Effective communication networks have facilitated rapid dissemination of knowledge and hence growth in urban areas when compared to rural areas. Even though the majority of the Indian population live in rural areas, the communication facilities in rural areas have still not been upgraded to be on par with urban areas. Due to the lack of exposure to developments in the field of social & sustainable development and cost-effective appropriate technologies, development organisations working in rural areas are conducting their activities through conventional practices with little or no technology input.

Increasing the capability of networking between Non-Governmental Organisations and Community Based Organisations through electronic media is one of the options to achieve the goal of spreading development into remote areas. However the establishment of electronic networks in remote areas has its disadvantages. Unreliable telephone lines and telecommunication infrastructure are some examples.

To overcome the above hurdle, this project envisages the establishment of a remote area electronic networking using packet radio modems in 10 remote sites. This is done primarily to enable Community Based Organisations (CBOs), Non-Governmental Organisations and Development organizations working in remote, rural and tribal areas to network with like minded organizations within the region and with national and international NGOs and partner organisations.

The technology to be used will be wireless radios coupled with packet radio modems connected to a sub-host computer running TCP/IP host software. The packet radio network is used for accessing external databases, sharing data, electronic mail, bulletin board services, newsgroups, et cetera by interconnecting a series of such packet radio sub-hosts to the Internet gateway host in Madras.

The objective of this project is to bring more development organisations working for the rural poor in remote areas under the fold of electronic networking to accomplish the following:

• Networking of development agencies in remote areas with limited or no access to electronic communications, thus facilitating communities to improve their quality of life for equitable and sustainable development;





• Strengthen the role of NGOs as knowledge brokers through its local, national and international strategic partners and development organisations;





• Promote collaboration in research and development through information access;





• Facilitate use and exchange of information through electronic communications and access to databases and databanks to enable NGOs and institutions to share knowledge across the world;





• Offer e-mail, bulletin board and conferencing services;





• Establish Internet Services and act as an Internet Service Provider;





• Concentrate on networking content for sharing and providing support for regional Internet information hosting in support of distribution and utilization of information arising from research carried out in the region;





• Work in partnership with remote organisations and institutions with relevance to their social development and sustainable development research programmes; Deliberate on ideas and contributions through wide consultation and information dissemination, using various means including the Internet, existing networks of individuals, group discussions, et cetera;





• Be receptive to action-oriented solutions to problems in Development Networking applications by utilising Internet and other innovative existing technologies;





• Involve experimentations, pilot studies and other practical networking activities using wireless technology that could create replicable results and have potential for application throughout the region;





• Publication and dissemination of practical and accessible project documentation on a regional, national and international level.