Knowledge Centers For Rural Prosperity

Transcription

1 Village Panchayat Knowledge Centers For Rural Prosperity Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam President of India Video Conference over the Internet From Rashtrapati Bhawan to Carnegie Mellon University India-US Million Book Digital Library Project Steering Committee Meeting held at CMU, Pittsburgh 29 May 2004

2 Dr. S.R. Rangathan Father of Library Science in India He perceived the library to be a meeting place for intellectual dialogues and knowledge sharing. Wrote 62 books and spearheaded the Public Library Movement in India This was in the Paper Era

3 Knowledge is Empowerment Empowering the villagers would lead to a Developed India How do we use the stunning power of miniaturization and connectivity at affordable costs to take the knowledge to the villager to empower him? Today, it is possible because Internet communication makes the distance disappear

4 Village Panchayat Digital Library Public Library in the Digital Era

5 Library is no longer a storehouse of books only It is a dynamic knowledge centre It is a Museum Source of Entertainment Storehouse of Informal, Traditional and Indigenous Knowledge Digital Library is where the Past meets the Present and Creates the Future

6 Digital Library Initiative in India 20 centers are in operation in India books available books are in 9 Indian languages Rashtrapati Bhawan alone has 1.7 million pages digitized we are progressing - it is available over intranet 500 GB disks with one PC can hold books

7 Seamless Access Useful and User-friendly Interface Seamless access across the distributed libraries through web services based architecture Single window searchable interface - a pleasant experience for the users Language independent natural interfaces

8 Traditional System Storage Heritage in all forms besides books Folk songs, music, paintings, carvings India has rich information relating to Literature Music Traditional system of medicine and science embedded in palm leaves Search, understand and preserve this valuable information The OCR of these ancient scripts is also a very tough problem Every palm leaf may be scanned, and the information read by the experts be recorded in audio

9 Knowledge Management Grid Central Digital Library Data Center with distributed Servers in GRID Infrastructure and storage across the country with disaster recovery facility Data mining software to mine the knowledge Seamless flow of knowledge irrespective of its location and distance to the needy

10 Connectivity is Strength, Wealth and Progress Comprehensive plan for developing: Infrastructure for extending the digital library services in regional languages OCR, Language Independent Operating System, Search engines, web servers and messaging servers The digital library initiative to percolate to the rural masses: e-governance, tele-education and tele-medicine Mission mode with the active participation of Government, educational institutions, R&D Organizations along with private sector enterprises. Push the frontiers of knowledge in Language Independent Digital Library

11 Village Knowledge Centers Specific Actions Text books Digitization of Text books, specially for primary education Tele-Education Integrate Tele-education with the Digital library Students can read and refer to the books suggested by the teacher from a distant location through on-line e-learing services. Land Record Storage Digitize Land Records and verify with satellite imagery and store Link with e-governance applications: revenue collection, estate management, and municipal records.

12 Village Knowledge Centers Digital Panchayat Raj India has about 0.23 Million of Village Panchayats Establishment of Village Knowledge Centers empower villagers with the knowledge act as nodal center for knowledge connectivity for the villagers Initially 100 remote Panchayats may be chosen for the Model Pilot project

13 Village Knowledge Centers Digital Panchayat Raj Each panchayat will have PC like device which will store more than 25,000 digital books and also connected It will also have 1000 books in the library Information that is highly localised and personalised Capture the village knowledge assets in the form of songs, stories, medicinal practices, experiences of rural people A high speed printer to print on demand, A speaking tutor to those that can not read,

14 Village Knowledge Centers Digital Panchayat Raj Entertainment, and a connectivity to the District Head quarters.. A Village Doctor who can maintain the Medical Information System and provides a secured/private medical access and delivery system It also acts as a single window interface for e-governance access, e-market access, Tele-Education and Tele-Medicine Connectivity A Village Knowledge Officer acts as an Interface between the people and Village knowledge centers

15 Village Knowledge Centers Digital Panchayat Raj Shall we make it as a Reality? Let us Discuss.