The Hindu Business Line : Midas takes IT to rural masses via TeNET

IF you are travelling to Melur, a small village tucked away amidst paddy fields in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu, and your laptop runs out of battery, do not despair. You can simply go to `Chirag Internet Illam' and reply to that important business mail.

Well, it may not be the typical place to find a cyber café, but Sukanya, the owner of the facility, will tell you that it is her bread and butter. You may ask how she gets customers in a village that has all of 1,000 people?

"It is important to let the users decide what they want to do with computers. We must understand that their needs are different, so instead of teaching them we simply let them develop their own business model," said Mr K.N. Rangarajan, Senior Sales and Marketing Manager of Midas Communication Technologies Ltd, promoted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, under its TeNET programme.

A virtual mascot for Midas, Sukanya says she is able to earn nearly Rs 4,000 per month from her venture. Apart from the regular e-mail and browsing, Sukanya's customers use the computer for getting agricultural and veterinary advice from nearby universities.

"I use video-conferencing to get advice for my customers from the Othakadai Agricultural University in Madurai. I even help them with expert opinion on their animals from the Veterinary University in T.T. Nagar," Sukanya told Business Line, in a video-conference from Melur.

Others in the countryside use their computers for clicking and storing photos, charting horoscopes and even matchmaking.

NLog, the service company under Midas, has been helping unemployed villagers to procure computers. "The total investment is about Rs 50,000, but we help them get finance," said Mr Rangarajan.

NLog has already supported several hundred rural youth in South India and Gujarat by arranging finance and enabling them set up their business enterprise. Mr Rangarajan feels that the numbers will multiply in the coming years.

The use these machines can be put to is also growing, as brains from IIT Chennai develop more applications under the TeNET programme. NeuroSynaptic, another company under TeNET, has developed a tele-medicine kit that can be used to relay vital body parameters of a patient to a doctor sitting in the hospital.

"The machine takes blood pressure, electro-cardiogram (ECG) and body temperature. It can be used by anyone with just a day's training. The doctor, at the other end, will have access to the patient's medical history and can ask the operator to position the stethoscope where he wants," said Mr Rajeev Kumar, Chief Operating Officer of NeuroSynaptic.

The tele-medicine unit costs about Rs 12,000 and is ready for commercial launch. Using a Webcam, the doctor can also examine the patient.

For Sukanya at her Chirag Internet Illam, it could soon be one more facility for her customers.