The Broadband Village: Andhra's grand plan

Rediff:
* A village where everyone has easy access to information on agriculture, education, drinking water, electricity and health.
* A village where farmers get latest updates on market prices, cropping pattern and weather forecast at a finger-touch.
* A village where quality inputs on seeds, fertilisers and pesticides are regularly supplied to farmers.
* A village where families can access their children's examination results on computers.
* A village where everyone has access to all government forms and copies of land records.
* A village where your electricity, telephone and water bills are accepted electronically.
* A village where one person in every family knows how to handle the computer.

"According to J C Mohanty, Principal Secretary for IT in Andhra Pradesh government who heads the ambitious project, the rural broadband network is an innovative and revolutionary project with three broad components:

*Electronic delivery of all government services to the people through 6,000 rural IT kiosks to be set up across the state. A team of specially trained rural women to be appointed through self help groups under the rural development department will run the kiosks.
* Computer literacy for at least one person in each family in all Andhra Pradesh villages.
* Broadband connectivity for all villages of Andhra Pradesh spread across the state's 2,75,000 square kilometers by December 2006.
The state government has allocated an initial amount of Rs 700 crore (Rs 7 billion) for the broadband project."