MOU Signed for Setting up of Satellite-based Village Resource Centres

MOU Signed for Setting up of Satellite-based Village Resource Centres
November 5,2004


In a rare assembly of several prominent IT industries like HP, INTEL, TCS,
CISCO and MICROSOFT, individual Memorandum of Understandings (MOU) were
signed by these industries with Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham today (November
5, 2004), Kochi, for the establishment of satellite-based Village Resource
Centre (VRC) across the country. The MOUs, were signed in the presence of Mr
G Madhavan Nair, Chairman, ISRO at Antariksh Bhavan, Bangalore, the
headquarters of ISRO. The MOUs are a follow-up to the understanding between
ISRO and Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham for setting up such VRCs. The industries
are associating with Amrita in the VRC Project, by providing ground
infrastructure and other IT based systems. To start with, 25 such VRCs will
be set up across the country.

It may be noted that ISRO has embarked upon the VRC initiatives with a view
to integrate its capabilities in satellite communications and satellite
based earth observations to disseminate a variety of services emanating from
the space systems and other IT tools to address the changing and critical
needs of rural communities. The VRC is a totally interactive VSAT (Very
Small Aperture Terminal) based network. These nodes can be further extended
using other technologies like Wi-Fi, Wireless and Optical Fibre. These
extensions may serve as local clusters around the areas where the VRC is
located.

Space enabled information will include geo-referenced land record, natural
resources, suitable sites for drinking water as well as sites for recharging
to replenish ground water, water harvesting, wastelands that can be
reclaimed, rural employment creation, watershed, environment,
infrastructure, alternate cropping pattern, and so on. By suitably blending
the information derived from earth observation satellites with ground
derived and weather related information, locale-specific community advisory
services can be provided. Community based vulnerability and risk related
information, provision of timely early warning and dissemination of severe
weather related information could lead to reliable disaster management
support at the village level.

VRCs will also provide a variety of services like tele-education,
telemedicine, online decision support, interactive farmers' advisory
services, tele-fishery, e-governance services, weather services and water
management. By providing tele-education services, the VRCs act as virtual
community centric learning centres. At the same time, VRCs will provide
connectivity to speciality hospitals thus bringing the services of expert
doctors closer to the villages.

It may be noted that the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, inaugurated on
October 18, 2004, the first cluster of three VRCs established jointly by
ISRO and the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF). Today's signing of
MOUs is yet another landmark for expanding the VRC network in the country.

Speaking on the occasion Mr Madhavan Nair said that it is indeed a rare
combination of ISRO, a Government R&D organization, Amrita Vishwa
Vidyapeetham which is a Trust engaged in education and social services and
some of the leading IT industries, committed to reach the benefits of high
technology to the remotest part of the country. He said that even though it
is a Herculean task to cover all the 600,000 villages, the agreement signed
today is a signal that we are committed to this project. Dr P Venkat Rangan,
Vice Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, said that his university is
very happy to join one of the premier R & D organizations like ISRO and
reputed IT industries in helping Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham to spread its
services to the rural community. The representatives of all the industries
were unanimous in their commitment to the task of reaching the benefits of
high technology to the rural population.



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Jacques :-)

www.spacepatches.info