tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-167416952024-03-07T01:08:13.904-05:00Social EntrepreneurismPursuing the vision in books like <i>End of Poverty by Jeffrey Sachs</i>, and organizing the <i>Live-8 concerts</i> may not be the only answer to eradicate poverty by taking money from the rich and giving to the poor. It is rather <i>social entrepreneurism</i> that is changing the developing world today.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.comBlogger195125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-19018442194021062862008-05-21T00:26:00.003-04:002008-05-21T00:31:24.979-04:00Gram-Vaani is a winner in the prestigious Knight News Challenge!Our proposal to enable media services in rural areas of India by using community-radio has been <a href="http://www.newschallenge.org/189/news-challenge-press-release.html">accepted for funding in the Knight News Challenge</a>! This is great news for me and my team. The project is called <a href="http://gramvaani.org">Gram-Vaani</a>, standing for <i>voice-of-the-village</i>. Do take a look at the website and give your feedback. We are also looking for a lot of volunteer help to get us started -- so, do take a look at the volunteer openings.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-19196161287683306302008-04-09T16:26:00.000-04:002008-04-09T16:27:36.109-04:00Rising inflation in India7% inflation, riding on the back on rising food prices, is of grave concern. Not only can it lead to social instability, it is quite inhumane that the poor are finding it more and more difficult to feed themselves. It is very frustrating to see that such smart economists like we have in the cabinet, resort to populist measures and stupid policies, rather than tackle the core problems of agriculture in India -- irrigation, power, education, transportation, commodity exchange points, etc. I am a firm believer that scientifically formulated policies that solve these problems will gain the respect and votes of people, rather than short term populist measures which are easily forgotten.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-63820778665361764822008-03-11T02:05:00.002-04:002008-03-11T08:57:40.376-04:00National rural employment guarantee act, IndiaNiraj gave an SJC today on the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in India. The slides are available at: <a href="http://floatingsun.net/udai/files/SJC_NREGA.pdf">http://floatingsun.net/udai/files/SJC_NREGA.pdf</a><br /><br />As is common with almost any other government scheme, NREGA has produced mixed results. The usual story: 101 different ways in which corruption happens, local needs are not understood, poor execution because the government staff is not adequately trained, etc, etc. All is not dark though, it does work in a few cases. And implementations are in progress using smart card based accounting systems to prevent corruption.<br /><br />However, the very premise of this scheme is under doubt. There are already government programs for building roads, improving watersheds, etc. And NREGA is funding very similar activities. Therefore, either NREGA is just a different name for these programs, or it is giving more funds to these programs. Essentially, it is not doing anything really different, and it is not trying to solve the major problems of corruption and bad planning with which all government programs suffer. Instead, it complicates program management by adding an extra parameter of giving job cards to people to guarantee 100 days of employment per year.<br /><br />All of this sounds pretty much like a broken record. Bad policies, bad management, missing channels of accountability, inadequate transparency, ignorant people who do not question authority...<br /><br />This somehow brought our discussion to a very abstract level of what an ideal governance structure should look like. In general, systems decentralized politically and administratively all the way to the Panchayats, with transparency in their functioning, would work much better. Decentralization has however been very slow to come about. There is clearly an incentive against decentralization because those in power do not want to let it go. This recent article from The Economist talks about it quite well:<br /><a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10804248">http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10804248</a><br /><br />In the next month of so, we are planning to study some papers about governance structure, and how it influences the success of development/ welfare programs. If you know of some good resources, hopefully those that go beyond anecdotal examples, then please let us know.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-53286038640402467882008-02-09T00:28:00.000-05:002008-02-09T00:42:11.043-05:00The limits of leapfroggingA very insightful article from The Economist about why only a few new technologies are able to diffuse in developing countries. New technologies not only rely on the existence of appropriate infrastructure and prior technologies, but also on the ability of people to "absorb" the technology.<br /><br />This can help explain the mixed success of ICTs, especially kiosks, in rural areas. For example, one of the most successful example of ICT is that of the ITC e-Choupals, which succeeded not only because ITC provided VSAT connections in villages to get real-time mandi prices, but also because the infrastructure for commodity exchange points was set up in the villages. This is missing in other projects such as the e-marketplace being pushed by aAqua. Selling wheat or cows or goats online is not that simple, because an entire team of field staff is required to ensure that the transactions are actually carried out in practice, and appropriate infrastructure needs to be available so that these commodities can be shipped across.<br /><br /><a href="http://econ.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTDEC/EXTDECPROSPECTS/GEPEXT/EXTGEP2008/0,,menuPK:4503385~pagePK:64167702~piPK:64167676~theSitePK:4503324,00.html">Related World Bank report</a>.<br /><br /><a href="http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTGEP2008/Resources/4503313-1199473339970/diagram-(large).gif">And the one single figure that captures the essence of the arguments</a>.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-77878123029639537872008-01-22T10:58:00.000-05:002008-06-23T08:15:20.939-04:00Social stability indexI've been toying with the possibility of having a social stability index, and how it could impact economics. Let me explain.<br /><br />The market -- stock/ commodities/ futures etc -- is essentially a mechanism for price discovery that relies on the wisdom of the traders to find the right price: the right price for wheat, for oil, for Google's share price, etc. The philosophy is that given access to complete information, the traders will rationally compute these prices. The prices then actually pave the path to progress, that is Indian wheat better than wheat from Kazakhasthan, or is Google better than Yahoo, etc. This is how I understand it.<br /><br />Now, there are a couple of problems in accurate price discovery. This fact cannot be argued against because of overwhelming evidence. The sudden food price inflation is a supreme example -- had the price rise been gradual, it would have been much easier for the poor to cope with it. Human induced climate change is another example -- had the markets listened to the arguments of scientists 50 years ago, they could have induced heavier investments in research for renewable energy or carbon efficient car design etc. The problem I am trying to identify is the robustness of the path discovered by the markets. Evidence such as the sudden food price inflation and climate change show that the path computed by the markets is not robust.<br /><br />So, why does this happen? My thinking is that robustness is not taken into account by the traders in the market. They should because if they do then they will not make such big mistakes. But maybe they are computationally starved to take such complex environmental and social stability factors into account. So, how can that be changed?<br /><br />This is where the idea of a social stability index comes up. If we can devise an index using market mechanisms that is somewhat predictive of the social stability of society, then we can make it easier for stock / commodity / futures traders to take this information into account. The CPI (Consumer Price Inflation) index is one such example -- a high CPI signifies social instability, and an unstable society is never good for economics. So, suppose we allow traders to speculate on the CPI, and assuming that these speculators will be smart enough to predict CPI accurately, then their activities will have an effect on the market traders to invest more appropriately.<br /><br />I think other indexes can also be designed by looking into research in sociology of societies and civilizations. Jared Diamond's book, Guns Germs and Steel, is a good example of an effort in this direction. He wants to look at societal progress in isolated cultures as experiments that tell us something about human behavior and progress on a macro scale of civilizations. Cues from research such as his could be used to design indexes that could be predictive of social stability, I think, and utilizing the wisdom of the crowds through market mechanisms to predict this index for different cities, states, countries, and the world in general, could serve as a source of guiding information for other traders that define economic investments on how the humans move forward as a society.<br /><br />Any thoughts on this would be most appreciated.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-57537373216114530702008-01-19T12:11:00.001-05:002008-01-19T12:42:14.080-05:00Open source speech recognitionAn open source speech-recognition and text-to-speech software suite was recently released. This is clearly useful for disabled people, but it can also be put to good use in rural areas having high illiteracy. For example, microfinance transactions can be automatically recorded and verified by having people speak into a mobile device, or maybe even into a simple taperecorder that can be replayed and digitized later. A similar system can be used to record payments made in rural employment schemes, where much corruption happens because proper documentation is not maintained in electronic form so that it can be easily checked for discrepancies. <a href="http://to-do-list.blogspot.com/2007/12/rural-banking.html">Rural banking institutions are trying to do something similar</a>, but it'll be great to have an open-source solution to all this.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-34446960599620263822008-01-18T12:08:00.000-05:002008-01-18T12:26:08.763-05:00Carnegie librariesSuch an amazing story, and I got to know about it only today when I was talking with Prof. Manuela Veloso, a robotics researcher from CMU! The rise from rags to riches of Andrew Carnegie is one of those stories that sound just too mythical to be true. He worked his way from working fulltime as a kid of 12 to support himself, all the way up to creating an industrial empire worth $400 million in the 19th century. And then he gave away almost all his wealth to the creation of over 2,000 libraries across USA, Canada, Australia, and many European countries. He strongly believed in meritocracy, and that if people had access to books and education, and if they were willing, then they could be successful. These ideals clearly resonate with many things. The <a href="http://www.bakulfoundation.org/Home.html">children's library that Bakul</a> has set up in Orissa, and the <a href="http://www.hindu.com/op/2005/04/12/stories/2005041200161500.htm">establishment of rural kiosks to provide information services to villagers</a>, are two activities that are based on the same principles. Some more comments in the article are interesting. For example, a person who has access to education, and yet he prefers not to make use of it, essentially settles himself down for a lower status in society. Capitalism is also legitimized by saying that those are capable of leading, should be in positions of leadership, but they should eventually give back to society what they have earned, and that everybody should have an equal opportunity of training themselves to get into leadership positions.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-27877936034612651592008-01-17T11:18:00.000-05:002008-01-17T11:43:50.217-05:00Health and education in IndiaThese two excellent articles point out the woes of healthcare and education in India: <a href="http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Public_Sector/Management/A_healthier_future_for_India_2096">A healthier future for India</a>, and <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/17/world/asia/17india.html?ex=1201237200&en=732801824b94a168&ei=5070&emc=eta1">Education push yield's little for India's poor</a>.<br /><br />India has only 1.5 hospital beds per 1000 people, which is way lower than averages of 3-4 in most other developing countries. And only 0.6 doctors and 0.08 nurses per 1000 people, as compared to world averages of 1.2 and 2.6 respectively.<br /><br />As for education, among the poorest 20 percent of Indian men, half are illiterate, and barely 2 percent graduate from high school, according to government data. Those who do go to school, hardly learn anything because of teacher absenteeism or poor quality of education. By contrast, among the richest 20 percent of Indian men, nearly half are high school graduates and only 2 percent are illiterate.<br /><br />These figures are indeed disheartening. It is not only humanely wrong, but it is also hurting India economically. Most than 50% of the population is below 24, which means a terrible wastage of human resource if they are not well educated and healthy. How can this be corrected? The government is of course spending a lot of money on building hospitals and schools, and paying doctors and teachers to work in the villages. But the results have not been great. Corruption is surely to blame, but a lack of good leadership both at the government as well as at the local level, seem to be missing too. Corruption can potentially be corrected with electronic systems, social audits, RTIs, and the whole lot. But what about leadership? Given the largely mediocre civil services sector and the [<i>cannot-find-a-single-adjective-for-this</i>] politicians who are in no way capable of governing a nation of billion people, can we ever expect things to become good? This raises a lot of questions on the assumptions. Why is health and education supposed to be a public sector enterprise anyways? Is there a substitute for leadership, maybe better work ethics on part of the teachers or doctors or other concerned people? Can systems be structured such that they automatically promote better conduct and commitment to jobs? The answers may not be straightforward, but they may definitely be there somewhere only waiting to be discovered.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-38898604528697317302008-01-17T11:13:00.001-05:002008-01-17T11:15:29.056-05:00Animal powerI made a presentation in the Udai meeting about animal power. Draught animals such as horses, camels, oxen, and donkeys have been used since many centuries for transportation and farming. I will give examples of some non-conventional uses of animal power for tasks such as grain grinding and wood sawing, which are rarely seen today. Instead, there seems to be a tendency to rely on fossil-fuel or electricity powered equipment for these tasks, or else solely on manual labour. However, animal powered systems are a viable alternative, and probably a more appropriate technology for certain rural areas. We discussed how animal power can be popularized and made more efficient, and various issues that can come up in its usage. The bottomline is that to popularize animal power, the technology must be commercialized and the local people must be trained in the principles behind the technologies so that they can customize it for their needs.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-32085209774077853662007-12-27T00:57:00.000-05:002007-12-27T01:01:10.441-05:00Inside DharaviThe article presents a very vivid description of daily life in Dharavi. These stark realities of individual people about poverty and hardship and that fire for survival normally get lost in statistics and we hardly think about them. But they hit you hard in the face, especially when seen against the backdrop of a glittering display of affluence by the newly rich in India.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-43579967580678198152007-12-27T00:56:00.000-05:002007-12-27T00:57:19.837-05:00Rural bankingThe Indian banks plan to use many innovative solutions to expand their footprint into the rural areas. Smartcard and biometric based authentication, and voice driven transactions, will be used to cater to the largely illiterate rural population. The actual exchange of cash will probably be through mobile ATMs at kiosks, or by a bank official who will make periodic trips into rural areas. Access to banking facilities will make it easier for the poor to build savings and a good credit history to help them tide over domestic financial downturns.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-68027978700907214452007-12-06T22:39:00.000-05:002007-12-06T22:49:09.908-05:00Adaptation to climate changeMuch activity with regard to climate change is targeted towards the long term, to achieve energy efficiency, reduce carbon dioxide emissions, etc. But in the short term -- maybe within the next two decades itself -- there are likely to be considerable adverse impacts of climate change because of the rising sea levels, river flooding, and changes in rainfall patterns. The people who will face the greatest challenges to adapt to the changing conditions during this time, will be the poor people in developing countries. However, no government is looking at comprehensive adaptation strategies for this purpose, such as creating relief funds and weather insurance policies. Without such programs, the poor will face increasingly challenging times, and so much funds spent on healthcare and education and housing could just go waste.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-46933767807735226922007-12-06T22:36:00.000-05:002007-12-27T00:56:12.088-05:00Ocean reforestation to counter global warmingHere's a very interesting project whose outcome could change the world! More than 20 tons of iron dust has been dumped into the water near the Galapagos Islands. The idea is to revive the ocean plankton that absorb huge amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and then sink down into the depths of the ocean. Apart from the technical aspects, it is probably also an example of social entrepreneurship -- making profit by selling carbon credits. But there is also <a href="http://www.csa.com/discoveryguides/oceangard/overview.php">huge skepticism</a> that this could have adverse effects on other ecological processes in the ocean, because so <a href="http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071129132753.htm">little is understood right now</a>. The project has similarities with thoughts by Freeman Dyson, where he talks about the <a href="http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dysonf07/dysonf07_index.html">regeneration of biomass on land to reduce carbon dioxide</a>.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-88572313030764304102007-12-06T22:34:00.000-05:002007-12-06T22:36:19.833-05:00Effective social entrepreneurshipGiven the huge amount of interest in social entrepreneurship and non-profit activities these days, we still hear of only a few success stories. The evidence of huge social change is absent, despite the big hype about working for "social good". This article talks about 6 keys to the success of such activities: <br />1. Advocacy for political change<br />2. Make markets work in sectors where they are buggy<br />3. Inspire and coordinate volunteers for effective work<br />4. Work together with other non-profits<br />5. Learn to adapt to changes and correct assumptions<br />6. Share leadership across different organizations.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-58251920387998867752007-11-10T17:27:00.000-05:002007-11-10T17:28:38.363-05:00The economic lives of the poorI came across this paper recently. It makes some interesting points about the daily lives of the poor in a number of countries, including India. Although not altogether surprising if you sit back and reflect on their observations, this kind of a quantitative study based on household surveys could be very useful for policy formulation. Well worth a read. Some points they make:<br /><br />- The poor generally hold multiple occupations during different times. For example, during the morning, some women sell <i>dosas</i>, but later they do some rag-picking or daily-wage labour work. Similarly, many men work on their fields during the farming season, but otherwise they often temporarily migrate to the cities or construction sites in search of work. This generally indicates a lack of specialization in any one single profession, which makes it harder for them to find a job. This hurts their earning abilities in the long term. This also probably explains why many of the poor are "entrepreneurs", because they find it much easier to hawk vegetables and other goods than to actually find a well-paying job. One reason that can explain this lack of specialization is that the poor are unable to raise sufficient capital to run a business that would fully occupy them. So, for example, farmers may be unable to use sophisticated technologies to extend their farming season. Or, the women may be unable to convert their individual dosa businesses into a more formal and higher paying outlet.<br /><br />- Most of the poor rely on informal sources of credit, which tends to much more expensive. The high interest rates seem to occur not because of high rates of default, but because of the problems in enforcement of contracts. The moneylenders or shopkeepers who give credit, have to spend much time keeping track of the expenses and making sure that the people pay back. Instead, formal sources of credit such as from self-help-groups generally help cultivate a discipline for saving and spending money, and also provide lower interest rates. <br /><br />- An increase in income of the poor is not always followed by an increase in their food expenditure. Instead, they spend significant portions of their income on alcohol, tobacco, entertainment, and festivals. This is probably because they do not make the association between healthier eating and higher productivity, and also because entertainment helps them relax from the daily financial and psychological stress they undergo in search of employment. However, the penetration of television is still quite low, because it is a bulky investment and requires a consistent commitment to saving. This is probably evidence that the poor find it difficult to save money in the absence of any banking institutions or saving-groups because they tend to succumb to temptation much before they can save enough money, and also because keeping cash in boxes or under the pillow is not really secure.<br /><br />In light of this study, the Pradan approach to self-help-groups seems ideal. They not only help organize the poor into groups, but they also train and educate them in how to save and spend their money. The <a href="http://www.enterprise-impact.org.uk/pdf/Noponen.pdf">Internal Learning System</a> of having the women maintain dairies of their saving and expenditure also helps the Pradan volunteers to teach the women how to manage their household budgets more efficiently.<br /><br />Other things that the paper highlights is that poor land-record management actually prevents farmers from combining their individual small land-holdings into larger and more productive pieces of land. And the poor quality of public education impacts their commitment to sending their children to school. Similarly, the poor quality of public healthcare actually increases their expenses because they either have to go to private practitioners, or bear with ineffective and improper treatment.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-76685343821200865332007-11-04T23:26:00.000-05:002007-11-04T23:42:36.136-05:00Some Ashoka Fellows from India working on ICT for developmentA friend from Ashoka in India suggested the following Fellows as invitees to a conference on the use of ICT for development. I thought that I might as well post the information here. There are some ideas on ICTD projects as well.<br /><br /><b>Rabindranath, Assam</b>: <a href="http://www.aidprojects.org/projects-view-1.asp?login=guest&id=341">Link</a><br /><br /><i>Organization</i>: Rural Volunteer Center -- Civil society model that helps people cope with frequent floods in the Bhramaputra.<br /><br /><i>Comments</i>: Will bring insights about the problems faced by rural populations during flood season, and possible solutions. For example, what kind of rapidly-installable community radio stations and receivers be helpful to coordinate large groups of people during sudden flood situations? <br /><br /><b>Rahul Banerjee, Indore (MP)</b>: <a href="http://www.ashoka.org/node/2590">Link</a><br /><br /><i>Organization</i>: Aarohi Trust -- Community building among tribals by reinforcing the local language and culture. Adopts different approaches, including community radio on the ICT side, along with written literature for books and magazines.<br /><br /><i>Comments</i>: This is a very grassroots initiative. Will bring insights about the actual cultural processes in remote and marginalized communities, and how ICT interventions should take these factors into account.<br /><br /><b>Dipendra Manocha, Delhi</b>: <a href="http://www.daisy.org/">Link-1</a>, <a href="http://www.daisy-for-all.org/">Link-2</a><br /><br /><i>Organization</i>: DAISY consortium: Develops standards and hardware/software for converting/synchronizing text and braille content into audio for visually impaired people. <br /><br /><i>Comments</i>: Dipendra represents the DAISY consortium in India. He works on content creation in local languages, and development of a low-cost player. The work sounds very interesting from a research perspective, of coupling braille print with accompanying audio content.<br /><br /><br /><b>Shanti Raghavan, Bangalore</b>: <a href="http://www.enable-india.org/">Link</a><br /><br /><i>Organization</i>: Enable India -- Trains physically disabled and visually impaired people in computer skills, and place them in jobs with IT companies.<br /><br /><i>Comments</i>: They currently use commercial software for screen reading, which is quite expensive, and apparently very annoying to use for some applications. Will bring insights about various usability requirements for the blind, which could lead to interesting ideas for alternative techniques.<br /><br /><b>Pratima Joshi, Pune</b>: <a href="http://www.shelter-associates.org">Link</a><br /><br /><i>Organization</i>: Shelter Associates -- Uses GIS to plot and query household data about slum dwellers for more efficient slum planning and development. Data is collected through surveys done by local slum dwellers.<br /><br /><i>Comments</i>: They have much use for automation of data collection activities using OMR/ILR techniques, or by using PDAs. They may also help explain the exact use-case for a GIS interface on mobile devices.<br /><br /><b>Solomon Jayaprakash, Bangalore</b>: <a href="http://www.ashoka.org/node/3858">Link-1</a>, <a href="http://www.labournet.in">Link-2</a><br /><br /><i>Organization</i>: LabourNet assists workers in the informal economy to search for employment in areas such as plumbing, tile-layering, painting, building construction, etc. A parallel program, Maya Organics, helps organize the informal artisan network into worker cooperatives for manufacture of toys, wooden furniture, garments, etc. LabourNet seems to be a reasonably sophisticated IT enabled initiative. <br /><br /><i>Comments</i>: It will be interesting to know what kind of identity-verification and user-interface issues they run into, when working with people having poor educational backgrounds.<br /><br /><b>Rajiv Khandelwal, Udaipur</b>: <a href="http://www.fsdinternational.org/node/view/276">Link</a><br /><br /><i>Organization</i>: Aajeevika Bureau -- Assists rural migrants to develop skills and find jobs in cities. Also maintains databases of migrant workers, which helps study migration patterns.<br /><br /><i>Comments</i>: Will help gain knowledge of how they maintain photo-id cards of people, and what problems they face.<br /><br /><b>Lisa Heydlauff</b>: <a href="http://www.ashoka.org/node/4062">Link-1</a>, <a href="http://www.goingtoschool.com/">Link-2</a><br /><br /><i>Organization</i>: Going to School -- Develops videos about how children in different parts of India go to school, and their diverse experiences and ambitions. Brings respect among kids for the diversity and vastness of Indian cultures.<br /><br /><i>Comments</i>: Could be very interesting for other researchers working on education.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-77165614461829045252007-11-04T23:24:00.000-05:002007-11-04T23:26:01.273-05:00World Bank to give $944 mn loan to India"The World Bank has agreed to sanction a loan of $944 million to India for strengthening rural finance system, vocational training programs and community-based water management projects."<br /><br />Apparently, the WB lendings to India go up to almost <a href="http://www.worldbank.org.in/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/INDIAEXTN/0,,contentMDK:20158985~menuPK:295589~pagePK:1497618~piPK:217854~theSitePK:295584,00.html">$3 billion per year</a>.<br /><br />But is this something India really needs? People argue that it only <a href="http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/04/17/stories/2006041700710900.htm">complicates forex management for India</a> because India does not need $ loans to finance local development activities. On the other hand, local Indian banks have always been skeptical of funding pro-poor programs, and the <a href="http://www.downtoearth.org.in/full6.asp?foldername=20071031&filename=news&sid=16&page=3&sec_id=4">WB probably fills in the gap</a>. What is more interesting is that the central government often lends money borrowed from the WB at higher rates of interest to local companies! Not sure if this really does any good to the Indian economy though. And apparently, the WB likes to lend to India because <a href="http://cachef.ft.com/cms/s/0/bd4cbb66-2b20-11dc-85f9-000b5df10621.html">India is more creditworthy than Africa</a>, and hence needed by the WB for its own survival.<br /><br />To a suspicious mind, it all seems to be part of a big money generating scheme by the rich countries, in which the rest of the world is pulled into out of no choice of their own. And ironically, it is termed as pursuing a "liberal" agenda out of respect for individual freedom! How words and meanings get contorted over the years...Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-38541574948753871282007-10-08T11:38:00.000-04:002007-10-10T22:48:54.766-04:00On Policies and ParadigmsI have often come out immensely frustrated after discussions about Left Vs Right, globalization Vs localization, "Small is Beautiful" Vs "Big is Useful", etc, as I am sure you must have often also felt. Much of the frustration stems from the fact that we tend to confuse between various issues, or analyze in terms of symptoms instead of causes, or overly generalize and simplify matters. This short writeup is meant to put some structure to this debate, which at least I have found to be useful when thinking or discussing about such hotly debatable topics. My goal in writing about it is to help me state my thoughts clearly, and not to advocate any particular approach when having discussions.<br /><br />Let us consider the topic of globalization Vs localization. Globalization refers to the current trend of increased trade linkages across the world, which is claimed to lead to lower prices of goods and services for all. Localization refers to pretty much the opposite argument where stress is placed on local production and consumption of goods. The definitions can of course be expanded, depending upon the context of the discussion. For example, globalization can be equated with free market economics that relies on the "intelligence" of the market to place a correct price on the conversion of raw material and natural resources to value added goods and services. Localization can be considered as a more "humane" economic system where resources are considered as commons, and nobody consumes more than what they need, thus leading to an adequate supply of resources at a fair price for everybody. <br /><br />The important point is to realize that whatever be the definitions depending upon the context of the discussion, we are talking about two different paradigms here, that is, globalization and localization. Each paradigm has its own set of assumptions, risks, and objectives, which cannot be equated. I am referring here to Kuhn's theory on the structure of scientific revolutions, where he suggests that rival paradigms are incommensurable, that is, "it is not possible to understand one paradigm through the conceptual framework and terminology of another rival paradigm".<br /><br />To explain this further, the paradigm which justifies globalization, henceforth referred to as the <i>globalization paradigm</i>, assumes that the value-addition process of converting raw material to finished goods can be given the correct price. Relocation of different parts of the process to places which do it most efficiently will lead to lower prices of the finished good. This can happen if there is fair competition in the market, and complete information is freely available to all the agents in the market. Now, if any of these assumptions are violated, which they are, then the objective of operating in this paradigm are not met. Similarly, the <i>localization paradigm</i> has its own set of assumptions. The local governance systems will ensure that the commons are not used unfairly. Local economics will interact with each other through a self-organized process, and exchange goods and services which they cannot locally produce. Sufficient thought will be placed in the value-addition process so that labor is rewarded according to its worth. These are also very strong assumptions, and you will quickly realize that neither of these paradigms can be considered as an absolute truth, and more importantly, cannot be compared to each other in a scientific manner because the objectives are different.<br /><br />Note that objectives of either paradigm can also be to influence factors which encourage people to operate within that paradigm, that is, paradigms themselves can be selfish and meant to reinforce themselves. Thus, an objective of the globalization paradigm can be to influence governments to embrace globalization, which is actually what globalization tries to do through trade organizations and other mechanisms! Localization is no different.<br /><br />So, given that these are two opposing paradigms, let us see how we can understand the rationality of actions such as policy decisions made by governments, or democratic protests that take place against these policies, etc. But before going on, consider the word <i>rationality</i> used above. Rationality is itself specific to a paradigm, because actions considered rational within a paradigm might be irrational in the other paradigm. When we cannot compare the two paradigms with each other, we cannot evaluate the "rationality" of an action in some absolute sense. This is exactly my point, that we can argue about the rationality of an action only within a particular paradigm, globalization or localization in this case. I believe that it is important to agree upon a common paradigm when having a discussion, or at least to have the realization that there are opposing incommensurate paradigms.<br /><br />Therefore, at this point, it is better to direct the discussion along one of two different directions. Either change the topic of discussion to first focus on finding common parameters based on which the different paradigms can be compared, if at all. Once there is consensus, analyze the action in both the paradigms. Note that by finding common parameters, there is a huge risk of mis-interpretation. You might have invented your own new paradigm in doing so! But any how, at least the discussion will not be as frustrating as when both parties cannot even agree upon common parameters for comparison, and only cause a mutually irritating cacophony of heated arguments. Alternatively, select a particular paradigm, preferably the one in which the world is operating, and analyze the action in that paradigm. <br /><br />Taking this alternative route, whatever paradigm is selected, the actions such as government policies can be analyzed on two metrics: <i>intra-paradigm</i> effects and <i>extra-paradigm</i> effects. Intra-paradigm effects are those that influence the assumptions or operational factors to meet the objectives within the selected paradigm. Extra-paradigm effects alter variables to move towards the objectives of the opposing paradigm. Let us talk about two characteristics of intra- and extra-paradigm effects: <i>robustness</i> and <i>efficiency</i>. Robustness refers to the state of stability produced by the action -- does it lead to a more or less stable state of the system. For example, free-trade agreements that caused a drop in international cotton-prices resulted in anti-globalization protests, leading to a less stable state. Efficiency of an action refers to how well it meets the objectives of the paradigm. Thus, free-trade agreements which reduced the prices were an efficient action. Typically paradigms have an objective of reinforcing themselves and opposing other rival paradigms; therefore, actions that produce more extra-paradigm effects can be considered to be less robust, and actions that produce more intra-paradigm effects can be considered to be more efficient within the paradigm under consideration. <br /><br />The rationality of an action can thus be justified on how efficient and robust it is, where efficiency and robustness can be measured based on the intra- and extra-paradigm effects produced by the action. An action can be accompanied by other supplementary actions which can help balance out the efficiency and robustness of the action. For example, incorporation of appropriate insurance policies and commodity futures for poor cotton farmers would have reduced the impact of falling cotton prices on their livelihoods, and led to fewer protests. This supplementary action would have preserved efficiency without compromising robustness. Based on this, I next mention four interesting thoughts which could lead some productive discussions.<br /><br />1. Actions can some times produce a paradigm shift, that is, the extra-paradigm effects of an action could get so large that it could tip over the entire system into changing its operating paradigm. For example, worldwide anti-globalization protests could tip the governments into adopting a localized paradigm. This would be extremely disruptive however, marked by conflicts and other intermediate highly unstable states. Alternatively, actions could slowly cause a paradigm shift, moving gradually towards the adoption of a new paradigm. For example, if localization or "Small is Beautiful" is considered to be a "better" paradigm in which the world should operate, that is, in some absolute "truthful" sense of leading to a <i>better</i> world, then actions could be chosen to produce minor extra-paradigm shifts while simultaneously producing intra-paradigm shifts so that the action remains acceptable in the current globalization-paradigm. Over time, these actions could aggregate to peacefully and non-violently tip the world into the localization-paradigm though a paradigm shift!<br /><br />2. Are policies formulated scientifically within a paradigm more rational than policies based on democratic politics? The voting behavior of people in a democracy is actually considered to be highly irrational because of a lack of information and excessive complexity of modern societies, and science could possibly improve the situation. But where should a line be drawn between the relative influence of science or democratic voting on policy formulation, especially when science and democratic voting might be operating in different paradigms? Policies formulated scientifically would in fact depend upon the paradigms in which the scientists are operating, which could be different from the paradigms that the electorate desires.<br /><br />3. Combining the thoughts on policy science and paradigm shifts, can policies be chosen scientifically to deliberately push the system into a paradigm shift? This would actually amount to hacking the democratic system! Assuming that the localization paradigm is better than the globalization paradigm in some absolute "truthful" sense, is the democratic system capable of choosing the right paradigm in which to operate? Does the voting behavior of largely ignorant people cause intra-paradigm effects or extra-paradigm effects or just a confused muddle of both leading to useless oscillations? I believe it is important to think about this question because it could reveal how and what roads to choose that lead to a better world in an efficient and robust manner.<br /><br />I would again like to state that my goal in writing this was only to help me state my thoughts clearly, and not to advocate any particular approach when having discussions.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-79258913301808101352007-09-26T00:38:00.000-04:002007-09-26T00:41:44.078-04:00Role of communication technologies in developmentI am sure all of us have heard of great examples of how communication technologies have spurred rural development, as what <a href="http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/sep2007/gb20070913_705733.htm">this report shows too</a>. People finds all sorts of innovative ways on how to put technology to good use, and if they are convinced that the technologies can indeed benefit them, they will come up with the coolest of ideas to <a href="http://www.kk.org/streetuse/archives/2007/09/mobile_bicycle_public_phone_bo.php">gain access to the technology</a>.<br /><br />But then again, is communication really as important as proper health-care, or education, or providing employment? A lot of my own work is related to the use of ICT for rural development, and I have been asked this question many many times. This <a href="http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=3714058">Economist article</a> takes a very realistic, though one-sided, view: What use is communication to a poor person who doesn't even have food to eat? Or, a sick person who can't go to a doctor? People like me argue back that communication provides crucial information flows that these poor or sick people can use. The poor person can probably gain access to microfinance through organizations like <a href="http://www.kiva.org">Kiva</a>. The sick person can probably get some medical advice through <a href"http://www.hoise.com/vmw/06/articles/vmw/LV-VM-07-06-16.html">telemedicine</a>. The critics argue back that the poor don't have money to pay for such communication services, or that they are illiterate and cannot use them. Diverting public funds to rural communication is hence a waste of money, and the governments should instead invest in other infrastructural services. We again argue back that communication is also needed because it can improve the efficiencies of various other development activities -- lower corruption, provide information, etc. And the debate goes back and forth each time...<br /><br />I am any how strongly convinced that communication is important and it provides a strong positive feedback to improve various local developmental and professional activities. The sad part though is that implementation is always harder than philosophizing and leaves so much ground uncovered. For example, telecentres or rural Internet kiosks are being <a href="http://www.hindu.com/2005/11/25/stories/2005112504941000.htm">set up extensively in rural areas</a> to provide Internet services to the people, but the most common purpose to which they are put is for electricity bill collection (<a href="http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/tetherless/index.php/Photographs_of_the_Anandpuram_deployment">personal experience</a>) because it saves the people bus-fare and a day's travel to the city! And this is not surprising, because the kiosk operators are hardly knowledgeable themselves to be able to help educate the local people about various other possibilities. There are of course many other problems as well, but this always throws back the same questions in our faces of what are good ways to intervene in a system so that the interventions actually live up to their potential? Where does technology stop and where does execution begin? <br /><br />I think these are important questions to answer for any interventionist activity or government policy, because their success or failure depends on so many contextual factors. On the other hand, the market-driven cellphone revolution probably reinforces Adam Smith's invisible-hand theory to leave everything to the free-market and reduce the government's role merely to that of a facilitator. But this has its own set of challenges and biases which makes it equally hard to understand. It's a difficult question to answer, and something I've been struggling with for a long time.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-76078872473429634452007-09-15T09:58:00.000-04:002007-09-15T09:59:28.990-04:00Dam realitiesMuch of the dams in India seem to be heavily mis-managed. <a href="http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/portal/2006/10/600">The 2006 floods in Gujarat were mostly man-made</a>: water was not released in time, and later when there was danger of the entire structure suffering damage, almost 30 times the regular amount was released. The result: a hundred people dead, and losses of over 21,000 crores.<br /><br />But as <a href="http://www.indiatogether.org/2007/sep/env-downstr.htm">this article shows</a>, the negligence continues. Water is released or stopped without any prior notice. The farmers have to move their pumps closer to the river when the water levels go down, and later when the water is released, they find their pumps under several feet of water. Worse is when lives are lost, which could have easily avoided by being more responsible and having appropriate technology and systems in place.<br /><br />If the authorities cannot manage dams at this scale, why do they even talk about massive projects such as the <a href="http://www.hinduonnet.com/thehindu/2003/01/31/stories/2003013101480900.htm">river-interlinking project</a>. It just scares me to think of the complications there, which simply dwarf the complexities of the management of dams today.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-78571945627278504662007-09-13T07:57:00.000-04:002008-11-13T07:34:23.634-05:00Shame the corrupt with Rs. 0<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJZ8j0u6CQkKOfDNyXKcgPsMz7-gIZqfXim7fU2gt43uwTbp_N9rhYNgJqrCQ364V5KrVhZtA5h2XymoQZxaTJbAlkJu8aFP9wPPUMj8lJv_6F_pi6G57yj71rUverblMCK-dEQ/s1600-h/image001.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJJZ8j0u6CQkKOfDNyXKcgPsMz7-gIZqfXim7fU2gt43uwTbp_N9rhYNgJqrCQ364V5KrVhZtA5h2XymoQZxaTJbAlkJu8aFP9wPPUMj8lJv_6F_pi6G57yj71rUverblMCK-dEQ/s400/image001.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5109657681442603346" /></a>Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-70031764451758598262007-09-12T12:00:00.000-04:002007-09-13T08:07:28.940-04:00Very low-cost Internet access in rural areas using KioskNetThis is an article I wrote for <a href="http://www.itihas.org.in/sattva.html">Saatva</a>:<br /><br />Rural areas in developing countries are deprived of access to information. This is because it is often economically unviable to provide telecommunication services in remote villages; or even if the infrastructure is available, high cost of usage and illiteracy among the villagers reduce the abilities of the poorest sections of society to take advantage of the modern communication systems. A solution that has proved effective in recent years is that of setting up rural Internet kiosks (also known as telecenters) in the villages. A typical kiosk houses a few computers having Internet connectivity, and is operated by staff recruited from among the local community members. Sharing of the kiosk infrastructure among many people effectively reduces its cost for the people. And the kiosk staff members who are trained in basic computer skills are able to serve as an intermediary to help even illiterate people find useful information on the Internet. Kiosks can also be made economically sustainable by charging a small fee from the people using them.<br /><br />There are now literally thousands of telecenters across Africa, Latin America, and even in India. In fact, the Government of India is supporting a programme called Mission 2007, with the goal of setting up a kiosk in each of the 600,000 villages of India. Stories abound of how very useful medical and agricultural information distributed through such kiosks has helped hundreds of people to adopt healthier lifestyles and improve farmland productivity. Access to the most recent weather forecasts and crop procurement prices in nearby markets has given even further control to the farmers to make better decisions for crop harvesting and sales. Even other programmes such as watershed development, microfinance, and rural electrification have received a boost from hearing and learning about similar activities pursued in different parts of the world. Yet another useful application supported by many telecenters is that of e-government services, such as automation of land records, and requests for birth, marriage, and income certificates. It is hard to deny the tremendous advantages of kiosks to provide information in rural areas.<br /><br />However, kiosks face many practical problems. Due to limited electrical power, pervasive dust, mechanical wear-and-tear, and computer viruses, kiosk computers often fail, requiring frequent (and expensive) repairs. Similarly, network connectivity is often lost due to failures in the communication system. Dial-up are cellular-data connections are very slow and flaky. Satellite terminals are expensive, and have large power requirements to operate. Other solutions such as long-distance wireless links require expensive and sturdy towers because the antennas often lose alignment with each other in strong winds. Faced with high costs and unreliable service delivery, customers quickly lose interest, and kiosk deployments often become unsustainable in the long term. <br /><br /><img src="http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/tetherless/images/7/77/Systempic.002.jpg"><br /><br />Our research group has built the KioskNet system by approaching these problems from a holistic standpoint. KioskNet attempts to make a kiosk more robust without increasing its cost. It uses a low-cost and low-power single-board-computer as a kiosk controller at each kiosk. This runs from a car battery charged using solar power, to ensure 24 hours of up-time. The controller provides a network file-system for PCs running at the kiosk. These PCs are typically recycled PCs, and do not need a hard-disk; they boot from the kiosk controller itself. Kiosk controllers are reasonably tamper-proof so they offer reliable virus-free boot images and binaries. Since we do not use the PC’s hard disk, it avoids hard disk failures and disk-resident viruses. Moreover, recycled PCs are cheap and spare parts are widely available.<br /><br />The controller can communicate wirelessly with another single-board computer mounted on a vehicle, powered from the battery of the vehicle itself. These vehicles may belong to government officers who regularly visit the villages, or taxi owners who operate in the area, or transportation providers who carry goods and groceries back and forth between villages and cities. The computers on the vehicles automatically pick-up or drop-off data wirelessly at the kiosks, and carry it to and from an Internet gateway typically in a city. Even during a few seconds of connectivity while a vehicle simply drives a past or gateway, almost 100MB of data can be exchanged. This ‘mechanical backhaul’ avoids the cost of trenches, towers, and satellite dishes, allowing Internet access even in remote areas, though at the cost of increased end-to-end delay. In areas where dial-up, long-range wireless or cellular phone service is available, the kiosk controller can be configured to use these communication links in conjunction with mechanical backhaul. <br /><br />We did a successful pilot deployment of the KioskNet system in May 2006 at a kiosk in the Anandpuram village of the Vishakapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh. Some pictures from the deployment are shown in Fig. 1. We plan to do a bigger deployment soon to verify many of our assumptions and observe the system carefully. Please let us know if you are interested to use or experiment with KioskNet. More information, including links to papers, technical details, and cost estimates can be found on our website:<br /><a href="http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/tetherless/index.php/KioskNet">http://blizzard.cs.uwaterloo.ca/tetherless/index.php/KioskNet</a>Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-9030870710169400192007-09-09T23:22:00.000-04:002007-09-09T23:23:47.249-04:00The persistence of underdevelopment: Raghuram RajanAlthough I haven't been able to completely read or understand this paper, some parts of it sound really interesting. Raghuram Rajan is director of research at IMF, and has proposed an explanation of why countries like India and Mexico, which are "vibrant democracies", are still plagued with underdevelopment. Why do people choose poverty, is the question under concern! <br /><br />It assumes that comprehensive reforms, defined as (pro-market reforms) + (education for all), are needed for the collective development of different groups of people. This seems to be justified because without education, the uneducated would not be able to take advantage of the pro-market reforms. And pro-market reforms are in general considered to be good because they promote competition and lead to lower prices for goods and services.<br /><br />Then it goes on to show that educational reforms might never happen because of the diverse interests of different groups of people. For example, the uneducated people might vote for them, but the educated people would want to preserve their elite status. Or, even if the reforms do get voted through, their success would depend upon factors such as the price of educational services, which are again provided by the educated people.<br /><br />In the absense of educational reforms, the pro-market reforms would never gain consensus. This is because (a) without education, the uneducated would not be able to take advantage of the opportunities created by pro-market reforms, and (b) pro-market reforms would create additional employment for the educated, which would lead to higher prices for services such as healthcare provided to the uneducated by the educated. Thus, the real wage of the uneducated might actually decrease with pro-market reforms.<br /><br />The bottomline is that different groups of people want to preserve their current rents, while also trying to expand their opportunities. But opportunity expansion is always good for some and bad for some, and everybody cannot preserve their rents. As a result, the people "may act like crabs in a bucket, willing to pull down any crab that appears to be climbing out, with the active help of the elite oligopolist, who prefers them all to stay in the bucket. The oligopolist may even forego some reforms that could enhance his rents, for fear that they would unify the crabs in the bucket and allow them to overwhelm him."<br /><br />The general suggestions for policy formulation are not different from what we already know: pro-market reforms should be accompanied with reasonable endowments for education to different groups of people. However, this is easier said than done. What is a "reasonable endowment"? What should be the sequencing of pro-market reforms and endowments for education? How can the government persuade diverse groups of people to follow a coordinated reform process? The last question indeed seems to be the crux of the problem, to persuade uncoordinated masses of uneducated and educated people to think in a coordinated manner. Even the other questions are not answered in a straight-forward manner because economics and its implementation is still a science (?) under development.<br /><br />Although this is a highly academic paper, I think it provides a framework to understand the complexities of much that is going on in India these days, especially with regard to OBC reservations, SEZ expansions, the Narmada Bachao Andalon, etc. And it shows that it is wrong to analyze these problems from highly simplified viewpoints such as corrupt politics, or manipulative corporations, or "irrational mobs" in a democracy. In fact, they subsume the media, civil services, democratic politics, economics, and what not. An utterly complex world that humans have woven for themselves! Small can indeed be beautiful :)Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-8495501081554184052007-09-05T06:06:00.001-04:002007-09-10T01:55:15.582-04:00Ngopost.orgMembers from Udai at San Diego (www.udai.org) have put together a website to post about interesting social development activities around the world. Please register and send in your contributions!<br /><br />NGO Post is the people's platform for sharing and discussing social welfare ideas and initiatives.<br /><br />NGO Post is more than the traditional news website or mailing list. More than about news, it is about ideas that facilitate action. And because it is You who bring in the stories and You who decide what gets published, we expect the best, and only the best, to be on our frontpage.<br /><br />Keep up-to-date with ongoing social developments. Learn how people are making a difference. Get inspired. Share insightful stories. Discuss ideas and solutions. Find information. Connect with people interested in common causes. And Contribute to the projects that need your skills.<br /><br />All at <a href="http://ngopost.org">NGO Post</a>Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16741695.post-61234564114537377542007-08-24T00:43:00.000-04:002007-08-24T00:45:22.762-04:00OpenFM: Open source FM radio stationAdapted Consulting has recently released an open source FM radio station for community radio in rural areas.<br /><br />Some very cool features:<br />- Transmitter costs under $1200, which is one of cheapest transmitters available so far<br />- Dust, heat, humidity resistant<br />- Runs from 12V batteries charged by solar power<br />- Receives stereo input from a computer, which can be a Via ITX box or maybe even a Soekris<br />- Computer can run mixing and editing software such as Campcaster or Audacity<br />- Software is also provided for account and bill maintenance at the community radio station, fetching of rss feeds from the Internet, and publication of news feeds.<br /><br />This is great, but it will be even more wonderful to see FM PCI card transmitters that can run from the Via or Soekris box itself. This should reduce the total cost drastically.<br /><br />Apparently, these are the same group of people who wrote the book on wireless networking for the developing world. They have an office in Toronto as well.<br /><br />They also have a solution called Iota PC for rural telecenters that supports basic caching functions for wikipedia, google alerts, email, rss feeds, and website mirroring. And a reporting tool called TeleScope, which generates reports on the hourly usage, connection speeds, websites visited at the telecenter, etc.Aaditeshwar Sethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08196088629506868828noreply@blogger.com2