Design and Development of Solar IT Kiosk for Remote Area Development in Arid Regions of Bihar, India
Amar Nath Pandey, Vikash Kumar, Syed Haneef Balkhi, Sangeeta Sinha, Toshinori Kojima · 沙漠研究 : 日本沙漠学会誌 · 2012
Development is a multidimensional process including economic and intellectual activity. The later should be satisfactory to most of the people at that time and in their social and cultural set up. Development of arid areas and deserts therefore, must be supplemented by education, health and opportunity to influence the government policies as well as participate in globalization process. Information technology and its development in arid areas are very important to nurture multidimensional development goals with individualism. It integrates the rural areas with the global family and provides opportunity to improve skills, education and, health. The Indian telecom revolution in the last decade has provided much needed input to arid area development in terms of penetration of telcom technologies. However, the growth rate of internet in arid areas is still lagging due to several reasons, from skill development, operation and maintenance to reliable sources of power. In this conceptual paper, the role of IT in development of arid areas of Bihar is presented. It is envisaged that solar energy operated IT kiosks can be used to replace the older STD telephone booths and creation of library in local language on the basis of local requirement for information dissemination.