Sankalp IT Center

It is now generally accepted that large investments of time and resources inInformation and Communication Technology will be necessary in order for the rural people of India to become nationally competitive as a short run objective, and to become globally competitive in the long run.

IT-enabled Service Centers

The “Sankalp IT-enabled Service Centers” will provide the rural communities with a platform where the local people of all ages and social milieu can congregate to acquire an awareness of the benefits of new and advanced information and communications technologies (ICTs) in general, and Internet Technologies in particular, which will:

§     Permit the rural people to directly experiment and discover for themselves the benefits and advantages of ICT methodologies;

§     Create sustainable livelihoods opportunities and encourage local economic growth

§     Encourage and promote a variety of personal, commercial and governmental communication needs to be actualized

A legitimate question is: How do we get the rural people who have little or no computer skills to exploit these advanced ICT strategies?

For the Sankalp IT-enabled Service Centers (ITESC) to become successful and growth-oriented, each partner in the value chain who is responsible for information or product flows must make a meaningful profit or surplus. The business model has to be carefully designed to result in the highest possible revenue stream for each distinct activity and actor.

Our partner, TARAhaat.com, has been experimenting with this concept in MP and UP since 2000. For TARAhaat to become a successful and rapidly growing venture, each partner responsible for information or product flows must make a profit. The value chain throughout the business model has therefore been carefully designed to result in the highest possible revenue stream for each distinct activity and actor. Business plans for each player in the TARAhaat network show that, provided the range of services made available is properly chosen, significant profits can be generated at each step in the information chain. A more detailed account is provided in the showcased item on the right, under “From our Partner”.

Another solution to this central problem is to experiment with the ‘HP e-inclusion’ strategy that has been tested and successfully implemented in other parts of the world, which is to empower a small group of motivated local entrepreneurs, called "information brokers" to market IT-enabled services on a commission basis — by charging a small fee to send or retrieve an e-mail to distant relatives, an additional fee to browse the Web and obtain, for example, important information for an agricultural project. Going door-to-door, these ‘information brokers’ were able to quickly ascertain and meet the needs of local community members. They can also be trained to arrange for translation services from English, or for that matter any foreign language communication, to the local language, if necessary.

The model can be compared with the sensationally successful Grameen Phone's business strategy in Bangladesh. An important difference is that, while the latter provides just voice services, the Sankalp IT-Center powered by a team of local ‘information brokers’ can offer multiple and scalable information services to the local rural community with a variety of computing and imaging devices.

Another strategy that came out from a meeting with a branding strategist, is to use music and ‘jingles’ to break the myth that modern ICT strategies are not people- or -user friendly, and that ICT processes are the preserve of a few college-educated type intellectuals. Intelligently produced ‘jingles’ that bring ICT methodologies down to earth for the rural people will provide an impetus to native ingenuity and enable the fundamental right of all people for ‘life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness’. . .

Documentation Center

It can be argued that a Documentation Center   is part of an IT-enabled Center  . However, in the context of the ARTS program, an ITESC has wide-ranging socio-economic and environmental impacts, whereas the ‘Documentation Center’ is more focused in the use of ICT for promoting business and educational opportunities.

The Sankalp Documentation Center   will combine advanced ICT with native ingenuity and the strong business acumen inherently present in rural communities to enhance the rural community’s access to information and communications services. This will lead to new livelihoods opportunities and create new jobs for local entrepreneurs.

To ensure that we select the appropriate technology and applications for the business needs of the Documentation Center, we will follow the industry guidelines for document management technology evaluation and selection.

Imaging Services Center

The focus of the Sankalp Imaging Service Center   will be to promote the production of audio-visual and multimedia products, so that the local rural villagers can communicate digitally with the world on a level playing field.

The imaging industry has grown steadily over the last 15 years in the areas of available systems and suppliers. A major problem is to avoid being forced into proprietary systems, thus being exposed to the issues of a single source. The other problem is acquiring an in-depth knowledge of imaging systems and devoting resources to a long and difficult period of research and training to determine what is needed and why. A common problem is that IT technology is evolving so rapidly that the systems may become prior to the media reaching its life expectancy.

Sankalp Publications

The primary objective of Sankalp Publications   is to provide a platform, particularly on the internet, for anybody who has something worthwhile to say, to come right out and publish their thoughts and work, unencumbered by protocol and free of economic concerns. Now, anyone who has heard of Sankalpa and ARTS can send their work to us at mailto:sankalpatrust@hotmail,com  and it will be published on the internet, for the whole world to see and appreciate! Owzat!
Viva la vox populi

At present, ‘Sankalp Publications’ specializes in the following:

§     eBooks: We design and produce eBooks for publishing on the Internet, primarily, and also for the mass dissemination of these products physically using CD-ROM technology as the medium

§     Multimedia Center: As part of the ‘IT Center’, we will develop the capability to produce multimedia products, programs and entertainment products.

Technical Services

ARTS ‘Technical Services’ provide rural entrepreneurs and anybody interested in working with Sankalpa and ARTS for ‘Sustainable Development’ in general, and for rural development in particular. The main divisions of ARTS ‘Technical Services’ comprise:

§     Sankalp Projects: We provide a platform for rural entrepreneurs and anybody else who is interested in rural development to develop their ideas and translate their projects into reality.

§     Consultancy Services:Our consultancy services promote the free and fair dissemination of information for ‘Sustainable Development’ in general, and for rural development in particular.

White Papers

An important activity of ARTS is to continually generate information products and services to promote the cause of ‘Sustainable Development’ in general, and for rural development in particular. These will be available in the form of ‘White Papers’, which will be posted and revised appropriately.