small town close to Madurai in Tamil Nadu) had been complaining of blurred vision for sometime. A chance encounter with the village Internet kiosk operator proved to be a boon in disguise. The operator’s solution was simple – Palaniammal was taken to the kiosk, where four photographs of her eyes were taken with a web camera. These photographs were e-mailed to Aravind Eye Care Hospital in Madurai. It did not take the doctors long to deduce that Palaniammal was suffering from cataract. They mailed back their feedback and within days her vision was restored.
The farmers of T Ulagapichampatti were in a dilemma. Their okra produce was turning yellow. A similar procedure followed, wherein a videoconferencing between the farmer and agriculture specialists, in the city, was set up. The leaves and the produce of the damaged crop were shown through the web-cam, the kind and amount of fertilizers added were also discussed. The experts diagnosed it to be yellow mosaic. Apt treatment was administered and the farmers prevented a loss of US$2,800.
It would be interesting to note that neither party had to trudge across to the nearby town or city to get their problem solved. That not only saved time and energy but also was monetarily a much better option. These are just two examples of a silent revolution brewing in some Indian villages – plain, simple ‘access to information via the Internet’.
Interested?
Read the complete article here.
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