October 24, 2005

India's 1st e-literate district - Malappuram, Kerala

It was heartening to read the article in rediff.

- In November 2002, the state government of Kerala put into place a project, piloted in Malappuram, that aimed for one person in every family to be computer literate in that district.

- One year later, the scheme had already found success -- over 500 Akshaya centres (basically computer labs) had been built throughout the district, and a village, Chemaravattom, was already fully computer literate (perhaps the first of its kind in the world).

- The next step, to create a network so that the villagers and residents of Malappuram would be able to utilise this new computer literacy, and log on to the Internet was carried out thro Tulip, an IT services company

- Tulip came up with a cost-efficient way of ensuring that the entire district of Malappuram was connected -- entirely wirelessly. What they did was put up point-to-point and point-to-multipoint radio masts (they didn't even need to construct towers), using Versatile Intelligent Network and Wireless in Local Loop technology.

- Akshaya is also a scheme for more efficient governance, and not just for local government offices being hooked up, but Malappuram residents can also pay their electricity and telephone bills online. The Tulip network reaches sectors such as life insurance, housing loans, police stations, senior secondary schools and panchayats, making financial transactions much easier.

- Thanks to the success of this pilot, the government of India is now looking at expanding this model over 20 states.

Way to Go!!

1 comment:

ecophilo said...

Heartening news indeed, but Indias only 100% literate state can go further. For others, e-literacy is still some way away, first we have to tackle (il)-literacy and the bihars of india have their way, it is some way off!