OneWorld.net (U.S.)

Tunis (Tunisia): An innovative Indian initiative to harness information technology to empower every village has won wide appreciation for bringing together government, people and corporates in partnership.

At the World Summit on the Information Society, which opened here on Wednesday, the International Telecommunication Union, an arm of the United Nations, formally accepted India's ``Mission 2007'' programme as part of its `Connect the World' initiative.

In a concurrent development, the U.N. Development Programme and the Swiss Development Agency joined the international support group for the programme, promising financial support and help in technology deployment. Roberto Blois, ITU's Deputy Secretary-General, formally signalled the global telecom body's sponsorship of the programme.

Speaking at the launch function, M.S. Swaminathan, who has been one of the prime movers of Mission 2007, said that with the programme India sought to ``include the hitherto excluded and reach the hitherto unreachable — by providing access to technology.''

Conduits

B. Shadrach, Delhi-based Director of the ``One World South Asia Organisation'' — the operational secretariat of Mission 2007, told The Hindu that the challenge before the consortium of over 100 volunteer agencies, 22 government departments, 34 private sector players and 18 academic institutions, was to network 1.2 million Indians — one man and one woman in every village and then to use them as conduits for IT-driven services and knowledge sharing. The programme had motivated neighbouring countries: Nepal had launched its own `Swabhiman' programme to create over 1,000 tele-centres and Bhutan was also about to launch a Mission-2007 style initiative of its own.

At the Summit, grassroots volunteers from One World and other non-governmental agencies explained the South Asia development initiatives to dozens of interested delegates from Africa and the West Asia. Tara Karki from Okhaldhunga village in Nepal explained how she helped create local self-help groups.

Kasthuri Bhupathi, based in Pondicherry, shared experiences with her newly-formed contacts on providing legal aid and micro finance through a 50-strong mahila network. And for Latha Gauri from Hyderabad, Thursday would be a day to remember. She is the only representative from a grassroots agency who will address the General Assembly of the Summit: all other speakers are heads of Government, Ministers and CEOs of large corporates.

Ms. Latha, who coordinates a 500-strong self-help group called `Sneha' in Ranga Reddy District of Andhra Pradesh, will speak in Telegu for 3 minutes (with simultaneous translation) to explain the stake of civil society in the deliberations on the Information Society.

On Tuesday, Information Technology Minister Dayanidhi Maran, who is here to address the Assembly, launched ``Open Enrich,'' a local language community software solution created by One World, the National Informatics Centre and UNESCO, to help knowledge gathering and dissemination in 15 South Asian languages.

Source: The Hindu More