Global ICT access for rural India

Six years ago, Satyan Mishra founded Drishtee.com – a company which helps villagers in rural India gain access to and compete in the global market.

Drishtee.com works with local entrepreneurs to set up a central kiosk in villages across India. The entrepreneurs are given a computer which is used to provide access to trade, business, government and health information for all villagers.

Mr Mishra said: “We are trying to ensure that people have reasons to stay in their villages.”

Drishtee.com’s website also generates employment for rural entrepreneurs, such as handicraft workers, who sell their products to the international community without involving middlemen.

Mr Mishra was a guest speaker at a lecture which took place at the Commonwealth Secretariat’s headquarters in London on 15 November 2007. The lecture, ‘Developing micro-enterprises for a robust village economy – the innovative use of appropriate technology’, was organised by the Secretariat’s Special Advisory Services Division.

Mr Mishra has also shared his experiences with the Commonwealth-India Small Business Competitiveness Development Programme, a pan-Commonwealth initiative which focused on developing small business.

This project, a partnership between the Secretariat and the Government of India, has a similar goal to Drishtee.com insofar as it aims to enhance the ability of small businesses through information and communication technology (ICT). Since it began in November 2004, more than 300 participants, including 143 women, from 43 Commonwealth countries have participated at six programmes held in India.

The Secretariat has also recently implemented a pilot project in Bangladesh that has linked micro and small businesses, engaged in work such as farming and agriculture, with ICT. Four ICT rural access centres, equipped with modern technology, have been established in Bangladesh through this initiative.

Savita Bailur, a researcher at the London School of Economics and Political Science who is writing a thesis on ‘Community participation in tele-centres in India’, attended the lecture on 15 November.

“I think the Drishtee model, and by extension the Commonwealth Connects programme, can benefit those living in rural communities. By going in and accessing the community’s needs, they can create a proper ICT framework that works to enhance the lives of rural entrepreneurs,” she said.

The Commonwealth Connects programme was set up to address the deepening digital divide across the Commonwealth.

On 19 November 2007 a Hole-in-the-Wall Computer Learning Station was opened in Uganda’s capital, Kampala. This US$100,000 project, launched by Commonwealth Connects in collaboration with the Government of India, aimed at enhancing access to ICT through the provision of computers within communities. It will enable young people to access the internet for information-gathering, knowledge acquisition and skills development.

The Hole-in-the-Wall project features four computer terminals installed at a solar-powered learning station in the community at Kiswa, located 3km east of Kampala. It is designed to address the development needs of the young people through the replication of similarly successful projects in India.

Key Links:

• Special Advisory Services Division
• Country Profile: India