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Broadband Project for Tamil Nadu Village
In order to extend the benefits of high-speed Internet and telecom to the rural
masses, Ericsson has launched the Gramjyoti Rural Broadband Project in the
village of Vadugambadi, Tamil Nadu.
Ericsson, along with its partners, aims to introduce the
benefits of WCDMA/HSPA technology to the rural areas, and also to provide
high-speed Internet services to communities, thereby ensuring connectivity.
According to P Balaji, VP, Marketing and Strategy, Ericsson
India, "The location was chosen to demonstrate the power of 3G and build an
efficient yet affordable rural broadband network."
The villagers will be able to make use of the broadband
applications such as e-education, e-Governance, telemedicine and high-speed
Internet on 3G platform.
Ericsson is planning to include 100,000 villages under the
network. Though the project is in the experimental stage, it will be developed
further to enable replication of the same elsewhere on self-sustaining basis.
In order to extend telemedicine services, Ericsson has partnered
with Apollo Hospitals, a mobile medi-van can also function on rotational basis.
There are mobile community centers, which can be used to access
registration forms, land lease deeds and ration cards to be submitted to the
district collectorate. This initiative has been set up with the help of an NGO
Hand-in-Hand.
The company also tied up with Edurite, to provide e-education
services. Students will be able to receive lessons from teachers via virtual
classroom.
Real time prices of crops and commodities also have been made
available to the farmers in addition to information on weather, pesticides,
seeds and fertilizers. One97, along with Ericsson, has extended this facility.
Center Plans Rural ATMs in Post Offices
The Center is planning to install Gramtells (rural ATMs) at post offices
across the country. The installation decision is in the lines with the
recommendations made by the Steering Committee on Micro Finance and Poverty
Alleviation. The Planning Commission is considering incorporating these
recommendations in the Eleventh Plan (2007-2012). For operating these ATMs,
people will have to make use of fingerprints and smart cards instead of personal
identification numbers and magnetic cards as per the old system.
The other recommendations include using the post office network
to deliver banking services, especially in rural areas, and also work as
business facilitators and banking correspondents in accordance with the Reserve
Bank of India guidelines. It has also proposed linking of post offices with
Common Service Centers developed by the Information Technology Department to
deliver electronic services, thus synergizing the technologies to handle
financial products.
 322 CSCs at Gurgoan
The Haryana State Electronics Development Corporation (HARTRON), the nodal
agency of the state, along with 3i Infotech, will roll out the e-Disha Ekal Seva
Kendra Project. As per the project, 322 citizen service centers will be set up
in the Gurgoan division of Haryana. The districts that will reap the benefit are
Faridabad, Gurgoan, Mewat, Rewari, and Mahendergarh.
These service centers will function as single window delivery
channels for government services to citizens. Various services offered will
include issuing of land records certificates, registration, employment exchange,
issuance of ration cards, electoral services, redressal of public grievance and
payment of utility bills like water, electricity and telephone. Besides,
information on various schemes of the government will also be made available to
the general public.
H Chethana Gudiyar
chethanag@cybermedia.co.in Page(s) 1
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