The advent and introduction of the Internet in rural areas will change India forever. But yet we need a planned and structured model to do so. There are many startups and organisations working on wondrous mediums to make Internet accessible to rural India. Currently we feature two products that are sure to change the way rural India perceives the Internet and take beyond the metros.
Open Source Language Translation Tools
The International Institute of Information Technology (IIT) is all gung-ho about offering the average Indian a mouthful of information in their preferred dialect. With Sampark – an open source web based translation tool – IITians aim at creating a whole new ecosystem wherein users can translate their documents to Hindi in any of the seven Indian languages namely Marathi, Tamil, Urdu, Punjabi and Telugu.
Funded by the Union Ministry of Information Technology the programme involves nine other tech institutes other than IITians. This one of the best moves as it is crucial to have vernacular content which rural India could relate to.
Internet for Cheap and in every Indian household with @box
How would you like to have a small yet effective device that offers all Internet functionalities on your TV and runs on tractor batteries? Well I call it a marvel, and that is exactly what Hyderabad based Ichip India is yet to unveil.
The company unveiled @Box, a technology that acts as a single-point device offering Internet-based communication, education and entertainment. In simple words it replaces your home entertainment PC. At Rs. 2500 per @Box every Indian household would have access to Internet at home. The product comes with a keyboard and a trackball as a user interface device.
The company even has plans to integrate TVs with in-built @Box and is even eyeing tie-ups with telecom majors to offer IPTV (Internet protocol television) and VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) services.
The product should be ready to rollout by next March.
