India bridges digital divide

[icernet-admin at listserv.cddc.vt.edu]

Over the past decade, the Internet has been touted as a powerful engine that
could raise living standards in poor and remote communities of the Third
World by opening up new avenues for education, commerce and participatory
democracy. But the reality is a growing digital divide that is preventing
the poor from sharing in the benefits of the Information Age. The gap
between digital haves and have-nots is especially wide in India, where a
national survey last year revealed that fewer than 1 percent of adults had
used the Internet in the preceding three months. The new approach seeks to
bridge this gap with a national network of owner-operated computer centers
with Internet access — part cybercafes, part digital town halls — that earn
income from a broad range of small transactions. It takes advantage of
low-cost wireless technology that eliminates the need for telephone lines.

Source:
http://www.msnbc.com/news/979311.asp