BY HARIOM SHIVHARE

Background in the Indian Context

India is a country of 1 billion people
 It is a multi lingual country
 74% of the population lives in rural
areas
 Bridging the digital divide is a
massive challenge
Wireless has enabled India reach 1994 dream of crossing 100
million telephone lines in a decade

Number of Telephones in India

Number of Telephones
120
100
80
60
40
20
0

April 2005
1951

1991

1997

2002

2003
1948

1961

1971

1981

1999

2000

2001

2004
Year

How has this happened?

can rural telecom grow in a similar manner?
om
 BIG picture
Population --1,080,264,388 (around
70% lives in rural area)
 Area -- 3,287,590 sq km (more than
600,000+ villages)
 Political subdivisions-- 28
states,7 union territories
 Literacy--55.2 %

 Big question
 Can technology make any
difference to these people
 Can they effort these
technologies
Rural India has
700 million people

 in 600,000+ villages
(about 1000 people per village with
per-capita income of US$0.5 per day)

 In addition to telephony,
120
102.1 Internet plays a great role to
100
bring in Education, Health &
Number of HH in millions

80
Micro-enterprises
60
 To scale to 600K villages
40
 Technologies
17
20 10
3.9 1.9 1 0.3 0.3
 Sustainable Business Model
0  Organization which thinks and
60 180 260 360 520 840 1300 2240 acts Rural
HH Income in $ per month
Mobile Market in India boomed
5 million  50 million  150 million  400 million

 with handset price of US$40 plus 500

Projected Nos of Subscribers in

 Infrastructure cost reduces to 400

enable 300

million
 service at 1.5 cents per minute 200

 and ARPU of $ 7 per month 100

0
2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010
Year

 Need a different price point for

the next 300 million rural
subscribers
 Service at 0.5 cents per minute
 ARPU of US$ 2 per month
Role of Private Sectors inTelecom
Participation of Reliance and Bharti
in infocom business made significant impact
 Reliance planned to lay 68000 Root
Km FO cable
 Introduced CDMA based limited
mobility based Wireless in Local loop
Bharti Laid Submarine FO cable
jointly with Sing Tel
Optical fiber network together with wireless
technologies such as 3G can be effectively used
to provide high quality telecom coverage to
rural areas and thus bridge the Digital Divide.
 Fibre goes deep in India

INDIA 300 villages

 BSNL, Tata, Reliance, Bharati airtel has fibre connectivity

to most County (taluka: 15 Km radius) towns
 Privatization has brought down prices drastically

 Lease fibre BW to make a Rural backbone network

 WiFi use often to connect to backbone
 85% of villages within 15-20 Km radius of taluka towns
 typically 300 villages in 30 Km radius
 RURAL WHEEL OF PROSPERITY

Agriculture

Entertainment
& information
Animal
Husbandry

Education
IT-Based & training
Services

Trade &
Commerce
Services:
 Communication
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
Services:
 Communication Email, Chatting, Video conferencing etc
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
Services:
 Communication Teaching computer, distance education, etc
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
 One Example: n-Logue

Services:
 Communication DTP, MSWord etc
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
 One Example: n-Logue

Services:
 Communication Use of the web cam for photography
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
 One Example: n-Logue

Services: Consulting with doctors in city by sending

 Communication online images of the animal
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
Services: Remote diagnostic tools, Consulting with
 Communication doctors in city
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
Services:
 Communication
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
 One Example: n-Logue

Services: Weather forecasting, Disease detection, soil

 Communication analysis etc
 Education
 Computer Education
 Remote tutorial
 Typing
 Photography
 Agriculture
 Veterinary
 Health Care
 NEEDS OF THE FARMER

PRODUCTION
MARKET INFO & HARVEST & TRANSPORT RISK COVERAGE
Linkage facilitation OF PRODUCE facilitation & PRICE RISK
COVERAGE

STORAGE CREDIT
facilitation FARMER facilitation

INPUT facilitation
KNOWLEDGE /
Extension Services IRRIGATION Seeds, Fertilisers, Pesticides,
Facilitation/ Alternate facilitation Farm Machinery, Soil Testing
farming
Entertainment – Chiraag Radio
Local Internet Newspaper
Collecting Data from the
Villages
Word-processor in Indian Languages
 Jamsetji Tata National Virtual Academy for
Rural Prosperity (NVA) - 2003

ISRO Uplink/
Downlink
Satellite
Web based
interactive Internet Data
portal
Generators
National Level Hub (MSSRF) & Providers
Data Managers (both connectivity and content)

Block level hubs

Village Resource Centre Hub and Spokes Model
(VRC)
Information Users (Rural
families)
Village Knowledge Centres
 RURAL NETWORK

State Switching
Centre
(SSC)
Connectivity Growth Path

District Switching centre

(DSC)

Subdivision Switching Centre(SDSC)

Block Switching Centre(BSC)

Gram Panchayat Switching Centre(GPSC)

 RURAL IMPROVEMENT CENTER

HIGH
LIBRARY & COMPUTER
SECONDARY HOSTEL
STUDY ROOM LAB
SCHOOL

GPSC & MEDICAL GRAM HELTH

SPORTS
HALL CAMPAGE SAHBA CLUB
 RESOURCES
1 1
30
NGO

Government
Organizations
Corporate Sector

109
51 Academic
Institutions
puplic

Bank
24
 A Knowledge Centre in Every Village

The National Commission on Farmers has recommended the

establishment of Rural Knowledge Centres all over the country using
modern information and communication technology (ICT).  Mission
2007 is a national initiative launched by an alliance comprising nearly
80 organizations including civil society organizations.  Their goal is to
set up a Knowledge Centre in every village by the 60th anniversary of
Independence Day.  Government supports the goal, and I am glad to
announce that Government has decided to join the alliance and route
its support through NABARD. I propose to allow NABARD to provide
Rs.100 crore out of  RIDF.
Budget speech by Shri P Chidambaram, Minister of Finance,
February 28, 2005
Green Revolution : Enhanced productivity of wheat,
rice and other crops
Knowledge Revolution : Enhances human
productivity and creativity in all its dimensions

Sports revolution : enhances human for performing in each

and every game.

 EACH VILLAGE MATTERS

 EACH VILLAGER MATTERS
THANK YOU