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Solar Powered Computers Planned for Rural India
securitas writes "BBC Technology correspondent Ram Dutt Tripathi reports on India's Uttar Pradesh state where authorities plan to use solar energy to power computers in rural village schools. The cost to run the solar panels is anticipated to be £1,000 per school. According to the report, up to 80% of homes have no power and most government-run primary schools have no power at all. In 2003 the Uttar Pradesh state government bought '1,000 computers for selected primary schools in all 70 districts' with another 1000 to be purchased this year, 'but most of these will not work because there is no power available.' The project is similar to a solar-powered school computer lab on the Isle of Wight."
Sounds like an interesting networking idea =)
Having just returned from the gym, I can't help but think of the clustering possibilities of a long row of treadmills and elliptical skiers ...
Um, am I completely blind or is there no link to donate, or number to call to donate? Yes, I know this is the comerical world and most of us don't care about the rest of the planet. But there's a few of us that do. Hell, I'd donate $20 now, and that makes me wonder how many others would... A lot of people don't want to donate to the christian childrens funds because they tend to push religion down people's throats.
This would likely have been true in the 1990s. But today, with a substantial increase in public education standards, as well as increased cooperation with non-govermental organizations (typically populated by well educated, well meaning young individuals), corruption has been on the decrease. Here's the stats on perceived corruption index. It shows India at 2.8. 10 is squeaky clean. UK, Canada at 8.7. US at 7.5. URL is here InfoPlease I would like to see rate of reduction of corruption. Overall, from talking with acquaintenances it has been on the decrease but clearly there's substantial room for improvement.
Getting the machines before the power infrastructure is in place is dumb, and NOT just for the obvious reason (having invested a lot of money into something that will take success with a second investment to become useful is always risky). It's dumb because having electricity in those isolated areas is useful for so many other things besides computers, it should have happened already.
There's tons of medical equipment that requires at least a little power, there's basic emergency communications, and there's all the simpler school supplies that require electricity. If none of these things justified getting some power to these people, computers in the classroom doesn't either.
We're not just talking relatively high powered systems (such as x-ray machines) that are the equivalent of entire desktop computer labs either. What about small centrifuges or cautery equipment for medicine? What about having enough radio for local government to report being hit by a bad storm or earthquake? What about a few lights to read by, so that school can be held indoors when it rains?
There are no compact, low energy computer systems that are any more efficient than those devices, and there are even surpluses of many of those devices in storage where they have been replaced by newer gear. Just imagine all the old filmstrip projectors or drafting tables in various urban school systems closets being put to use out in the country instead of gathering dust.
Who is John Cabal?