The first knowledge village of India
December 11, 2006 5:21 PM   Subscribe

Hansdehar - rural life in India.
posted by tellurian (10 comments total)
 
Oddly, I read this first as 'rural life in Indiana'.
posted by UseyurBrain at 5:35 PM on December 11, 2006


Don't wanna be unduly negative, but a few things: 1) If one of the village's main problems is powercuts, an IT-based knowledge village might be a bit of a pipe-dream; 2) Are the villagers educated in English? Surprising the text is not also in Punjabi or Hindi?; 3) Most rural folk know exactly what they want and need ... internet access is hardly a prerequisite to knowing that you need roads or schools or better sanitation, etc. This whole project seems a bit odd to me and not really well-conceived. It seems they want donors to help out with development in the village, but instead of stating that upfront, the village is misleadingly marketed as a 'knowledge village'. I'm confused.
posted by Azaadistani at 6:31 PM on December 11, 2006


The Reuters story is longer available but there is some comment here. Hopefully, this will be successfully implemented too.
posted by tellurian at 7:05 PM on December 11, 2006


A few years ago, on a visit to New Delhi, I was amazed at the pervasiveness of western culture; quite shocking to have a decrepit three-wheeled motorized cart pass by with a gaunt, white-haired individual driving -- and a little single-speaker radio blaring out an ad for the new Spider Man movie on board. Or looking to my left in the middle of an impoverished area, only to see (standing alone, surrounded by almost nothing) a Ruby Tuesday's.

I feel the same way when I click on the picture of the gentlemen "waiting to be clicked" and see that one is wearing a knit hat that says "Cool", or the "two little soldiers" link showing two young boys (one of whom has a medical problem with his eye) wearing hats emblazoned with Nike.
posted by davejay at 8:11 PM on December 11, 2006


development and upliftment of the village

I very cromulent, embiggening goal. I wish them enluckification.

However, on the face of it, it looks just like any other homespun website with a bit of local info, likely subject to sporadic maintenance only, and hardly facilitating much exchanging of information: the Public Announcements section is containing one announcement only, dating back to April.

On the other hand, I am loving the Local Facilities page.
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:26 PM on December 11, 2006


A very...
posted by UbuRoivas at 8:28 PM on December 11, 2006


Who needs clean water? One eBay account and they will all become wealthy.
posted by crispynubbins at 9:19 PM on December 11, 2006


Don't wanna be unduly negative, but a few things: 1) If one of the village's main problems is powercuts, an IT-based knowledge village might be a bit of a pipe-dream; 2) Are the villagers educated in English? Surprising the text is not also in Punjabi or Hindi?;

Re: 1. Powercuts/brownouts are common in a lot of India. You either get your own generator, or deal with it. They'd be used to it, so it wouldn't be such a big issue, I'm guessing.
2. Y'know that English is an official language of India, yeah? A hell of a lot of Indians speak pretty good English (with some dialect variations that sound funny to US/UK etc ears).

Basically I agree with UbuRoivas tho'.
posted by Infinite Jest at 12:46 AM on December 12, 2006


These people need a Paypal donate button.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:01 AM on December 12, 2006


Electricity: 1 x 100 KW Transformer, 3 x 63 KW Transformer.
Good idea Meatbomb.
posted by tellurian at 3:02 AM on December 12, 2006


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