Internet changing life in Bihar, Orissa villages
A five-hour drive from Patna is one of the India's first BPOs being run out of a village, by the village, and for a large part, for the village. The people who live in Saurath village in Bihar had never heard of a computer, let alone use one just a few years ago. But now, they are busily tapping away on their keyboards and an entire area, cut off from urban centres, is connected. more..

First-of-its-kind BPO boost to Bihar’s rural economy
The sight of Asha Jha, once a internet-illiterate homemaker, typing furiously on the keyboard of a computer is an empowering sight.A business process outsourcing (BPO) unit at her Saurath village (Madhubani), 220km from Patna, changed the lives of many rural women like Asha. The 26-year-old today communicates freely with her “clients” in Hindi and admits with a slight smile that she can also manage it “well” in English.. more..

World Bank Boosts Entrepreneurs With Social Goals
Seven years ago, Satyan Mishra launched a campaign to bring Internet access and web-related services to India's vast rural areas—which are grossly under-served by the country's main information and telecommunications providers. At first, he says, he faced formidable obstacles. more..

Village voice
Rural BPOs have the potential to transform the employment landscape of Indian villages. more..

World Bank Boosts Entrepreneurs With Social Goals
Seven years ago, Satyan Mishra launched a campaign to bring Internet access and web-related services to India's vast rural areas—which are grossly under-served by the country's main information and telecommunications providers. At first, he says, he faced formidable obstacles. more..

Linking To Rural India
It's one of the perennial problems of marketing in India: How do you reach the 700 million people living in rural areas who, though poor, would still add up to a big chunk of change if they only knew about your products? That's something Satyan Mishra, 33, has spent a lot of time thinking about. Mishra is the founder and CEO of Drishtee, a six-year-old company dedicated to making services and goods found in cities available to country folk. more..

2 Indian firms in WEF Technology Pioneers list
Two Indian companies -- Strand Life Sciences and Drishtee -- are among 47 'visionary' firms worldwide selected by the World Economic Forum as Technology Pioneers 2007 for their life-changing innovations more..

Drishtee fastest growing high-tech company in the country: Deloitte
The fastest growing high-tech company is Drishtee Dot Com Limited, a rural network for delivering services and related information to the village community, according to the Deloitte's ranking of 50 fatest-growing technology companies in India more..

ZDNET Asian Technopreneur of the Year
Entrepreneur Satyan Mishra wins the coveted award with his strong passion for helping rural India get plugged into the digital age more..

ZDNET Asia Top Asian Technovisionaries Award
We want to recognize the great ideas that are coming out of garages and home offices in Asia, a region that is fast cultivating its own pool of technopreneurs more..

Spotlight on Self-Sustaining Social Businesses

India Inc. continues to go all out to make its presence felt globally, led by its by now almost proverbial front-runner - our information and communication technology (ICT) industry. But even as scores in Indian cities reap the benefits of this flourishing sector, a few socially-minded people are beginning to talk seriously about the urgent need to bridge India's urban-rural digital divide. Still fewer Samaritans - like Ashoka Fellow Satyan Mishra - have gone beyond mere lip-service, to actually use their rural ICT experience to make a difference where it is most needed. more..

acumenfund.org

Rural Technology Kiosks

One in eight people on this planet lives in an Indian village. The country's 638,000 villages are home to more than 775 million people, nearly half of whom survive on less than $1 a day.

more..

Developing micro enterprises in villages

Staff Reporter * Stress on SMEs role in women's empowerment and pro-poor development *

Kochi: Developing micro enterprises for a robust village economy and the innovative use of appropriate technology for the purpose were among the presentations at the first working session at the ongoing 7th Commonwealth-India Small Business Competitiveness Development Programme here.

more..

Linking to Rural India

It’s one of the perennial problems of marketing in India: How do you reach the 700 million people living in rural areas who, though poor, would still add up to a big chunk of change if they only knew about your products? That’s something Satyan Mishra, 33, has spent a lot of time thinking about. Mishra is the founder and CEO of Drishtee, a six-year-old company dedicated to making services and goods found in cities available to country folk.

more..