Village Panchayat Village Panchayat
Knowledge Centers
Knowledge Centers
For Rural Prosperity
Dr. A P J Abdul
Dr. A P J Abdul
Kalam
Kalam
President of India
Video Conference over the Internet
From Rashtrapati Bhawan to Carnegie Mellon University India-US Million Book Digital Library Project
Steering Committee Meeting held at CMU, Pittsburgh
Dr. S.R. Rangathan
Dr. S.R. Rangathan
Father of Library Science in India
He perceived the library to be a
meeting place for intellectual dialogues
and knowledge sharing.
Wrote 62 books and spearheaded the
Public Library Movement in India
This was in the Paper Era
• Empowering the villagers would lead to a
Developed India
• How do we use the stunning power of
miniaturization and connectivity at
affordable costs to take the knowledge to
the villager to empower him?
Today, it is possible because Internet communication
Today, it is possible because Internet communication
makes the distance disappear
makes the distance disappear
Knowledge is Empowerment
Public Library in the Digital Era
Village Panchayat Digital Library
Library is no longer a storehouse of books only
Library is no longer a storehouse of books only
It is a dynamic knowledge centre It is a dynamic knowledge centre
• It is a Museum
• Source of Entertainment
• Storehouse of
– Informal, – Traditional and – Indigenous KnowledgeDigital Library is where
Digital Library is where
the Past meets the Present and Creates the Future
Digital Library Initiative in India
Digital Library Initiative in India
20 centers are in operation in India
75000 books available
45000 books are in 9 Indian languages
Rashtrapati Bhawan alone has 1.7 million pages digitized we are progressing - it is available over intranet
500 GB disks with one PC can hold 20000 books
Seamless Access
Seamless Access
• Useful and User-friendly Interface
• Seamless access across the distributed libraries
through web services based architecture
• Single window searchable interface - a pleasant
experience for the users
Traditional System Storage
Traditional System Storage
• Heritage in all forms besides books – Folk songs, music, paintings, carvings • India has rich information relating to
– Literature – Music
• Traditional system of medicine and science embedded in palm leaves
– Search, understand and preserve this valuable information – The OCR of these ancient scripts is also a very tough problem – Every palm leaf may be scanned, and the information read by
Knowledge Management Grid
Knowledge Management Grid
• Central Digital Library Data Center with
distributed Servers in GRID
• Infrastructure and storage across the country
with disaster recovery facility
• Data mining software to mine the knowledge
• Seamless flow of knowledge irrespective of its
location and distance to the needy
Connectivity is Strength, Wealth and Progress
Connectivity is Strength, Wealth and Progress
• Comprehensive plan for developing:
– Infrastructure for extending the digital library services in regional languages
– OCR, Language Independent Operating System,
Search engines, web servers and messaging servers • The digital library initiative to percolate to the rural
masses:
– e-governance, tele-education and tele-medicine – Mission mode with the active participation of
Government, educational institutions, R&D
Village Knowledge Centers
Village Knowledge Centers
Specific Actions
Text books– Digitization of Text books, specially for primary education
Tele-Education
– Integrate Tele-education with the Digital library
Students can read and refer to the books suggested by the teacher from a distant location through on-line e-learing services.
Land Record Storage
– Digitize Land Records and verify with satellite imagery and store – Link with e-governance applications: revenue collection, estate
Village Knowledge Centers
Village Knowledge Centers
Digital Panchayat Raj
• India has about 0.23 Million of Village Panchayats • Establishment of Village Knowledge Centers
– empower villagers with the knowledge
– act as nodal center for knowledge connectivity for the villagers
• Initially 100 remote Panchayats may be chosen for the Model Pilot project
Village Knowledge Centers
Village Knowledge Centers
Digital Panchayat Raj
• Each panchayat will have PC like device which will store more than 25,000 digital books and also connected
• It will also have 1000 books in the library
• Information that is highly localised and personalised
• Capture the village knowledge assets in the form of songs,
stories, medicinal practices, experiences of rural people
Village Knowledge Centers
Village Knowledge Centers
Digital Panchayat Raj
• Entertainment, and a connectivity to the District Head quarters..
• A Village “Doctor” who can maintain the Medical Information System and provides a secured/private medical access and delivery system
• It also acts as a single window interface for e-Governance access, e-Market access , Tele-Education and Tele-Medicine Connectivity
• A Village Knowledge Officer acts as an Interface between the people and Village knowledge centers
Village Knowledge Centers
Village Knowledge Centers
Digital Panchayat Raj
Shall we make it as a Reality?
