Villages are the life lines of India - and the concept of a fully automated Indian Village was like a dream till some time back. It turned into a reality on the initiative from the Prime Minister's Office, leading to the genesis of a unique ‘Wired village Project’ and its implementation at Warana Co-operative complex in Kolhapur District in the State of Maharashtra.
The primary objective of the project is to demonstrate the effective contribution of an IT infrastructure in the accelerated socio-economic development of a cluster of 70 contiguous villages around Warana in the Kolhapur and Sangli Districts. The Project is being jointly carried out by NIC (on behalf of the Central Government), the Government of Maharashtra and the Warana Vibhag Shikshan Mandal. The estimated cost of the project is around Rs.2.5 Crores.
Why Warana? The Warana Co-operative complex is one of the finest examples of successful integrated rural development resulting from co-operative movement through peoples’ participation. It comprises of 25 Co-operative societies in the field of sugar, milk, poultry, house construction etc. with a turnover of over Rs.600 crores. Needless to say, it offered a perfect set-up for initiating the Wired Village concept.
Aiming High The Warana Wired Village Project Project aims to:
Utilize IT to increase the efficiency / productivity of the existing Co-operative societies.
Provide greater transparency in the working of Co-operative societies.
Provide agricultural, medical and educational information to villagers by establishing networked ‘Facilitation Booths’ in all the 70 villages.
Bring the world knowledge at the door-steps of Warana through INTERNET via NICNET.
Provide Tele-education at both Primary and Higher level educational Institutes.
Develop user-friendly Map based information systems for better administration.
In all, the project aims at the higher goals of achieving computer literacy, generating employment, improving agricultural output and ensuring greater transparency in the administration of villages.
The Infrastructure As a part of the project, state-of-the-art infrastructure has been established at Warana. Some of the highlights include:
High Speed VSATs at Warana to allow Internet access for Business Centres and Educational Institutes.
Data transmission through high speed wireless LAN being provided to main Business Centres.
64 kbps bandwidth VSAT connection established as a gateway WAN link to NIC Pune
High Speed "Receive-only" VSATs (Direc PC) at IT centres, in addition to dial-up facility for fast data transfer, as required in tele education.
Facilitation booths connected to business centres through dial-up connection.
State-of-the-art servers at each Business Centre.
LAN with 6-8 Multimedia Clients at IT Centres. Multimedia workstations at facilitation booths.
The Software Applications A requirement analysis carried out by NIC amongst the Warana users revealed certain key application areas where the implementation of the project would give immensely beneficial results. These applications include both Web based and Intranet-based applications.
Agriculture Produce Market Information System for Warana The scope of this application is to display the most recent market arrivals and rates of various regulated commodities for all the major Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees (APMC) in Maharashtra. The data covers the quantity of arrivals, the minimum/maximum/median rates for different commodities on daily basis which will be stored on a server in Warana and will be accessible from any Village Booth in Warana. This information is made available to all villagers in Marathi through the Village Booths. This System intends to bring complete agricultural marketing information at the door-steps of agriculturists in Warana.
Agricultural Schemes and Crop Technology Information System Nearly eighty percent of the population of the Maharashtra State is directly or indirectly dependent on Agriculture. The State Government is implementing several schemes for the over-all development of the farmers as well as for increasing their income. Through this System, the villagers can get a variety of information in the local language on agricultural schemes and crop technology such as new techniques, improved implements, new crop varieties, integrated pest management, etc.
AUTNIC This application is designed as a ‘Computer based Self-Learning Aid’ on topics such as Computer Science, English (grammar and vocabulary), History, Geography, General Awareness, Test of Reasoning, or any other subject where meaningful multiple choice quizzes can be set-up.
AUTNIC is menu driven and easy to operate. It provides an environment for self-learning through quizzes and inculcates the ability to administer a self-test after learning a lesson. The system permits the user to learn at his/her own pace and at a time convenient to him.
Village Information System This system provides the user with the details about the amenities and other facilities that are available at his/her village or near by villages such as the transport facilities (Bus/Railway), Medical facilities, Health Services, Postal Services, Banks, Co-operative Departments/Stores. All this is available at the press of a button in the local language in the Village Information Booths.
Educational and Vocational Guidance Information System The Educational and Vocational guidance centres are located in the regional offices of the Maharashtra State Council of Educational Research and Training (MSCERT). They provide information to the students regarding different courses and careers through monographs. This information is now made available on the Internet. In the manual system booklets and monographs are printed on various types of courses and careers and given to students visiting the centre. Each monograph contains a whole lot of information covering all the branches of chosen area whereas a student needs the information pertaining to only one or two branches in which he is interested. Also updation of monograph is not frequent. This new system will provide the latest information from any node of the network without actually visiting the centre and it is possible to give printouts of only those details which are required and of direct interest to the students, thus saving their valuable time.
Procedural Information System The common man needs various types of government certificates and licenses like Ration Card, Kerosene/Gas licenses, etc. Instead of approaching a number of different desks for getting them, this system facilitates the user to submit the requests at a ‘single window’ i.e. at one counter from where it is processed internally. It enables the user to save precious time and efforts and to overcome cumbersome processes. Further, the villager can obtain the application form and a list of the documents that are to be submitted along with the application. Computerization of Warana Bazaar Warana Grahak Mandal (Waran Bazaar) is the largest bazaar in Warana with the annual turnover of Rs. 31 Crores. It has an inventory of over 40,000 items. The items are not only sold at the Bazaar but are also sent to 29 outlets. Keeping track of this large inventory manually is a cumbersome process. This application aims to maintain the inventory through the Bar-Code technology. Bar code technology ensures error free data entry using a hand held bar-code scanner. The application is expected to prove very beneficial to the management of Warana Bazaar in keeping track of the goods.
Wired Management of Sugarcane Cultivation Sugar factory is the first and the largest Co-operative business institution of the Warana Complex. The sugarcane cultivators require information from the sugar factory for planning their schedules for sugarcane harvesting. The objective of this system is to facilitate the information entry at the village level and to automate sending and receiving of information and instructions from the sugar factory administration to the sugar cane growers in the village and vice versa. This would be effectively achieved by computerizing the entire information and using the computer network of ‘Wired Village Project’.
Land Records Computerization (LRC) This main objective of this project is to provide 7/12 extracts using the data on Compact Discs (CDs) at the Village Booths. The system also generates data from the village forms which provide details of ownership and crops. It further accepts additional data to generate eight different village forms. More transparency in land ownership and transactions can thus be achieved by the State Government and the concerned officials which can go a long way in ensuring efficient administration.
Computerization of Warana Milk Dairy This project covers the computerization of all the milk collection centres in the area. The system will enable to monitor collection of milk and its grade and facilitate comparison of this information with the analysis figures at the dairy. It will further enable planning of routes for effective collection and will also provide information about the cattle feed provided to the society and study its relationship with milk production.
Grievance Registration and Redressal System This system enables the users to register their grievances and check the status of redressal. The grievance registration module uses the concept of Multiple Identity Number (MIN) to register the grievances. This MIN uniquely identifies the villager. The concept of MIN card has been used in the Country for the first time.
The first phase of the Warana Project has been completed successfully. The foundation has been laid and it is upto the Warana Co-operative Society to sustain the Project and realise the dreams associated with its conceptualization. The success of Warana Project would no doubt set an example for others to follow and would herald a new beginning for the IT revolution to reach the real heart of India - the Villages !!.