1. Providing Commercial Internet connections in Rural India Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM, Chennai, India ashok@tenet.res.in Towards Rural Wealth Generation

2. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 2 Rural India has 700 million people  in 600,000+ villages (about 1000 people per village with per-capita income of Rs 20 per day) per capita GDP of Rs 10000 per year  Can technologies make a significant difference in life of such people? Can it bring to them health & Education Can it significantly enhance their incomes? 135 million rural households

3. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 3 Can IT and Internet help?  Can these Rural areas even afford Connections?  Can they afford computers?  and how would Internet help in health, education and income generation?  can this scale to all the villages in India  To Scale Technology Sustainable Business Model Organisation which thinks and acts Rural

4. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 4 Innovative Technology to connect Rural India  To PSTN To Internet 35/70 kbps Internet plus simultaneous telephone Rs 7000 per line price 1 million lines being deployed  BSNL (state owned incumbent) has fibre connectivity to most Talukas (county hq) CorDECT Wireless in Local Loop developed at IITM, India  provides a telephone line and Internet connection in a 30 Km radius  can connect 85% of Indian villages  start-up costs very low

5. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 5 Business Model: Use Local Entrepreneurs to drive ICT  Entrepreneur-driven operator assisted telephone booths (STD PCOs) introduced in India in 1987 Today in urban areas:  950,000 such PCOs covering every street of smallest town  generate 25 % of total telecom income  300 million people use these PCOs  Lesson for Rural: To serve Rural people with incomes less than $ 1/day, aggregate demand and let Entrepreneurs drive it Aid/ Grant does not scale Successful Enterprises can scale to all villages

6. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 6  n-Logue : A Rural Service Provider aggregate demand into a kiosk owned & driven by a local entrepreneur  Rs 50000 (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 urban PCOs  provides telephone, stand-alone Computer and Internet services  needs 100 per day to break even (Rs 3 per person per month) Innovative Business Models

7.  Provides Training and Technical Support  Handles Licensing and Policy issues  Provides Internet Backbone Connectivity  Enables Kiosk Services through Alliance Partners  Creates Awareness Application & Solution Providers Internet Backbone ACCESS CENTRE Local Service Partner  Markets Connections  Provides Onsite Support and Training  Manages Local Web & Email Services  Manages Local Content Pages Scope: 3000 sq km 400-600 connections (1 in each village) Internet Kiosk Operator  School/PHC  Private Business  Government Office  Rural NGO  Provides Internet Access to Local Community  Provides Awareness and Training  Channels Information needs of Community through LSP to Application & Content Providers Financing

8. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 8 The Kiosk Owner Should have studied up to Class 10 Need have no prior computer Training Should be able to communicate to the people in the village

9. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 9 Kiosk: Bouquet of Services (besides telephony) Learning typing Computer education Photography movies on CD DTP work Email/voice & video mail E-Government Video conferencing providing  Tele-medicine  Vet Care  E-learning  E-Agriculture

10. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 10 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 Rural Magic : The next few slides contain true stories which have “magically” impacted the lives of people in Indian villages.

11. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 11 Saving Crops and Agri-consultancy 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” Saving to farmer - Rs 160,000 Cost of Information - Rs 40

12. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 12 Palaniammal’s eyes…  A 60 year old from a village near Melur Photographs by an ordinary web camera: Remote feedback given by Aravind Eye hospital

13. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 13 An Online Clinic … * Dr Mala Fenn is a leading Gynecologist in Madurai

14. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 14 Web- Durbar: DM talks to multiple villages on video

15. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 15 Inter-village singing competition

16. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 16 Rural Children create computer drawings for greeting cards All drawn on a PC

17. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 17

18. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 18 Market Research Collecting Data from the Villages

19. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 19

20. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 20 E-government services at a Village VILLAGE KIOSK Dispersal of PDS coupons Application forms for exams, etc Physical Dispersal Payment of Municipal taxes Electricity Bills Bus Tickets Purchase of Seeds / Fertilisers Entrance and Exam Fees Net Banking Distribution of Application Forms Information from Online Databases like BPL lists Electoral Lists, etc From Central Website Information Dissemination Text, Audio, Video formats of various Government / Public service Announcements Video-conferencing between Collector and villagers Physical Notice Board outside Kiosk on which Govt. Notices can be pasted

21. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 21 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 ?

22. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 22 The Dream Current Rural GDP in India = Rs 700,000 Crore For a Population= 700 million people GDP / Person = Rs 10000 per year DOUBLING per-capita Rural GDP Rs 20000 per person per year Rural Prosperity

23. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 23 Operations Project Summary & Plans 46 2719Totals 615Others 16151Gujarat 1486Maharashtra 1037TN TotalActiveLiveState  Plans 78 Projects by March 2004  Maharashtra: 30  TN: 25  Gujarat: 16  Others: 7  125 kiosk/project 10000 kiosks by Jul-Sep 2004

24. Technologies & people behind n-Logue

25. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 25 Technologies in Use  corDECT WiLLMidas  will enable 100/200 dedicated and 2 Mbps shared connection next year RAS & RouterBanyan  Minnow ISP in a boxNilgiri Billing SystemNilgiri  Network Management NMSWorks  Chirag voice/video mailTeNeT  Indian Language Office packageCK

26. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 26  To PSTN To Internet corDECT Wireless in Local Loop  35/70 kbps dedicated Always-on Internet plus simultaneous telephone 100/200 kbps dedicated & 2Mbps shared connection in near future  Price target: Rs 5K - 7K per line  802.16 in future IITM - Midas

27. Office package in Indian Languages IITM - Chennai Kavigal

28. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 28 Major New Initiatives  Multi-party multi-rate video conferencingOOPS Live LectureOOPS  Rural ATM MachineVortex Finger print detection HP-IITM  Medical Diagnostic kit Neurosynaptics  LCD projection systemTeNeT  Web Terminal MeTeL Midas Entertainment TerminalTeNeT  Rural Banking SWTeNeT  On-line eye-testingHP-IITM  Sparse Area Comm SystemTeNeT TeNeT faculty and 10 companies incubated by it (1000 engineers) working to make the dream true

29. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 29 Low bit-rate multi-party Video Conferencing (audio + video + chat at 20 kbps onwards) On-line lecturing at low bit-rates IITM - OOPS

30. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 30 Financial Services with ICICI Bank IITM-Vortex  Kiosk operators to have Credit cards Collect cash from villager and pay online  Govt. payments, Telephone bills  Kiosk operator to be an agent for  agri-crop loans  Rural Insurance, Health and Crop Rural low cost ATMs at kiosks  Works along with the PC already existing  Breakthrough pricing envisaged of Rs 40000

31. Remote Monitoring of patient’s health using wireless A kit consisting of BP, Temperature, ECG measurement and Stethoscope for Rs 10K IITM - NeuroSynaptic

32. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 32 8-10 voice channels + 64/128 kbps Internet satellite backhaul Each hub supports 16 to 20 remote sites with 2 Mbps download Rs 7K corDECT + Rs 10K backhaul cost per connection PSTN Internet 2.4 m antenna 3.8 m antenna  15 -25 Kms with 50 connections  2 Mbps --> 128 Kbps --> <-- 256 Kbps Sparse Area Communications where there is no fibre backbone IITM - ISRO

33. TeNeT Group, IITMFeb 04 33 To Sum Up  Technologies can impact lives provided there is a big enough Vision behind it Dream of Doubling per capita Rural GDP  Finance, Commerce, Training & Information are key  Driving Education, Health and Entrepreneurship is the means  Wireless Internet with fibre backhaul can enable these  Sparse Areas will require special technologies & efforts  Large number of innovative technologies and applications need to be developed catering specifically to Rural areas