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Malappuram was once a dusty sleepy village to tally lacking in
communicational and basic facilities. Basic telephony used to be virtually
non-existent; even now BSNL telephones have long waiting periods due to the
remoteness of villages in the district. This is a district with close ties to
the Gulf region: most families have at least one member working there. For the
remote Malappuram villagers, the lack of telephone services was a terrible
privation, since it rendered them unable to stay in touch with family members
abroad. But eGov has turned even this around to explore alternative means of
communication.
Today Malappuram sports a transformed look. Take the case of the people in
one of the remotest of these villages-Kolmanna: here people today use Net
telephony in the eKendras and communicate with ease. The very air here is
different-one overhears animated discussions, punctuated with hi-tech jargon,
about which browser is better, IE or Netscape.
 While
Bangalore, Chennai, and Hyderabad are still the most preferred IT destinations
in the south, Kerala has been hard-selling itself as a destination of choice for
IT investments. Kerala's labor environment still deters large-scale
investments, though it does have some global names like Allianz Cornhill and
Ernst & Young, which operate out of Technopark, Trivandrum. On the overall
software exports scene, Kerala has a lot of catching up to do. On the eGov
front, though, Kerala seems to have pioneered one of the first successes of its
kind in India.
Malappuram has become India's first eLiterate district. Using these hubs or
eKendras, the villagers can pay electricity bills, procure birth certificates,
besides availing a host of other G2B and G2C services. The wireless system
provided by Tulip
IT Services, which specializes in RF-based WAN deployments, covers 3,550 sq km.
The Kerala government recently showcased the success of the Malappuram model
in a three-day event called Enterprise Connect, and formally launched the ePay
and eBusiness services offered at the eKendras. The highlight of the exhibition
was the launch of the Akshaya Rural Internet Banking and Financial Services
through the SBI online ePayment gateway. This gateway will facilitate all forms
of eCommerce, such as rural business, financial products, insurance and online
ticketing among others. According to Kerala Government sources, every household
in Malappuram would also be able to pay their utility bills, make revenue
remittances and civil supplies transactions, as well as avail a host of other
facilities, by using these eKendras. This is the first time in the country that
rural banking and financial services have been made available to the rural
population through an eGovernance project.
The Akshaya Model
The model put in place at Malappuram has four main components: Universal ICT
Access, eLiteracy, the creation of micro ICT enterprises, and a decentralized
information hub. The first component emphasizes the creation of eKendras run by
private entrepreneurs, which serve as the front-end and which are to be
connected through broadband wireless. The eLiteracy component is addressed by
the eKendras, which are leveraged for training people to use computers, email
and the Internet, in the local language. The third component focuses on creating
micro ICT enterprises through eKendras. This makes it most relevant to the
educated unemployed who can secure government loans and start an eKendra which
can offer various citizen services that in time become a good revenue-earner.
The final component of the Akshaya model aims to create a decentralized
information access hub that facilitates various transactions like G2G, G2C, C2C
and B2B. All these four components have been highly successful in Malappuram,
auguring an equal or greater victory for phase-two of the Akshaya project, in
the pipeline now.
Huge Biz Opportunity
Phase 2, envisaging 9000 eKendras in 13 districts, will be the biggest eGov
project of its kind, aiming to make the entire state eLiterate by 2005. If the
present momentum is kept up, immense markets will open up for PC and peripherals
players simply through the equipment necessary for 9000 eKendras:
back-of-the-envelope calculations alone show a market of Rs 300 crore. Its a
win-win situation: not only will business boom, but Kerala will also become the
showcase eGov state.
Shrikanth G in
Chennai
Next Page : Akshaya's Benefits Page(s) 1 2 3
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