Reaching the Grassroots

Villagers like Amrutbhai Agravat may appear as mis fits in the world of

modern-day IT-savvy technocrats. But the innovations of Agravat and others of

his ilk are classic examples of effective IT deployment in rural areas. Agravat,

who belongs to Pikhor village of Junagadh district in Gujarat, invented the

Aaruni Bullock Cart, a mechanically tilted cart with four-wheel support. The

cart not only increases efficiency of bullocks but also facilitates farming

activities through a ‘tilt mechanism’. The product achieved a turnover of Rs

15,00,000 last year and Agravat got close to a lakh of rupees as intellectual

property rights.

The Honeybee philosophy



Agravat’s project is only one among many backed by the Honeybee Network
operating out of the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) premises in Ahmedabad.

"The basic philosophy is to stand for people networking in local languages

and help them derive the benefits of sharing knowledge among themselves,"

says Professor Anil Gupta of IIMA, who is the brain behind the project.

"Just as the honeybee goes from flower to flower," he adds.

Honeybee INITIATIVE #I: Training being imparted in the villages by KnowNet Group workers

The Honeybee Network aims to take IT to the villages. The network is supposed

to be strong enough to tackle bandwidth and connectivity problems. Despite

drawbacks such as poor electricity and telecom infrastructure in most Indian

villages, the innovators are taking the benefits of the Internet for the benefit

of rural areas through KnowNet-Grin (Honeybee Electronic Network - Knowledge

Network for Augmenting Grassroots Innovations). This global initiative has been

jointly implemented by IIM, Ahmedabad, SRISTI (Society for Research and

Initiatives for Sustainable technologies and Institutions) and GIAN (Gujarat

Grassroots Innovation Augmentation Network). It is also supported by other

welfare organizations like NIF (National Innovation Foundation), SEVA

(Sustainable-Agriculture and Environmental Voluntary Action) and PRITVI (People

Rewarding Initiatives in Technology-Values and Institutions).

Honeybee INITIATIVE #II: An invention that is now all set to be on the Net for patent and production licenses

Honeybee does not have venture capitalists or big names on its directorial

board. Instead it only has some creative and innovative farmers, artisans,

mechanics, fishermen and women and laborers who have their solved problems on

their own without any help from the state, market, or even NGOs. "The

innovators form the strength of the network and we provide the technical

support. With formal science and technology, such self triggered and developed

innovations whether technological or institutional are scouted, supported,

sustained and scaled with or without value addition," explains Vijay Pratap

Singh Aditya, the project manager of KnowNet-Grin.

The golden triangle



The Honeybee attempts to document and disseminate grassroot-level

innovations and contemporary knowledge through the site www.honeybee.org.

The innovators are spread across many places and speak different languages. The

Internet will work as a golden triangle of creativity between innovators,

investors, and entrepreneurs to shape innovation into business. This will help

bring about change and uplift the life of the villager.

Honeybee INITIATIVE #III: A screenshot of the kiosk home, which has drawn hundreds into the fold

However, the present socio-cultural system prevalent in rural areas may not

support this process of change. This is where SRISTI has taken up the initiative

through the infoDev project with financial assistance from the World Bank. The

project is expected to create entrepreneurial opportunities and economic

development by connecting the knowledge-rich, but economically poor people and

providing them access to real time information. According to Prof Gupta, the aim

is to bridge gaps between the formal and informal sciences, education, and

learning communities.

The power of knowledge



Apart from Amrutbhai Agravat, the inventors have very little knowledge about

the utility of the network. "I know because I have been a regular visitor

to the network campus and have been involved in setting up the network database.

But I am sure others will also have the know-how once it is set up in their

villages," he says. Prof Gupta agrees that the inventors can be trained to

use computers or kiosks. Training programs to this effect are being conducted in

many of the villages.

Honeybee INITIATIVE #IV: Kiosk training being imparted to a grassroot innovator from a village in Gujarat

In order to enhance the reach of this program, various steps have been

recommended. A solution center for providing information related to agricultural

problem can be set up. Emails in local language, a database of information such

as local remedies & recipes, market prices for crops and e-governance

applications for making complaints to the district administration have been

identified as the primary needs of the villager.

Although the program needs to be further developed for reaching out to

villagers, it has already started showing benefits. Ahmedabad-based Mansukhbhai

Patel, for insance, invented the Cotton Striper, a unique machine used to

separate shell from lint in local variety of cotton. This helps women and

children avoid the tiresome and low efficiency manual technique for separation.

Another technology, the auto pump sprayer was transferred internationally

through the Web database and there are many more in the offing. To take the

program further, Prof Gupta is looking for probable partners who can support

some of the project activities. Efforts are also on to improve the kiosk

interface further and localize the language so that it can reach maximum number

of villagers.

Binu Alex, Cyber News Service in

Ahmedabad

Knowledge Tools Here are some tools that Know Net-Grin can be used with

CorDect: This works within a diameter range of 25km. Basically it is

line of sight with wireless connectivity between a relay station and antennae

and wall set box connected to a telephone and a kiosk. The minimum data transfer

that provided is 35 Kbps with a functional telephone simultaneously.

Remote Access Wireless Network: This again works with line of sight

and for a distance of 15 - 30 Km diameters, point-to-point connectivity, with

each antennae speaking to the line of site antennae. The bandwidth available is

between 64 Kbps to 11 Mbps depending upon the type of the network. The network

works with a central node providing information access to the distant node.

Broadband Optic Fiber Network: This forms the much-hyped services from

private service providers with much promised network till block level providing

2 Mbps broadband support. Broadband, though highly expensive, is supposed to

revolutionize the Internet and communication scenario for both telephony as well

as Internet. However, nothing has so been heard about the bottleneck of

last-mile connectivity.

RAS-based Network: These networks use the existing telephony

infrastructures and have a central server, which is ideally at a district head

quarter. The village kiosks are connected through a dial up connection and

access server side resources. Here the access to resources depend upon the

quality of connectivity. Offline model and an online model are the two ideal

approach used in this type.

VSAT: This is a very expensive model to be implemented in rural areas.

A relay base station network the kiosk through a broad band Vsat uplink with

good connectivity. This base station facilitates data transfer. KnowNet-Grin

Kiosk application software’s which basically work offline are installed in the

kiosk while web application is connected through Vsat to the central server

through the uplink.

Standalone Kiosk: These offline standalone kiosk could be the answer

to all the problems. The kiosks, generally placed in public places and which

host various advertising and information services information could be static or

dynamic such as information kiosks providing information at some railway

stations.

IP-based Network: This can host a website pointing to an IP and could

be both static and dynamic. The kiosk access the website through a dialup to the

internet. KnowNet-Grin Kiosk application software’s which basically work

offline could be installed at the kiosk could be periodically updated through

the central server while it connects through an ftp application embedded in the

kiosk system.