Commercial Internet Connectivity in every village - Towards Rural Prosperity Ashok Jhunjhunwala TeNeT Group, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

September The Dream Current Rural GDP in India = Rs 700,000 Crore For a Population= 700 million people GDP / Person = Rs DOUBLING Rural GDP Rs / Person Rural Prosperity

September Agriculture Animal Husbandry Agricultural Processing Industry IT-Based Services Trade & Commerce Rural Micro-Enterprises are the Wealth Creators  Micro-enterprises need Finance Knowledge and Training Buying & Selling Insurance  Can Communications Enable these ?

September How does one connect Rural India?  India has 600,000+ villages 700 million people can Rural India afford Connections?  Needs Technology Sustainable Business Model Organisation which thinks and acts Rural

September Serving people with incomes of less than a dollar a day  75% rural households can spend barely Rs 120 per month on telecom Rs spend per month on Telecom by HH assuming 4% of income can be spent on Telecom

September n-Logue uses Innovative Technology to connect Rural India  To PSTN To Internet 35/70 kbps Internet plus simultaneous telephone Rs 8000 per line price 1 million lines in  BSNL has fibre connectivity to most Talukas CorDECT WLL developed at IITM provides a telephone line and Internet connection in 30 Km radius can connect 85% of Indian villages start-up costs very low

September Aggregate Demand  Entrepreneur-driven telephone booths (STD PCOs) introduced in 1987 night-time long distance charges reduced by a factor of 4  Today 950,000 STD PCOs covering every street of smallest town generate 25 % of total telecom income 300 million people use these PCOs

September  n-Logue : A Rural Service Provider aggregate demand into a kiosk using Rs (including taxes) per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC plus Indian language software, video conferencing software, training and maintenance set up by a village entrepreneur on the lines of STD PCOs needs only Rs 3000 per month to break even Innovative Business Models

n-Logue Deployment Strategy Application & Content Providers Telephone Backbone Internet Backbone Scope: 1 –3 Talukas 25 Km radius, 2000 sq km 4 – 500 K population towns villages LSP Banks ACCESS CENTRE Connections (at least 1 in each village) Connections: Individuals Government — schools and PHCs Kiosks Rs / Kiosk KIOSK OPERATOR Banks Micro Finance Organisations

Word-processor in Indian Languages

Multi-lingual Office Package IITM - Chennai Kavigal

September Digital Studio – Low cost Photography Photograph taken with a Web Camera Printed Photograph

September Video-conferencing... with Communications Minister (Shri Thirunavakarasu) OOPS/IITM IITM - OOPS

September The Agricultural Expert is no longer far away … After Before In a Village in Madurai, the Lady’s Finger (Okra) crop was turning white The problem was sent to the experts at the Department of Rural Extension, Madurai Agricultural College and Research Centre who diagnosed it as “Yellow Mosaic disease”

September Savings The Farmer’s Field Savings to farmer - Rs 1.5 lakhs Cost of Information - tens of rupees

September The Vet is On The Net … This goat had a wound near its mouth and could not eat for a week The advice from the doctor cured its problem in 2 days

September Emergencies are no longer Calamities … In the village of T Ulgapitchanpatti, all hens are dying one by one. The symptoms for these hens are: First, their weight reduces and finally, their necks shrink. At this stage they die immediately. Until now, 300 hens have died in this way. How do we stop this? Please give us a solution immediately. From A. Sakkarai"

September … because Help is at Hand A visit from the Government Veterinary Officials to vaccinate all hens

September Epidemics can be prevented with a Doctor on Call  A potential epidemic of Chicken Pox was halted by a simple to the right people  Instant response from the Government Doctors

September Ordinary People have a Voice … This is Veeramani - a man with disabilities His job was to operate the pump for the Village Overhead Tank The Village Head removed from his job and gave the post to one of his relatives Through the kiosk, he sent an petition to the Chief Minister’s Cell, attaching his photograp

September Even the Chief Minister is not far away … A letter came back from the CM’s Cell asking that he be reinstated In response to the CM’s letter, the BDO sent instructions to the Village Head that he given back his job - permanently 58276

September Eye Care An is sent to the Aravind Eye Hospital with a photograph attached The patient is told that her problem was not serious and could wait for some time The Benefits? 1) She saved a visit to the hospital 2) She knows she has to make that visit after 2 months

September Online Consultations

September General Health – An Online Clinic with a Doctor

September Talking to an Agricultural Expert

September Video-conferencing (6 kiosks in conversation)

September Bridging the Digital Divide – Computer Education for Rural Children

September

September 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 requirements of Rural India

September Knowledge and Training  Another Driver of Rural Prosperity Information Dissemination and Knowledge Enhancement  Need a Virtual University in every District to enable this Basic Structure would Consist of a Central Hub And Knowledge Extension Centres in every village

September 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

September Sparse Area Communications -- where there is no fibre backbone  Microwave or Satellite back-haul required microwave link costs have come down can be optimised further -- tower costs dominate satellite back-haul needs special design providing significant data-rate at each remote hub Hub serves 50 to 100 villages in Km radius driving down the total cost to connect a village villages in sparser areas have less available money finance and buying/selling may make even larger sense

8-10 voice channels + 64/128 kbps Internet satellite backhaul Each hub supports 16 to 20 remote sites with 2 Mbps downlaod Rs10000 corDECT + Rs10000 backhaul cost per connection PSTN Internet 2.4 m antenna 3.8 m antenna  Kms with 50 connections  For inaccessible Rural Areas 2 Mbps --> 128 Kbps --> < Kbps ISRO-IITM

September To Sum Up  Doubling Rural GDP will change India Finance, Commerce, Training & Information are key Wireless Internet can enable these Sparse Areas will require special efforts  Internet in Rural Area is the key Infrastructure for a prosperous India