Mission 2007 is a nation-wide initiative launched in New Delhi in July 2004 with an aim to facilitate the setting up of knowledge centres in each of India’s 600,000 villages by 2007, the 60th anniversary of the country’s Independence.

The Mission’s objective is to facilitate and accelerate, through multi-stakeholder collaborations, the provision of knowledge centres in each village. Each of these centres would be a centre for knowledge-based livelihoods and income-generation opportunities for poor peolple, farming communities and all disadvantaged people.

The Mission envisages broadband connectivity for rural homes at low and affordable costs with integrated tech-nological applications that are relevant to the day-to-day lives of people. Such a bouquet of applications could well turn the info kiosk of tomorrow into a multi-purpose knowledge centre acting as a communi-cation hub. It could also be a support centre for rural entrepreneurship, a trading outlet and social empowerment outfit, a support centre for providing health, education and livelihoods information services.

Such a knowledge centre can be put together on a sustainable platform through partnerships, bringing together the private sector and the government for infrastructure development, civil society organisations for community participation and capacity building, academia for innovation and research and the private sector for leading on the financing and scalability.

The march towards Mission 2007

Highlights of online discussion on info kiosks An online discussion on setting up information kiosks in every village by 2007 was carried out during May – June 2004. This was as a joint initiative of OWSA and MSSRF. The main sub-themes for the discussion were Scalability, Sustainability and Collaboration. The following emerged as major concerns and solutions: Connectivity is critical for enabling scalability A reality check of hardware and software components is required in order to propose a menu of software applications Scalability would depend upon the availability of information in local languages Technology should be customised to the needs of the local population. Telecom regulatory issues caused by the reluctance of the telecom players to allow WLL in rural areas need to be resolved urgently Sustainability requires a reliable power supply, either through conventional or renewable energy sources Need to explore options for proposing simpler info-kiosk models and developing alternative revenue based info-kiosk models. Also it is important to conduct cost-benefit analysis before info-kiosks are installed in a region/locality, where both social and private costs and benefits must be estimated Resource availability is crucial in ensuring the sustainability of info-kiosks in every village Build collaboration and alliances in providing complete solutions to the farmers – both in terms of technology and content State to be a major player. Public agencies such as the post offices may be used for increasing the pace of info-kiosk movement in India Need for a national movement to accelerate the knowledge revolution, and take IT to the masses. Improve literacy levels in rural areas An increased emphasis on comparative studies. Build an empirical information base of the successes and failures of various info-kiosk interventions in India so far. Assess the needs and perceptions of target groups and beneficiaries. This would be important in ‘humanising the technology’ — a critical sufficiency condition for the success of info-kiosk movement in India Formulating policy for affirmative action and a coordinated set of mechanisms for channelling market forces towards delivering the empowerment of socially and economically disadvantaged groups Using multi-media offline methods to attract people to info-kiosks Build capacities of local facilitators/ambassadors to sustain the movement Log on to www.dgroups.org/groups/infokiosks/ for viewing the complete discussions.

National Alliance: Mission 2007 to empower people
The launch of Mission 2007 at the National Policy Makers’ Workshop on July 9-10, 2004 was the first milestone of the National Alliance on ICTs for Basic Human Needs. The Alliance, formed under the aegis of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai in May 2004, takes forward the vision of Prof Swaminathan to turn the ongoing ICT endeavours in the country into a national strategy to take the benefits of this technology to every village. Prof. Swaminathan is the Chairman of the Alliance. Sukanya Rath, Executive Director of NASSCOM Foundation, is the Secretary General. Basheerhamad Shadrach, Director, OneWorld South Asia, and Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam, Distinguished Fellow and Senthil Kumaran, MSSRF, are the three secretaries.

The Alliance, founded with 41 organisations initially, now has over 100 members drawn from the civil society, government, private and academic institutions. The founding members of the Alliance include Development Alternatives, National Informatics Centre, Azim Premji Foundation, ICRISAT, IIT Madras, IGNOU, ISRO and ITC, DIT in the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology and Netaji Subhash Open University.

The Alliance will act as a catalyst for technology innovation for rural ICT applications and connectivity. It will work to bring the private sector and the academia together with strong support from civil society organisations for experimenting every innovation among the target communities. Seven task forces have been set up under the Alliance on Connectivity, Content, Policy, Space Applications, Capacity Building, Resource Mobilisation, Organisation and Management and Programme Design. Active partners of the Alliance are the convenors. The Alliance is being supported in its work by a small secretariat, currently being hosted by OneWorld South Asia (OWSA). The secretariat will showcase and share information on the Mission activities, through a website on Mission 2007, to be launched in October. OWSA along with its partners is involved developing a nation-wide support system on content and applications to serve the 600,000 village knowledge centres that are to be set up under the Mission umbrella.

Voices from policy makers’ workshop on Mission 2007

If there is a good technology, there should be no regulations at the policy level. Every project should be cleared within a week. The government should invest in such initiatives because these can help achieve its goals. The government departments should go for 50-50 partnership with private companies. The technology is there. It is the policymaker who is far behind. No effort will be left at my end to push these things in a big way. Kapil Sibal, Minister of State (Independent Charge), Science and Technology The growing rural-urban divide is not in the interest of the country. A country should value its human resources over material resources. We have the right concept for giving a new deal to rural India and we need to translate that into action. All of us have to be links in a fast moving vehicle. Prof M S Swaminathan, Chairman, National Alliance for Mission 2007 Given the focus of the new government, we should be able to get some movement in policy issues. You can count on our support. I look forward to seeing the workshop document and will be happy to discuss it with you, and to see where the government can help. While the central government can play an important role, I hope this initiative will also be carried to the state governments. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, Deputy Chairperson, Planning Commission Information and knowledge are the basic entitlements of the rural people and it is our duty to build the enabling framework for them to access and use knowledge for social and economic empowerment. The civil society can have a much more meaningful role when the government as well as market fail to deliver. One of the key things for the success of Mission 2007 is to start small, and scale it up rapidly. The IT industry, on the basis of its experience in the last decade, can provide some useful inputs. Kiran Karnik, President, NASSCOM The Mission 2007 initiative is timely because there is an emphasis on the overall development of villages in the government’s Common Minimum Programme. The Ministry of Communications and IT too has an initiative to induct ICTs for all the major works identified by the Mission 2007 taskforces. I assure that the Ministry will pay attention to the decisions reached at the policymakers’ workshop. K K Jaswal, Secretary, Ministry of Communications and IT Mission 2007 is not just a great vision but essential if we want India to truly shine. India is home to the highest number of disadvantaged people, but at the same time we have the technology and the tools to correct this imbalance. I assure that Mission 2007 has the full support of the IT industry. Saurabh Srivastava, Founding Trustee, Nasscom Foundation The spectrum in rural areas is under government control. It should be delicensed. The government has to become a change agent. It has put down impossible conditions that have to be removed. TRAI has made some recommendations accordingly. Pradip Baijal, Chairman, TRAI The Mission 2007 policymakers’ workshop is a milestone because it is for the first time being led by the civil society organisations. The idea is that the civil society actors come together under the Mission umbrella, in a collaborative manner for sustaining and scaling up the speed of the rural knowledge movement throughout India. Dr Basheerhamad Shadrach, Director, OneWorld South Asia Mission 2007 is about preserving knowledge and traditions that we have in our society and culture. Sukanya Rath, Executive Director, Nasscom Foundation Existing and traditional technologies should not be ignored if they are effective. The process of assessing the affordability, accessibility and availability of technology is long. People’s capabilities should be recognised and they should be trained to understand the village as an income-generation group. Namrata Bali, SEWA It is easier to make a kiosk sustainable if it offers multiple services. There could be IT-enabled services from rural areas catering to the needs of the urban population. Monitoring is important in terms of scalability. Too many failed projects are harmful. Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIT Madras There is a need to re-haul the structure of research and evaluation in the ICT for development sector. There are several studies of successes but an evaluation of what works in South Asia is close to absent. There should be a comparative understanding of the innovative work being done in India. Kenneth Keniston, Director of MIT India Programme Knowledge is expensive. But not having knowledge is far more costly. ICTs must benefit the life of every individual. Dr Ashok Khosla, Development Alternatives The Common Minimum Programme of the government gives key pointers to Mission 2007. It addresses issues of the farmers, unemployment and rural development. We need to ensure that the services are affordable because Indians cannot buy unaffordable services. We need a business model for it. Sam Pitroda, Chairman, World Tel The transfer of technology is crucial. The leading R&D institutions should improve the processes by which technology is transferred to the rural industries and made affordable. Delivery would be the key in achieving Mission 2007, and the Department of Space can provide the much-needed connectivity for delivery to those not reached. R Chidambaram, Principal Scientific Advisor, GoI India’s problems can be solved through partnerships across nations, people and technologies. Eric Brewer, University of California The knowledge centres should have a business model. The government at the rural level should sub contract all work to these centres. Dr D C Misra, Former Chairman, Task Force for IT policy, Delhi Government

National Policy Maker’s Workshop: Multistakeholder partnerships
The National Policy Makers’ Workshop on “Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre – A Road Map” was essentially a civil society-led initiative organised by MSSRF and OWSA, with support from the Nasscom Foundation, SDC and CIDA and IDRC.

Mission 2007 Roadmap

The National alliance will work to achieve Mission 2007 by: Connectivity Mission 2007 will undertake to connect a targeted 25,000 villages in the first year by pooling in resources from various states, government agencies and corporates and using affordable and accessible technology. Content generation, dissemination and application development Mission 2007 will initiate formation of consortia of content developers to provide content and ensure that local livelihood needs are met and available content resources are pooled for achieving the common goal. Spatial applications for rural prosperity The endevaour will be to make it possible for local communities to collect, access and use data on their livelihoods assets using these applications for local, regional and national planning. Policy issues on content, connectivity and costs Efforts will be made to influence policy issues such as low tariff and de-licensing of last mile ICT applications, especially wireless spectrum and community media. Resource mobilisation Efforts will be made to harness financial resources available with government agencies, through corporate social responsibility funds, international donor agencies and academic and technical institutions for Mission 2007 and its roadmap. Training and capacity building of village entrepreneurs Operators of knowledge centres will be trained by a number of community-based capacity building organisations to operate knowledge centres as an information entrepreneurship activity. Organisation, evaluation and monitoring Community-based organisations, Panchayati Raj (local self-government) institutions, self-help groups and postal network will be encouraged to function as knowledge centres at the village level. Peer-to-peer learning and sharing of knowledge will be encouraged at village level.

The multi-centric event that took place in over six venues in four cities brought together more than 300 people, representing the government, corporate sector, academic institutions, civil society and donor organisations. Participants who helped chalk out the roadmap to achieve Mission 2007. (See box on Voices from Policy Makers’ Workshop on Mission 2007)

In addition to the main event, held at the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) in Delhi and the valedictory function at India Habitat Centre, a videoconference was organised in collaboration with the British Council. This video conference-based consultation connected audience in Delhi, Chennai, Kolkatta and Mumbai through British Council’s Knowledge and Learning Centres. The outcome of an online discussion on info kiosks was also presented at the workshop. (See box on Highlights of online discussions on info kiosks)

A joint action framework to achieve the goals of Mission 2007 was agreed upon by professional/academia, governmental and civil society organisations, private sector and the media. (See box on Mission 2007 Roadmap). These include decisions that the task forces serving the National Alliance would continue their functions. A complimentary structure to that of the national level structure would be formed at the state and district levels. It was decided that the Alliance would work to facilitate the process of connecting 25,000 villages this year and pool in resources from various quarters.