Grassroots Applications

J Satyanarayana

What is a Grassroots Application?An Application that is

1. RELEVANT

2. ACEESSIBLE

3. AFFORDABLE &

4. SUSTAINABLE

… to the millions at the bottom of the pyramid

Relevance Makes economic sense

Improves Agricultural Economics Improves rural livelihoods

Improves quality of life Provides better healthcare Improves functional literacy

Ensures social well-being Increases distributive justice

Accessibility

Ubiquitous Within a distance, comparable to

that for workplace Assisted

Designed to be useful for illiterates Local Language Interface Available outside working hours Widely Known

Affordability Free of cost or at low service charge

Half-a-day’s wages per month

Shared access Community Service Centres

Broadband to village at affordable cost AP’s ambitious project to provide 2 Mbps

to all villages in 65 weeks Rs 100 p.m per kiosk – always ON

Sustainability Economic Viability of Basic

Infrastructure Public-Private-Partnership for backbone &

last mile Economic Viability of Delivery

Infrastructure Common Service Centres

Sustainable content Demand-driven content Entrepreneur-based Service-charge based

Technological Sustainability Open Standards essential Open Source quite desirable

An experiment.. e-Sagu

Agricultural Information Dissemination System

Jointly implemented by DIT & IIIT, Hyderabad

Problems of 1000 Cotton Farmers in 3 villages addressed

Encouraging results in 1st year Methodology

Local Coordinators take digital pictures of each field every week

Send to Experts Group at Hyd through CD Advice sent over Internet

Thank Youceo@nisg.org