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India
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Category:
A Global Village
Vision, objectives and goals:
TARAhaat brings the Internet and its benefits directly into the lives of rural poor in the remotest villages of India. It is a unique combination of mother portal nurturing several vertical and horizontal portals within it, togther with franchised cyberkiosks and delivery vans. TARAhaat has been conceived with the view that it has to be mastered and used by people with wide variations in literacy, language, financial liquidity and levels of understanding.
TARAhaat has been designed from the ground up to address the needs of its customers. It drwsa on extensive market research and socio-ecoNomic surveys conducted by Development Alternatives and others, inlcuding an extensive house-to-house survey of selected villages in the region. For the future, the data, analysis and communication structures of TARAhaat.com are carefully designed so that it can elvolve in response to the expressed need of its users, making it a highly adaptive and relevant service.
These objectives – in particular: changing attitudes, informing the people, demolishing myths, developing human capacity, creating support groups, etc. – can be achieved by using IT as a tool for social development and empowerment.
How ICT contributes to the organisational objectives:
As a website on the Internet, TARAhaat is, of course, available to any user on the World Wide Web. During the pre-rollout pilot phase, it has been accessed through 20-odd TARAkendras by a growing number of users in two rural regions of the country: Bathinda (amongst the richest regions) and Bundelkhand (amongst the poorest). Content such as law, governance, health and livelihoods is already available, and additional content is added every day. Commodities market information, listings of the local yellow pages, information about products are also available. One of the largest revenue streams of TARAhaat will certainly be E-education. The portal has begun delivering a basic computing course that combines classroom teaching and hands on computer practice (offline and online). During the early stages of the project, the results are seen by the transforming of human lives through new opportunities. These opportunities (as explained in the Trivia section) include education for girl children (who are often Not allowed to venture out in pursuit of education), for the physically challenged who could never envisage travelling into the nearest town to pursue a career in IT, for enterprising franchisees who have an alternative income in desk top publishing.
User needs:
By early 2000, Development Alternatives, a national Not for profit working on issues of sustainable development (equity, efficient management of resources, environmental conservation and empowerment) had operated for 18 years in the field, creating sustai
Summary:
TARAhaat.com uses the power of IT to bring kNowledge, services and products to under-served markets in the slums and villages of India. TARAhaat is creating an enabling infrastructure that will function on a commercially viable and sustainable basis through a combination of franchised entrepreneurs and alliance partners. The project will facilitate national development through the empowerment of all citizens in the underserved markets and provide an alternative vehicle for the creation of sustainable livelihoods.
TARAhaat covers all three components for rural connectivity: content, access and fulfilment. Content is furnished by the TARAhaat.com mother portal, a growing repository of information on issues of sustainable development. Access is provided through a network of franchised local enterprises. Delivery of information, goods and services is provided by local courier services or franchised TARAvans. Thus, TARAhaat has begun to tap unprecedented opportunities to mobilise hidden or under utilised assets and to generate new ones.
The revenue streams of TARAhaat provide for profit generation at each step of the supply chain, serving to further cement all its networks together.
The pilot phase, began in August 2000 in the districts of Bundelkhand surrounding the city of Jhansi - a region widely kNown for poverty and harsh living conditions.
Competition year:
2001