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The Indian Info-Rickshaws

Posted by CowboyNeal on from the internet-to-go dept.

DoomDoom writes "CNN is running a story on how the Indian government is delivering health and educational services on a WiFi equipped rickshaw to the poorest of its citizens. It's a poetical union of a typical third world product with high-tech! Do you still think computing is unnecssary for the poorest of the poor?"

2 of 205 comments (clear)

  1. cost by t_allardyce · · Score: 5, Interesting

    What always amazes me is how governments in other countries manage to get IT projects finished with tiny budgets. Here in the UK or in the US the rickshaws would have cost 100s of thousands each and a small fortune to run. Look at eVoting for example - i've heard prices of $10000 per machine! WTF costs $10000 to stick an unsecure crappy computer in a box and put some strung together voting software on it? India they do it with some custom build hardware and it costs nothing!

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  2. Government initiatives by usefool · · Score: 4, Interesting

    It's good to see the Indian government is taking the initiatives to bring modern technology to within reach of the rural community.

    In the article, it mentions many Indian villages are poorly wired, telephone lines can go dead for weeks at a time, making wireless technology the most reliable Web connection.

    However, what it takes is a willing government to find an alternative, rather than giving promises to improve telephone lines.

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