Two articles regarding some initiatives by the indian govt to promote what?? (can't call this tech) are posted in their entirety below.
1. Govt gives free phones to poor instead of grains and Sachin Pilot says that " "It is a good start made by the BSNL to make people below the poverty line feel like they too can be part of the telecom revolution. My best wishes are with them, " said Sachin Pilot." wonder if recharging / topping up the mobiles are part of the system or are these the new advanced biometric phones that can deduce that the person making the call is a BPL person. BSNL and its contractors must be sensing making a killing here - the Govt pays up for all their devices and services. 2. Govt to rent out computers in rural areas at Rs 15 a day quote "The pilot program would cost the government about 45 lakh. “It will also remove the problem of maintenance and repair which is a common problem in many areas. Besides the person can rent it only for the time power is available,” he added." aha the catch it can be rented out only where there is power - which would obviously mean never. Am also wondering what is this funda about maintenance and repair will not be a problem. Are rented machines of a special kind that need no ordinary things that other "bought" machines do and whether the Govt has an unlimited supply ot people to attend to repairs and maintenance and of parts and of time and all of what going in to maintain rural infra. ** The telecom revolution takes precedence over better nutrition and health. There is a catch some where - maybe, the Govt thinks, if people simply die off then India will have less to worry about. So in the mean time divert attention by all these stupid schemes which benefit no one except the perpetrators of "India Shining" . The poor sure feel part of the telecom revolution, they are the first to feel the impact - first the Govt buys their grain and lets it rot, then it "takes" their land , displaces them and converts it into SEZ's, dam submergence areas, industrial areas. Then the factories spew poison and kill of some more and then those who are left are given mobile phones. ** Both these articles are , yet again, indicative of the muddling in the Government - the inability to set its priorities straight - One end is keen, desperate for 10 % growth, uninhibited profits at all costs - no cost is too high for them. They don't have a human side its all about money and power. Not for them is ordinary food grain for them is a diet of money and ego. On the other side we have half statements about the aam aadmi. And nothing they are doing proves on the ground that the poor , or ordinary Indian have any real consideration in policy or implementation. ram *** 1. Govt gives free phones to poor instead of grains http://ibnlive.in.com/news/govt-gifts-free-phones-to-poor-instead-of-grains/130680-37-64.html?from=tn Swati Vashishtha CNN-IBN Jaipur: Over 1000 Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders in Rajasthan, got free cell phones, instead of the free food grains. It seemed the UPA Government would rather let the food grains rot in open than distribute them for free to the poor. The Government felt it more important to distribute cell phones to the poor in Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Sachin Pilot's constituency of Ajmer. People of Phagi Village in Rajasthan haven't been fortunate enough to get free food grains from the Government. But these Below Poverty Line (BPL) card holders have been magnanimously issued BSNL mobile connections. One among them is Gyarasi Devi who has no clue what to do with this unwelcome gift. "We could have done with some grains or a job. What will we do with these mobiles, " said a BPL card holder Gyarasi Devi. The BSNL has supplied 1000 BPL card holders with free connections as part of their corporate social responsibility initiative. But many of the recipients say its more a headache than a gift. "Mobiles will actually add to our expenses. The food grains in the godowns are rotting, why not Government can distribute food grains, said BPL card holder, Govind. However, Union IT Minister Sachin Pilot skipped the function at the last minute. Also conspicuous in his absence was Rajasthan Civil Supplies Minister Babulal Naagar. Babulal was recently caught in controversy after it was shown that the FCI godowns were being used to stack liqour, while food grain rotted outside. But Sachin Pilot has defended the decision to supply mobile phones instead of food grains. "It is a good start made by the BSNL to make people below the poverty line feel like they too can be part of the telecom revolution. My best wishes are with them, " said Sachin Pilot. However the truth is many of the BPL families hardly get enough to eat. However, the decision is like the French Queen Marie Antoinette's proverbial words - let them eat cake, if they can't get bread. ** 2. Govt to rent out computers in rural areas at Rs 15 a day http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/Govt-to-rent-out-computers-in-rural-areas-at-Rs-15-a-day/articleshow/6528675.cms NEW DELHI: After the slow pick-up of the $220 One Laptop Per Child Project, and an uncertainty over the $35 laptop called Sakshat, the government is now experimenting with another model—to dole out computers on rent to spread IT literacy in the country. Under a pilot program to be launched by the ministry of IT & communications, computers specially built for rural areas will be deployed in five locations, and then rented out to citizens. “The cost may vary from 15-20 per day. This model may remove the hindrance of affordability in buying computers . We are talking to various companies like Intel, HCL Infosystems and One Laptop Per Child Project,” a senior official at ministry of IT & communications told ET. The pilot program would cost the government about 45 lakh. “It will also remove the problem of maintenance and repair which is a common problem in many areas. Besides the person can rent it only for the time power is available,” he added. In another IT experiment, the government last year had claimed to have launched a $10 computer which actually turned out to be a $10 storage device. This year the ministry of human resource & development launched a $35 laptop called Sakshat. The MHRD plans to bring the cost of this laptop down to $20 and then to $10 ultimately. But many experts cast a sceptical eye to the Sakshat project. “Any body in the industry having some knowledge of making laptops knows that its impossible to manufacture a laptop for $10,” says Satish Jha, OLPC India president, whose laptop costs about $220 to manufacture. Add about 2,300 as duties and 1,700 as shipment cost, and the price shoots up to nearly the price of a netbook available in the market. But he defends his OLPC laptop saying that none of the netbooks would ever have a shockproof body, solar charging capabilities, and a host of 230 applications. He claims to have deployed about 2,000 OLPC laptops in various parts of India. He welcomes the government’s new move to rent computers, but admits there is a huge power and maintenance problem which prevents PC buying in rural areas. “It costs about 16,000 for power over five years, to run a desktop PC. For adult education , renting computers for a few hours may be a good idea,” he said. HCL in 2006 had launched a Community PC with an innovative power management system called RP2 that switches the computer to a power battery. The battery can be charged by using bicycle peddle power. But that computer too failed to see heightened demand in rural India. Clearly, the government needs to create a utility-based demand before it can work out these models for rural areas. ** -- ubuntu-in mailing list ubuntu-in@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-in
