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Joining the Global Village

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the they'll-use-it-to-look-at-porn dept.

Sandeep writes "This article tells of an initiative in rural India, to provide internet access for farmers. The initiative is called e-choupal, a name taken from the Hindi name for village square. An incongruous image when you consider they still use bullock carts for carrying the produce..."

3 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. Re:india is going to be real strong: something to by Zibblsnrt · · Score: 5, Insightful
    its true, in a short while, it will compete against the likes of china and australia. how long before it can compete against the US and UK?

    we americans should not allow this to happen.. we could lose our trade advantage

    Don't want it to happen? Then do something about it. Fix up your own house instead of deciding to tear down the Joneses 'cause they're committing the crime of hubris by catching up.

    Enough people here take the free market as a religion, the sole and primary characteristic of anything good, that I'd expect people to keep that in mind. They usually do in the business world. But ohhhh no, as soon as foreign countries - especially those "subhuman" ones lumped under the title of "Third World," as though Nicaragua, Brazil, Afghanistan and India all belong to a single, undifferentiated bloc of squalor - then they must be foulest evil fit only to be destroyed if they approach our sacrosanct grandeur.

    So what the hell is it with that? Is America's hegemony so shaky that you can't stand the thought of another major country getting its technology base built up without wetting yourselves in abject terror?

    You don't like it? Then go improve your own country, culture, and economy. Then, maybe you'll have something worth boasting about should you stay on top because of it. Another country pulling ahead worries me a lot less than one country deciding to keep the rest of the world down to protect their precious egos.

    If you can't hold an advantage on the world stage by continuing to produce better technology, by managing a better economy, et cedera, then you bloody well don't deserve to.

    --
    "All that is necessary for evil to succeed is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke
  2. Re:The internet? Very useful ... by Gumshoe · · Score: 4, Insightful
    Since all the west seems interested in is providing them with internet access, of all things,


    I'm I the only one who finds it hilarious that you question the usefulness of the Internet for these farmers and yet provide links to web sites providing information that you feel is more germaine. I think you've just answered your own question about whether the Internet is useful or not.
  3. Re:The internet? Very useful ... by hashinclude · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Will you for a moment think of "internet access" as something other than Spam, pr0n and /. ?

    (of course, this is /.; oh well)

    The aim is not to provide "internet access". The aim is to provide farmers with live prices, so that they can sell accordingly. A similar project is on at IIT Kanpur (Digital Mandi -- see http://www.iitk.ac.in/MLAsia/digimandi.htm)

    The rationale is that, because (a) farmers (i.e. producers) are not aware of what the current market price is, and (b) $BROKER is going to try to maximize profit by any means, the farmers usually end up selling there wares for waaaaaaaay less than the current market price. The diff is such that market price is anywhere between 2 to 5 times the price the farmers get.

    Considering how many farmers have very little cash to spend (even by Indian standards), every extra buck per kilo they make is A Good Thing (tm)

    [[ Yes, I am an Indian, living here for *quite* some time, and am aware of these problems despite reading /. ]]

    --
    US is now divided as the "Red" and "blue" states. Red States = communist countries. Coincidence? I think not