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There was a village in India, far away from the highway. It had become very poor. The land yielded very little. Water was either scarce or polluted. The forest had been razed. Village folk would migrate to town for employment. They'd heard of computers. It didn't mean a thing. They had heard that rich city folk send their children to 'America' to become software engineers. This, too, meant nothing. The village school taught children till fifth standard only.
One day came a government official in a jeep. He was treated like a king. They gave him tea prepared with only milk, and biscuits bought from the only shop that stocked them. He said the government was going to set up a kiosk with computers. Farmers would be able to 'access' land records and rates of agricultural produce from markets across the country in no time. Latest government schemes for development would become more accessible. Educating children would become easier. There was talk of villages where computers had changed lives. Could it be true? Information, the villagers knew, was always locked in the files of the patwari (keeper of the land records), and he always demanded money. The old-timers refused to give credence to all the compu-talk. They had seen many official visits and many gizmos. The electricity supply was as infrequent as the rains. And there wasn't a phone line in a radius of 10 km....
From here the story can go anywhere. Information technology (it) is at a stage where it is generating a lot of talk and, it must be said, hype. Every other day, you will read or hear politicians and bureaucrats announce new it schemes. They never fall short of promising a revolution; benefits for the poorest of the poor and bringing India's villages to the 'national mainstream'. There are two kinds of reactions to this hype. One is sceptical, typical of the old-timers in our little tale who see nothing in computers but another expression of the plastic age. The other reaction is stupefaction, more typical of the younger generation ever ready to embrace something new, even if it promises the moon and stars to boot.
The reality, fortunately, is not as stereotypical.
No, it will not usher in the dawn of a brave new world, transforming Indian villages into stuff that makes advertising brochures. But yes, it is a great tool, which, if properly used, could improve the life of millions. But some daunting problems need to be conquered first. Three of the most important ones are:
• Power availability; a major worry in a power-starved country that can't adequately power its cities, forget villages.
• Connectivity, through telephone cables or otherwise; would require some imaginative thinking.
• Software in Indian languages; not difficult in a country that leads the software market.
There are numerous solutions. Experts have already come out with loads of good suggestions. They need to be heeded with urgency. Information is important. Market rates are crucial, as much for the stockbroker on Mumbai's Dalal Street as the farmer who looks for the market that offers the best price for the season's produce. Yet the benefits of India's it boom have been restricted to the urban elite. Experts in it point out that the trickle-down theory -- let us provide the best facilities in metros and they would eventually reach rural areas -- will not work. A new technology remains the property of a few till it is actively developed to serve the needs of the wider populace. Then, the economies of scale set in. Remember times when radio transistor was a status symbol and penicillin was a good idea. Moreover, technologies that do not evolve are simply cast aside.
Can IT evolve to serve rural India's needs? To get a fair idea of the potential and problems, we bring you lessons from some it experiments in rural areas. The dairy cooperatives of Anand in Gujarat are using it applications to streamline procedures, making a significant difference to the lives of milk producers in surrounding villages. There are several other positive examples. An important reason for their success is the fact that their it solutions service the rural market. People take to it only when they are convinced that it serves some purpose in their lives. If that happens, they don't wait for government assistance. Government it schemes, however, have done poorly. The e-governance scheme of Rajasthan state government has failed to deliver because of extremely centralised planning that did not take local infrastructure conditions into consideration. Despite the fact that the software is easy to use and the content is in Hindi, the scheme not only alienates villagers but also lends credence to the view that it in villages is hogwash. The state government agency that developed the software is disillusioned with the bureaucracy.
We also spoke to several it experts about the issue. Most agree that the hype about it is undermining efforts to find practical technological solutions. There is also good reason to believe that it will meet rural requirements only when small-scale operators are involved. A good example of how this can happen is the way cable television has spread through India. A pilot project is trying to utilise railroad cables to provide internet in Andhra Pradesh to areas that had no access to internet. This system can cut down costs by half. But the project lies in limbo with Indian Railways resorting to typical bureaucratic delays. One of the people involved in the project is a Chennai-based electrical engineer keen to combat the rural-urban digital divide through technological innovation. He has led the development of an encouraging model called cordect that can connect villages through wireless systems that are cost-effective. The greatest worry is electricity supply. But a project in Pondicherry is combining the power supply from the grid with battery backup and solar power. Draught power from livestock can be used to generate 40,000 megawatts of power in villages. In the pages to come, we provide a realistic view of an issue that is little more than speculation today but promises a lot for tomorrow.
THIS is Anand in Gujarat, birthplace of the cooperative movement in dairying that has come to be known as the White Revolution. Having made the most of dairying, some 3,000 villages in Anand and Kheda districts are making a different kind of transition. Now it is not just about increasing productivity. The emphasis is on efficiency. The tool is the automatic milk collection system (AMCS), an it initiative by Amul (the Anand Milk Union Limited). A computerised system, it allows the reading of milk quantity and quality (for fat content). "It maintains daily records of milk societies at the village level," says Subbarao Hegde, head of information and systems division at the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited (GCMMFL), Anand.
NYALA, a sleepy Rajasthan village 20 km from the state capital Jaipur, was to become an example of what it can achieve in villages. Instead, it has become an example of how badly planned programmes flounder. On March 23, 2000, the then us president Bill Clinton visited the village amid much fanfare. Among other things, he was impressed by the fact that a woman from the village could get information on neo-natal care from the internet. On his return to the us, while addressing a national conference on building prosperity, Clinton stressed the need for similar community computer centres all over the Mississippi delta. 
Do we have the technological wherewithal to connect villages right across India? How much will these technologies cost? Can we afford them? The most daunting challenges can be summarised in three categories.
"There are barely 29 million telephones in India. Telecom infrastructure in small towns and villages hardly exists. Even in urban areas, each telephone connection costs more than Rs 30,000. To break even, an operator needs to earn at least Rs 9,000 per year. Not more than 3-4 per cent of the urban population can afford this," says Ashok Jhunjhunwala, head of electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. Telephones in villages are far more costly -- per line cost is often quoted at Rs 70,000-80,000. To break even, the annual revenue per line has to be about Rs 20,000. This is just not affordable, says Jhunjhunwala.
Internet in urban areas costs about Rs 25 per hour just for access. The cost can be astronomical in villages. One hour of internet can cost Rs 1,200 just for access in a village or a small town near Trichy in Tamil Nadu if the internet service provider is in Chennai. Even if the service provider is in Trichy town, the hourly cost from a distant village could be Rs 150, Jhunjhunwala calculates. If we wish to add 100 million telephone lines over the next seven to eight years, it would take an investment of Rs 2,00,000 crore (if the cost per connection is estimated at Rs 20,000). This is just not possible, Jhunjhunwala indicates. Unless cost-effective solutions are developed small towns and rural areas would remain neglected (see box: Line it up).
For nearly a century, telephone connections have depended on pairs of copper cables. Rising costs have made the copper-wired local loops expensive. If subscribers are spread out, as is the case in rural areas, each user requires separate access loops from the exchange, sending the costs through the roof. Jhunjhunwala says wired systems are not the solution for rural areas (see p34: Wireless for villages).
Poor supply is a major hindrance. "Even if villages have power connections, supply is so irregular that computers cannot run," says Mahesh Uppal, telecom adviser to the New Delhi office of the Canadian International Development Agency. India's power generation and transmission record is so poor that it cannot be expected to meet the demand of taking it to villages. Power backup using batteries is only a temporary solution. Can renewable energy meet the challenge?
"Solar power is a good solution, but relatively costly at the moment," says Subbiah Arunachalam, informatics director with the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai. The foundation is running a project of computerisation in Pondicherry villages. "At Villianur, our hub centre in Pondicherry, we use a combination of mainline electricity, battery pack and solar power. The circuit senses the load at any given time and automatically draws power from one of the three sources," says Arunachalam. "Telephony can easily be provided with solar power. But internet is a different proposition," says Jhunjhunwala.
The only long-term solution is decentralised power generation, possibly using renewables. In the hilly regions, the answer could be microhydel (see 'Power the people', Down To Earth, November 30, 2000). Areas with good wind energy potential can resort to that (see 'Gone with the wind', Down To Earth, June 30, 1999). Fuel cells hold a lot of promise and there is already talk of the future of the hydrogen economy (see '2H2 + O2 = 2H2O + energy', Down To Earth, July 31, 2000). The key lies in coming up with technological solutions that facilitate local electricity generation, rather than depending on centralised systems.
Computers and internet are completely useless in villages if their content is in English. Even if software is available in India languages, the poor literacy levels will ensure that a vast majority remains out of reach. Is it only for the urban elite? Not really. "The language problem can be solved quickly as one starts installing computers in the rural areas," says Jhunjhunwala. "Technology can overcome the barriers of literacy and language. Multimedia and multilingual software can provide the solutions," says Anil K Gupta, professor at the Centre for Management in Agriculture of the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad. Even the illiterate can be involved through the visually rich multimedia applications. "More than a third of the people in the community we work with are illiterate. We use multimedia tools. Language is no longer a problem and solutions are inexpensive," observes Arunachalam. "All our computers are Tamil compatible. Many of our databases -- insurance information, animal rearing -- are in Tamil," he says about the Pondicherry project.
Several efforts are on to develop software in Indian languages. "India has the status of a world leader in the development of software-based language translation which finds application in pagers and computers for non-English speaking users," says R A Mashelkar, director-general of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research.
To promote it in rural areas it is essential to cut the hype. Perhaps information technology will not deliver all that it promises even if all infrastructure changes are made. No matter what the experts say, the decision to use
it finally rests with the people. All that scientists, governments, policymakers and the civil society can do is provide the option. "IT isn't a magic mantra. There is too much hype. A desire to change has to come first," says Subhash C Bhatnagar, it guru at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIM), Ahmedabad.