Rural Connectivity in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu has upgraded and renamed its Sustain able Access in Rural India
(SARI) project as RASI Rural Access to Services through Internet. Since the SARI
project was running as a pilot at Madurai district’s Melur taluk did reach its
objectives successfully, the state Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa has announced
that the project would now be extended to the other districts as well.

During the first phase that would be completed in 2003-2004, the government
plans to extend RASI to ten more districts-Madurai, Cuddalore, Coimbatore,
Kancheepuram, Theni, Tirunelveli, Salem, Nagapattinam, Erode and Tiruvallur.

As part of the government’s endeavor to bridge the digital divide, Tamil
Nadu has chalked out a road map on the use of IT to integrate all villages in
the state by year 2010. As a proof of concept, in February 2001 SARI was rolled
out in Melur taluk. The objective was to provide both telephone and Internet
through Wireless in Local Loop technology (CorDECT) developed by the Telecom
& Network Group at IIT Madras.

The project was jointly undertaken by Harvard’s Center for International
Development, IIT Madras and the MIT Media Laboratory to show that viable markets
exist for information and communication services in rural poor areas by
inventing and deploying innovative technologies, assessments and business
models. "Now RASI is Tamil Nadu’s IPR and it has emerged from cost of
implementation to total cost of ownership. We are now open to all technology
including CorDECT. Even any broadband connectivity with lesser cost can be
adopted," said Tamil Nadu IT Secretary Vivek Harinarain.

To augment the RASI project the Government is in the process of setting up
about 6,000 information and Internet kiosks in different villages through
Self-Help Groups (SHGs) initiated by the rural development department. The
government has identified different services to offer through these kiosks and
is taking steps to put back-end infrastructure in place. The government expects
that once the services for RASI projects are rolled out, many more players would
come forward to set up and run RASI kiosks enabling the state to spread IT to
the masses.

The SARI project was a step towards bridging the digital divide and it did
bring in a revolution in Melur taluk. Through the 47 kiosks set in place in the
taluk, villagers can now access birth and death certificates applications,
applications for pensions, government schemes, loans and market information
services on essential commodities. Besides, villagers can also access
encumbrance certificates and agricultural inputs for farmers from the Tamil Nadu
Agricultural University. In addition, the kiosk is equipped with a computer with
Internet connection and a web camera. For health applications, a tie up has been
made with Arvind Eye Hospital. All that the villager has to do is to go to the
nearby kiosk and send his voicemail and photographs of his eye through the
computer. The doctor makes an online response by informing the patient of the
seriousness of the problem and accordingly giving them an appointment and a
contact at the hospital or an eye camp in the vicinity.

No surprises that a Harvard University study predicted that the State is
poised to emerge as the top IT state in India as well as a gateway to South East
Asia.

Nisha Kurian in Chennai CyberMedia News

TN Budget: Priority Thrust to E-Governance

In its State Budget for the year 2004-05, the Tamil Nadu Government is in
the process of adopting e-governance in a big way–to improve administrative
efficiency and service delivery.

Ten departments and agencies with extensive public interface will be taken up
under the e-governance program to improve service delivery. The Budget includes
a provision of Rs 23 crore for e-governance initiatives in commercial tax,
registration, treasuries and accounts, transport and survey and settlement
departments. A provision of Rs eight crore for establishing the Tamil Nadu State
Wide Area Network (TNSWAN) has been made in the budget to enable easy inter
office communication and data transfer.

Apart from Chennai, Coimbatore will also be developed for IT and ITES
investments. The budget also announced that the Knowledge Industry Township
(KIT) at Sholinganallur on the road to Mamallapuram will take shape in 2004-05.
The Tamil Nadu Government launched KIT at Connect 2002. It will be a world-class
township, which will house non-polluting knowledge based industries, with
world-class living and working facility. This township would be developed in a
public-private partnership.

To get stronger in the ITES sector, the government will introduce ITES module
in the higher secondary school computer science syllabus to prepare them for the
employment potential in this sector.