Kiosk Success Factors

Critical Success Factors for Rural ICT Projects in India:

A study of n-Logue kiosk projects at Pabal and

Baramati

Project

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Management

By

Vivek Dhawan, Roll No. 02927815

Under the guidance of

Dr. Bishnu Pradhan

Media Labs Asia (Maharashtra Hub)

KReSIT, IIT Bombay

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management

Indian Institute Of Technology, Bombay

June – 2004

Acknowledgement

I take this opportunity to express my sincere gratitude towards Dr. Bishnu

Pradhan, Media Labs Asia, IIT Bombay, who consented to guide me and provided

invaluable support, which resulted in the successful completion of this project.

I feel greatly indebted to Mr. Anil Bahuman, Project Manager, IIT Bombay Pabal

Project for his excellent inputs on the subject of Information Kiosks and rural ICT

projects in India. I feel extremely grateful to him for the cooperation extended to

me during the entire course of this project.

I am thankful to Shantanu Inamdar and Rahul Swami, field engineers, IIT

Bombay Pabal Project for their insightful inputs and assistance in carrying out the

field study at various sites in the Pabal and Baramati region.

I am thankful to all the kiosk operators for cooperation in carrying out the field

survey. I am also thankful to the experts at KVK, Baramati and farmers for

providing information on agricultural activities.

I am also grateful to the following gentlemen, who took time out of their busy

schedules to provide inputs from their own experiences: P.G. Ponnappa, CEO- n-

Logue Communications Pvt Ltd, Mr. Yogesh Kulkarni, Director- Vigyan Ashram

and Mr. Rajneesh Bhandari, Ex-CEO- Aksh Broadband. I am extremely grateful to

Prof Krithi Ramamritham, Head- KReSIT, IIT Bombay for introducing me to these

gentlemen and providing feedback on the project.

Lastly I would like to thank researchers and staff at Media Labs Asia for their

cooperation and feedback on the project.

Vivek Dhawan

Shailesh J. Mehta School of Management

IIT Bombay

III

Abstract

In the past few years, the power of Internet as a communication medium has

captured the imagination of developmental organizations around the world. A

number of projects have been undertaken in various parts of the world

attempting to provide sustainable digital access to rural communities. India

boasts a maximum number of such projects. There is an urgent need to study

these projects for critical factors for sustainability, scalability and impact of these

projects.

This particular study entails the study of rural internet project of n-Logue

Communications Pvt Ltd at its sites in the Pune District of Maharashtra. The

study focuses on the business model of n-Logue, which involves a Local Service

Partner at the region-level and an entrepreneur at the village level to run an

information kiosk. The infrastructure and nature of services provided at the

kiosks, usage charges, user profiles etc have been studied. It was found that the

major revenue generating services are: Computer education, Kundli,

Photography and Internet, in that order. Also a number of factors affect the kiosk

business: kiosk operator profile and personality, location of the kiosk,

demographic factors, services etc.

As part of the project, an evaluation of usage and impact of agricultural

consultancy through aAQUA was made. aAQUA ('a'lmost 'A'll 'QU'estions

'A'nswered) is an online expert Question & Answer based community forum,

developed by Media Labs Asia, KReSIT, IIT Bombay, for delivering information to

the grass roots of the Indian Community. It is an online, multilingual,

multimedia, archived discussion forum accessible using a web browser, allowing

members to create, view and manage content in their mother tongue (Hindi,

Marathi etc). aAQUA has cyber extended the reach of experts at KVK, Baramati

and has demonstrated great potential for local content creation. However aAQUA

suffers from the following limitations: slow rate of content creation and absence

of commercial benefit for the kiosk operator in the present model. Scaling up of

aAQUA would require linking up with a greater number of experts and a

commercial model at the kiosk level.

IV

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT................................................................................III

ABSTRACT....................................................................................................... IV

LIST OF FIGURES .............................................................................................3

LIST OF TABLES ...............................................................................................3

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS .............................................................................3

1. INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................4

1.1 ICTS FOR DEVELOPMENT................................................................................................... 4 1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE PROJECT......................................................................................... 5

1.2.1 About Vigyan Ashram ............................................................................................... 5 1.2.2 About VIIT................................................................................................................. 6 1.2.3 About Media Labs Asia (MLAsia), KReSIT, IIT Bombay ......................................... 7 1.2.4 About Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Baramati ........................................................ 8

1.3 PROJECT OBJECTIVES ........................................................................................................ 8 1.4 PROJECT SCOPE ................................................................................................................. 8 1.5 METHODOLOGY................................................................................................................. 9

2. REVIEW OF SECONDARY RESEARCH ................................................11

2.1 THE CONCEPT OF “DIGITAL DIVIDE” ............................................................................... 11 2.2 BRIDGING THE DIGITAL DIVIDE ...................................................................................... 11 2.3 RURAL INFORMATION NEEDS.......................................................................................... 13 2.4 ICTS FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT- CASES FROM INDIA.................................................... 14

2.4.1 Gyandoot, Dhar, M.P.............................................................................................. 15 2.4.2 Gramdoot, Aksh Optifiber, Rajasthan..................................................................... 16 2.4.3 Drishtee ................................................................................................................... 16 2.4.4 n-Logue, Chennai.................................................................................................... 17 2.4.5 Akshaya, Kerala ...................................................................................................... 17 2.4.6 Bhoomi Project, Karnataka .................................................................................... 18

2.5 CRITICAL SUCCESS FACTORS .......................................................................................... 19

3. THE N-LOGUE MODEL .............................................................................21

3.1 INTRODUCTION: N-LOGUE COMMUNICATIONS PVT LTD.................................................. 21 3.2 CORDECT- THE TECHNOLOGY....................................................................................... 21

3.2.1 The DECT Interface Unit (DIU) ............................................................................. 22 3.2.2 Wall Set with Internet Port (WS-IP) ....................................................................... 22 3.2.3 The iKON Remote Access Switch (RAS) ................................................................. 22 3.2.4 Network Management ............................................................................................. 22 3.2.5 The Compact Base Station (CBS) ........................................................................... 23 3.2.6 The Relay Base Station (RBS)................................................................................. 23 3.2.7 The Base Station Distributor (BSD)........................................................................ 24

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3.3 N-LOGUE BUSINESS MODEL............................................................................................ 24 3.4 THE COST STRUCTURE .................................................................................................... 27 3.5 THE REVENUE MODEL .................................................................................................... 27 3.6 N-LOGUE PROJECT SITES................................................................................................. 29

4. THE PABAL/ BARAMATI PROJECTS: OBSERVATIONS AND ANALYSIS .........................................................................................................30

4.1 BUSINESS PERFORMANCE................................................................................................ 30 4.2 KIOSK OPERATOR SURVEY: OBSERVATIONS AND ANALYSIS .......................................... 31

4.2.1 Costs and Revenue .................................................................................................. 31 4.2.2 Kiosk Services ......................................................................................................... 33 4.2.3 Factors influencing kiosk business.......................................................................... 36 4.2.4 Kiosk Problems ....................................................................................................... 37

5. AAQUA: ALMOST ALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED .............................39

5.1 INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................ 39 5.1.1 Motivation and goals............................................................................................... 39 5.1.2 Key Enabling Features............................................................................................ 40 5.1.3 Current Status ......................................................................................................... 41 5.1.4 Enhancing aAQUA.................................................................................................. 41

5.4 OBSERVATIONS AND ANALYSIS....................................................................................... 42

6. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................47

6.1 KEY LEARNINGS .............................................................................................................. 47 6.1.1 Need for rural ICTs................................................................................................. 47 6.1.2 Critical Success Factors ......................................................................................... 47 6.1.3 Comments on the n-Logue Business Model ............................................................ 48 6.1.4 Comments on aAQUA ............................................................................................. 49

6.2 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR VIGYAN ASHRAM ................................................................... 49 6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS FOR AAQUA.................................................................................. 50 6.4 SCOPE OF FUTURE WORK ................................................................................................. 51

REFERENCES...................................................................................................52

APPENDIX A: DETAILS OF KIOSKS..........................................................55

APPENDIX B: LSP ECONOMICS .................................................................56

APPENDIX C: KIOSK OPERATOR SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE.........58

APPENDIX D: KIOSK ECONOMICS ...........................................................62

APPENDIX E: CASE STUDY..........................................................................63

2

List of Figures

Figure 2.1: The ITC Model ----------------------------------------------------------------------------13 Figure 3.1: Wall set connected through CBS --------------------------------------------------------23 Figure 3.2: WS-IP connected through RBS----------------------------------------------------------24 Figure 3.3: Base Station Distributor ------------------------------------------------------------------24 Figure 3.4: n-Logue business model ------------------------------------------------------------------26 Figure 3.5: n-Logue project sites in India. -----------------------------------------------------------29 Figure 4.1: Revenue break-up from various services -----------------------------------------------32 Figure 5.1: An annotated sample screen shot of aAQUA ------------------------------------------40 Figure 5.3: The process flow of aAQUA. ------------------------------------------------------------43

List of Tables

Table 2.1: Nature and Level of Interactivity between factors affecting rural Internet----------20 Table 3.1: Break Even revenues and Internet time--------------------------------------------------28 Table 4.1: Business performances of the projects (year 2 only)-----------------------------------30 Table 4.2: Kiosk Services ------------------------------------------------------------------------------33 Table 5.1: Threads by Category of Users ------------------------------------------------------------42 Table 5.2: Monthly no. of threads, by section, by user and response times ---------------------43

List of Abbreviations

aAQUA Almost All Questions Answered ICAR Indian Council of Agricultural Research ICT Information and Communication Technology IIT Indian Institute of Technology IT Information Technology ITC Indian Tobacco Company KReSIT Kanwal Rekhi School of Information Technology KVK Krishi Vigyan Kendra LSP Local Service Partner MIT Massachusetts Institute of Technology MLAsia Media Labs Asia MSCIT Maharashtra State Certificate in Information Technology NGO Non Governmental Organization RDES Rural Development Education System TeNet Telecommunications and Computer Network VIIT Vidya Pratishthan's Institute of Information Technology VoIP Voice over Internet Protocol VPT Village Public Telephone WLL Wireless in Local Loop UN United Nations

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1. Introduction

1.1 ICTs for development

The idea that the Internet and related technologies might have an important role

in aiding developmental efforts has captured a central place in international

policy debates. Over the course of the last few years, statements affirming the

need to close the so-called ‘digital divide’ between social groups with and without

access to the internet have been made through several UN agencies, and at

meetings of developmental organizations around the world. The idea of digitally

oriented development is as powerful and seductive as the technology upon which

it is based. No single technological revolution has changed the lives of current

generations in the way that the Internet has. For example, it took at least a

century before the printing press touched 50 million individuals. It took 38 years

for radio to reach the same number, and thirteen years for television. But the

World Wide Web, in only four years, exceeded the 50,000,000 mark13. Never

before has a communications revolution spread so rapidly.

The promise of digital development is that it might have the same reach as the

original Internet boom of the mid 1990s – only this time the most disprivileged

communities, those who had missed out on earlier waves of technology, might

be able to ‘leapfrog’ over their more developed competitors. The greatest

obstacles to rural development in developing economies – large distances and

inadequate infrastructure, might be obviated by instant access to virtual

institutions that provide banking, education, health care, neonatal information,

agricultural advice, and so forth.

At the same time, questions are being asked if ICTs are the way to go in

developing countries, such as those in South Asia, where most rural populations

lack running water and sanitation systems, electricity is still a scarce and

intermittent resource, roads are poor and education a luxury. The value of IT for

rural development is accompanied by this dilemma for decision makers and

multilateral funding agencies: should the very limited resources for rural

4

development be applied to developing IT capacities, or are they best used for

other high priorities such as schools, hospitals, and dispensaries?

1.2 Background of the Project

India boasts of the maximum number of rural ICT projects. There have been a

number of models like Gyandoot, ITC e-Choupal, n-Logue, Drishtee etc. A

common foundation for many of these projects is setting up an entrepreneurial

information kiosk/ Telecenter at the village level.

Of these, the rural connectivity project of n-Logue Communications Pvt limited

[ref sec for detailed business model] is the most interesting due to the following

reasons: -

It is based on WLL corDECT technology touted as the low cost solution for

rural connectivity in developing countries.

As on date, n-Logue has maximum number of operational project sites after

ITC’s e-Choupal.

In the year 2001, n-Logue, after its pilot projects in Chennai, launched two

projects in Maharashtra, at Pabal and Baramati. The Local service partners for

these projects were Vigyan Ashram, an NGO and VIIT, an IT institute run by

Vidya Pratishthan trust of Baramati. The initial set of kiosks was established by

subsidies from the Department of Agriculture for providing agricultural

consultancy services through these kiosks. Presently, agricultural consultancy is

being provided at these project sites through aAQUA, a multilingual, multimedia

question answer system for delivering information to grassroots Indian

community developed by Media Labs Asia, IIT Bombay. Experts at Krishi Vigyan

Kendra, Baramati, provide the answers.

A brief introduction to aforementioned agencies, involved in these projects, is as

following.

1.2.1 About Vigyan Ashram

Dr. S.S. Kalbag set up Vigyan Ashram in the year 1983 with a vision to train

village school dropouts in rural technology so as to enable them to earn a living

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in the village itself. The course was appropriately named Rural Development

Education System (RDES). The objectives of the RDES Program are: -

The Integration of development with education.

To stimulate the intellect through physical activities.

To broaden the horizon of experience of the students.

To reverse the rural to urban migration and to give a multi-skill base for

specialization.

The system of ‘Learning while Doing, in real life situation’ adopted by Vigyan

Ashram, involves doing community service work in real life as part of education.

Thus students learn while doing development work, in sense development works

gives the student opportunity to learn. Education and Development have been

integrated. Many educationalists advocated this philosophy in the past, but for

the first time Dr.Kalbag spelled this philosophy as a program, he successfully

demonstrated it over 20 years. RDES Program is at present getting implemented

in 23 schools and 2 non-formal centers.

In December 2001, Dr. Kalbag signed an agreement with n-Logue

communications to bring wireless connectivity to Pabal region. As per the

agreement Vigyan Ashram became the LSP for n-Logue projects in Khed

(Rajgurunagar) and Pabal.

1.2.2 About VIIT

Vidya Pratishthan's Institute of Information Technology was established in

February 2000 at Baramati with an aim to provide quality education in the field

of Information Technology and Computer Science. The objective of Vidya

Pratishthan trust behind opening the IT section is to spread the light of education

among the students of rural areas of Baramati. More than 10,000 students have

passed out from VIIT and its virtual centers. VIIT is also engaged in rural ICT

projects like IVR based "Bazar Bhav" and Telebanking, Smart Card application for

milk Cooperatives, Computer on Wheels by Mobile Van and SETU. In order to

augment its work in rural ICTs, VIIT took up the access center business of n-

Logue.

6

1.2.3 About Media Labs Asia (MLAsia), KReSIT, IIT Bombay

Media Lab Asia is the world's largest academic research program dedicated to

bringing the benefits of new technologies to everyone, with a special focus on

meeting the grand challenges in learning, health, and economic development.

The role of Media Lab Asia is to facilitate the invention, refinement, and

dissemination of innovations that benefit the greatest number possible of the

world’s neediest people. Media Lab Asia works with industry, NGO’s and

governments, to take these innovations to various villages in India.

Media Lab Asia consists of regional laboratories and participating grassroots

communities. Every regional laboratory is formed around several core projects,

each involving academic, industrial, and village community partners. Currently,

there are three umbrella projects undertaken at Media Lab Asia - IIT Bombay.

These are:

Interlingua - This project aims to develop a multilingual meaning based search

engine which can take queries in the local language and return results to the

same in the language of query. This project was initiated keeping in mind that

most of the people in India are denied the huge wealth of information present on

the web simply because they do not know English, the lingua franca of the web.

Enabling access in local language is important to bridge the digital divide.

Tools being developed under this project: Agro-explorer, aAQUA, Bhav Puchiye.

Interfaces for all - This project has been started to focus on design and

evaluation of devices and interfaces for computer users. Issues surrounding

usability of computers relating to non-computer savvy users and vernacular

language computing are some of the first issues being addressed. Several efforts

like the Key-lekh keyboard, Bhav-Puchiye (a tool for finding market prices for the

agricultural produce for farmers), Tangible user interfaces, etc. are under way. In

addition to this, the group also assists other projects in designing appropriate

interfaces for their tools.

Tools being developed under this project: Tangible user interfaces, Indian

language input devices.

7

Polysensors - Presently, the purity of water in our increasingly polluted

environment can only be tested in laboratories using expensive equipment and

highly trained technicians. This project aims at providing a low-cost and easy

method of testing the impurities in water, with low-cost, rugged and tropicalized

sensors

1.2.4 About Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Baramati

The Krishi Vigyan Kendra is a district level Farm Science Center established by

the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi at Agricultural

Development Trust Baramati, District Pune for speedy transfer of technology to

the farmer’s fields. The operational area of this Krishi Vigyan Kendra comes

under the western Maharashtra dry Zone. The aim of Krishi Vigyan Kendra is to

reduce the time lag between Generation of technology at the research

institutions and its transfer to the farmer's field for increasing production,

productivity and income from the agriculture and allied sectors on a sustained

basis.

1.3 Project Objectives

The objectives of this project are: -

Study the existing business model of n-Logue and Vigyan Ashram rural

Internet project at Pabal, Maharashtra. Assessment of present infrastructure,

services and usage etc.

A study of the various business models for rural information and

communication technology projects in India, by way of secondary research,

and identification of critical success factors.

Evaluate the performance of aAQUA, a multilingual rural portal developed by

Media Labs Asia and recommendations for the same.

1.4 Project Scope

The details of the n-Logue business model have been obtained from the following

sources: -

The website http://www.n-Logue.com/

8

http://www.n-logue.com/

Articles and papers in journals and magazines,

Interviews with the n-Logue and LSP management teams

Based on these, the stakeholders of n-Logue project at Pabal, Maharashtra, have

been identified as following: -

The Local Service Partner or the managing agent for the access center.

The Department of Agriculture, which subsidized initial kiosk installations by

50% so as to connect farmers with experts.

The kiosk operators who invest in the kiosks at village level and operate the

services.

The citizens/ community where the kiosks have been installed.

The models of kiosk and LSP ownership have been explained in detail in Chapter

3. At the time of study, nine kiosks in Pabal and six kiosks in Baramati were

offering public services. These have been covered under the kiosk operator

survey and a detail of these has been provided in the appendix A.

The evaluation of aAQUA is based on: -

Analysis of 93 posts under the crop diseases, animal diseases and others

section of the website

http://www.projects.mlasia.iitb.ac.in/aquar/forum/index

Interaction with the experts at KVK, Baramati and farmer groups in different

villages.

Details about aAQUA, functioning etc have been taken from the following

source: http://www.projects.mlasia.iitb.ac.in/docs/aAQUA.pdf.

1.5 Methodology

A survey of existing literature on Telecenter research, key success factors,

ICT projects in India and other developing countries, problems and challenges

in Indian scenario.

Analysis of performance of the Pabal, Khed and Baramati projects.

9


http://www.projects.mlasia.iitb.ac.in/docs/aAQUA.pdf

A survey of kiosk operators to identify kiosk operator profile, kiosk services,

usage, technology issues and problems.

Evaluation of aAQUA by conducting interviews with farmer groups, kiosk

operators and KVK experts.

10

2. Review of Secondary Research

2.1 The concept of “Digital Divide”

One of the most hyped phrases in the context of ICTs for development is “Digital

Divide”. Kenneth Keniston13 of MIT introduces the concept of, not one, but four

digital divides. The first divide is that which exists within every nation,

industrialized or developing, between those who are rich, educated, and

powerful, and those who are not.

A second digital divide, less often noted, is linguistic and cultural. In many

nations this divide separates those who speak English or another West European

language from those who do not. This is quite notable in India, and is further

compounded by linguistic issues. An estimated 60-80% of all Web sites in the

world are in English while almost all the rest are in one of the major 'Northern'

languages like Japanese, German, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and increasingly

Chinese. But in India, like the rest of South Asia, only an estimated 2-10% of the

population speaks fluent English while the rest (more than 900 million Indians

and about 1.2 billion South Asians) speak other languages.

The third digital divide follows inevitably from the first two -- it is the growing

digital gap between the rich and the poor nations. The fourth digital divide is the

difference between the lifestyles of those who are in the IT or similar sunrise

industries like Biotechnology and those who are in the other professions.

2.2 Bridging the Digital Divide

With the understanding of digital divide, several agencies are also talking about

bridging the digital divide. Interestingly, ICTs have been touted as the solution to

development. It has been suggested that digital access could well be linked to

wealth accumulation. Victor, Philip et al15 suggest a positive correlation between

teledensity and GDP per capita for low and middle-income countries. As for

Internet access, Thomas Schauer18 feels that Internet has not existed for

sufficiently long, and it is not possible to examine whether poor countries which

have put a focus on overall development (wealth first!) subsequently have better

opportunities to create an information society or whether the strategy should be

11

to invest massively into the IT infrastructure in order to create subsequent

wealth.

So then what is the promise of ICTs towards reducing the “digital divide” and the

“income divide” associated with it? It would be interesting to look at the case of

ITC initiated e-Choupal project in India. This is an excellent example of how

Internet access has created wealth for farmers from about 6000 villages in MP in

India10. The project initiated in September 2001 by ITC was intended to gain

control over Soya procurement supply chain. ITC harnessed the power of

information technology to fill institutional voids in the Soya procurement chain by

avoiding middlemen and directly buying Soya from the farmers. According to ITC

“The intermediary has information and, thus, extracts a greater margin. So we

said to ourselves if you bring this information to the farmer and use go-

betweens where they are adding value directly, you have a business model." To

do that, ITC first leased three Soya processing and collection centers. These

centers were created in the mid-90s and had, since then, gone under. Then it

started scouting villages around these centers for lead farmers (sanchalaks) to

head each choupal. The computer was placed at the sanchalak's house and he

was trained to use it. Having put them in place, ITC started to pump information

on daily mandi prices through the Internet into the sanchalak's homes. Farmers

would gather as they did at choupals, check the prices and head out to the

collection centers to sell their produce. The idea of heading out to the collection

centers struck the right kind of chords among the farming community. Here,

because systems were efficient, the transactions are completed in a few hours

rather than days as they used to. So they came to the collection centers in

droves. The sanchalaks, for their part in directing farmers to these collection

centers, were paid a commission of 0.5% for each tonne of soyabean that

originated from their choupal. On ITC’s part, the procurement costs of Soya

came down from Rs 700 per tonne to approx. Rs 300 per tonne. The math looked

roughly like this. On an average, it cost Rs 40,000 to set up a basic Choupal. In

places where connectivity was terribly poor, and telephone lines to connect to

the Internet still a pipe dream, ITC invested in V-SATs. These investments jacked

up costs by as much as Rs 1 lakh. According to ITC, it has been able to recoup

12

the investment in three sowing seasons (18 months). At the time of going to

print (January 2003), MP had 1,045 e-choupals spread over 6,000 villages that

covered six lakh farmers. ITC is now planning to apply the model to wheat

procurement, which is a market, multiple times that of Soya market.

Figure 2.1: The ITC Model

The ITC case is that of a large corporation using IT to its advantage and in the

process the farmers gained by information access. But what about the larger

issue of social development. What promise do ICTs hold towards that? Here it

might be worth considering the examples of Indian Railway’s online reservation

system. It has introduced the concept of convenience to a large section of urban

consumers in India. A similar example is that of the banking system and

proliferation of ATMs in urban areas.

2.3 Rural Information Needs

But what relevance do ICTs have to rural consumers? Can ICTs be the solution to

poor infrastructure for health, telecom and education in rural India? What are the

information needs of the rural consumer? Many of these questions are answered

by an NIC, Government of India study6. Based upon a survey in a rural area in

the state of Bihar, following information categories were arrived at: -

13

Health

Agriculture

o Rainfall (forecasting)

o Cropping Pattern

o Modern Techniques of Cultivation/Farming

o Irrigation (Sources)

o Information on Market and Market Prices

Education

o Distance Education/Learning

o Information on Schools & Virtual Schooling

Government Information

o Information on Soft loans & Financial Institutions

o Information on Government Go downs

Land Records

2.4 ICTs for Rural Development- Cases from India

Having identified the various information needs for the rural consumer, the next

question that arises is: what kind of model is appropriate to serve the rural

communities? What is the size of investment required? What problems and

challenges an organization is likely to confront if it sets out to provide such

services? Will these services make an impact that would justify investing in ICTs

for development rather than investing directly in health, sanitation, water,

power, roads etc? During the course of last few years, a number of ICT for

development projects have come up in India. Prominent ones of these are

described as following

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2.4.1 Gyandoot, Dhar, M.P.

Gyandoot is an Intranet based Government to Citizen (G2C) service delivery

portal commissioned in Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh (a state in central India)

in January 2000.

Gyandoot aims to create a cost-effective, replicable, economically self-reliant and

financially viable model for taking the benefits of Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) to the rural masses. This is expected to lead to

enhanced participation by citizens/government in community affairs through

creative uses of ICT and also ensure equal access to emerging technologies for

the oppressed and exploited segments of the society17. Gyandoot is managed by

a society called ‘Gyandoot Samiti’ registered under Madhya Pradesh Societies

Registration Act. The District Collector is President of the Samiti. The CEO of Zilla

Panchayat (an officer of the Indian Administrative service, IAS) assists the

president as Secretary and the various departmental heads as members of the

Samiti. The operational team of Gyandoot Samiti consists of a Project Manager,

an Assistant Project Officer, a Technical Head (the District Information Officer)

and four computer operators.

The services offered by Gyandoot encompass a wide range of government

departments (Zilla Panchayat, Civil supplies, Regional transport office, etc.) and

can be accessed from any Gyandoot kiosk (soochanalaya) by any citizen, on

payment of a nominal transaction fee.

However a subsequent study5, conducted by Center for E-governance, IIM

Ahmedabad, made the following conclusions about the Gyandoot project: -

“In achieving its intended objects, however, Gyandoot cannot be considered a

success. In spite of being in existence for more than two years, the usage of the

system has remained far below acceptable levels. The current status of the

project illustrates that ICT alone cannot improve the service delivery to rural

poor. Significant re-engineering of backend processes and introduction of

services that directly contribute to poverty alleviation are needed to make such

initiatives sustainable. The study team would conclude this report by stating that

Gyandoot should address the main objective of servicing the rural citizens

15

through improvements of the back-end processes and involvement of dedicated

government officials. Current ICT solutions are too costly for the level of usage

being experienced. The challenge for the management of the Gyandoot system

lies in enhancing the services to make the system cost effective, while benefiting

the rural poor, without worsening the digital divide.”

2.4.2 Gramdoot, Aksh Optifiber, Rajasthan

This is the only true broadband ICT project consisting of a fiber based broadband

network solution connecting 400 villages in the district of Jaipur in Rajasthan.

The connectivity provided is 2-6 Mbps, scalable upto 10 Mbps. The key

applications/ services provided include: -

Cable TV at homes

Telephone services/ Web conference/ STD booths at home and at kiosk

E-services- horoscope, photo shop, games, Internet access, movie projection

etc.

Computer education (limited education)

E-governance including land records querying and transaction initiation.

This is a model with high capital cost per kiosk, largely because of the technology

option. This jacks up the breakeven revenues of the kiosks to 20000-25000 per

month. Secondly employees and not private entrepreneurs man the kiosks. The

main revenue driver of the kiosks is cable services. However only 120 of the 400

kiosks are operational due to low revenues, administrative and business

problems.

Due to lower costs of optical fiber the model is now being considered viable for

high-income villages that are close to cities/ large towns.

2.4.3 Drishtee

Drishtee is an organizational platform for developing IT enabled services to rural

masses through a kiosk based revenue model7. Through a tiered franchise and

partnership model, Drishtee facilitates the creation of a rural networking

infrastructure. With nodes at the village, district, state and national level,

16

Drishtee enables access to worldwide information as well as local services using

its proprietary state-of-the-art software.

Drishtee's business model is driven by a village entrepreneur, who acts as the

gateway to valuable information and services for villagers. Drishtee enables this

entrepreneur to operate a self-sustaining, profitable kiosk that provides various

services at nominal costs. In less than four years, Drishtee has successfully

demonstrated its concept in over 300 kiosks across six Indian states. The various

services available at the Drishtee portal∗ are as following: -

Government: Government Schemes, Online Applications, Stamp Vendor

License, Public Grievances, Certificates, Ration Card, and Driving License.

Private: Rojgaar, Training, Gram Haat, Gram Mandi, Vaiavahiki, E-commerce.

Corporate: Rural Employment, Computer Education, Insurance, and Agri-

Business.

However, Drishtee cites the following constraints of its model: -

Connectivity.

Lack of rural focus of corporates.

Delay due to backend processes of Government.

Limited Research.

2.4.4 n-Logue, Chennai

[Ref Chapter 3]

2.4.5 Akshaya, Kerala

Kerala, in an endeavor to 'bridge the Digital Divide' and to propel Kerala as

India's foremost knowledge society, embarked on 'Akshaya Project' on the 18th

of November 2002. The initiative started in the district Mallapuram with a vision

to ensure that every family (urban and rural) in the district should have at least

one member who is computer literate. With this purpose the Government set up

a number of computer training centers with both capital funding (part and full

∗ http://ind.drishtee.com/

17

funding) and revenue guarantee to enable such kiosks to be set up in each and

every village in the district. The project covers 560 villages in the district. The

centers are connected by 16 Kbps, which is upgradeable to 4 Mbps as per the

agreement with Tulip, which is the connectivity provider.

Expected Benefits1

Direct Benefits

o At least 1 computer literate person in every home in the state.

o Network of 6000 Community Information Centers across the state.

o Convenient access for the common man to information services.

o Local Community Empowerment.

o Generate locally relevant content.

o Generate over 50,000 direct employment opportunities in three years.

o Generate direct investment of over Rs. 500 crores in 3 years.

Expected Indirect Benefits

o Cheaper communication through Internet telephony, e-mail, chat etc.

o Enhanced ICT demand in Tele-medicine / e-Commerce / e-Education.

o Enlarged marketing opportunities for agricultural / traditional products /

artifacts.

o Improved delivery of public services.

o Catalyzing of all sectors in the IT Industry.

2.4.6 Bhoomi Project, Karnataka Under the prestigious Bhoomi E-Governance project4 of the Government all 20

million land records of 6.7 million landowners in 176 taluks of Karnataka have

been computerized. This system works with the software called "BHOOMI"

designed fully in-house by National Informatics Center, Bangalore. While

Government of India has largely funded the project; State Government funded

some critical components of this project. This software provides for printing of

18

land records as and when required. It incorporates process of online updating to

ensure that the RTCs provided to the farmers are in sync with the time. The

manual land records in operationalised taluks have been declared illegal. All the

mutations to the land records database are done on the computer itself so as to

ensure that data on computer remain current with time. Today, a computerized

land record kiosk (Bhoomi center) is operational in 140 of the 177 taluks in

Karnataka. At these taluka offices a farmer can obtain a copy of an RTC online by

paying a Rs.15 fee. A second computer screen faces the clients to enable them to

see the transaction being performed. Copies can be obtained for any land parcel

in the taluka by providing the name of the owner or the plot number. A Village

Accountant is available full-time at these kiosks.

As illustrated by the Gyandoot experience [ref sec 2.4.1], there is a need to

evaluate the Indian projects on a number of parameters like scalability,

sustainability etc. Kenneth Keniston11 cites some preliminary hypotheses on

Indian challenges, on the basis of his experience with some of the Indian

projects: -

More talk than Action

Difficulties with E-governance and land record computerization

Financial Sustainability

Development of locally relevant content

Impact of technical decisions

Constant reinvention of wheel

2.5 Critical Success Factors

Michael L. Best, MIT Media Lab and Colin M. Maclay2 describe some of the

challenges policymakers, the private sector, the international development

community, and others face in unleashing the power of markets to better serve

information and communication needs in rural and poor areas. They recommend

that there are six broad categories that must be considered for economic self-

sustainability: costs, revenue, networks, business models, policy, and capacity.

19

The following table depicts the nature of interaction between the factors and the

effects that they might have.

Table 2.1: Nature and Level of Interactivity between factors affecting rural Internet

Costs Revenue Networks Business Model Policy

Capacity

LOW: Unless access to computer maintenance is limited

HIGH: Business, IT and outreach skills key for new industry

MEDIUM: More users ease awareness raising and training

MED/HI: Capacity suggests limits ofmodel

MED/HI: Education, training opportunities

Policy

HIGH: Competition, taxes and tariffs, requirements for entry, spectrum, interconnection

HIGH: VoIP alone is significant

MEDIUM: Policy broadly affects Readiness, users become political constituency

HIGH: Decides potential for RSP and franchisees, public sector as network client

Business Models

MEDIUM: Appropriate models reduce costs

LOW: Location guides clientele and applications

LOW: Little direct connection

Networks

HIGH: Metcalfe Effect costly to leverage (or else it would be done), scale economies grow with network size

HIGH: Size and scope drive content, utility of medium

Revenue

LOW: Except specialized services requiring extra investment (copier, camera), assuming always on connection

20

3. The n-Logue Model

3.1 Introduction: n-Logue Communications Pvt Ltd

N-Logue was incubated by the Telecommunications and Computer Network

(TeNet) Group of the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras as part of the

institute’s strategy for developing and disseminating innovative, affordable

communication technologies to the rural poor of developing countries. Formed by

a group of like-minded professors at the IIT, Madras, the TeNeT Group has

conducted extensive research on the issues involved in providing connections to

small towns and rural areas. The huge and largely unfulfilled need in this area

led to the setting up of n-Logue Communications. TeNeT is focused on meeting

the technology needs of developing countries like India. Its research has led to

the design and development of appropriate technologies for these markets, as

well as the incubation of several companies including Midas Communications and

Banyan Networks. One of the significant outputs of its research is corDECT, a

Wireless in Local Loop system designed jointly by TeNeT, Midas and Analog

Devices, USA. The cost-effective access technology provides simultaneous voice

and Internet connectivity, and is faster and more reliable than conventional

technologies. Today WLL systems have been successfully implemented in India,

as well as in several other countries around the world including Brazil, Argentina,

Madagascar, Fiji, Yemen, Kenya, Tunisia and Iran.

3.2 CorDECT- The Technology

CorDECT is an advanced Wireless Access system designed keeping the economic

realities of a country like India in mind. Midas Communication Technologies and

IIT, Madras has developed it, in association with Analog Devices, USA. It

provides a complete wireless access solution with seamless integration of both

voice and Internet services, providing simultaneous toll-quality voice and 35 / 70

kbps Internet access to wireless subscribers. CorDECT is based on the DECT air

interface standard specification from the European Telecommunication Standards

Institute (ETSI). The corDECT air interface supports 10 kms of line-of-sight

connectivity and has the provision to extend this to 25 kms using Repeaters.

21

http://www.banyannetworks.com/

http://www.banyannetworks.com/

The components of the corDECT Wireless Access System are:

3.2.1 The DECT Interface Unit (DIU)

The DIU is a fully redundant subscriber radio exchange with 2 OMC PC Consoles.

It can also act as a voice PBX with up to 8 E1 connections (using R2-MF or V5.2

protocols) to PSTN/Voice. It switches voice traffic to the telephone network using

the V5.2 protocol to connect to an exchange. It also switches Internet calls to a

built-in Remote Access Switch (RAS), which then routes the traffic to the Internet

network. System reliability is guaranteed by redundant hot stand-by

architecture. The OMC (Operation and Maintenance Console) allows real-time

monitoring and management of the entire corDECT system. A fully configured

DIU consumes less than 600 W power.

3.2.2 Wall Set with Internet Port (WS-IP)

The Wall Set is the equipment at the subscriber premises. It has 2 ports, one a

standard 2 wire RJ11 interface for connecting to a DTMF or decadic telephone,

FAX machine or modem. The other is an RS232C Internet port for connecting to

a computer obviating the need for a modem. The PC establishes a dial-up

Internet connection using a standard dial-up utility. This means that voice and

Internet can be used simultaneously. The power to the Wall Set is provided by a

12V adaptor connected to the mains, or by a solar panel connected in parallel. It

has a built-in battery charger providing 16-hour standby and 3 hours talk time

for voice calls.

3.2.3 The iKON Remote Access Switch (RAS)

The IKON RAS terminates the connections from the subscribers and is connected

to the DIU using 2 E1 ports. It does IP routing for 60 simultaneous corDECT

Internet calls. The RAS has a 10baseT Ethernet port to connect to the Internet. It

supports RADIUS for accounting, PAP for user authentication and is managed

using SNMP.

3.2.4 Network Management

CorDECT provides comprehensive operation and maintenance through the

corVIEW OMC Console. The features include hardware and software

22

configuration, subscriber administration, accounting, fault notification and traffic.

The functions range from a bird’s eye-view of the operational status of a network

of corDECT systems to probing the internals of an individual wall set. CorVIEW

supports the SNMP protocol and can be connected to the corDECT system by any

IP network.

The Wall Set can be connected to the DIU through:

3.2.5 The Compact Base Station (CBS)

The CBS provides the radio interface between DIU and Wall Set. It is connected

to the DIU through 3 pairs of twisted pair copper wires. The DIU feeds both

power and signal to the CBS. A DIU can be connected to up to 20 CBS and each

CBS supports up to 12 simultaneous voice calls. See diagram below.

Figure 3.1: Wall set connected through CBS

3.2.6 The Relay Base Station (RBS)

The RBS extends the range of the corDECT system by another 25km. It relays

DECT packets between the CBS and subscriber units through a two-hop DECT

wireless link, one between WS-IP and RBS and the second between RBS and

CBS. It can handle 11 calls simultaneously. See diagram below.

23

Figure 3.2: WS-IP connected through RBS

3.2.7 The Base Station Distributor (BSD)

The BSD is a compact, remotely located, locally powered, rack-mountable unit

that supports up to 4 CBS. It connects on an E1 interface to the DIU, which may

be on copper, fiber or radio. The link distance depends only on the link design. It

is designed to connect pockets of subscribers located far away from the DIU. See

diagram below.

Figure 3.3: Base Station Distributor

3.3 n-Logue Business Model

n-Logue has fashioned a franchise-based business model that consists of three

levels of interdependent networks. At the foundation level, n-Logue forges and

facilitates relationships among a wide range of organizations—hardware and

24

equipment providers, non-governmental organizations, content providers, and

government—that enable and support the businesses of franchise owners.

At the next level, n-Logue maintains a regional network of franchised Local

Service Partners (LSP). The LSP works in tandem with n-Logue to set up an

access center or node to which individual kiosk operators will be connected. n-

Logue also assists LSP in obtaining connectivity to Internet and telecom

backbones required for providing Internet and telephone services. These Access

Centers are, in size and scope, small enough to be managed by people who do

not need to be Telecom experts. They need to handle around 500 to a 1000

customers in a radius of 25 km (around 2000 sq km). Each Access Center

includes:

A leased Internet connection to the nearest Internet Gateway

A 60’ tower with multiple CBSs to transmit the corDECT signal

A DIU and RAS for routing Internet and voice data

Radius, NAT and DNS servers

Software to bill customers on a monthly basis and track the payments

Since the technology is easy to deploy and support, the skills of the LSP are

more focused on selling the service, and creating awareness about its value.

They could make additional revenues through value-added services such as

hosting web pages and providing local content. They only need an operating

knowledge of the technology, enough to maintain a satisfactory quality of

service.

At the highest level of the business model, local entrepreneurs are recruited by

the LSP to establish village-level kiosk franchises that provide Internet and

telephone access to the local population. Through the LSP, n-Logue offers low-

priced “kiosk packages” consisting of a subscriber wall set (that connects the

kiosk to the access center), a computer, printer and backup battery. The kiosks

essentially function as combination rural Internet cafés and pay phone booths.

While n-Logue provides kiosk owners with training, support, and technical

assistance, local franchise owners themselves are responsible for developing

25

additional product and service offerings (e.g., computer courses) and marketing

strategies. Each kiosk costs approximately Rs 53,500 (USD $1200) to set up,

and includes the following equipment:

Wall set that receives the wireless corDECT signal

Branded PC with 15” color monitor

Computer peripherals including speaker, microphone, CD-ROM, digital

camera, inkjet printer and sound card

UPS with battery providing 4 hours of back-up power for PC

All required cabling

An application suite consisting of word-processing, browsing and email

software all in local language as well as English.

Figure 3.4: n-Logue business model

The price also includes 6-months of unlimited Internet access, a marketing kit,

and introductory training provided by n-Logue. If telephony is available in the

26

project area, the cost of the kiosk increases by Rs 5,000 (USD $110), and

includes an STD-PCO meter and all related telephony equipment.

3.4 The Cost Structure

Capital investment for the LSP amounts to around Rs 12 lakhs, of which 2 lakhs

is the agency cost, i.e. cost of being the managing agent of n-Logue’s access

center business and 10 lakhs is the refundable deposit, subject to terms and

conditions.

In the first year, n-Logue sets up the access center and related equipment, at a

cost of around Rs 10 lakhs. This has a capacity to provide 44 connections. Year 2

onwards the investments made by n-Logue depend on the performance of the

project.

The operational expenses of the access center, to be shared by the LSP and n-

Logue, can be categorized as following: -

Statutory expenses: lease line, bandwidth, junction, and WPC charges.

Access center expenses: rental, electricity, maintenance and repair, customer

service.

BSNL/Basic Service Operator (BSO) fees: on average 55% of revenue from

voice.

The annual operational expenses are to the tune of Rs. 5 lakhs for single lease

line.

3.5 The Revenue Model

The LSP is entitled to 50% of the Net Monthly Revenues of the access center,

which is calculated as Gross Monthly Invoicing for the period, Net of the following

deductions: -

Dues/ taxes/ duties payable to Central, State, Government, Local and

Municipal authorities.

Bandwidth charges, Leased line rental, Frequency charges, Telephony

revenue share for the period.

27

Actual rent for the access center, RBS locations for the period.

Actual electricity charges for the period subject to a maximum of 3500/-.

Actual cost of spares and repairs for maintenance of the Access Center.

Salary of one Customer Care person not exceeding Rs 3000/- pm.

Expenses towards depreciation for the equipment installed. Zero in first year,

a maximum of Rs 1 lakh in year 2 and a maximum of Rs 2.5 lakhs in the year

3.

Application development and deployment expenses at Rs 1.5 lakh from year

3.

The following table gives the break-even revenues and Internet time: -

Table 3.1: Break Even revenues and Internet time

Year No. Yearly Break Even Revenue (in Rs)

Monthly Break Even Internet Usage (in Hrs)*

Number of connections**

Break Even Internet Usage per connection

1 11,67,000 4860 44 110 Hrs. 2 12,87,000 5360 -

3 16,09,000 6705 -

*Assuming LSP charges @ Rs 20 per hour

**Based on capacity installed in the year 1

Refer Appendix B for details.

28

3.6 n-Logue Project Sites

14

19

Figure 3.5: n-Logue project sites in India.

29

4. The Pabal/ Baramati Projects: Observations and

Analysis

4.1 Business Performance

The following table gives the business performance at the two project sites.

Table 4.1: Business performances of the projects (year 2 only)

Pabal/ Rajgurunagar* Baramati

Number of active Kiosk connections 9 6

Number of Private Connections 25 85

Average Monthly Revenues Rs 12000 Rs 50000

Village Public Telephones (VPT) 60 NA

Average Monthly Revenues from VPT Rs 30000 * For both Pabal and Rajgurunagar LSPs Source: LSP Management

The performance of the Baramati project is clearly better than the Pabal LSP,

as indicated above. The reasons behind the difference in the performance of

the two LSPs are as following: -

o The difference in the demographic profile of the two regions. Baramati has

good agriculture and hence higher disposable income. Many villages in the

Pabal region, including Pabal itself, lie in the rain shadow area and are

facing drought for last 3 years.

o The number of private connections is much higher in case of Baramati.

These connections are in Baramati town and include cyber cafes, private

educational institutions, personal connections etc.

Number of Kiosks set up by department of agriculture, i.e. that received

subsidy from department of agriculture was 22 and 20 at Pabal and Baramati

respectively. Of these, only 7 kiosks at Pabal and 3 kiosks at Baramati are

offering any kind of public services. The reason cited is politically motivated

allocations of kiosks. The 50% subsidy attracted people who had no incentive

to run public kiosks.

30

The Village Public Telephones are provided in partnership with Tata Indicom.

In 60 villages where this service has been started, this is the first telephone.

However the VPT initiatives faces the following challenges: -

o The revenue sharing arrangement between the LSP, n-Logue and Tata

Indicom is not clear. The reason cited for the uncertainty is the unified

telecom license policy, which came into place after the three parties had

come together.

o VPTs cannot connect to many BSNL phone numbers and vice-versa. The

reason cited is lack of co-operation from BSNL on interconnecting issues.

o VPT allocations are affected by local political considerations, at the village

level.

4.2 Kiosk Operator Survey: Observations and Analysis

The survey questionnaire is attached in the appendix C.

4.2.1 Costs and Revenue

The break-even revenue for the Pabal/ Baramati single computer kiosks is Rs

3130. The detailed calculations, based on the survey are presented in the

appendix D.

Only 3 of the 9 single computer kiosks have reported break-even/ profits;

these are Shikrapur, Kendur in Pabal Project and Katewadi in Baramati

project.

The revenues reported at the Pabal/ Baramati kiosks range between Rs 1200

to Rs 7200. Here the multi-computer kiosks have not been included.

The following graph depicts the break-up of revenues from different services

31

Figure 4.1: Revenue break-up from various services

As is evident from the graph, the major revenue generating services are

Computer education, Kundli, Photography and Internet, in that order.

At Pabal kiosks, data entry work was provided by KEM hospital, Vadu. Some

kiosks earned as much as Rs 2500-3500. However following problems are

associated with data entry work: -

o Distributing work and coordinating between kiosks located at different

places makes LSP’s bid uncompetitive.

o Data entry is essentially an offline activity. Also it is no public service;

rather it’s a means of personal employment for kiosk operator. It should

only be provided to a limited extent.

32

4.2.2 Kiosk Services

The following table describes the various services available at the kiosks,

whether offline/ online, usage charges and service provider: -

Table 4.2: Kiosk Services

Service Nature of Service Service Provider Charges

Internet Browsing/ Chat/ E-mail

Online n-Logue and LSP

General Users: Rs 25/ hr. Membership Charges: Rs 300-500 per month for 1 hr daily.

Pune University Online Admissions

Online Pune University Rs 100 per form

Agricultural Consultancy

Online aAQUA, MLAsia, IIT Bombay & KVK Baramati

Free

Computer Education Offline MSCIT, Kiosk Operator 500-2050 per course

Kundli Both n-Logue, Kiosk Operator Rs 50-120, depending on number of pages

Photography Offline Kiosk Operator Rs 20-50, depending on picture size etc

DTP Offline Kiosk Operator

Games Offline Rs 10/ hr.

The delivery, usage etc of individual services are discussed in the following

subsections.

4.2.2.1 Internet Browsing/ Chat/ E-mail

The Shikrapur kiosk fetches maximum revenues from Internet browsing

services as compared to the other kiosks. This is largely because of the

location of kiosk. The kiosk is located at the Pune-Ahmednagar highway near

the industrial area. The users are primarily people working in the companies

in the industrial area.

At most other locations, the number of users of Internet is very few/ singular.

For example in Pabal village, a lady chats with her husband.

4.2.2.2 Pune University Online Admissions

A popular service by usage is the Pune University Online admission forms.

The kiosks charge Rs 50-100 per form to be filled and printed.

These service requests are made during the months of May-July, which is the

time around which admissions take place.

33

Currently only external admissions can be applied for online. External

admissions mean that the applicant does not join any formal institution.

Almost all kiosks have reported this service request ranging 5-30 in numbers

during a particular year.

4.2.2.3 Agricultural Consultancy

Agricultural consultancy is provided with the help of aAQUA. IIT Bombay has

partnered with seven Pabal kiosks and provided them with bi-lingual

keyboards. This has linked farmers in the remote villages to experts at KVK,

Baramati. No kiosk has reported collecting charges for aAQUA.

As of now, there are no charges for aAQUA. For details on service requests

refer chapter 5.

At Baramati kiosks, farmers at three locations namely Katewadi, Jalochi and

Sawal have availed agricultural consultancy from KVK Baramati using net

meeting and web cam, to transmit images of leaves etc. The number of such

service requests, as reported by KVK, is 10 between October’03 and

March’04.

Katewadi kiosk has placed maximum number of such service requests and

reportedly charged Rs 20 per service requests.

4.2.2.4 Computer Education

The major revenue driver at the kiosks is computer education. Especially the

kiosks with 5-13 computers are doing very well. A major reason for this is the

MSCIT (Maharashtra State Certificate in Information Technology). By way of

an act, Maharashtra government has made MSCIT a mandatory qualification

for all government jobs of state of Maharashtra.

The charges range from Rs 860 to Rs 2050 for self study and computer center

guided courses. The certification examinations are conducted twice a year.

Even some single computer kiosks have been able to attract students for

computer education and typing. However this is subject to the personality of

kiosk operator as perceived by the students. Kiran, the kiosk operator at

Retaudi, is only first year B. Com. and self trained in computers. He has so far

34

provided computer education to ten people with the help of self-learning MS

Office CDs. On the other hand, Somnath, the kiosk operator at Pabal, is

formally trained in computers and has so far provided computer education to

more than fifty students.

Single computer kiosks cannot run batches and this discourages female

students.

Kendur and Shikrapur kiosks are now planning to add more computers and

offer computer education.

4.2.2.5 Kundli

Kundli service has been extremely successful at Shikrapur kiosk. Mr. Rajendra

Patil, the kiosk owner, has tied up with an astrologer to offer Kundli service.

Also above the kiosk there is a hospital offering maternity services and the

kiosk is run in the medical shop.

Each kundli costs Rs 50-120, depending on the number of pages.

Kendur and Pabal kiosks have also provides this service.

Clever bit, a Pune based software company provides kundli software for Rs

1500.

Seeing the success of kundli, n-Logue has put the kundli software on their

server. The kundli service can now be offered online at any kiosk.

4.2.2.6 Photography

The photography service is being offered using web cam at Katewadi kiosk.

The service is popular because of Bank of Maharashtra, which is next to kiosk.

At Kendur the kiosk was added to an existing business of Digital photography.

4.2.2.7 Telemedicine

Telemedicine was introduced as a pilot in the villages of Kendur and Pabal,

with the help of KEM hospital in Vadu village. The doctors would advise

patients through Net meeting during 1000-1200 hrs on weekdays. The

charges for each service request were kept at Rs 5. However the service has

not drawn very good response, the reasons being as follows: -

35

o The charges are too low and therefore the kiosk operator is not motivated

to provide this service.

o There is an issue of privacy between the doctor and the patient.

o Both Pabal and Kendur villages have government health care centers as

well as private practitioners.

4.2.3 Factors influencing kiosk business It is observed from the figure 4.1 that the better performing kiosks have a

focus on one or two services only. Consider the following cases: -

o The Shikrapur kiosk has two major revenue earning services, the Kundli

and Internet browsing. Shikrapur being on the highway, and near the

industrial area, Mr. Rajendra Patil, the kiosk owner, has 5-6 permanent

customers for browsing. He has tied up with an astrologer to offer Kundli

service.

o The main revenue generating service at Kendur kiosk is photography.

o The Katewadi kiosk earns major revenues through photography. Passport

sized photographs are clicked on web cam and printed on an inkjet printer.

The kiosks doing well are those where the kiosk has been added to an

existing business. Consider the following cases: -

o The Shikrapur kiosk was added to an existing business, i.e. medical shop.

o The Kendur kiosk was added to an existing business of photography. Mr.

Bharat Pachange, the kiosk owner, invested in digital camera and inkjet

printer.

o The Katewadi kiosk was added to an existing business of trailer fabrication

and credit service.

Location can influence overall kiosk revenue as well as make a particular

service very popular; for example, the photography business at Katewadi

kiosk is doing well as the kiosk is situated next to Bank of Maharashtra

building.

36

The profile of kiosk owner/ operator is a major influencing factor for the kiosk

profitability, access to services etc. Consider the following cases: -

o Mr. Bharat Pachange, the Kendur kiosk owner, does not allow public

access, as the digital photography business is dependent on the computer.

o Students would be drawn for computer education if the kiosk operator is

perceived as being knowledgeable (refer sec 4.2.2.4)

4.2.4 Kiosk Problems Power Problem: 4 Hrs. daily load shedding in the Pabal and Baramati regions.

Pabal Lease line failure, only 60% uptime as reported by LSP management.

Rajgurunagar back-up line not working at the time of the survey.

Kiosk Operator's dissatisfaction with n-Logue/ Computer Vendor on account of

high response times for kiosk equipment maintenance.

Computer equipment problems: -

o Battery back up less than 4 hrs.

Number of kiosks reporting the problem: 1

Status: No response from vendor.

o Computer restarts on power failure despite UPS.


Status: No response from vendor

o Mother Board failure (Inside warranty period).


Status: Vendor took 3 months to respond. Kiosk rendered unoperational

during this time. Finally kiosk operator incurred expenses and got it

repaired on his own.

o Mouse, Key board, webcam failure (Inside warranty period)


37

Status: Vendor took 2 months to respond and rectify.

Problems related to n-Logue equipment: -

o Wall set failures


Status: Wall sets replaced. Average time to response 3 days.

o Wall set battery


Status: Not rectified at the time of the survey.

o Frequent disconnections on RBS


Status: Problem since Dec 2003, not rectified at the time of survey, i.e.

May 2004.

o Internet stopped working on Windows 2000.

25 days to solve the problem.

o Internet connectivity breaks down at LSP daily because the IP address

gets deleted automatically. The system has to be restarted to restore the

IP and connectivity. Problem not rectified at the time of the survey.

38

5. aAQUA: Almost All Questions Answered

5.1 Introduction

aAQUA ('a'lmost 'A'll 'QU'estions 'A'nswered) is an online expert Question &

Answer based community forum, developed by Media Labs Asia, KReSIT, IIT

Bombay, for delivering information to the grass roots of the Indian Community.

It is an online, multilingual, multimedia, archived discussion forum accessible

using a web browser, allowing members to create, view and manage content in

their mother tongue (Hindi, Marathi etc). It can be accessed using the following

link: http://www.projects.mlasia.iitb.ac.in/aquar/forum/index

5.1.1 Motivation and goals

In a progressively shrinking global village, the only barrier to widespread

dispersal of knowledge is lack of multilingual communication. A large section of

the society, particularly the rural populace, does not have access to the huge

knowledge base acquired through scientific development through the centuries.

There is certainly an urgent need to establish a framework for knowledge

exchange between various communities & cultures. aAQUA is an endeavor in this

direction. The goals of aAQUA are as following: -

To create a multilingual communication framework.

To provide a language independent knowledge database.

To provide an easy to use interface to accommodate even naïve users.

To provide easy and fast access to reliable information (both through artificial

agents and Human Experts from all over the world)

Integrating the agricultural domain of aAQUA with the Agro-Explorer group,

which uses the UNL/MT∗ fundamentals for performing "Meaning Based

Searches" through the available databases.

This also includes media like voice to text, text to voice, videos, pictures, and

images for non-literate or semi-illiterate people.

∗ Universal Networking Language developed by Professor Aniruddha Joshi, IIT Bombay at Center for Indian Language Translation (CFILT), IIT Bombay.

39


5.1.2 Key Enabling Features

Use of Multimedia: The system is designed to cater to the needs of rural users

to express themselves to each other as well as to the outer world. Their

inability to articulate their thoughts using the input devices commonly

available is overcome by use of images instead of text, building on their rich

visual vocabularies to communicate.

Users are the consumers as well as producers of the content: aAQUA eases

the creation of content i.e., text, images, short audio, video and animations,

thus helping the users move from being passive consumers to active content

creators. This is illustrated in Figure 5.1. The community has created more

than 90% of the current English, Hindi and Marathi content of aAQUA locally.

Figure 5.1: An annotated sample screen shot of aAQUA

40

Assistance in creating content for aAQUA is provided by the telecenter/kiosk

operator. This takes the technology to users who are unfamiliar to computers

and often not literate. They can now experience the Internet as well as

participate through it. This is a great motivating factor for people as it

showcases the benefits of using a computer in their everyday lives.

An end user can select the category and the specific forum with which she

wants to interact, or from which she wishes to view posts.

The user can choose an avatar, either from built-in avatars or upload his/her

own avatar (jpg/gif/png). This has been observed to be a very popular

feature with the community.

The system uses a Unicode UTF-8 compliant Oracle 9i database, which

comprises mainly of tables that include attributes for Member, Category,

Forum, Posts, Thread, Watch, Permissions and Attachments.

5.1.3 Current Status

aAQUA has been in operation since the end of 2003.

The repository currently contains questions and answers in the domain of

crop and animal diseases and pertains to the hamlet of villages around Pabal.

This service is further being extended to the rural community in the

Rajgurunagar, Shirur and Haveli Talukas of Pune district.

As on May 29, 2004, aAQUA had 99 threads under the crop diseases, animal

diseases and others forums. For detailed analysis of aAQUA usage, refer to

section 5.2.

KVK, Baramati is providing the expert consultation services with experts in

the crop and animal diseases domains.

5.1.4 Enhancing aAQUA

Media Labs Asia is working on a tool called agro-explorer, which will enable

meaning-based searching of aAQUA queries and content. In future, the

farmer would be able to search aAQUA or his problem before posting his

question on aAQUA.

41

Another area where Media Labs is putting efforts is enabling mobile wireless

devices like the Simputer and mobile phones to access aAQUA.

5.4 Observations and Analysis

The following analysis pertains to the live threads under the crop diseases,

animal diseases and others sections of aAQUA as on May 29, 2004 [for details

refer appendix 6].

o Total number of threads: 93

o Threads by category of Users

Table 5.1: Threads by Category of Users

Posted By Category of User Number of threads Identified threads*

Anu Kiosk Operator 4 1

Atul Diggikar Citizen 2 2

APMC Baramati Citizen 1 1

Baba Saheb Sawant Kiosk Operator 3 3

Datta Pawar LSP Manager 3 0

Dattu Citizen 2 2

Dheedi Citizen 1 1

KEM Vadu Kiosk Operator 2 2

Kiran Bhogade Kiosk Operator 7 2

Pawale Dinesh Citizen 2 2

Prakash Gade Kiosk Operator 1 1

Pramod Shinde Kiosk Operator 2 2

Prasad Wadekar Citizen 2 2

Prashant Tambe Kiosk Operator 3 3

Rahul Field Engineer 38 24

Sambhaji Kale Kiosk Operator 1 1

Satish Citizen 1 1

Shantanu Field Engineer 16 12

Suyog Citizen 1 1

Yogesh Citizen 1 1

Total 93 64

*Identified thread means that the person who posed the query is known.

o 64 identified threads correspond to 40 unique persons.

o The field engineers have posted 36 of the identified threads. This implies

that the probability of answers reaching to these people is less.

42

o 18 of 93 threads have some kind of multimedia input: pictures or audio.

o The following table gives the month-wise details of number of threads

under various sections, by various category of users and maximum,

minimum and average response times: -

Table 5.2: Monthly no. of threads, by section, by user and response times

December January February March April May

Number of Threads a. Crop Diseases 17 19 5 10 4 7 b. Animal Diseases 2 2 3 1 2 0

c. Others 9 1 1 2 2 0

Posted by a. Field Engineer 21 15 0 4 7 1 b. Kiosk Operator 2 6 5 7 0 6 c. Users 5 1 4 2 1 0

Avg. Response Time (in days) 56 22 32 9 8 2 Max. Response Time (in days) 145 110 85 70 19 4

Min. Response Time (in days) 31 4 8 20 Mins. 3 2.5 Hrs.

The following figure represents the process flow of aAQUA.

Farmer 1

Farmer n

Kiosk Operator/ Field Engg

Answers aAQUA

Expert n

Expert 2

Expert Expert 1

Answers

Questions

Field Engg

Questions

Farmer 2

Figure 5.3: The process flow of aAQUA.

Field engineer and/ or the kiosk operator approach the farmers for the

problems. As of now the kiosk operators are feeding the questions in aAQUA

43

and also farmers have started approaching the kiosk operators. This can also

be inferred from table 5.2 above.

The problem of batch processing of questions occurs at the experts’ end. The

field engineer prints the new queries, allocates to experts on the basis of their

area of expertise, gets the answers and uploads them on aAQUA. The field

engineer at experts’ end is a bottleneck resource. However at current level of

questions/ threads on aAQUA, the field engineer at experts’ end is an

underutilized resource.

The current sources of information for farmers are fertilizer/ pesticide shops,

agricultural officers or other farmers. When a farmer discovers a crop disease,

it has already spread to a part of the cultivation. Thus the farmer needs a

solution very urgently. This implies that the response time for aAQUA advice

should be 12 hrs-1 business day.

The farmer needs a quick solution and therefore goes to the medicine shop.

The medicine shop gives a package of 2-3 pesticides. Although the pesticides

are costly and the farmers know that they are paying more by not having

exact solution, the farmers have expressed satisfaction with this current way

of solving problems. According to the farmers interviewed, the solution

recommended by medicine shop works 60-70% of the times.

Farmers who employ modern techniques of cultivation generally seek

information on these. They refer to magazines like Bali raja and Krishi Udyog.

Such information if available on aAQUA would evoke interest in the farmers.

The agricultural CDs provided by the department of agriculture have been

found to be very nominal in terms of the content. After initial few visits, no

farmers have come back to see them.

Problems cited by farmers (on the basis evaluation of randomly selected

queries from aAQUA): -

o Most of the answers were rated as very good, esp. very practical and

useful.

44

o In some cases, the pesticide chemical to be used is given. However, the

name of commercially available pesticide containing that chemical should

be given.

o The solution corresponds to a different stage in the farming cycle, for e.g.

which seed variety would be resistant to the pest is given, while the

solution to prevent infection is required.

The experts at KVK feel that they are handicapped by absence of knowledge

of actual field conditions. If the problems were supplemented by visuals, the

expert advise would be much more effective and relevant. Problems should

also detail parameters like approximate temperature, humidity/ irrigation,

area under infection etc.

The kiosk operators are the most important link in aAQUA. Kiosk operator

survey yields following observations on aAQUA: -

o aAQUA does not offer financial benefits to kiosk operators.

o Slow response time on aAQUA has discouraged farmers and kiosk

operators. Farmers generally come back after a day to inquire about their

problems.

o Marketing support for aAQUA, doubts about what can be posted or not on

aAQUA.

o One of the concerns of the kiosk operators is that aAQUA is only an

experiment and it might be discontinued.

Overall most kiosk operators feel that aAQUA can be successful provided the

response times could be improved. Following are the kiosk operators’

suggestions for content on aAQUA: -

o Yellow pages or an Agricultural directory of agro-input shops

o Information on new methods of cultivation, new seed varieties, animal

breeds.

o Weather forecasts and water release schedules of dams in the area.

o Jobs and employment.

45

o Website hosting of local institutions.

o Banking and credit information.

o Matrimonial.

46

6. Conclusion and recommendations

6.1 Key learnings

6.1.1 Need for rural ICTs

The experience of this project demonstrates the need for Rural ICTs in the

following areas: -

Education and training

Agricultural Consultancy

The other area where ICTs are required is e-governance, as demonstrated by the

Bhoomi project of Karnataka. Even though the Dhar project in Madhya Pradesh

was not very successful, the CEG, IIM Ahmedabad study noted that the

corruption in delivery of governance services did come down.

The problem cited with e-governance services is that the services at the back-

end continue to be manual. In this regard, the Bhoomi project can serve an ideal

example, where the manual mutations of land records have been declared illegal

in the operationalized taluks.

6.1.2 Critical Success Factors

The sustainability of rural ICTS depends upon a number of interrelated factors:

costs, revenue, networks, business models, policy, and capacity [ref sec].

This project demonstrates the impact of following factors: -

Policy issues: Telephony revenues can affect the kiosk business significantly.

However, the kiosks cannot offer these services due to telephony policy.

Again VoIP can be a significant revenue generator but it is not allowed for

domestic calling. n-Logue expects to get a rural service provider license to

offer telephony services on its networks of kiosks.

Technology options to bring down the capex costs.

The impact of business model: Local entrepreneurs driving the rural ICTs

despite all odds power cuts, malfunctioning equipment, low and intermittent

bandwidth, zero customer support from providers of technology, interfaces

47

designed in English. The importance of selecting the right entrepreneur is also

emphasized by the experience of subsidies being misused in the case of Pabal

and Baramati projects.

The importance of locally relevant content and services. The use of internet

can be augmented by such services; this is demonstrated by the usage of

Pune University online admission forms.

Innovation in design of services for e.g. aAQUA, which has extended the

reach of experts to farmers in remote villages, making the community, the

producer as well as the consumer of content.

6.1.3 Comments on the n-Logue Business Model

The focus of the network is currently only on communication and data

connectivity based revenues. Hence, despite the low technology cost, the

projects are finding it difficult to break even in the absence of potent

applications and services.

Another issue is the bandwidth limitation. Currently, the kiosks have a

connectivity of 35 kbps, which can go upto 70 kbps if the voice channel is also

dedicated to Internet. This could limit its ability to provide realistic e-

education. Also given low bandwidth per connection, it is unlikely that the

services can be provided outside the kiosk, for e.g. in-home telephony

connectivity services or in-home entertainment services.

The service does provide for real time video conferencing/ chat/ interaction at

the kiosk and can replace all face-to-face communication needs in the area of

e-governance, financial services.

The case of Vigyan Ashram represents the case of an LSP making huge

losses. The primary reasons being: -

o Lack of services that could generate Internet revenues

o The demographic profile of the region: drought condition and low per

capita income in the region.

48

In the light of these facts, it is questionable if n-Logue model, in its present

form, is replicable everywhere.

6.1.4 Comments on aAQUA

aAQUA demonstrates the need for agricultural consultancy. Since its launch in

December 2003, approx 90 live questions, relating to crop diseases, animal

diseases etc have been posted on aAQUA and have been answered by the

experts.

This unique portal has cyber extended the reach of KVK, Baramati to about 13

villages at present. It is an innovative service, in the sense that it makes the

community a consumer as well as producer of the content.

6.2 Recommendations for Vigyan Ashram

Vigyan Ashram’s business performance is the weakest link in the Pabal project.

Being an NGO it has limited resources and faces the critical question: how to

utilize them to gain maximum social returns. Presently the LSP business is

getting cross-subsidized by the RDES and CD businesses. However, Vigyan

Ashram has to add new businesses to the LSP business to make the LSP business

sustainable. It can consider the following recommendations: -

Extending the RDES (Rural Development Education System) through the

network of kiosks: Presently 24 school dropouts are trained every year in the

rural technology. The course is completely residential. The network of kiosks

can be utilized to deliver the course virtually and a limited part of the

curriculum can be delivered at Vigyan Ashram campus. The demand for

vocational training courses in technology is likely to be more than that of

computer education.

The network of kiosks can be used to extend services like DTP and

photography to other kiosks. Vigyan Ashram can mediate between the kiosks

to establish service level agreements.

Establishing soil and water testing laboratories at Vigyan Ashram: presently

the soil and water samples are sent to KVK. The cumbersome logistics

discourages the farmers of the Pabal region to use KVK services. These labs

49

can be set up at Vigyan Ashram, the results of the tests can be sent to KVK

for interpretation and recommendations and they can be delivered to the

farmers using aAQUA.

The experience at Baramati and Chennai sites demonstrates that the LSP

business cannot break even merely on the kiosk internet usage. It has to

essentially look for private connections. A private connection means an

individual, for e.g. doctors, reporters etc, corporate customers, schools and

colleges etc. The present number of private connections in Pabal region is

around 25, whereas there are 85 private connections in Baramati. Vigyan

Ashram has to aggressively target corporate customers in the MIDC area.

Pricing for private connections: Vigyan Ashram and n-Logue should reconsider

the pricing of Wall set for private connections, especially individuals, for the

Pabal region. At present the entire sum for the wall set (Rs 12500) is

recovered in advance and the internet usage is also prepaid. A postpaid billing

plan can be considered which recovers the wall set charges as rental. This

would make n-Logue connection competitive to BSNL internet, wherever it is

available. A BSNL phone connection costs Rs 2000 upfront and a monthly

rental of Rs 300 for the handset.

Vigyan Ashram should seek clarification on the following issues from n-Logue:

o Revenue sharing arrangement for Village Public telephony.

o Terms of renewal of the contract at the end of five years.

6.3 Recommendations for aAQUA

Further scaling up would need linking to a greater number of experts from a

variety of institutions like agricultural colleges/ universities/ practitioners etc.

The efforts for content generation have to be increased. One way is to put the

local queries handled by KVK experts on aAQUA; anyways the field engineer

at experts’ end is an underutilized resource.

Training the experts to use computers and digital cameras etc themselves,

thus reducing the dependence on field engineer.

50

A key success factor for aAQUA would be the motivation of individual kiosk

operators to run the service. This implies having a commercial model for

aAQUA.

6.4 Scope of future work

Investigation of n-Logue LSP model to identify relative risk sharing between

the LSP and n-Logue.

n-Logue now has around 19 projects in Maharashtra, 11 in Chennai and 14 in

Gujarat and close to 600 kiosks in all these projects. This can enable a

detailed study to test the hypotheses obtained by the experience of this

project: -

o Impact of LSP profile on the n-Logue business.

o Kiosk operator profile and selection.

o Impact of factors such as literacy level, population, location of the kiosk,

income levels etc on the kiosk business.

Implementing a commercial model for aAQUA.

51

References

1. Akshaya Project, Kerala “Akshaya: A Kerala State initiative for creating

powerful social and economic e-networks”.

Available online at < http://www.akshaya.net/akshaya/project/>

(April 5, 2004)

2. Best, Michael and Maclay, Colin M., "Community Internet Access in Rural

Areas: Solving the economic sustainability puzzle" The Global

Information Technology Report 2001-2002: Readiness for the networked

world, ed., Geoffrey Kirkman (Oxford University Press, 2002).

Available online at <http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cr/gitrr_030202.html>

(March 31, 2004)

3. Bhandari, Rajneesh, Ex-CEO Aksh Broadband Pvt Ltd

Personal Communication, April 17, 2004.

4. Bhoomi Project, Karnataka “Bhoomi: Computerization of land records in

Karnataka”.

Available online at <http://www.revdept-01.kar.nic.in/Bhoomi/Home.htm>

(April 5, 2004)

5. Centre of E-governance, IIM Ahmedabad, “Evaluation Studies by the

Centre for E-Governance, Indian Institute of Management,

Ahmedabad (CEG-IIMA)” Information Technology in Developing Countries,

Volume 13, No. 1, June 2003.

Available online at

<http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/jun2003/article6.htm>

(March 17, 2004)

6. CRISP Group, National Informatics Centre, Department of IT, Ministry of

Communications & IT, Government of India, "Information Needs

Assessment for Rural Communities- An Indian Case Study" July 2003.

Available online at <http://ruralinformatics.nic.in/files/4_12_0_229.pdf>

(March 17, 2004)

7. Drishtee “Drishtee: Connecting India Village by Village”

Available online at < http://www.drishtee.com>

(March 24, 2004)

52

http://www.akshaya.net/akshaya/project/

http://www.cid.harvard.edu/cr/gitrr_030202.html

http://www.revdept-01.kar.nic.in/Bhoomi/Home.htm

http://www.iimahd.ernet.in/egov/ifip/jun2003/article6.htm

http://ruralinformatics.nic.in/files/4_12_0_229.pdf

http://www.drishtee.com/

8. Gramdoot Project, Aksh Optifiber, Rajasthan “Gramdoot: Revolutionizing

rural India”.

Available online at < http://www.akshoptifibre.com/abl/bro1.htm>

(March 25, 2004)

9. Howard, Joy, Simms, Charis, Simanis, Erik, "What works: N-Logue's rural

connectivity model" A Digital Dividend study by the World Resources

Institute, July 2001.

Available online at <http://www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/nlogue.pdf >

(March 17, 2004)

10.ITC e-Choupal “ITC’s Rural Symphony: A Business world Case Study”.

Available online at

<http://www.businessworldindia.com/WebUserArticle.aspx?SectionId=395#>

(March 31, 2004)

11.Keniston, Kenneth, "Grassroots ICT Projects in India: Some Preliminary

Hypotheses" ASCI Journal of Management 31(1&2), 2002.

Available online at

<http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/PDF/ASCI_Journal_Intro__ASCI_version_.

pdf>

(March 11, 2004)

12.Keniston, Kenneth, "IT for Masses: Hope or Hype?"

Available online at <http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/PDF/EPW_paper.pdf>

(March 11, 2004)

13.Keniston, Kenneth, "The Four Digital Divides".

Available online at

<http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/PDF/Intro_Sage_1_.pdf>

(March 21, 2004)

14.Kulkarni, Yogesh, Director Vigyan Ashram.

Personal Communication. May 1, 2004

15.Mbarika, Victor W. , Kah, Muhammadou M.O. , Musa, Philip F. , Meso, Peter ,

Warren, John, “Predictors of Growth of Teledensity in Developing

Countries: A Focus on Middle and Low-Income Countries" The

53

http://www.akshoptifibre.com/abl/bro1.htm

http://www.digitaldividend.org/pdf/nlogue.pdf

http://www.businessworldindia.com/WebUserArticle.aspx?SectionId=395

http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/PDF/ASCI_Journal_Intro__ASCI_version_.pdf

http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/PDF/ASCI_Journal_Intro__ASCI_version_.pdf

http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/PDF/EPW_paper.pdf

http://web.mit.edu/~kken/Public/PDF/Intro_Sage_1_.pdf

Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, (2003) 12,

1, 1-16.

Available online at: <http://www.ejisdc.org/> (May 5, 2004)

16.Ponnappa, P.G., CEO n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd.

Tele-Conferencing. June 2, 2004.

17.Rajora, Rajesh, “Bridging the Digital Divide” Tata- McGraw Hill, 2002, pp

66-67.

18.Schauer, Thomas, "The internet in development Projects: Support for

the poor or subsidies for the computer providers?" i4d, Volume II

Number 3, March 2004.

Available online at

<http://www.i4donline.net/issue/march04/computer_full.htm>

(April 4, 2004)

19.Sood, Aditya Dev,"The Kiosk Networks: Information nodes in the rural

landscape" i4d, Volume I Number 1, May-June 2003.

Available online at <http://www.i4donline.net/issue/may03/aditya_full.htm>

(April 4, 2004)

54

http://www.ejisdc.org/

http://www.i4donline.net/issue/march04/computer_full.htm

http://www.i4donline.net/issue/may03/aditya_full.htm

Appendix A: Details of Kiosks

Name of the Village

Population Name Sex Age Marital Status

Education Full Time Occupation Kiosk Started

Pabal 15000 Somnath Shambhudas Male 22 Single 12th Kiosk Operator Dec-02 Shikrapur 20000 Rajendra Patil Male 32 Married B Com Medical Shop Jan-03 Nimgaon 5000 Sambhaji Kale Male 26 Married 12th Kiosk/ Printing Feb-03 Retaudi 6500 Kiran Bhogade Male 20 Single FYBCOM Kiosk Operator Jan-03 Jaategaon 2500 Anamika Kamthe Female 23 Single BCOM Kiosk Operator Kendur 5000 Bharat Pachange Male 32 Married BCOM Photography Mar-03Urulikanchan 50000 Baba Saheb Sawant Male 38 Married Bcom LLB Comp Edn Kadus 10000 Pramod Shinde Male 33 Married Dip in Mech Engg Kiosk/ Comp Edu Nov-03 PimpleJagtap 10000 Prashant Tambe Male 30 Married BCOM, MBA Agriculture/ Farming Mar-03 Katewadi 7000 Prakash Gade Male 28 Married BA Credit/ Trailor Fabrication Mar-03 Sawal 2000 Snehal Male 27 Married BE, MBA Petrol Pumps for Reliance Jul-03 Jalochi 50000 Mrs Neelima Malgunde Female 26 Married BCOM Kiosk Sep-03Korolahi 10000 Pramod Pansare Male 28 Married Dip in Comp Engg Hardware/ Comp Edn 2001, Apr 2004 Pandhare 20000 Sharad Bhosle Male 30 Married Dip in Comp Engg Kiosk/ Computer Edn 1998, Apr 2004

Gunawadi Nana Saheb Gawde Male 52 Married Agriculture

55

Appendix B: LSP Economics

Note: Break even revenue calculated here gives the project revenues at which the LSP would break

even.

Year 1:-

x -> Gross yearly invoicing (Revenue from sale of pre-paid internet packs)

LSP's Share of Net Yearly Revenue (@ 50% gross)

=(x-3, 00,000-60000-10000-42000-36000)/2

[Accounting for {Lease Line, Bandwidth, WPC}, {Rental}, {Repair}, {customer care}, {Power}]

=(x-448000)/2

LSP's Annual costs (salaries 1 Lakh + Assuming LSP take Rs 10 lakh on loan, Annual interest@

10.75 %( PLR) = Rs 259416)

= 100000 + 259500

= 359500

Break Even Revenue for Year 1

x= Rs 1167000

Assuming LSP charges Rs 20 per Hour

Internet Time= 58350 Hrs

Monthly Internet time= 4860 Hrs.

Monthly Internet time per connection= 110 Hrs.

(Assuming 44 connections capacity in year 1)

Year 2:-

LSP's Share of Net Yearly Revenue

=(x-448000-100000)/2

[1 lakh for depreciation]

=(x-548000)/2

LSP's Costs (salaries 10% hike + Interest on loan amt of Rs 10, 00,000)

= 110000 + 259500

= Rs 369500


x= Rs 1287000

Monthly Internet time= 5360 Hrs

56

Year 3:-

LSP's Share of Net Yearly Revenue

=(x-448000-250000-150000)/2

{150000 towards application development and maintenance, 250000 towards depreciation for year

3}

=(x-848000)/2

LSP's Costs (salaries 10% hike + Interest on loan amt of Rs 10, 00,000)

=121000 + 259500

= Rs 380500


x= Rs 1609000

Monthly Internet Time= 6705 Hrs.

57

Appendix C: Kiosk Operator Survey Questionnaire

A. Personal Profile

Name Sex

Village Age

Community Marital Status

Literacy Caste

Past

Occupation APL/ BPL

Earning Computer

Experience

B. Family Profile

Members

Name Sex Age Literacy Occupation Residence

Assets Owned

Name of Asset Owned Size/ No.s Ancestral/ Newly Bought

Immovable

Livestock

Vehicles

Economic Level

Sources of Income Income before kiosk Income after kiosk

1.

2.

Total Income

C. Reason for starting the kiosk

58

D. VIK

Kiosk Started in:

Kiosk located in village:

Kiosk Ownership:

Size of Kiosk:

Number of Villages the kiosk caters to:

Other Services offered at Kiosk:

STD

DTP

Café/ Internet access

Photocopying

Others, please specify

Investment and Expenditure

Capital Investment Amount (in Rs) Recurring Expenditure Amount (in Rs)

Land Rent

Shop/ Office Maintenance

System Manpower

Office furnishings Telephone

Funding Details

Source of funds Installment amount

Hardware Configuration No. of Computers:

Brand Name CPU Type HDD/ RAM etc Printers Connectivity

Problems faced

ATR (Avg Time to Rectify)

Frequency(Number of times) Nature of Problem

This month This quarter Year-to-date

No. ATR No. ATR No. ATR

Power Breakdown

Connectivity Breakdown

Slow response time

Hardware failure

Software failure

59

E. Usage Patterns

Most popular time of kiosk visits

Morning (Upto 12)

Afternoon (12-4)

Early Evening (4-6)

Evening (After 6)

Amenities provided at Kiosk

Drinking Water

Toilets

Waiting Room

Display Material

Others, specify

Use of Services

Number of Service Requests Service Charge

This month This quarter Year-to-date

User profile and Service requests

User Profiles Sex Typical Service requests

Senior Citizens

Adults (40-60)

Adults (30-40)

Adults (20-30)

Students

Operator’s Perception of different services (Benefit Rating 1: Poor, 5: Excellent, NA)

Service Time Cost Convenience Reliability Accessibility

60

Operator’s perception of services unavailable as of now and expected demand for them.

Nature of Service Expected Demand Profile of citizens demanding the service

Operator’s perception of impact of services.

Suggestions for popularizing the services.

Experience of being an operator

61

Appendix D: Kiosk Economics

Assuming loan amt of 53500 (kiosk kit) @ 12.75%, to be repaid in 2 years

EMI= 2500 (EMI for subsidized Pabal Kiosks=1250)

As obtained from survey of Pabal Kiosks:-

Rent= Rs 450

Power= Rs 400

Maintenance= (350/ 12) = Rs 30 approx (Rs 350: AMC offered by Vendor)

Internet Charges= Rs 1000 (unlimited internet for a month)

Monthly Break Even (Unsubsidized Kiosk) = Rs 4380

Monthly Break Even (Pabal Kiosk) = Rs 3130

Assuming Internet Charges@ Rs 25/ Hr.

Break Even Monthly Internet Time

Unsubsidized Kiosk= 175 Hrs.

Pabal Kiosk= 125 Hrs.

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Appendix E: Case Study

aAQUA: Almost All Questions Answered

About aAQUA

aAQUA ('a'lmost 'A'll 'QU'estions 'A'nswered) is an online expert Question & Answer based

community forum, developed by Media Labs Asia, KReSIT, IIT Bombay, for delivering information

to the grass roots of the Indian Community. It is an online, multilingual, multimedia, archived

discussion forum accessible using a web browser, allowing members to create, view and manage

content in their mother tongue (Hindi, Marathi etc). It can be accessed using the following link:

<http://www.projects.mlasia.iitb.ac.in/aquar/forum/index>

The goals of aAQUA are as following: -

To create a multilingual communication framework.

To provide a language independent knowledge database.

To provide an easy to use interface to accommodate even naïve users.

To provide easy and fast access to reliable information (both through artificial agents and

Human Experts from all over the world)

Integrating the agricultural domain of aAQUA with the Agro-Explorer group, which uses the

UNL/MT∗ fundamentals for performing "Meaning Based Searches" through the available

databases.

This also includes media like voice to text, text to voice, videos, pictures, and images for non-

literate or semi-illiterate people.

About Media Labs Asia, KReSIT, IIT Bombay

Media Lab Asia is the world's largest academic research program dedicated to bringing the benefits

of new technologies to everyone, with a special focus on meeting the grand challenges in learning,

health, and economic development.

The role of Media Lab Asia is to facilitate the invention, refinement, and dissemination of

innovations that benefit the greatest number possible of the world’s neediest people. Media Lab

Asia works with industry, NGO’s and governments, to take these innovations to various villages in

India.

Media Lab Asia consists of regional laboratories and participating grassroots communities. Every

regional laboratory is formed around several core projects, each involving academic, industrial, and

∗ Universal Networking Language developed by Professor Aniruddha Joshi, IIT Bombay at Center for Indian Language Translation (CFILT), IIT Bombay.

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village community partners. Media Labs Asia- Maharashtra hub is located at the Kanwal Rekhi

School of Information Technology, IIT Bombay.

Products and Services: -

Currently, there are three umbrella projects undertaken at Media Lab Asia - IIT Bombay. These are

described as following: -

Interlingua - This project aims to develop a multilingual meaning based search engine which can

take queries in the local language and return results to the same in the language of query. This

project was initiated keeping in mind that most of the people in India are denied the huge wealth

of information present on the web simply because they do not know English, the lingua franca of

the web. Enabling access in local language is important to bridge the digital divide.

Tools being developed under this project: Agro-explorer, aAQUA, Bhav Puchiye.

Interfaces for all - This project has been started to focus on design and evaluation of devices and

interfaces for computer users. Issues surrounding usability of computers relating to non-computer

savvy users and vernacular language computing are some of the first issues being addressed.

Several efforts like the Key-lekh keyboard, Bhav-Puchiye (a tool for finding market prices for the

agricultural produce for farmers), Tangible user interfaces, etc. are under way. In addition to this,

the group also assists other projects in designing appropriate interfaces for their tools.

Tools being developed under this project: Tangible user interfaces, Indian language input devices.

Polysensors - Presently, the purity of water in our increasingly polluted environment can only be

tested in laboratories using expensive equipment and highly trained technicians. This project aims

at providing a low-cost and easy method of testing the impurities in water, with low-cost, rugged

and tropicalized sensors

aAQUA: Current Status

aAQUA has been in operation since the end of 2003.

The repository currently contains questions and answers in the domain of crop and animal

diseases and pertains to the hamlet of villages around Pabal and Rajgurunagar taluks in the

Pune District. This region has internet connectivity provided by n-Logue communication and

Vigyan Ashram. At the village level, an entrepreneur runs the kiosk business. He’ll be referred

to as kiosk operator hereafter.

At present Media Labs Asia has partnered with 6 of the 9 operational kiosks in the Pabal region.

The process flow of aAQUA is depicted in exhibit 1.

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Farmer 1

Farmer n

Kiosk Operator/ Field Engg

Answers aAQUA

Expert n

Expert 2

Expert Expert 1

Answers

Questions

Field Engg

Questions

Farmer 2

As on May 29, 2004, aAQUA had 99 threads under the crop diseases, animal diseases and

others forums. For detailed analysis of aAQUA usage, refer to exhibit 1.

Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Baramati is providing the expert consultation services with experts

in the crop and animal diseases domains. For more information on KVK, please visit the

following link http://www.kvkbaramati.com/

aAQUA: Key Enabling Features

Use of Multimedia: The system is designed to cater to the needs of rural users to express

themselves to each other as well as to the outer world. Their inability to articulate their

thoughts using the input devices commonly available is overcome by use of images instead of

text, building on their rich visual vocabularies to communicate.

Users are the consumers as well as producers of the content: aAQUA eases the creation of

content i.e., text, images, short audio, video and animations, thus helping the users move from

being passive consumers to active content creators. This is illustrated in Figure 5.1. The

community has created more than 90% of the current English, Hindi and Marathi content of

aAQUA locally.

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http://www.kvkbaramati.com/

Figure 5.1: An annotated sample screen shot of aAQUA

Assistance in creating content for aAQUA is provided by the Telecenter/ kiosk operator. This

takes the technology to users who are unfamiliar to computers and often not literate. They can

now experience the Internet as well as participate through it. This is a great motivating factor

for people as it showcases the benefits of using a computer in their everyday lives.

An end user can select the category and the specific forum with which she wants to interact, or

from which she wishes to view posts.

The user can choose an avatar, either from built-in avatars or upload his/her own avatar

(jpg/gif/png). This has been observed to be a very popular feature with the community.

aAQUA: Observations and Analysis

Exhibit 2 gives a detailed analysis of 99 questions, as reported on aAQUA on May 29, 2004: -

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December January February March April May

Number of Threads a. Crop Diseases 17 19 5 10 4 7 b. Animal Diseases 2 2 3 1 2 0

c. Others 9 1 1 2 2 0

Posted by a. Field Engineer 21 15 0 4 7 1 b. Kiosk Operator 2 6 5 7 0 6 c. Users 5 1 4 2 1 0

Avg. Response Time (in days) 56 22 32 9 8 2 Max. Response Time (in days) 145 110 85 70 19 4

Min. Response Time (in days) 31 4 8 20 Mins. 3 2.5 Hrs.

Exhibit 3 gives questions posed by different category of users

Posted By Category of User Number of threads Identified threads∗

Anu Kiosk Operator 4 1

Atul Diggikar Citizen 2 2

APMC Baramati Citizen 1 1

Baba Saheb Sawant Kiosk Operator 3 3

Datta Pawar LSP Manager 3 0

Dattu Citizen 2 2

Dheedi Citizen 1 1

KEM Vadu Kiosk Operator 2 2

Kiran Bhogade Kiosk Operator 7 2

Pawale Dinesh Citizen 2 2

Prakash Gade Kiosk Operator 1 1

Pramod Shinde Kiosk Operator 2 2

Prasad Wadekar Citizen 2 2

Prashant Tambe Kiosk Operator 3 3

Rahul Field Engineer 38 24

Sambhaji Kale Kiosk Operator 1 1

Satish Citizen 1 1

Shantanu Field Engineer 16 12

Suyog Citizen 1 1

Yogesh Citizen 1 1

Total 93 64

∗ Identified thread means that the person who posed the query is known.

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aAQUA: Feedback from different User categories

The Farmers

The current sources of information for farmers are fertilizer/ pesticide shops, agricultural

officers or other farmers. When a farmer discovers a crop disease, it has already spread to a

part of the cultivation. Thus the farmer needs a solution very urgently. This implies that the

response time for aAQUA advice should be 12 hrs-1 business day.

The farmer needs a quick solution and therefore goes to the medicine shop. The medicine shop

gives a package of 2-3 pesticides. Although the pesticides are costly and the farmers know that

they are paying more by not having exact solution, the farmers have expressed satisfaction

with this current way of solving problems. According to the farmers interviewed, the solution

recommended by medicine shop works 60-70% of the times.

Farmers who employ modern techniques of cultivation generally seek information on these.

They refer to magazines like Bali raja and Krishi Udhyog. Such information if available on

aAQUA would evoke interest in the farmers.

Problems cited by farmers (on the basis evaluation of randomly selected queries from aAQUA):

-

o Most of the answers were rated as very good, esp. very practical and useful.

o In some cases, the pesticide chemical to be used is given. However, the name of

commercially available pesticide containing that chemical should be given.

o The solution corresponds to a different stage in the farming cycle, for e.g. which seed

variety would be resistant to the pest is given, while the solution to prevent infection is

required.

The KVK experts

The experts at KVK feel that they are handicapped by absence of knowledge of actual field

conditions. If the problems were supplemented by visuals, the expert advice would be much

more effective and relevant.

Problems should also detail parameters like approximate temperature, humidity/ irrigation,

area under infection etc.

The Kiosk Operator

aAQUA does not offer financial benefits to kiosk operators.

Slow response time on aAQUA has discouraged farmers and kiosk operators. Farmers generally

come back after a day to inquire about their problems.

Marketing support for aAQUA, doubts about what can be posted or not on aAQUA.

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One of the concerns of the kiosk operators is that aAQUA is only an experiment and it might be

discontinued.

Problem Definition

Media Labs Asia is now planning to extend aAQUA to other n-Logue project sites in Maharashtra. At

present n-Logue has around 17 project sites in various stages. The critical questions that Media

Labs Asia faces are as following: -

How to measure the impact of aAQUA in the Pabal/ Rajgurunagar regions where it is presently

operational?

What problems/ challenges would it face, if the project is to be scaled up to other sites?

Media Labs Asia is funded by the Ministry of IT and hence it cannot charge for aAQUA services.

However, the kiosk operator would not be motivated to offer aAQUA services if there is no

financial benefit. Therefore, what should be an appropriate commercial model for aAQUA?

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Kiosk Success Factors

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