[Fsf-india] NEWS: First set of Simputers deployed in Chhattishgarh

[Frederick Noronha]

First set of Simputers deployed in Chhattishgarh

By Imran Qureshi, Indo-Asian News Service

Bangalore, Mar 19 (IANS) The Simputer, or the common man's computer, has
been deployed in the underdeveloped areas of Chhattishgarh state after
its quiet rollout from the state-owned Bharat Electronics.

The Simputer, a most promising invention of the last century by four
professors of the city-based prestigious Indian Institute of Science
(IISc) and three technologists from Encore Software, is on its first
field trials for an education project in the Bastar area of the
predominantly tribal state.

"About 30 units are out in the field and two of our colleagues from
PicoPeta Simputers are briefing the users on how to handle the
Simputer," Vijay Chandru, director, PicoPeta Simputers, one of the two
license holders from the Simputer Trust, told IANS.

The Bastar education project, promoted by Rainbow Partnership
Organisation (RPO), a subsidiary of the South Asia Foundation, is a
pilot in which World Space Radio is collaborating with PicoPeta
Simputers. It covers 2,000 students who could "enhance their knowledge
base" by using the smart card.

As Bharat Electronics delivers the first order of 150 Simputers in the
next couple of weeks to PicoPeta, the hand-held devices  - slightly
bigger than a palmtop but as powerful as a computer  - would be deployed
in 95 villages chosen by the state government.

"We are trying out the first six devices in areas which do not have even
a telephone. Some educational materials will be downloaded from the
World Space Radio on to the Simputers. About one fifth of the 500 pages
of content would be available on the Simputers in the next couple of
weeks," Chandru said.

The content, which is in the form of Information Markup Language (IML)
pages, is uploaded to the satellite and broadcast through World Space
Radio receivers. Both the radio receivers and the Simputers are battery
operated, making them operational even in the most difficult of
terrains.

The Linux-based device can operate in multiple languages, play MP3 files
and can be used for e-mail as well as Internet surfing through a browser
for the IML.

Its text-to-speech capability can be utilised by the entire community
through its smart card feature that allows for personal information
management at the individual level. When produced on a large scale, the
Simputer would cost less than $200 or Rs.9,000.

"The content includes information on health that is provided by the
government right now. Later, it would include an e-governance programme
that would have a grievances section. Over a period of time, it will be
completely customer driven," Chandru added.

The field trials will test the Simputer for basic technology, whether
the interface is as intuitive as it was in the laboratory as well as the
text-to-speech capability.

>From the time it was launched in April last, "the electronics has been
improved, the modem has been fully stabilised, the battery pack
re-engineered and made more powerful".

"We are taking it step by step. We would not like to get into
large-scale production, at least until it is tested by June-July. It is
a complex business plan," Chandru said.

For the time being, the Chhattishgarh project would be extended to other
areas proposals for which have been received by PicoPeta Simputers.

These include an e-governance project in Karnataka, a poverty
alleviation project in Andhra Pradesh and a micro credit project in
Tamil Nadu. This is apart from a micro credit project with a voluntary
organisation in Karnataka.

This would be followed by a project sanctioned by the federal
information technology ministry for field trials of 200 units in the
IISc. It would be later tried in countries of the South Asian
Association for Regional Cooperation.

The Simputer was developed after a discussion on the digital divide at
the BangaloreIT.com 1998, Asia's biggest IT show organised by the
Karnataka government and the National Association of Software and
Service Companies.

The other license holder for the Simputer, Encore Software, is testing
some units in Singapore where it has a marketing arrangement with a
local company. It plans to roll out about 500 Simputers next month at
its sister company, Peninsula.

The Simputer Trust consists of the seven inventors: Swami Manohar, V.
Vinay, Ramesh Hariharan and Chandru, all from the IISc, Vinay Deshpande,
Shashank Garg and Mark Mathias of Encore Software and Rahul Matthan of
Trilegal.

---Indo-Asian News Service