Information Requests

Over a six-month trail period, farmers requested dynamicinformation on the costs and availability of agricultural inputs such as seeds,fertilizer, and pesticides and on grain prices in different markets throughoutthe Pondichery area. The information was also of interest to female agriculturalworkers, who receive part of their wages in grain.

Women primarily used the centre to obtain information aboutfamily income supplements and public welfare schemes, low-cost insurance, andhealth issues—especially child bearing and rearing. They also accessed apreviously confidential government list of families eligible for low-incomeassistance. In one village, fishermen use US Navy ocean wave height forecasts,downloaded from the Internet to identify parts of the Bay of Bengal to avoid intheir small boats.

Over time, project volunteers in the villages have builttheir own databases. These locally generated information sources now includedetails of approximately:

• Government programmes for low-income rural families

• Local market prices for grain

• Local farming input prices

• A directory of insurance plans for both crops and families

• Pest management plans for rice and sugar cane

• A directory of local hospitals, medical practitioners and their specialities

• A regional timetable for buses and trains

• A directory of local veterinarians, cattle and animal husbandry programmes

Recently, a significant new dimension was added with thecommissioning of solar mains hybrid power systems in all the five centres. MSSRFhas seven years experience in operating the Informatics Centre with solarphotovoltaic system as the primary source of power. Based on this, the villageknowledge centres were also provided with solar-hybrid system as the primarysource of power. This is the first time that such systems have been installed inthe country. They have been designed and supplied by the Bharat Electronics Ltd(BEL). BEL and MSSRF are jointly involved in monitoring the performance of thesedevices, which provide backup power for a PC with a wireless transceiver andinkjet printer for up to five hours.

This project received attention both in India and abroad.

• It has been mentioned in detail in the 136th President Address at the US National Academy of Science (April ’99) by Prof. Albert

• The Human Development Report 1999 of UND refers to this as an example of Creative Project in addressing the global information divide.

• The Local State Govt. has agreed to provide finance for taking this facility to another 100 villages.

• IDRC has agreed to continue the project for another two years by expanding it to another eight villages.

• It has received Motorola Dispatch Solution Gold award for innovative use of two-way radios.