Rural Gujarat goes online

n-Logue communications, a Chennai-based rural IT services provider, incubated by the TeNet group of IIT Madras is looking at rural markets in Gujarat.

The company, which was awarded a contract with government-owned Gujarat Informatics Limited (GIL) in 2003 to launch 16 Internet access centres in rural Gujarat is awaiting finalisation of a new contract with the government to set up 100 kiosks or e-gram centres.

n-Logue presently has 200 active internet kiosks christened 'Chiraag' and has come up in areas surrounding Mehmdabad, Palanpur, Palitana, Prantij, Patan, Visnagar and Vyara.

With the establishment of the new internet kiosks which connects villages with the gram panchayat as a main access point, n-Logue would cater to NRIs for whom internet connectivity in remote areas has been a problem.

It would provide access to government portals that contain online forms and applications for documents. It is mulling introduction of online English and 10th class tutorials following its success with the same in Tamil Nadu.

"IIT Madras designed the online tutorials for 10th standard student which was taken up by over 1,500 students in rural Tamil Nadu. We plan to collaborate with IIT Madras to emulate the model first in Karnataka then in Gujarat in the coming few months," said Sharad Brahmane, CEO, n-Logue communications.

The company's working model includes giving a bank loan of Rs 50,000 to purchase a computer and its accessories, including a printer, a web camera, a four-hour battery backup and software to each kiosk operator.

Villagers with basic educational qualifications are selected and trained to become kiosk operators and a software programme is developed for them.

Following that, video-conferencing facilities are installed enabling doctors to conduct weekly tele-conferencing with their patients. However, even as the company plans to set up more kiosks to add to the 2,500 it presently has across the country including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh along with Gujarat, Brahmane admits there is some way to go before rural ISPs catch on in remote villages. One of the main deterrents is the cost of establishing a kiosk.

Each kiosk costs approximately Rs 53,500 to set up and includes equipment like a wall set that receives the wireless corDECT signal, Branded PC with 15. colour monitor, computer peripherals and others which is one of the deterrents to rural ISP providers who want to set up shop in villages.