Kanpur-Lucknow Lab in News - Previous Articles

Infothela: Information technology at your doorstep

KANPUR: In earnest pursuance of the New Age mantra - technology at your doorstep - scientists at the IIT here have developed a battery-powered 'infothela' equipped with an assortment of Internet and telecom facilities to impart benefit of information technology to the people in remote areas.

Laced with 'digital mandi' facility, this 'infothela' may be later rechristened as 'computer thela' as the IITians feel that computer now is quite well known in rural areas.

Prof SG Dhande, director, IIT, had first revealed the ambitious project in a speech in Lucknow on February 2, this year.

This 200 kg, Rs 70,000 worth of wireless 'infothela', developed under Media Lab Asia Project by the IITians will spread information about education, health, weather, agriculture and employment among the people. It will also come handy in checking land records.

The most attractive part of the 'infothela' is the 'digital mandi' which will ensure an electronic platform for business of agro-commodities. The 'thela' can also be used for getting details about holy places, religion, education and even astrology related issues.

Prof Prashant Kumar of the IIT's mechanical engineering and designing department, told Times News Network that a prototype of the 'infothela' was ready and will work with the help of BSNL's cable network.

In the first phase, experts have planned to conduct services of this appliance between Kanpur and Lucknow, covering about 50 villages.

This all-weather technological 'thela' has been designed keeping in mind the out-door services it will provide and will be shock, vibration and dust resistant as well. It will have the facility of 17-colour display.

Elaborating, Prof Prashant said: "We envisage that application of 'infothela' will touch the roots of the village economy. We aim at taking the benefits of technology to the people in remote areas by eliminating geographical barriers. This task would be accomplished through 'enabling' digital marketplaces for agro-commodities. This will also alleviate cash crunch faced by farmers through active participation of various banking and para-banking institutions."

Experts have also made arrangements for language-neutral trading services and net and credit finance through micro-finance partners. Besides, there will be "transparent settlement and dispute handling through an e-mandi samiti".

Farmers will also be given warehouse certification facilities in digital formats. This wireless networking of 'infothela' will extend the limits of village marketplaces and allow formation of crop growers' communities.

A team of about half a dozen experts comprising Geeta Pathak, Vivek Bhagwat, Abdul Kavi, Manoj Kumar, TV Prabhakar and Prof Jyoti Chatterji, has worked on different aspects of the 'infothela'.

Geeta Pathak, who has designed the specific health software for 'infothela', said "we will try to give advance medical treatment to villagers through 'infothela'. For this, we will engage primary health centre of the village in our programme."

To enhance the participation level, IITians also plan to invite the educated and unemployed village youth to operate the 'infothela'. Pathak said: "Even a student of 12th standard can operate the 'infothela' after a short training."

Read original article in The Times of India, Lucknow Edition, Friday, Nov 15, 2002.

Read more about the Infothela Project.

Info Sculpture Team's Visit to Mathura Museum

A team of researchers from the Kanpur-Lucknow Lab Info Sculpture project recently visited the Mathura Museum as a part of the effort for heritage preservation. The museum has an important collection of Mathura School of Sculptures which attained the pinnacle of glory during the reign of Great Kushan and Gupta Emperors.

The team acquired digital 3D data from various sculptures in the museum. This data will be utilized for creating a digital archive of our heritage sculptures. More information about the project can be found on the Info Sculpture project homepage.

Read related article in the Hindi daily Amar Ujala, Mathura Edition. Mon, Sep 30, 2002.

IIT-Kanpur project to link rural areas

MUMBAI: A novel project, Digital Gangetic Plain, is being implemented by IIT-Kanpur to provide Wireless Internet Telephony (WIT) to rural areas in northern India using directional antennas.

The pilot project was initiated by IIT-K along with MIT Media Labs Asia in four villages, where the IEEE s 802.11B (Standard) base system - an unlicensed technique - is used as a cheap alternative to provide rural telephony, according to the chief coordinator, Prof Pravin Bhagwat.

In the first phase, the project covered two and a half km from IIT to a primary school in Lodhar and in the second phase six and half km from the institute to an NGO in Mandana. Both of them have shown great success and we have began the third stage covering longer distances, Bhagwat said at the on-going international conference on Internet communication here on Tuesday.

IIT has also trained professionals at local levels enabling them to be on their own, he said. The current project aims to move away from the philosophy of USO universal service obligation and try to bring down the cost through such simple but pervasive technology. Asked whether similar projects are carried out by anyone else in the country, Bhagwat said in southern India, Prof Ashok Jhunjunwallah in IIT-Chennai has been experimenting with the technology and has recently set up commercial ventures too. In northern India, the project taken up by IIT-K is the first of its kind, he added.

Director, MIT Media Labs Asia, and general manager for Maharashtra hub, Dr Pradhan said the Internet telephony using 802.11B is one of the key drivers for the usage of Internet in rural areas and media labs is currently building systems and applications on the 802.11B standard. Pradhan said his lab is working in several areas in the interiors of north and south India.