Project Description
A rural information network along the lines of a hub and spokes model was established. The informational hub of this project was the village of Villianur, where a server with wireless access was placed and Internet accounts were established. This would lead to reduction in the cost of providing full Internet access to all the centres. The community owned village knowledge centres were the spokes of this project. They are manned by trained volunteers with all the necessary equipment. The established Internet accounts would help the villagers to access relevant databases and get information on health facilities, crop insurance schemes etc.

Project Objectives
The network aims to provide knowledge of rights, privileges and crop information to the villagers. It is also directed at the creation and diffusion of reliable and locality specific content.

Intended Beneficiaries
The network is intended to benefit the rural masses.

Partners Involved
Power is provided by the state electricity board and operators at the check posts are provided by the private sector. Philips has supplied the monitoring and weighing equipment.

Impact: Costs and Benefits
The information and villages research project was initiated by the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (an NGO) and the International Development Research Centre, Canada.

Lessons Learned
The project demonstrates the benefits of ICT and its ability to disseminate generic information. Some of the policy implications which can be drawn from this project are community ownership of equipment, participation of women and information dissemination in local languages.

Constraints/Challenges
Absence of a modern telephone and electrical system were the major hurdles in the implementation of this project.

Sustainability Factors
Most of the centres are partially self-sustaining due to the efforts of the volunteers. The centres are valued assets and repairs are often made without external assistance.

Recommendations
In order to utilize the entire potential of this project it is important to focus on user-oriented and cost effective applications rather than on technology driven ones.

Further Information

http://www.stanford.edu/~kmahajan/cs99i/casestudy.html