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Initial focus on telemedicine, education, agriculture

TAPPING RURAL TALENT: (From left) Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India; Prof M.S. Swaminathan, Chairperson, National Alliance Mission 2007; and Mr Francoise Binder, Country Head, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, at a press conference in Chennai on Friday. - Bijoy Ghosh

Chennai , July 28

Microsoft India has launched a Rural Innovation Fund in partnership with International Development Research Centre (IDRC) with an initial seed funding of $200,000 (Rs 90 lakh) — each partner contributing $100,000.

The fund would help local software application development vendors in smaller towns to create and provide localised applications and customised solutions for rural communities, according to Mr Ravi Venkatesan, Chairman, Microsoft India.

The fund would be managed by a committee set up under Mission 2007, which is a national alliance working to make every village a knowledge centre. It would initially focus on telemedicine, education and agriculture — these have maximum interest in rural communities, he told presspersons.

The fund would help the local software industry by promoting individual or organisation endeavours towards low cost innovative applications.

Dr Basheerhamad Shadrach, Senior Programme Officer, IDRC, a Canadian development organisation, said the idea is not to support large companies, but promote rural and small innovators to help rural communities. The quantum of funding would depend on the idea, and in January 2007, the Mission 2007 would be in a position to announce the scholarship/award of rural innovation.

Affordable technology

According to Prof M.S. Swaminathan, Chairperson, National Alliance Mission 2007, the alliance plans to connect 25,000 villages in the first year by pooling resources from various States, government agencies and corporates and using affordable and accessible technology. The Government of India is a major player and States such as Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have shown interest in Mission 2007.

Qualcomm alliance

In a related development, Qualcomm, a US-based telecom company, announced an alliance with Nasscom (National Association of Software and Services Companies) to provide CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) 2000 based wireless Internet connectivity solutions in 65 village resource centres.

This is under Nasscom's Rural Knowledge Network Programme, and Tata Indicom is also part of the alliance, said Dr Nikhil Jain, Chief Technology Adviser, India, Qualcomm. The programme supports Mission 2007 to establish 600,000 village resource centres by August 15, 2007.

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