Transcript n-Logue Presentation Jul03

Providing Commercial Internet
connections in Rural India
Towards Rural Wealth Generation
Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IITM, Chennai, India
[email protected]
Rural India has
700 million people

in 600,000+ villages
(about 1000 people per village with
per-capita income of Rs 20 per day)

per capita GDP of Rs 10000
per year

Number of HH in millions
120
135 million rural households
102.1
100
Can technologies make a
significant difference in life of
such people?
80

60
40
17
20
10

3.9
1.9
1
0.3
0.3
18
26
42
65
112
0
3
9
13
Can it bring to them health
& Education
Can it significantly
enhance their incomes?
HH Incom e in thousand Rs/m onth
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
2
Can IT and Internet help?

Can these Rural areas even afford Connections?
 Can they afford computers?
 and how would Internet help in health, education and income
generation?
 can this scale to all the villages in India

To Scale



Technology
Sustainable Business Model
Organisation which thinks and acts Rural
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
3
Innovative Technology to connect Rural India

BSNL (state owned incumbent) has fibre connectivity to most
Talukas (county hq)

CorDECT Wireless in Local Loop developed at IITM, India
 provides a telephone line and Internet connection in a 30 Km radius
 can connect 85% of Indian villages
 start-up costs very low

To PSTN
To Internet
35/70 kbps Internet plus
simultaneous telephone
• Rs 7000 per line price
•1 million lines being deployed
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
4
Business Model:
Use Local Entrepreneurs to drive ICT

Entrepreneur-driven operator assisted telephone booths (STD PCOs)
introduced in India in 1987

Today in urban areas:
 950,000 such PCOs covering every street of smallest town
 generate 25 % of total telecom income
 300 million people use these PCOs

Lesson for Rural:

To serve Rural people with incomes
less than $ 1/day, aggregate demand
and let Entrepreneurs drive it
Aid/ Grant does not scale
Successful Enterprises can scale to all villages
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
5
Innovative Business Models

n-Logue : A Rural Service Provider


aggregate demand into a kiosk
owned & driven by a local entrepreneur


Rs 50000 (including taxes) per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet,
multimedia PC with web-camera, printer and power back-up for PC
 plus Indian language software, video conferencing software, training and
maintenance

set up by a village entrepreneur on the lines of urban PCOs
 provides telephone, stand-alone Computer and Internet services
 needs 100 per day to break even (Rs 3 per person per month)
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
6
Application &
Solution
Providers





Internet Backbone




School/PHC
Private Business
Government Office
Rural NGO
Provides Training and Technical Support
Handles Licensing and Policy issues
Provides Internet Backbone Connectivity
Enables Kiosk Services through Alliance Partners
Creates Awareness




ACCESS
CENTRE
Scope:
3000 sq km
400-600 connections
(1 in each village)
Local Service Partner



Financing
Markets Connections
Provides Onsite Support and Training
Manages Local Web & Email Services
Manages Local Content Pages
Provides Internet Access to Local Community
Provides Awareness and Training
Channels Information needs of Community through
LSP to Application & Content Providers
Internet Kiosk Operator
The Kiosk Owner
Should have studied up
to Class 10
 Need have no prior
computer Training
 Should be able to
communicate to the
people in the village

TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
8
Kiosk: Bouquet of Services (besides
telephony)

Learning typing


Computer education
Photography
movies on CD
DTP work

Email/voice & video mail

E-Government
Video conferencing
providing







TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
Tele-medicine
Vet Care
E-learning
E-Agriculture
9
The Vet is on the Net ...
Rural Magic:
The
next few slides contain
true stories which have
“magically” impacted the
lives of people in Indian
villages .
•This goat had a wound
near its mouth and could
not eat for a week
• The advice from the
doctor cured its problem
in 2 days
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
10
Saving Crops and Agri-consultancy
Before
In a Village in
Madurai, the Lady’s
Finger (Okra) crop
was turning white
The problem
was sent to the
experts at the
Department of
Rural Extension,
Madurai
Agricultural
College and
Research Centre
who diagnosed
it as “Yellow
Mosaic disease”
After
Saving to farmer - Rs 160,000
Cost of Information - Rs 40
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
11
Palaniammal’s eyes…

A 60 year old from a village near Melur
Photographs by an ordinary web camera: Remote feedback given by Aravind Eye hospital
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
12
An Online Clinic …
Group, IITM
04
*DrTeNeT
Mala
Fenn is a leading Gynecologist inFeb
Madurai
13
Web- Durbar: DM talks to multiple villages on video
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
14
Inter-village singing competition
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
15
Rural Children create computer
drawings for greeting cards
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
16
All drawn on a
PC
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
17
Market Research
Collecting Data from the Villages
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
18
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
19
• Payment of
• Municipal taxes
• Electricity Bills
• Bus Tickets
• Purchase of Seeds / Fertilisers
• Entrance and Exam Fees
E-government
services at a Village
Net Banking
From Central
Website
• Distribution of Application Forms
• Information from Online
Databases like
• BPL lists
• Electoral Lists, etc
Physical
Dispersal
VILLAGE
KIOSK
• Dispersal of
• PDS coupons
• Application forms for exams, etc
Information
Dissemination
• Text, Audio, Video formats of various Government / Public service
Announcements
• Video-conferencing between Collector and villagers
• Physical Notice Board outside Kiosk on which Govt. Notices can be pasted
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
20
Rural Micro-Enterprises are the Wealth
Creators

Micro-enterprises need
 Finance
 Knowledge and Training
 Buying & Selling
 Insurance

Can Communications Enable
these ?
Agriculture
Trade &
Commerce
Animal
Husbandry
IT-Based
Services
Agricultural
Processing
Industry
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
21
The Dream
Current Rural GDP in India
= Rs 700,000 Crore
For a Population
= 700 million people
GDP / Person
= Rs 10000 per year
Rural Prosperity
DOUBLING per-capita Rural GDP
Rs 20000 per person per year
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
22
Operations
Project Summary & Plans
State
Live
Active
Total
TN
7
3
10
Maharashtra
Gujarat
Others
Totals
6
1
5
19
8
15
1
27
14
16
6
46
Projected Breakup of Kiosks

Plans

78 Projects by March 2004






800
Maharashtra: 30
TN: 25
Gujarat: 16
Others: 7
125 kiosk/project
3000
3500
2500
10000 kiosks by Jul-Sep 2004
TN
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
Gujarat
Maharashtra
Others
23
Technologies & people behind
n-Logue
Technologies in Use

corDECT WiLL
Midas
 will enable 100/200 dedicated and
2 Mbps shared connection next year


RAS & Router
Banyan
Minnow ISP in a box
Nilgiri
Billing System
Nilgiri


Network Management
NMSWorks

Chirag voice/video mail
TeNeT

Indian Language Office package
CK
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
25
corDECT Wireless in Local Loop
IITM - Midas

To PSTN

To Internet
35/70 kbps dedicated Always-on Internet
plus simultaneous telephone



TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
100/200 kbps dedicated & 2Mbps shared
connection in near future
Price target: Rs 5K - 7K per line
802.16 in future
26
Office package in Indian Languages
IITM - Chennai Kavigal
Major New Initiatives





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Multi-party multi-rate video conferencing
 Live Lecture
Rural ATM Machine
 Finger print detection
Medical Diagnostic kit
LCD projection system
Web Terminal MeTeL
 Entertainment Terminal
Rural Banking SW
On-line eye-testing
Sparse Area Comm System
OOPS
OOPS
Vortex
HP-IITM
Neurosynaptics
TeNeT
Midas
TeNeT
TeNeT
HP-IITM
TeNeT
TeNeT faculty and 10 companies incubated by it
(1000 engineers) working to make the dream true
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
28
Low bit-rate multi-party Video
Conferencing (audio + video + chat at 20 kbps onwards)
On-line lecturing at low bit-rates
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
IITM - OOPS
29
Financial Services with ICICI Bank IITM-Vortex

Kiosk operators to have Credit cards

Collect cash from villager and pay online
 Govt. payments, Telephone bills
 Kiosk operator to be an agent for
 agri-crop loans
 Rural Insurance, Health and Crop

Rural low cost ATMs at kiosks
 Works along with the PC already existing
 Breakthrough pricing envisaged of Rs 40000
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
30
IITM - NeuroSynaptic
Remote
Monitoring
of patient’s
health
using
wireless
A kit consisting of BP,
Temperature, ECG
measurement and
Stethoscope for Rs
10K
IITM - ISRO
Sparse Area Communications
where there is no fibre backbone


3.8 m antenna
2.4 m antenna
15 -25 Kms with 50 connections
PSTN
• 8-10 voice channels + 64/128 kbps Internet satellite backhaul
Internet
• Each hub supports 16 to 20 remote sites with 2 Mbps download
• Rs 7K corDECT + Rs 10K backhaul cost per connection
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
32
To Sum Up

Technologies can impact lives provided there is a big
enough Vision behind it

Dream of Doubling per capita Rural GDP
 Finance, Commerce, Training &
Information are key
 Driving Education, Health and Entrepreneurship is
the means
 Wireless Internet with fibre backhaul can
enable these
 Sparse Areas will require special technologies & efforts
 Large number of innovative technologies
and applications need to be developed
catering specifically to Rural areas
TeNeT Group, IITM
Feb 04
33