Southern States - Kerala   

`Akshaya' project to bridge digital divide

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM NOV. 16. The `Akshaya' project, to be inaugurated by the President, A. P. J. Abdul Kalam, on Monday, envisages the establishment of 9,000 community information centres across the State as part of a campaign to bridge the digital divide.

These centres are to be established through private initiative, with the objective of having one centre within two km of each household.

The project would commence in Malappuram and Thiruvananthapuram in January 2003 and the entire State is proposed to be covered by May 2004.

As part of the project, one person from each family will be trained to enable him use the computer for day-to-day communication and information needs. The training, which would be on Windows platform, would cover basic word processing skills (using wordpad), use of spreadsheet (Excel) and accessing of Email and Internet.

A significant volume of content that is relevant in the Kerala context is being developed in Malayalam language as part of the project. This would include PSC notifications, supportive documents including formats of certificates and forms. A number of CDs would be made available through Community Information Centres.

These would cover information on agricultural crops, package of practices and the like. Information of bus timings, train timings and agriculture prices too would be made available through these centres.

The content is to be developed by private parties with assistance from the Government. The IT Mission is currently vetting about 350 proposals, of which 40 have been short-listed for immediate consideration.

In Malappuram district, the IT Mission is proposing to set up 750 centres, each costing Rs. 3.5 lakhs. Applications have been invited from entrepreneurs for setting up these centres at their own costs.

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