1. Grassroots Applications J Satyanarayana

2. What is a Grassroots Application? An Application that is 1. RELEVANT 2. ACEESSIBLE 3. AFFORDABLE & 4. SUSTAINABLE … to the millions at the bottom of the pyramid

3. Relevance Makes economic sense Improves Agricultural Economics Improves rural livelihoods Improves quality of life Provides better healthcare Improves functional literacy Ensures social well-being Increases distributive justice

4. Accessibility Ubiquitous Within a distance, comparable to that for workplace Assisted Designed to be useful for illiterates Local Language Interface Available outside working hours Widely Known

5. Affordability Free of cost or at low service charge Half-a-day’s wages per month Shared access Community Service Centres Broadband to village at affordable cost AP’s ambitious project to provide 2 Mbps to all villages in 65 weeks Rs 100 p.m per kiosk – always ON

6. Sustainability Economic Viability of Basic Infrastructure Public-Private-Partnership for backbone & last mile Economic Viability of Delivery Infrastructure Common Service Centres Sustainable content Demand-driven content Entrepreneur-based Service-charge based Technological Sustainability Open Standards essential Open Source quite desirable

7. An experiment.. e-Sagu Agricultural Information Dissemination System Jointly implemented by DIT & IIIT, Hyderabad Problems of 1000 Cotton Farmers in 3 villages addressed Encouraging results in 1 st year Methodology Local Coordinators take digital pictures of each field every weekdigital pictures Send to Experts Group at Hyd through CD Advice sent over Internet Advice

8. Thank You ceo@nisg.org