Enabling Rural India with ICT Initiatives · PDF fileEnabling Rural India with ICT Initiatives ... September 04 TeNeT Group, IITM, India 9! BSNL ... training and maintenance

Enabling Rural India with ICT Initiatives

Ashok Jhunjhunwala, Sujatha N, Anuradha R.TeNeT Group, IIT Madras, India

India! 1.1B people

! 18 official languages! 200M households

! 72% in rural areas

GDP : $ 527 B in 2003! Per capita $2670 (PPP)

! PPP factor: 4.5! Doubled over last decade

10

86

44

12 10 9

21

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

<1000

1000 - 2

000

2000 - 3

000

3000 - 4

000

4000 - 5

000

5000 - 6

000

>6000

Income range (US$ per year)

No.

of h

ouse

hold

s (in

mill

ions

) 73% of households’ income is less than this

$60 per month (real income)

14.54

17.80

39.18

41.6242.84

21.63

32.97

26.79

14.00

19.00

24.00

29.00

34.00

39.00

44.00

49.00

1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005

Mobile drives India’s Telecom Growth

Still addressing top 25% of households

! Tele-density crosses 7 per 100

! India today adds 2 to 2.5M mobiles per month! Only because Infrastructure CAPEX

< $ 60 per line! and with handset price of $ 50 to $ 250! Tariff down to 2 cents / min! ARPU of $ 7 per month

10.48

13.00

33.70

5.48

22.00

0.00

5.00

10.00

15.00

20.00

25.00

30.00

35.00

40.00

Dec-01 Apr-02 Jul-02 Oct-02 Feb-03 May-03 Aug-03 Dec-03 Mar-04

Fixed Lines

Mobile

Mobile Market in India boomed5 million ⇒ 50 million ⇒ 150 million ⇒ 400 million

! To continue growth! Tariff / ARPU needs to drop

further! To address households with

income less than $ 60 per month

0

100

200

300

400

500

2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010

YearPr

ojec

ted

Nos

of S

ubsc

ribe

rs in

m

illio

n

Just like number of TVs in India rose from 10 million to 100 million in 90’s when prices became $50 - $300

September 04 TeNeT Group, IITM, India 5

Rural and Backward Areas fare much worse

All India Teledensity = 7.02%

Out of 27 circles, 11 circles account for mere 6% of total telephones

Rural teledensity about 1.5%

3.76Madhya Pradesh

3.16Northeast I

2.9Jammu and Kashmir

2.81Orissa

2.74Uttar Pradesh (east)

2.57Northeast II

2.53West Bengal

1.97Jharkhand

1.97Assam

1.59Bihar

1.58Chattisgarh

Teledensity (Jan04)States

Building Bridges - Introduction


Rural India has 700million people

! in 600,000+ villages in India (about 1000 people per village with per-capita income of $ 0.40 per day)

102.1

1710

3.9 1.9 1 0.3 0.30

20

40

60

80

100

120

60 180 260 360 520 840 1300 2240

HH Income in $ per month

Num

ber o

f HH

in m

illio

ns

135 million rural households

! Can technologies make a significant difference in life of such people?! Health, Education & significant

enhancement of incomes

! To Scale to 600K villages one needs! Technology! Sustainable Business Model! Organisation which thinks and

acts Rural

Technology


! BSNL (state owned incumbent operator) has fibre connectivity to most County towns

! and fibre has almost infinite bandwidth carrying capability! 85% of villages within 15-20 Km radius of these towns

! In India, typically 300 villages in 30 Km radius

! wireless systems can connect most of these villages! wireless technologies are

continuously evolving! costs come down and bit

rates go on increasing

300 villages

Technology: Leveraging Public Contribution


"

$ 200 per line deployed cost (including towers and mast)

•1 million lines being deployed

Innovative Technologies to connect Rural India

! CorDECT Wireless in Local Loop developed at IITM, India! provides a telephone line and 35/70 kbps

Internet connection in 30 Km radius# 100/200 kbps connectivity in near

future with 2.5G corDECT

! Exchange and tower in town# Works at 55° C# Power requirement: 1 KW# start-up costs very low

! Newer technologies emerging promising 1/2 Mbps connectivity! OFDM (like 802.16 / WiMax)! HDR and HSDPA


In future

! Connectivity requirement in each village! up to 1 to 2 Mbps or even 5 Mbps dedicated connection to each village can

be served by terrestrial wireless! as need goes higher, fibre or point to point wireless (microwave) may be

required! 7 to 10 years hence

! Sparse Area Communicationswhere there is no fibre backbone! 15% Villages

! double hop (satellite andterrestrial wireless) may servemost of these villages

! Remaining 1% of villages! direct satellite connection

"

15 -25 Kms with50 connections

"

2 M

bps --

>

128

Kbps

-->

Business Model & Applications


Business Model:Use Local Entrepreneurs to drive ICT! Entrepreneur-driven operator assisted telephone booths introduced in

India in 1987 on every street (within 50 m walking distance)! Today in urban areas:

! 950,000 such PCOs covering every street of smallest town! generate 25 % of total telecom income! 300 million people use these PCOs

! Lesson for Rural: ! To serve Rural people with incomes of

less than $ 1/day, aggregate demandin each village & let Entrepreneurs drive it

Aid/ Grant does not scaleSuccessful Enterprises can scale to all villages


! A Rural Service Provider! aggregate demand into a kiosk

! owned & driven by a local entrepreneur

! $1000-1500 per Kiosk providing telephone, Internet, multimedia PC with web-camera, printer &power back-up for PC

! plus Indian language software, video conferencing software, training and maintenance

! set up by a village entrepreneur on the lines of urban PCOs! provides telephone, stand-alone Computer and Internet services! needs under $100 per month to break even

# 10cents per person per month

Innovative Business Models


The Kiosk Owner

! Should have studied up to Class 10! Need have no prior computer

Training! Should be able to communicate to

the people in the village

Top: Suganya from Madurai Dist,TNLeft : Anishaben from Banaskanatha Dist,Guj


Kiosk: Bouquet of Services (besides telephony)

! Learning typing! Computer education! Photography & movies

on CD! DTP work! Email/voice & video mail! E-Government! Video conferencing

providing! Tele-medicine! Vet Care! E-learning! E-Agriculture


The Vet is on the Net

! In Attapati village! Priya’s chicken was limping! Photo sent to Veterinary

college! Identified as Curled toe

paralysis! Cost for process

! Reduced from $ 5 to 50 Cents


Till recently Eye Ailments that could only be detected this way…

An Eye Camp conducted in a Village in Tamil Nadu

Now Remote Eye Care

Remote Monitoring of patient’s health using wireless

A kit consisting of BP, Temperature, ECG measurement and Stethoscope and pulse count for $ 200



Remote Teaching: Tutorials

Saving Crops and Agri-consultancy

AfterBefore

In a Village in Madurai, the Lady’s Finger (Okra) cropwas turning white

The problem was sent to the experts at the Department of

Rural Extension, Madurai

Agricultural College and

Research Centrewho diagnosed

it as “Yellow Mosaic disease”

Saving to farmer - $3500Cost of Information - a dollar


Web- Durbar: DM talks to multiple villages on video

Agriculture

AnimalHusbandry

Agricultural Processing

Industry

IT-Based Services

Trade & Commerce

Rural Micro-Enterprises are the Wealth Creators

! Micro-enterprises need! Finance! Knowledge and Training! Buying & Selling! Insurance

! Can Communications Enable these?

Current Rural GDP in India = $ 150 BillionFor a Population = 700 million peopleGDP / Person = $ 200 per year

Dream of DOUBLING per-capita Rural GDP

$ 400 per person per year

Rural Prosperity


Financial Services with Banks

! Kiosk operators to Collect cash from villager and pay online

! Govt. payments, Telephone bills! Kiosk operator to be an agent for

# agri-crop loans# Rural Insurance, Health and Crop

! Rural low cost ATMs at kiosks! Works along with the PC already existing! Breakthrough pricing envisaged of $ 1000

Ongoing Rural ICT Efforts


Two major for-profit efforts

! ITC e-chaupal! Effort driven by a company involved in grain trading

# 4000 Internet chaupals (kiosks) in villages to aid grain procurement, support agriculture

# Grain trading pays for ICT

! n-Logue! Partner with a Local Service Provider to connect every

village in a district using terrestrial wireless# Village kiosks cost $1000

# No subsidy, possible bank loans# Video-conferencing is key# Focus on education, health and livelihood# Operation in 40 districts, 2000 villages


Other Initiatives

! Grant / aid driven! MS Swaminathan Center (in

Pondicherry focussed on agriand fishery applications)

! Tara-haat (focus on rural enterprises)

! Akshaya (in Kerala with Government support)

! Gyaandoot* (in MP with focus on e-governance)

! Rural E-seva* (in east Godavari in AP with focus on e-governance)

! Warana* Wired village (in Maharashtra by NIC)

* these projects are now operated by n-Logue

! For profit initiatives! Drishtee (uses existing

telecom infrastructure)

! Application Development initiatives

! Bhoomi# E-governance

program for land records

Regulatory Issues


Regulators & Policy makers should enable

! Rural Service Provider! Enable local business to provide telephone and

Internet in villages around a county town! Spectrum charges should be waived for ten years ! Internet Bandwidth at concessional tariff

! Drive e-governance services into villages


To Conclude

! Internet is power! Provides an opportunity for India to leapfrog

# Can dream of doubling per capita Rural GDP

! Existing Deep Fibre and Wireless Technologies will alloweasier connectivity to hitherto unconnected villages

! Wireless Technologies will continuously evolve over the next three to four years to enable broadband

! Innovative business model driven by local entrepreneurs required

! Shared Access is the quickest way to reach the rural areas

! Regulations are the key : must enable these efforts

Documents

Enabling Rural India with ICT Initiatives · PDF fileEnabling Rural India with ICT Initiatives ... September 04 TeNeT Group, IITM, India 9! BSNL ... training and maintenance