Monday, June 16, 2003		Book Review

COUNTLESS futile visits to the state government offices, indefinite delays for receiving rejected applications from various administrative departments, plagued by bureaucratic red-tapism, now belong to the past. The mouse is the present and the future. And if you assume this is applicable only to urban India, think again.

Few knew that a well-planned technology oriented community network system could alter the lives of thousands of persons, living in remote rural Indian villages, till Dr Rajesh Rajora, an IAS officer (1990 batch) by occupation and a social reformer by passion, revolutionised Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district’s villages by establishing Gyandoot (which literally means purveyor of knowledge), an ideal model for community network. And he succeeded in his quest because he had belief in himself and dared to dream big.

After conceiving the plan October 1999, Rajora set off to visit different villages of the district and held detailed conversations with heads of he village councils. This helped him to get a fair idea about the kind of information they required. This was followed by discussions with the secretary of the MP Information Technology ministry. He then launched a pilot project on November 29, 1999, and just within 51 days, the final project was formed and sanctioned. Soon 40 kiosks were set-up in different villages of Dhar district viz Gunawad, Sarai, Bagdi and Kesur, just to mention a few. The kiosks enabled the habitants to get direct access to a variety of fundamental informations like copy of land records, rates of agricultural products, grievance redressal, health advices, property registration and many more just by a click of the mouse! Earlier, getting the same data took years, if not more. Interestingly, the kiosks were managed by the educated youths of the respective villages, who soon overcame the problems of handling critical technical issues, courtesy, the continuous guidance of Rajora and his handpicked team.

Rajora, who is also a qualified doctor (he did his MBBS from AIIMS, New Delhi), has divided the book into 12 chapters. The chapters chronologically describe what prompted him to take up such an issue, how he convinced the less-educated villagers of Dhar about the benefits of his idea, the countless hindrances, coming from various parts of the society, that he aptly overcame, the diverse methods through which he accumulated money to purchase indispensable technical devices and gather manpower and other resources required to keep on going. To make the book a pleasant read, Rajora separated two chapters (chapter 10 – Superhighways of the Future and chapter 12 – Road Towards The Goal) that specifically deal with the technical aspects like wireless in local loop (WLL), VSAT, Optical Fiber Connectivity (OFC) and many more, without which his dream of fulfilling the project would never have materialised.

What makes reading the book more enjoyable is its lucid language and subtle touch of wit in almost al the chapters. All this will help students, studying in schools to know more about IT without accessing a dictionary. Another noteworthy part are the quotes of luminaries from various walk of life at the beginning of each chapter that give readers an idea about the chapter’s content. The name ranges from Victor Hugo, Albert Einstein, Luis Carroll, Aristotle and Lord Tennyson to George B. Shaw.

That his relentless quest for community development didn’t fail was proved when the book bagged the Stockholm Challenge Award in 2000. The same year the book was rewarded with the prestigious "The CSI National Award for Best IT Usage in India" award.