Prakash, 28, is an excited young man. After observing what a 3D printer is capable of, he wants to be the first to offer 3D printing services in Nargund Taluk in Karnataka’s Gadag District, and is prepared to invest up to ₹50,000 to start a printing business.

Cotton farmer SS Hatibada, from the same Taluk, learnt how to use Facebook and WhatsApp and also how to check mandi prices and weather forecasts on his smartphone.

Prakash and Hatibada, along with thousands of rural folk across Karnataka, were in for a pleasant surprise when instead of their weekly ‘ Santhe ’ (‘Fair’ in Kannada) they were treated to a day-long ‘Internet Santhe’ at the local school auditorium.

Similarly, over 8,000 students, pensioners, self-employed, housewives and farmers from 10 Taluks spread across the Gadag, Tumkur, Bagalkot, Bidar, Yadgir and Koppal districts of Karnataka have been exposed to basic computer skills and the Internet over the last few months. Among other things, they learnt how to use e-mail, social media and other apps, including e-commerce, fitness and finance apps, on their mobile phones.

Different zones Divided into zones such as Experience Zone, Engagement Zone and Innovation Zone, the ‘ Santhe ’ catered to everyone from novices to experienced users. Villagers were also entertained with games on the Xbox 360 Kinect, made to try on Google Goggles, given demos of robots, agricultural drones and 3D printers.

Social enterprise Head Held High Services, in partnership with Idea and Microsoft, hosted the Internet ‘ Santhes ’ in the 10 Taluks from November 2014 to March 2015, with a single-point mission to empower youth, students and self-employed small businessmen.

Digital drive “India has a digital footprint of 205 million users. However, only 60 million of them are from rural India. The idea was to take the internet to the villages of Karnataka to create a network of entrepreneurs who can use technology to transform the way they live and work. And in doing so, we are trying to construct a new Rural-Urban-Economics by bringing in the urban connect,” Madan Padaki, co-founder and CEO, Head Held High Services, told BusinessLine .

“Of the 8,000 villagers who participated in the ‘ Santhe ’, 700 have evinced interest on taking the next step toward digital empowerment. Prakash wants to start a 3D printing business by taking up some space in the local grocer’s shop.

“A few wanted to start Gaming Kiosks and some farmers are very keen on selling the agricultural drones that we demonstrated, to control pest infestation and monitor crop health,” said Padaki.

He intends to take the Internet Santhe model pan-India with help from NGOs and corporate partners.

To begin with, he is targeting 200 taluks in Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Gujarat and Rajasthan over the next 12 months.

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