Bridging a widening digital divide is a tough challenge for India, where gains from the booming economy that is growing 8 percent annually have mostly accrued to the urban middle class.
Intel Corp chairman Craig Barrett sees a part of the remedy lying in WiMAX technology, a wireless capability that provides Internet connectivity without requiring a computer to be tethered to a cable.
"India has the opportunity to be a leading commercial implementer in WiMAX capabilities," Barrett said as he toured the remote town of Baramati in western India on Thursday to explore how the US chipmaker could help in advancing efforts to empower unemployed youth and farmers with the help of information technology.
Intel has been trying to drive the adoption of WiMAX. Like its wireless cousin Wi-Fi, WiMAX delivers high-speed connections but the coverage range can stretch for kilometers.
"The conditions are absolutely ripe here in terms of the lack of rural infrastructure and what WiMAX could do," Barrett told a news conference in Baramati, a town known for innovative adoption of new technologies.
His comments, broadcast over the Internet, came after a tour of the town that took him to a local hospital using WiMAX to access the Internet for diagnostic work and a school that is implementing new technology-driven learning tools.
Baramati has been adopted by Intel under its World Ahead Program that seeks to expedite access to technology and education for people in the world's poorer nations.
He also visited farmers in outlying villages to see how information technology could be used to improve their living standards.
More than two-thirds of India's 1 billion plus people live in villages, depending mostly on agriculture. Much of rural India lacks adequate infrastructure such as good roads, electricity supplies and telephone facilities to help people improve productivity and living standards.
Farmers often lack vital information such as weather, new seeds and crop prices. Access to the Internet could help.
"The beauty of [WiMAX] is it is relatively inexpensive and relatively simple," Barrett said. "It is ideal for rural environment where there is limited infrastructure in place."
Intel is spending about US$1 billion in promoting WiMAX, he said. Trials are underway in about 200 places across the world and some 40 to 50 companies are engaged in commercial implementation, he said.
Yesterday, Barrett traveled to New Delhi, India's capital, to meet with government and business leaders.
Intel plans to invest US$1.1 billion over a five-year period ending in 2010 to expand its operations in India.
Intel said it has been successful in working with local companies to bring cheaper computers to the country's rural poor, and the company will donate 10,000 personal computers to provincial governments and teacher-training centers in the next two years.
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
France’s nuclear-powered aircraft carrier and accompanying warships were in the Philippines yesterday after holding combat drills with Philippine forces in the disputed South China Sea in a show of firepower that would likely antagonize China. The Charles de Gaulle on Friday docked at Subic Bay, a former US naval base northwest of Manila, for a break after more than two months of deployment in the Indo-Pacific region. The French carrier engaged with security allies for contingency readiness and to promote regional security, including with Philippine forces, navy ships and fighter jets. They held anti-submarine warfare drills and aerial combat training on Friday in