Providing Commercial Internet connections in Rural India

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM, Chennai, Indiaashok@tenet.res.in

Towards Rural Wealth Generation

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 2

Rural India has700 million people

in 600,000+ villages (about 1000 people per village with per-capita income of Rs 20 per day)

per capita GDP of Rs 10000 per year

Can technologies make a significant difference in life of such people?

Can it bring to them health & Education

Can it significantly enhance their incomes?

102.1

1710

3.9 1.9 1 0.3 0.30

20

40

60

80

100

120

3 9 13 18 26 42 65 112

HH Income in thousand Rs/month

Nu

mb

er o

f H

H in

mill

ion

s

135 million rural households

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 3

Can IT and Internet help?

Can these Rural areas even afford Connections? Can they afford computers? and how would Internet help in health, education and

income generation? can this scale to all the villages in India

To Scale Technology Sustainable Business Model Organisation which thinks and acts Rural

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 4

Innovative Technology to connect Rural India

To PSTN

To Internet35/70 kbps Internet plus simultaneous telephone

• Rs 7000 per line price

•1 million lines being deployed

BSNL (state owned incumbent) has fibre connectivity to most Talukas (county hq) CorDECT Wireless in Local Loop developed at IITM, India

provides a telephone line and Internet connection in a 30 Km radius

can connect 85% of Indian villages start-up costs very low

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 5

Business Model:Use Local Entrepreneurs to drive ICT

Entrepreneur-driven operator assisted telephone booths (STD PCOs) introduced in India in 1987 Today in urban areas:

950,000 such PCOs covering every street of smallest town generate 25 % of total telecom income 300 million people use these PCOs

Lesson for Rural: To serve Rural people with incomes

less than $ 1/day, aggregate demandand let Entrepreneurs drive it

Aid/ Grant does not scaleSuccessful Enterprises can scale to all villages

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 6

n-Logue : A Rural Service Provider aggregate demand into a kiosk owned & driven by a local entrepreneur

Rs 50000 (including taxes) per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC

plus Indian language software, video conferencing software, training and maintenance

set up by a village entrepreneur on the lines of urban PCOs provides telephone, stand-alone Computer and Internet services needs 100 per day to break even (Rs 3 per person per month)

Innovative Business Models

Provides Training and Technical Support Handles Licensing and Policy issues Provides Internet Backbone Connectivity Enables Kiosk Services through Alliance Partners Creates Awareness

Application & Solution Providers

Internet Backbone

ACCESS CENTRE

Local Service Partner

Markets Connections Provides Onsite Support and Training Manages Local Web & Email Services Manages Local Content Pages

Scope:3000 sq km400-600 connections (1 in each village)

Internet Kiosk Operator

School/PHC Private Business Government Office Rural NGO

Provides Internet Access to Local Community Provides Awareness and Training Channels Information needs of Community through

LSP to Application & Content Providers

Financing

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 8

The Kiosk Owner

Should have studied up to Class 10

Need have no prior computer Training

Should be able to communicate to the people in the village

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 9

Kiosk: Bouquet of Services (besides telephony)

Learning typing Computer education Photography movies on CD DTP work Email/voice & video mail E-Government Video conferencing

providing Tele-medicine Vet Care E-learning E-Agriculture

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 10

The Vet is on the Net ...

•This goat had a wound near its mouth and could not eat for a week

• The advice from the doctor cured its problem in 2 days

Rural Magic: The next few slides contain true stories which have “magically” impacted the lives of people in Indian villages .

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 11

Saving Crops and Agri-consultancy

AfterBefore

In a Village in Madurai, the Lady’s Finger (Okra) cropwas 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”

Saving to farmer - Rs 160,000Cost of Information - Rs 40

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 12

Palaniammal’s eyes…

A 60 year old from a village near Melur

Photographs by an ordinary web camera: Remote feedback given by Aravind Eye hospital

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 13

An Online Clinic …

*Dr Mala Fenn is a leading Gynecologist in Madurai

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 14

Web- Durbar: DM talks to multiple villages on video

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 15

Inter-village singing competition

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 16

Rural Children create computer drawings for greeting cards

All drawn on a PC

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 17

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 18

Market ResearchCollecting Data from the Villages

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 19

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 20

E-governmentservices at a Village

VILLAGE KIOSK

• Dispersal of • PDS coupons• Application forms for exams, etc

Physical Dispersal

• Payment of • Municipal taxes• Electricity Bills• Bus Tickets• Purchase of Seeds / Fertilisers• Entrance and Exam FeesNet Banking

• Distribution of Application Forms

• Information from Online Databases like

• BPL lists• Electoral Lists, etc

From Central Website

Information Dissemination

• Text, Audio, Video formats of various Government / Public service Announcements

• Video-conferencing between Collector and villagers• Physical Notice Board outside Kiosk on which Govt. Notices can

be pasted

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 21

Agriculture

AnimalHusbandry

Agricultural Processing

Industry

IT-Based Services

Trade & Commerce

Rural Micro-Enterprises are the Wealth Creators

Micro-enterprises need Finance Knowledge and

Training Buying & Selling Insurance

Can Communications Enable these ?

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 22

The Dream

Current Rural GDP in India = Rs 700,000 Crore

For a Population = 700 million people

GDP / Person = Rs 10000 per year

DOUBLING per-capita Rural GDP

Rs 20000 per person per year

Rural Prosperity

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 23

Operations

Project Summary & Plans

462719Totals615Others16151Gujarat

1486Maharashtra

1037TN

TotalActiveLiveState

Plans 78 Projects by March 2004

Maharashtra: 30 TN: 25 Gujarat: 16 Others: 7 125 kiosk/project

10000 kiosks by Jul-Sep 2004

Projected Breakup of Kiosks

3000

2500

3500

800

TN Gujarat Maharashtra Others

Technologies & people behind n-Logue

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 25

Technologies in Use

corDECT WiLL Midas will enable 100/200 dedicated and

2 Mbps shared connection next year

RAS & Router Banyan

Minnow ISP in a box Nilgiri Billing System Nilgiri

Network Management NMSWorks

Chirag voice/video mail TeNeT

Indian Language Office package CK

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 26

To PSTN

To Internet

corDECT Wireless in Local Loop

35/70 kbps dedicated Always-on Internet plus simultaneous telephone

100/200 kbps dedicated & 2Mbps shared connection in near future

Price target: Rs 5K - 7K per line

802.16 in future

IITM - Midas

Office package in Indian Languages IITM - Chennai Kavigal

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 28

Major New Initiatives

Multi-party multi-rate video conferencing OOPS Live Lecture OOPS

Rural ATM Machine Vortex Finger print detection HP-IITM

Medical Diagnostic kit Neurosynaptics LCD projection system TeNeT Web Terminal MeTeL Midas

Entertainment Terminal TeNeT Rural Banking SW TeNeT On-line eye-testing HP-IITM Sparse Area Comm System TeNeT

TeNeT faculty and 10 companies incubated by it (1000 engineers) working to make the dream true

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 29

Low bit-rate multi-party Video Conferencing (audio + video + chat at 20 kbps onwards)

On-line lecturing at low bit-rates

IITM - OOPS

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 30

Financial Services with ICICI BankIITM-Vortex

Kiosk operators to have Credit cards Collect cash from villager and pay online

Govt. payments, Telephone bills Kiosk operator to be an agent for

agri-crop loans Rural Insurance, Health and Crop

Rural low cost ATMs at kiosks Works along with the PC already

existing Breakthrough pricing envisaged of Rs

40000

Remote Monitoring of patient’s health using wirelessA kit consisting of BP, Temperature, ECG measurement and Stethoscope for Rs 10K

IITM - NeuroSynaptic

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 32

• 8-10 voice channels + 64/128 kbps Internet satellite backhaul

• Each hub supports 16 to 20 remote sites with 2 Mbps download

• Rs 7K corDECT + Rs 10K backhaul cost per connection

PSTN

Internet

2.4 m antenna3.8 m antenna

15 -25 Kms with 50 connections

2 M

bps

-->

128

Kbp

s --

>

<-- 256 Kbps

Sparse Area Communications where there is no fibre backbone

IITM - ISRO

TeNeT Group, IITM Feb 04 33

To Sum Up

Technologies can impact lives provided there is a big enough Vision behind it

Dream of Doubling per capita Rural GDP Finance, Commerce, Training &

Information are key Driving Education, Health and Entrepreneurship

isthe means

Wireless Internet with fibre backhaul can enable these

Sparse Areas will require special technologies & efforts

Large number of innovative technologies and applications need to be developed catering specifically to Rural areas