Enabling Rural Citizens through
Innovations in ICT
IIT Madras
ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM,
India, ashok@tenet.res.in
Over the last two hundred years, 4 billion people in
the developing world have been left behind

How can they stand up and be counted?

How will they get access to resources, health and education?

How will they be able to compete?


How will they bridge the distance with their urban
counterparts or those in the developed world?
India was in this category in the recent past


Urban India has changed
will use it as an example to talk about what can be done
India was struggling in eighties

One had to wait for eight years to get a telephone

Deposit money to get in a queue



To buy a two-wheeler took four years
Gas connection took even longer
Importing a simple $3 microprocessor IC took one year
Life was difficult
IIT Madras
Changing Indian Affordability:65M urban homes
Number of HH in millions
25
21.2
20
15.8
15
12.8
10
2001
5.8
3.2
5
2
0.8
0.9
1300
3500
0
100
180
260
360
520
840
Monthly Household incom e in $
30
25
Nos of HH in M
20
15
10
2007
5
0
IIT Madras
<150
225
470
825
1560
Monthly HH Income in $
>2075
Mobile Market in India boomed

Not until Mobile Infrastructure Capex
< Rs 3000 per line

and with handset price of Rs 1200 onwards
service available at 50 p per minute
ARPU of about Rs 250

7 million subscribers added each month


Projected Nos of Subscribers in
million
5 million  50 million  150 million  400 million
500
400
300
200
100
0
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Year
Just Like number of TVs in India rose from
10 million to 100 million in 90’s when
prices became Rs 1200 onwards and cable
TV tariff fell below Rs 75 per month
•Number of TV channels boomed
•Entertainment industry in India
one of the biggest
IIT Madras
2010
Even Airline Industry

Is booming in India
quadrupled its passenger carrying capacity in two years
 Average tariffs have fallen to a fourth making it affordable
to middle class Indians


Inspite of rising petrol prices
The only limitation to growth is the airport infrastructure
IIT Madras
India on Move


Auto Sector is booming
 R&D driven initiative: Scorpio and Tata-Indica
 India emerging as leader in auto-component design and manufacturing
India’s cement plants in 90’s virtually closed as they could not compete


Electricity from wind energy surpasses its nuclear energy


Today India has some of the most energy efficient cement plants of
the world
India’s wind energy company is the fastest growing one in the world
Indian companies carrying out successful Drug discovery

Spends US$50-70M as opposed to US$800M for a drug
IIT Madras
Engineering Education

500K engineering students graduate every year from 1600
engineering colleges


Up from 25,000 in 100 schools in early eighties
Uneven quality is a major problem

was foreseen and resulted in reluctance to expand
But it is this human resources which has driven growth
IIT Madras

Growth of IT and IT enabled services is legendary

Reaching $50 billion this year

Trillion dollar IT Services industry being projected
The World is Flat
But you aint seen nothin yet
for the changes has not yet touched Rural India
IIT Madras
Politically
unsustainable
But Rural India is still struggling
637,000 villages, 700 million people
Per capita GDP about $200
Can ICT make a difference?
Rural Priority is Education, Health and Livelihood
IIT Madras
Changing Indian Affordability:150M rural homes
Number of HH in millions
120
102.1
100
80
60
40
17
20
2001
10
3.9
1.9
1
0.3
0.3
360
520
840
1300
2240
0
60
180
260
HH Incom e in $ per m onth
80
Nos of HH in M
70
60
50
40
30
20
2007
10
0
IIT Madras
<150
225
470
825
1560
Monthly HH Income in $
>2075
Fibre goes deep in India


All block headquarters are connected by optical fibre
 Most villages are within 15 Kms from Block towns
 Last mile technologies are rapidly emerging
Broadband CorDECT WiLL developed at IITM, India


provides a telephone line and 256 kbps Internet connection in 25 Km
radius
Exchange and tower in town
– Works at 55 C
– Power requirement: 1 KW
– start-up costs very low
Newer technologies emerging
 Promising 1/2 Mbps connectivity


with OFDM (like 802.16 / WiMax)
with HDR and HSDPA
Rs 10K per line deployed
Exchange and tower in town
Innovative Business Models

Rural Service Providers

aggregate demand into a kiosk
owned & driven by a local entrepreneur

Rs 50K per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet, multimedia PC

with web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC


plus local language software, video conferencing software, training and
maintenance and 6 months unlimited Internet
set up by a village entrepreneur on the lines of urban PCOs


Provides multiple services to break even
Needs Rs5K pm to break even
Rural Services – An Overview
Capacity Building
–
–
Education
Health
Enabling Services
Income Generation
–
–
–
IIT Madras
Agriculture
Entrepreneurship
Outsourcing
– Finance
– Markets (exchanges
/trading)
– e-Governance
– Water Management
– Energy
– Communications and
Transportation
3-
(Rating carried out on 0 to 5 scale to indicate
where India is)
Education
Towards enabling Rural Areas….
IIT Madras
Education

Curriculum based


Skill based





Passing SSLC: excellent results
Spoken English
Computer Basics
CAD, Web development, Photoshop
Repair pumps, wire for electricity, carpentry
Concept based

Science and Business concepts
IIT Madras
From London, Boston, NY
To Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi
Then Jaipur, Mangalore, and Pune
2
Is it the turn of Shikrapur,
Modaj and Mettupalliyam?
Rural BPO
Towards enabling Rural Areas….
IIT Madras
Services Provided
….In English and Regional Languages
Audio
Recording &
Editing
Web &
Multimedia
Development
Engineering
Services

Translation
Desktop
Publishing


ITeS
Administrative
Service
Overview

11 Months
50 People
20 Villages
13 Clients
Input 2D drawing
Output 3D model
Desi Crew

Rural BPO Services
 Administrative



Localization (English to
regional languages)



Translation
Voice Over
Engineering


IIT Madras
Data Entry
Data Conversion
2D drafting
2D to 3D conversion
As Chennai becomes the manufacturing
hub for Nokia and BMW…
1-
Can Pinjavakkam
become the production
hub for Chennai?
Rural Production
Towards enabling Rural Areas….
IIT Madras
CLIENT
•
FOR LEADER
•
•
•
•
CLIENT
CLIENT CLIENT
Visual Access to
production
Delivery of order
Infrastructure
Working Capital
Production Processes


ROPE
Design
Order
•
•
•
Order
Skill Enhancement
Quality Management
RPC
RPC
RPC
RPC
RPC LEADER
RPC LEADER
RPC LEADER
RPC LEADER
RPC WORKERS
RPC WORKERS
RPC WORKERS
RPC WORKERS
FOR WORKERS
FOR CLIENT
THE MODEL
RPO: Distributed Production enabled by Internet
Outsourcing production to rural areas
 Kiosk becomes a point of co-ordination & quality
control
The ‘Crafts for Life’ projects include





Embroidery
Bags
Soap
Banana Rope
Dry Flowers
Training in making dried banana bark rope making facilitated by ICT entrepreneur Jayamalathi at
Thirupandrutti.
• Building and Aggregating Distributed Rural Production
Units as back end for industries
• Focus Sectors: Crafts, Leather, Garments, Agro
Processing
IIT Madras
PRODUCTS
ROPE
Banana Fiber Table Mat
BF with Jute Placemat
Bamboo Fiber Placemat
Banana Fiber Window Blind
Korai Grass Runners
Training & Recruitment: Industry Client
RTBI: Networking,
Logistics & Monitoring Operation
ICT Kiosk: ICT
Infrastructure and Marketing
Vocational Training
IIT Madras
Focus Sectors:
Security Personnel
Skilled Construction Workers
Sales persons
Home Service Agents
Remote Eye Care with Aravind Hospitals
1+
Vet care with Veterinary college
Telemedicine:


Initial experiments with eye care and with Veterinary doctors
using the video conferencing tool
Moved on to video-consulting for GP & gynecology problems
Healthcare
Towards enabling Rural Areas….
IIT Madras
ReMeDi™ Tele-medicine solution
Kiosk
Operator
Healthcare Delivery
Identification of village healthcare delivery centers
Local
Partner
Hosp
Pharma
Companies
ReMeDi™ Telemedicine Kit
Linkage with a hospital partner via ReMeDi™
telemedicine solution
Supply and delivery of essential medicines
IIT Madras
RP
RP
RP
RP
1Agriculture
Towards enabling Rural Areas….
IIT Madras
Managing Risks for farmers
Crop disease: Use of video conferencing to connect farmer
to an agricultural Expert
 Obtaining answers before it is too late
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”
After
Production and Price Risk Coverage

Rain-fall insurance

Micro-weather Measurement and prediction

Collect weather data at each village
– Temperature, humidity, pressure, wind speed,
wind direction and rainfall


Weather Monitoring Kit : Rs 15K
Market risk: use of commodity exchanges
forward pricing and Options

Can one get small farmers to use it?
IIT Madras
Agriculture





Agro Processing
Agricultural Advisory Services
Agricultural Supply Chain Management
Focus: Fruits and Vegetables in Theni District of Tamil Nadu
Strategy: To link markets, banks, extension partners and suppliers
to small farmers
Facilitate Sales and post-harvest support

Use of Village Internet kiosk and mobile phones for
Obtaining market-prices in different Markets
 Transaction and deal-closing from villages
 Scheduling delivery
 Booking of transport
 Direct payment through banks and loan repayment

IIT Madras
1
Financial Services
Towards enabling Rural Areas….
IIT Madras
Financing by banks from towns is expensive
Is Microfinance the answer
 Has made great strides, but what is the interest rate?

At 24 to 30% interest rate it is good loan for
– Trading and Short term consumption loans
– But not for any manufacturing / agriculture?



Can kiosks become mini-banks?
 Internet banking: But how will cash be delivered?
Can kiosks carry out credit-rating of rural people?
What about Insurance?
 Can they enable different kinds of insurance?

IIT Madras
Life Insurance, health insurance, General Insurance, rainfall insurance
We could put Internet in every village but for its cost?

TeNeT / VorTex develops ATM



Finger print detection
Internet kiosk based or Stand alone
Deliver even soiled notes
Single denomination today
 Can be extended to multiple denomination



Electronic Lock operated using finger print detection
Cost about Rs 60K for kiosk ATM / Rs 75K for stand
alone
Vortex GramaTeller initiative, reducing
the cost of ATM to 1/15th
Towards Credit Rating
0+
Rural Business, Transportation, Energy & others
Towards enabling Rural Areas….
IIT Madras
Rural Businesses

Agriculture, food processing & other small businesses




Can they be enabled by ICT kiosks?
Does technology play a significant role in supply chain management
& co-ordination?
Can they be used for market linkages & pricing mechanisms?
Can kiosks be used to find jobs?
Exploring to understand the evolution of rural businesses
and the role of technology in such businesses
IIT Madras
Decentralized Energy

Grid based Power Supply

Quality and availability
Urban Power will take precedence
 Rural India will only get overflow


Each Village require 30 KW to 100 KW Power Generation





Solar
Biomass Combustion
Biogas
Bio-diesel
Can kiosk be used to enable this?
Community Oriented Services

Rural Development programs





Water Management
Soil Management
Road construction
Social harmony and religious tolerance
Promoting entrepreneurship
IIT Madras



ICT can provide opportunities for those who
have been left behind
 to leapfrog
 provided there is will
Requires
 Confidence, Local technologies & Services
and lots of hard work
Rural Areas in emerging Markets can follow
their urban counterpart
To Sum Up
Towards enabling Rural Areas….
Today

India consumes

Less than one twentieth of per capita resource as compared to that in
the West


as per International Energy Agency Statistics Division, India consumed
512.4 Kg of oil equivalent of energy per person as opposed to 7794 Kg
of oil equivalent per person in USA in 2003
If India and China grow like West?

And their per capita resource consumption of 1.4 billion Chinese
and 1.1 billion Indians reach the level in the West
This can not be our future


Nature is already retaliating
Technology can help but cant support consumption beyond a point
A dilemma


IIT Madras
India and China can not be asked to wait to get out
of their deprived state
AND they can not grow and acquire the same
lifestyle as that of the West
Need

To redefine development

Not accept the industrial revolution Development paradigm
Technology can find all the answers
 Urban life is better life


Good life need not imply

Such large consumption

Migrating Rural Indians to Urban areas is not the answer

IIT Madras
With health, education, a bit of infrastructure and livelihood
opportunity, life in Rural India may be better than in urban areas
Urban India and China has done well


Growth in China stupendous
India started late, but is racing today


But most growth limited to urban areas
Rural Areas are being left behind

IIT Madras
700M out of 1 B people live in Rural India