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India Rolling Out Chain Of Computer Kiosks To Boost Rural Incomes
New Delhi (AFP) Jul 11, 2005 India will set up a chain of computer kiosks across its rural heartland with the aim of enabling farmers to sell their produce to the best-paying customers, officials said Monday. Nearly 25,000 villages will be connected to the network in the first phase of the programme, but this will be stepped up to around 100,000 to complete a national rollout by 2007, Indian President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam told a meeting in New Delhi. "Today, our problem is not shortage of money, people or people who have knowledge, but how to integrate all of them," he said. "You have to use technology and knowledge to value add to our natural resources." India's farm sector employs nearly 70 percent of its workforce, with agriculture contributing almost a quarter of gross domestic product. Economists say boosting farm sector growth is vital to the country's ambition of maintaining seven to eight percent growth over long-term, to join the league of developed nations. "If only two-three large states like Uttar Pradesh can be developed, then India can be on way to becoming a developed nation. For that, we have to give essential data through knowledge centres to farmers, fishermen and traders in the villages," Kalam said. The project, called Mission 2007, is sponsored by 80 organisations including US-based Microsoft and India's largest software services firm, Tata Consultancy Services. The computer kiosks will be housed in community centres, schools and government offices linked to the Internet. India's economic growth slowed to 6.9 percent in the financial year ended March 2005 from 8.5 percent the previous year mainly due to lower farm output. Ravi Venkatesan, chairman of US-based Microsoft Corporation's Indian office, said that one of the biggest obstacles confronting Indian farmers was that they were losing nearly 25 percent of their incomes to middlemen. He added that the computer network would not only help the farmers bypass the middlemen, but also enable them to tap the best sources for buying seeds, fertilisers or get advice on farming from scientists. India's largest cigarette maker, ITC, pioneered the idea of computers kiosks in several Indian villages to buy agricultural produce directly from farmers, enabling both sides to skirt middlemen. Officials say the expanded network could also greatly improve the quality of rural life by providing a platform for a host of other services including long-distance education and healthcare. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links SpaceDaily Search SpaceDaily Subscribe To SpaceDaily Express Satellite-based Internet technologies
iPod Dominance A Mirage
Chicago (UPI) Jan 09, 2006Though Apple Computer has reported remarkable success with its iPod - sales rose by 250 percent during the last fiscal year - there is some competition coming this week for the developer of the world's most famous, legitimate music downloading network, experts tell United Press International's Networking. |
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