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Kerala on the path of complete e-literacy
Wednesday, 05 November 2003, 20:30 IST
BANGALORE: As part of its ambitious 100 percent e-literacy project, the Kerala government has deployed the country's first rural broadband Wi-Fi (wireless fidelity) system with an investment of 
30 million.
To be operational from January 1, 2004, the Wi-Fi initiative will be implemented in 600 centres across the state's Malappuram district. It will enable intranet connectivity with access to broadband Internet services on a 24x7 basis to over 600,000 families.
The Wi-Fi system, installed by Tulip IT Services Ltd, the Delhi-based systems and network integrator, will help people in the district form a powerful network to support the state's e-governance initiatives and community development interventions.
Making the announcement at the ongoing Bangalore IT.COM 2003 event, Kerala Minister for IT and Industries P.K. Kunhalikutty said the Malappuram model would be implemented all over the state in the next two years.
"The target is to encourage and facilitate entrepreneurs set up 6,000 Akshaya centres across the state under the public-private partnership. One Akshaya centre will cater to 1,000-1,500 households," the minister stated.
With Internet connectivity becoming fundamental to the success of the development initiatives, the Wi-Fi initiative will bring significant socio-economic changes in the state.
"The deployment will also enable more schools to adopt computers for education, increase PC penetration in domestic households and give real-time Internet access, effective communication between the rural population and the government departments," Kunhalikutty declared.
With the inception of the Akshaya project, the stage is set for an exponential growth in the hardware and software industry.
About 3,500 PCs have been installed in 600 centres for a community of 650,000 households.
The PC requirement for the project across the state is estimated to be about 100,000 by 2006.
"The state government is promoting the development of IT aggressively to attract investment and create employment opportunities, especially in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, which is ideally suited for Kerala," the minister asserted.
With leading hardware and software companies participating with government initiatives, the government is confident that Kerala will become an e-state in every sense.
The hybrid connectivity infrastructure, a mix of wireless technologies, has a 100 percent backbone redundancy. Services to be delivered through Internet connectivity include browsing, voiceover Internet protocol (IP), video conferencing and e-learning.
According to Kerala IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan, the Akshaya project was launched in November last, with a view to enabling one member of each family become computer literate even in the remotest village.
"Kerala is well on track to be a 100 percent e-literate state by March 2006. The idea to initiate the project of such magnitude came from the district panchayats," Sundararajan disclosed.
About 30 percent of Akshaya centres in the district have already started accessing the Internet through dial-up connections on a pilot basis.
Entrepreneurs have invested 350,000 per Akshaya centre, which has one server and 10 PCs.
The state government has provided a subsidy of 80 million for computer literacy and training during the current fiscal year (2003-04), while entrepreneurs have invested 40 million in the e-literacy project.
Each user will pay 20 to the entrepreneur for the training, which has 15 modules. The state government has funded Internet connectivity, while private players have invested 240 million in setting up the kiosks across the state.
Source: IANS
30 million.
To be operational from January 1, 2004, the Wi-Fi initiative will be implemented in 600 centres across the state's Malappuram district. It will enable intranet connectivity with access to broadband Internet services on a 24x7 basis to over 600,000 families.
The Wi-Fi system, installed by Tulip IT Services Ltd, the Delhi-based systems and network integrator, will help people in the district form a powerful network to support the state's e-governance initiatives and community development interventions.
Making the announcement at the ongoing Bangalore IT.COM 2003 event, Kerala Minister for IT and Industries P.K. Kunhalikutty said the Malappuram model would be implemented all over the state in the next two years.
"The target is to encourage and facilitate entrepreneurs set up 6,000 Akshaya centres across the state under the public-private partnership. One Akshaya centre will cater to 1,000-1,500 households," the minister stated.
With Internet connectivity becoming fundamental to the success of the development initiatives, the Wi-Fi initiative will bring significant socio-economic changes in the state.
"The deployment will also enable more schools to adopt computers for education, increase PC penetration in domestic households and give real-time Internet access, effective communication between the rural population and the government departments," Kunhalikutty declared.
With the inception of the Akshaya project, the stage is set for an exponential growth in the hardware and software industry.
About 3,500 PCs have been installed in 600 centres for a community of 650,000 households.
The PC requirement for the project across the state is estimated to be about 100,000 by 2006.
"The state government is promoting the development of IT aggressively to attract investment and create employment opportunities, especially in the small and medium enterprise (SME) sector, which is ideally suited for Kerala," the minister asserted.
With leading hardware and software companies participating with government initiatives, the government is confident that Kerala will become an e-state in every sense.
The hybrid connectivity infrastructure, a mix of wireless technologies, has a 100 percent backbone redundancy. Services to be delivered through Internet connectivity include browsing, voiceover Internet protocol (IP), video conferencing and e-learning.
According to Kerala IT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan, the Akshaya project was launched in November last, with a view to enabling one member of each family become computer literate even in the remotest village.
"Kerala is well on track to be a 100 percent e-literate state by March 2006. The idea to initiate the project of such magnitude came from the district panchayats," Sundararajan disclosed.
About 30 percent of Akshaya centres in the district have already started accessing the Internet through dial-up connections on a pilot basis.
Entrepreneurs have invested 350,000 per Akshaya centre, which has one server and 10 PCs.
The state government has provided a subsidy of 80 million for computer literacy and training during the current fiscal year (2003-04), while entrepreneurs have invested 40 million in the e-literacy project.
Each user will pay 20 to the entrepreneur for the training, which has 15 modules. The state government has funded Internet connectivity, while private players have invested 240 million in setting up the kiosks across the state.
Source: IANS