A project presented to Rural Development Ministry in Government of Rajasthan. Could have been taken up with huge social impact potential. However, the Secretary and t

1. On the need for the application just demonstrated

2. Digital Divides: Not One, but Three
Rural PC Penetration
3 in every 1,000 Access Divide
Relevance Divide
 95% web content in English
Linguistic & Cultural Divide  Hardly 5% rural inhabitants
understand English

3. Model to bridge the divide
 Eliminate the middlemen, provide Remove information asymmetries
direct access inherent in a hierarchical structure
 Use the natural modes of human
Make the technology accessible to
communication, imagery and even the illiterates
voice
 Provide locally relevant content The use of technology should
and applications improve the earning prospects of
the user.

4. Radical Transformation,
not incremental improvements
We propose to explode the rocky terrain, not to bridge the divide
Incremental improvements will
take decades, if not centuries, to
fill the chasm
The proposed user interface can
dramatically transform the usability, There will still be unevenness of access,
bringing the 81cr Indians into the fold but none so pronounced to create
of Information revolution, some of information barriers.
whom have been left untouched, even
by print revolution.

5. Precedents
Launch of first popular GUI
– Microsoft’s Win95
Launch of Windows and its impact on PC 200
180 172
adaption
160
Unit Sales in MM
Launch of first Graphic User
140 Interface – Apple’s Macintosh
Even though computers were launched in 1980s in 120
100
US, there was no materially significant consumer 80 60.3
adaption of the technology till 1985 when first 60
graphic user interface was created. Sales got 40
20 5.7
quadrupled after launch of Win 95 in 1990. 0
1981-85 1986-90 1991-95
Telecom Revolution in India
Cellphone usage touched a high of 65% in India.
The rural inhabitants, as well as the have nots
have been the prolific users of the mobile
phones, highlighting the importance of simplicity
and voice based communication protocols for the
rural users.

6. Model Efficacy Test Results
 Our guiding principle has been “How will
the last man, woman, and child be
reached, touched, and transformed by
these marvelous machines.” Hence, we did
not stop short at Hindi content, and
introduced speech feature for output, and
touch screen for input.
 A survey amongst the 100 villagers in
Jaipur district established:
 Universal acceptance of speech feature
 High willingness to use (and even pay
nominal charges) for services at such a
machine, if made available
 50% of the villagers surveyed were
illiterates

7. Picture This: WIN BHARAT in practice
Large Image based
icons
Number based or
Yes/No based input
Speech to assist
user in pressing the
appropriate areas
on touch screen
Locally useful
applications and
content like
Shaadi, Naukri,
Weather Info

8. A Story Foretold
Help!! Help!!
We need better computer education

9. Win Bharat Architecture User Data
Sex: Male
Age: 25
Looking for Driver job
Companies and People
Helpline Call
looking to hire/ get
information
Data Repository Central Operations
Application Server Center
Voice Mail App
Weather
Entrepreneurs and 3rd party Information
Information
Developers Servers/ Sources
Temp: 27º C

10. Social Impact
 Enhanced PC Penetration: 5x increase in Per Cr of Govt. Spending on WIN BHARAT Social Impact
PC penetration in rural India, bringing it
closer to Urban India. # of Villages covered 15
# of PC's Installed 30
 Greater access to information:
Information related to crop Rural Population Penetrated ('000) 15
cultivation, weather information and Employment Generation Potential 1,497
forecasts, available jobs in nearby Annual Private Investment attracted (INR lacs) 18
cities, etc.
 Percolation of benefits of technology to
the lowest levels in the society: The
barriers to the adoption of technology are
Total Project Cost, INR Cr
mostly linguistic, and medium of
(if implemented on pan-India basis) 6,681
communication. WIN BHARAT seeks to
minimize both by using first-of-its-kind # of Villages Covered (lacs) 1
interface Total Number of PC's Installed (lacs) 2
 Local Employment Generation: Each Rural Population Penetrated (cr) 10
village will have an information center to Rural Penetration 14%
be transferred eventually to a village level Employment Generation Potential (lacs) 100
entrepreneur. Besides central operations Private Investment Attracted (Annual, INR Cr) 1,200
center will provide employment to
vernacular teams.

11. Pilot Project: Scope & Scale
 Coverage: A sample of 100 # of Villages Covered 100
villages in Ajmer PC's Installed 200
 Access Setup: Each village to have Population Covered 2lacs
info-centers with two terminals Hours of PC Access/annum 9lacs
each running WIN BHARAT Employment Generation Potential 10,000
 Application Server, Data
Repository, and Operations Key Applications to be tested
Center in Ajmer: Operations Agriculture Related Information
center will have helpline to Matchmaking Portal
address any issues, a database Horoscope and Janampatri
management team, and an Rural Job Portal
Complaints to the MLA/MP
application maintenance team.

12. Pilot Project: Cost Breakdown
 Project will cost: INR25cr for Project Pilot Cost INR Cr
# of Villages Covered 100 500 1000
running a pilot in 100 villages Cost of Developing User Interface 7 7 7
Cost of Application Development 8 8 8
 A 20-member central team in Cost of Content Development 6 9 12
Hardware Cost 4 21 41
Ajmer for application support, Total 25 50 76
database management, and
Operating Cost (1-year) 2 5 8
helpline support
 Every Info-Center will be
operated by a village local with
basic proficiency in computers,
who will award the computers
on hourly basis

13. Pilot Project: Development Timeline
 Project will take: 12months

14. Way Forward
 Pan-India expansion of project: As
discussed earlier, a pan India
expansion can be carried out in
villages having population of more
than 2,000.
 Developers and Companies can
enter the fray using WIN BHARAT
platform: A WIN BHARAT simulator
and development libraries will be
made available to companies, so
that they can use the Interface to
develop customized applications
 Affordable Personal Computer
with WIN BHARAT interface to be
launched: A personal computer
priced at Rs 5,000 running WIN
BHARAT will be within reach for
most of the rural households