The big opportunities in tomorrows world lie in creating solutions to alleviate daily inconveniences in urban India and to increase incomes in rural India. The PC Internet is limited by various factors low installed base of PCs, poor broadband penetration and access that is for the majority of the audience limited to cybercafes. By contrast, a world built around teleputers, the Ubinet and the M-Web can create new opportunities.
Imagine the nearby kirana store lets call it Ajay Kirana. It can now publish regular updates on deals and even unsold perishable items. My mother may want to subscribe to Ajay Kiranas updates on her teleputer. She can then decide once she gets the update if she wants to get the bread at half-price. Or, imagine a toy company providing regular updates to new parents on what are the best toys to buy along with parenting tips. This does not have to be limited to text it can come with rich media attachments. Imagine a TV broadcaster sending out updates at 8:30 pm providing a small preview of the 9 pm soap opera my wife would love a service like that!
Small book publishers could build relationships by sending out regular updates of new books to subscribers, and even take orders and payments via the teleputer. For those who would like to listen, there could be audio serials sent out daily. Imagine getting a small abstract from religious scriptures to begin ones day.
In rural India, the teleputer can be the instrument for person-to-person classifieds. People could publish what they would like to buy or sell via their teleputer (which could either be owned by them or be shared device). Subscribers from nearby villagers could then be alerted if their needs match what has been put up.
The multimedia-rich teleputer could also be used by job seekers for creating multimedia profiles of themselves. The same idea could be applied for those seeking marriage partners. In fact, small videos could also be made of cars and apartments for sale. Subscribers could then get much more than a simple text description.
There are many such innovative ideas which can come into play once the digital infrastructure has been created. Perhaps, the biggest opportunities lie in rethinking education and healthcare around a school-in-a-box concept (as put forth by Atanu Dey) and personal healthcare records, respectively.
Tomorrow: SMEs
TECH TALK Envisioning Tomorrows World+T
