REGIONAL STUDY OF TELECOM TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS FOR INDIAN RURAL EDUCATION Submitted to Ministry of HRD, Government of India New

Delhi The Indian telecommunications industry is one of the fastest growing in the world and India is projected to become the second largest telecom market globally. According to Business Indias mobile revolution is still mainly seen in the cities, but the real prize for phone companies is the vast rural market, where nearly 70 percent of the 1.1-billionstrong populations live. The key objective of the project is to demonstrate the effective contribution of ICT to the socioeconomic development of villages in Marathwada and Vidarbha Regions of Maharashtra. The main aim of the project is to provide basic information on Agriculture, education and health through 3G technology on mobile phones. Survey was conducted in two villages named Rameshwar from Marathwada region and Kurkhed from Vidharba region, Maharashtra. During the survey it was found that the problems faced by the villagers were related to agriculture, health and education. By making them aware of technology they show key inclination towards the technology. Realizing the full potential benefits of mobile phones is limited, however, by a set of constraints that prevent villagers from fully leveraging the information they receive. The barriers apply more to rural India than to urban India; Urban India is more able to leverage the benefits of the communication and information they can access. Researchers while doing survey even found that the villagers faced problems in their day to day life. Making them aware of ICT initiatives and various technologies they showed keen interest in having those technologies. Researchers convince villagers that the technology will definitely help in getting information related to the agriculture, health and education. Villagers are ready to have the training on mobile phones and make use of various services available on mobile phones. Thus it can be rightly said that the technology will absolutely bridge the gap between rural and urban India. As mobile penetration continues to increase by making significant development in India,

information services continue to adapt and proliferate, scope exists for a much greater rural productivity impact in future, but achieving the full productivity potential will depend on reducing other constraints, which limit the use of the information to villagers from their mobile phones. In this context, Researchers have proposed MobiTech solution after identifying the requirements and constraints of villagers. The information flow in MobiTech will only be through the mobile handset and Servers located at district levels using SMS, MMS and Video Transmission Technology whereby the villagers can get continuous feeds from the main server. The data related to education, health and farming will be kept on servers and time to time information will be stored, updated and Broadcasted at regular intervals. Farmers, Doctors and teachers can easily get information from experts who will be working remotely through MobiTech. MANTRA FOR FUTURE OF THE INDIAN RURAL EDUCATION

To solve the problems of Power Cut-Off, Huge Transportation Costs, Difficulty in Backhaul Connectivity, Lack of Infrastructure Sharing, High Operation and Maintenance cost, Low ARPU and Literacy Levels, wireless broadband mobile technology is the only solution, in the true sense. Telecom Technology Options for Indian Rural Education based on 3G technology enabled solar-powered handsets, providing a Mobile Multimedia Learning (MMLearning) environment, can offer a perfect knowledge delivery mechanism suitable for enriching the lives of rural masses with features of access ANYTIME, ANYBODY. ANYWHERE,