Last time in these columns we talked of the need to link our villages with the Indian birds in the skies and how satellite communication would help computers cover the last mile in land and water development and profitable agriculture. This time we go to a village which did it. In 2002 the OECD and ADB organised a meeting at Paris in which in a comprehensive global survey Martin Bussollo and David O’Connor argued that while biotechnology would have immediate benefits for rural areas, in the Third World the digital divide would continue. I argued that we intend to do it differently and when we set an objective and support it wholeheartedly we succeed. I gave some examples, but nobody was impressed. A large corporate enterprise with substantial agro business interests has set up an e-chaupal. The government has computerised a few villages. All excellent examples. But these were, as some argued, developed from outside and replicability was an issue. Pravara is India’s first cooperative. Diversifying out of cane earlier, in the early nineties it had decided to make knowledge a source of growth in the next phase. By now eleven villages are wired up. Interestingly, they have a solid agricultural and resource based information network which the Krishi Vigyan Kendra at Mahabhaleshwar has put on a website. The local medium term weather forecast for five days to a week is also there. All this is fine, for the co-op is helping out. But in early February, I was struck by the fact that some villages were reportedly making money from these goings on. This was news, and I decided to check it out. The village is Kolar on the Manmad-Ahmednagar highway. It can be divided into three parts. Kolar Khurd, very common in this part of the world, Kolar Budruk and Kolar Bhagwatipur. The last, on account of a Bhagwati Ma temple. This is also God’s own land with apologies due down south, Shirdi being 26 kms away and Shrirampur 18. It is a typical large village. In this part of the world they are reasonably well off. Agriculture is hit by the monsoon, but dairying is a regular source of income. The internet centre was in a small room, dimly lit and badly furnished. I remember another one in a slum in Ahmedabad where we are trying to tell young children from different religions that they have a future together and information is their heritage. That also is dimly lit and sparsely furnished. This one is managed by young Kiran Dale. With a B.Com and a masters diploma in IT he had decided to impress me. I think of internet elsewhere. In the nerve centre of one of India’s large infocom companies I told them that their facility looked like a set from Star Trek. Wasn’t it risky to concentrate so much at one place? Ah, but sir, we have a backup in another city. By now Kiran and I decide it is not necessary to talk in English and others have joined us. We get some chai. Strong, with plenty of milk and sugar. The tea you don’t drink, but ‘have’. In Gujarati we don’t ask if you will drink tea, we ask if you will have it for it stands by itself. It turns out that about six to eight farmers use it every day on an average. There is a record of each one. For fifteen minutes they pay five rupees, fifteen for an hour. But it is not only farmers who use it but all those who link up with the city, for a job, for education and for fun and why not. By now Nana Sahib Borude, the sarpanch, has joined us, the upsarpanch Ashok Sainath Asarwa and others and we move to the panchayat ghar and the co-op bank. Why don’t they take on the Centre and organise it themselves? It is good to subcontract the actual running to a contractor. Why don’t they go to Shrirampur and find out if somebody will give the connection cheaper? By now we have come to the mother goddess temple. It is like the Shani temple not many miles away — an absolutely stunning place. Nobody knows its age. We promise to consider putting the temple on the web and some day using the computer to run the panchayat. They load me with bhel for this is the bhel centre of this part. As I drive back, I think of the dream of my boss and friend, Rajiv Gandhi, who dreamt so hard of technology to cover the last mile. My friend Vikhe Patil did it here.
