Rural India and E-Governance

India is a nation of villages with 72% of the population residing in 638,387 villages as per the Census 2011 data. In rural areas, people are often deprived of getting benefit from the integrated development programmes. The use of e-governance initiatives in rural areas needs selection of appropriate technologies which are dependable, maintainable and cost effective.

Rural e-governance initiatives

Computerized Rural Information System Project (CRISP)

It helps District Rural Development Agency (DRDA) to monitor the poverty alleviation programmes through computer based information system.

State Wide Network Area Project (SWAN)

It provides high speed connectivity connecting offices at block level for faster access to Government services.

E-Choupal

It is an e-government initiative formulated by the International Business Division of Indian Tobacco Company (ITC-IBD) to sell agricultural products, home appliances and consumer goods. It protects farmers from the abuse of the agents.

LokMitra

It was developed by the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Himachal Pradesh to provide easy access to remote places to redress complaints.

N-Logue

N-Logue communications Pvt. Ltd., is providing telecom and intrenet services in small towns and rural areas of India.

Kisan Call Centres

These respond to the queries raised by the farmers instantly in the local language. It was launched by the Department of Agriculture & Cooperation, Ministry of Agriculture in 2002.

Gyandoot

It is an community-owned information kiosks established in the poverty-stricken, tribal dominated rural areas of Madhya Pradesh.

Akashganga

It makes use of ICT to facilitate rural milk producers by integrating all operations of the cooperative society right from milk procurement to accounting.