Bridging the digital divide with shared-access telecenters
One way to increase access to technology is a telecenters, a shared access area where public computers are made available to the community. The Akshaya Program in the rural Malappuram district of Kerala, India is a program that began in 2002 with the creation of 600 telecenters. Today, over 300 centers are self-sustaining and profitable with the services they provide being expanded into opportunities for hundreds of thousands of impoverished villagers.
Kerala’s leaders built the Akshaya success by following global best practices that include fostering entrepreneurship, collaborating closely with the private sector, and delivering a broad range of services that villagers want and need. Now, the Government of India (GOI) with Intel’s help is following many of those same practices as it creates 100,000 Common Services Centers (CSCs) across the nation.
Intel India started an initiative called the Small Medium Business (SMBs) Advantage Program to assist its channel partners in increasing their business with SMBs. Intel identified 160 channel partners comprising system integrators, OEMs and retail partners from 15 cities across India, along with five key SMB verticals—manufacturing (auto ancillaries, gems and jewellery, pharmaceuticals, and textiles), animation, stock brokerage, and higher education. In collaboration with its partners, Intel hosted special events where customers could purchase complete solutions and worked with ICICI bank to provide special loans to SMBs that invest in Intel solutions. Intel worked on additional initiatives including helping partners establish proof of concept centers along with the development of Intel solution-based case studies that showed the benefits to SMBs.
The India World Ahead Alliance, launched by Intel Chairman Dr. Craig Barrett, is a collaborative initiative grounded in developing information and communication technologies (ICT) based solutions to improve the quality of life within local communities. The alliance is focused on bringing the benefits of technology integration in the areas of education, health, and governance to enhance the lives of individuals by leveraging member skills and collaborating amongst each other to support programs that will positively impact citizens and communities in underserved areas.