Slashdot Mirror
Indian Government Mulls Giving Away Mobile Phones To the Poor
jalfreize writes "The Indian government is finalizing a $1.2 billion plan to hand out free mobile phones to the poorest Indian families (around six million households, according to some estimates). The Times of India reports: 'Top government managers involved in formulating the scheme want to sell it as a major empowerment initiative... While the move will ensure contact with the beneficiaries of welfare programmes (sic) ..., there is also a view the scheme will provide an opportunity for the (government) to open a direct line of communication with a sizable population that plays an active role in polls.'"
It's like Alabama there !!
photographed... just that!?! you are just humiliating us sir!
they will initially be photographed and on front page tomorrow. by evening 5 of the 12 phones will develop some "technical" issue. As this happens, opposition will uproar about the quality of phones. by weekend, there will be a leaked tape circulating in media about backroom deals involved in buying of these phones. Of course, there will be demand for "very high level" enquiry from opposition and govt. critical media types, and ofcource, govt. will try to calm people that there is nothing major and that just a "high level" enquiry should be sufficient. Finally, maybe within next 5-6 years, a "judicial enquiry" will be setup, submitting its first report in next 10-12 years.
in the meantime, by next month, there will be some people on road asking govt. to come clean. after some he said-she said, and some roiting, govt. will decide maybe this needs to be done better. After a loan of 2.4 Billion USD, a study will be done how this should be done better.
Ah! and those 12 students... how can we forgot those poor souls. Complete analysis will be done on what is their caste/ creed/ social group/ religion/ state are. The one less represented have all rights to demand more, including state level strikes. But certainly, the ones which are over-represented will deny the claim saying they are still less and need more phone.
and you think just photographed... talk about knowing other cultures
(Disclaimer: me no govt. employees, so some few issues might have been left out)
everyone downmodding this post will be prosecuted for reading my post without first buying a license!!!
Indeed. The [sic] here does serve a useful purpose though. It lets us know the submitter is illiterate.