Project to link 600,000 Indian villages via satellite

Thursday, 14 October 2004, 19:30 IST
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CHENNAI: More than 600,000 villages across India will be linked through a programme launched by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would inaugurate the Village Resource Centre (VRC) programme in New Delhi on Oct 18, a joint venture of ISRO and the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), an MSSRF press release here said. The network would use one of the extended C-band transponders of the INSAT-3A satellite. It would be a completely interactive VSAT-based network. A satellite link provided by ISRO would provide villages with local specific information. The VRCs would use not only communication satellites like INSAT but also remote sensing satellites to provide information on a range of subjects like natural resources, sites for drinking water and ground water recharging, water harvesting and wasteland reclaiming. Community-based risk reports and vulnerability reports could be generated, MSSRF officials said. Specific, localised weather information could be tapped as well. Fishermen along Tamil Nadu's 1,000 km coastline, for instance, could get information on where a shoal of fish is moving, at what depth, state of the sea, wave heights and other basic information every fishing boat could do with. In the first phase, four nodes in Tamil Nadu would be empowered. The services of the four primary nodes would be expanded in the next phase by wireless and optical fibre technologies, creating local information clusters around each node. Services like tele-medicine facilities, tele-education hubs, e-governance centres, tele-weather service and other services could be developed around each VRC. It is hoped that the VRCs become virtual learning centres for entire communities
Source: IANS
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