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ICRISAT scientist bags global award

Our Bureau

HYDERABAD, July 5

DR Venkataraman Balaji, Head of Information System Unit of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here, has won the prestigious World Technology Award for his pioneering work in the use of electronic information te chnologies to better the lives of villagers. Dr. Balaji is the first Indian to get the award.

Dr Balaji received the award in the category of education. His work at the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation in Chennai, where he worked till last year, involved putting to use modern information and communication technologies in 10 villages in Pondich erry. Using a hub-and-spoke model of data-cum-voice communication, these information villages communicated with each other as well and also accessed the internet.

According to an ICRISAT press release, wave height predictions were obtained from the Internet and supplied to Veerampattinam, a coastal village in which 98 per cent of the families were involved in fishing. The information was downloaded from a US Navy Web site and converted to suit the latitude and longitude of the village. This was used by the fishermen to decide whether to go into the sea or not. Similarly, thermal mapping of fish aggregation near the shore produced by the National Remote Sensing Ag ency of Hyderabad was also provided to this village whenever available.

Other locally-specific content provided to the villagers included the development of a detailed document on sugarcane cultivation, a guide book on application of bio-fertilisers in rice cultivation, a how-to style document on herbal remedies for minor di sorders among children and a document on local religious festivals. Results and mark sheets of high school and higher secondary school examinations were made available through the internet.

The hub village provided connectivity to the Internet through dial-up telephone lines and the staff there created locally useful content. The village centres (spokes) received queries from the local residents and supplied information, collected from the hub, back to villagers.

The press release stated that an important feature of this project was the strong sense of ownership that the village communities developed through the village centers. The other key feature was the active participation of rural women in the management o f the village center as well as in using it. A system of close consultation between the project staff and the rural users evolved so that the information needs could be realistically assessed.