Rural India’s rough road to computer literacy, by Michael Kanellos

Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Shah–who works in the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, an organization that develops supercomputers here–has launched a computer program designed to alleviate the grinding poverty found throughout the country.
In a pilot installation in a village near Mumbai, students use PCs, donated by Via Technologies, to perform geometry homework, while local women track their savings in a micropayment program. Later this month, college teachers from around India will take a three-week training course that will allow them to replicate the program in other regions.
To save power, the PCs run on car and truck batteries. Unfortunately, the batteries regularly need recharging and the public electrical power system can’t always handle the demand. Three weeks ago, the village transformer blew because too many people tapped into it illegally, a chronic problem here. The government refused to rebuild the transformer until the villagers promised to punish anyone who stole power. The day after it was rebuilt, the transformer blew again.
Story found here.

Source: CNET News.com