DOT-COM Activity: India ICT Policy - Annual Baramati Initiative on ICT and Development
DOT:dot-GOV
Country: India
Funder(s):
Short Description: The Third Annual Baramati Initiative on ICT and Development explored ways in which information communication technology is being used as a tool to empower the poor. It emphasized the role of social entrepreneurs using ICT in opening new avenues for the poor in markets, e-commerce, and information sharing, and explored models that demonstrate both social impact and financial sustainability.
Full Description: Baramati is a large village about 2 hours south of the large town of Pune and 5 hours from Mumbai (Bombay). The conference has been held in this small town because it really is an amazing success story. The surrounding villages are very poor and, while Baramati did have some development prior to 1999, it was clearly also a very poor village. Sharad Pawar, a powerful member of the Indian parliament, has his base in Baramati and pushed for the opening of the Vidya Pratishthan's Institute of Information Technology (VIIT) in the village. VIIT now looks like many small universities in the developed world and is more advanced in some ways. Just before the conference, they finished the WiFI network. The conference is an opportunity to discuss ICT and development issues in this hands-on setting. Cash awards ($200,000 or 2 lakh dollars as they say in India in total) were given to entrepreneurial projects from around the world and the entrepreneurs attended the conference and presented.
Development Sector(s):
ICT Intervention(s):
Links and Files:
Baramati Conference Agenda
Agenda for the Third Annual Baramati Initiative on ICT and Development.
Core funding for the DOT-COM Alliance is provided by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Bureau for Economic Growth, Agriculture & Trade, Office of Infrastructure and Engineering (EGAT/OI&E), Office of Education (EGAT/ED), and Office of Women in Development (EGAT/WID), under the terms of Award numbers: GDG-A-00-01-00009-00, dot-GOV; GDG-A-00-01-00014-00, dot-ORG; GDG-A-00-01-00011-00, dot-EDU.