IT Taskforce
Taskforce Diary

 

Annexure - III

IU Net – Sankhya Vahini

A Status Report

November 21, 1998
V.S. Arunachalam & Raj Reddy
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh

 

 

  

IU Net – Sankhya Vahini Mission

  • Create High-speed national internet data backbone

    § Support bandwidth 2.5 GBPs – 10 GBPs range

  • Set up series of Urban data Networks

    - Linked to the national backbone and international gateways

  • Provide high-speed interconnectivity among educational users and institutions

    - Multimedia and educational content to universities, colleges and other public and private institutions

 

IU Net – Sankhya Vahini Mission (Contd.)

  • Universities without walls
  • Universal Digital Library
  • Tele medicine
  • Communication and commerce in a multilingual society
  • High-bandwidth networking for both public and private users
  

IU Net – Sankhya Vahini Status Report

  • Recommendation for IU Net- DoT collaboration by National IT Task force

    Sep 5,1998 New Delhi

  • Signing of MoU between Carnegie Mellon (IU Net) and DoT (Govt. of India)

    Oct 6, 1998 Washington DC

  • DoT Task Force set up to prepare technical and other details on availability of fibers and plans for Sankhya Vahini

    Shri B.R. Khurana(Convenor)

    Oct 29, 1998 New Delhi

 

IU Net – Sankhya Vahini

Proposed Schedule
Jan 15,1999 Submission of Technical and Business Plans to DoT and IU Net Inc.
Feb 15, 1999 Signing of collaboration between IU Net and DoT for establishing Sankhya Vahini Start-up of Sankhya Vahini with License for operation
Mar 15, 1999 Closure of financial packages, customs duty waivers, and placement of orders for equipment
June 15,1999 First link in Sankhya Vahini established
July 15, 1999 First Urban Link commissioned
Aug 15, 1999 High-speed data backbone for the nation a reality

 

IUNet – Sankhya Vahini Action Points

  • Request IT Task Force to adopt Sankhya Vahini as a National Mission

    - Provide adequate budget, speedy clearance of licenses and approvals for rapid implementation

  • Provide separate financial allocations to educational institutions to develop content for, subscribe to and participate in the national network
  

Potential Applications of  Sankhya Vahini

The following slides offer select examples of empowering capabilities of Sankhya Vahini

 

Universities without Walls

  • 3Ls of Learning

    - Lecture, Laboratories and Libraries

  • Face to Face Lectures => Distance Learning

    - Interactions through Multimedia Chat Rooms

  • Virtual Labs

    - Computer – based Simulation

  • Action Items

    - Creation of low cost, high bandwidth digital communications

    - International quality, international prices

    - Sankhya Vahini initiative by DoT and Govt. of India and DoT

  

Universal Digital Library

  • Access to every book, newspaper, painting, or movie (all creative works-UL Video)

    - Any time

    - Anywhere

    - Anyone

  • Costing less than a cup of coffee

    - Cost indexed to standard of living

  • Action Items

    - Develop standards and data bases for all Indian languages

    - Phonology, Morphology, Syntax, and Semantics

    - Global access to digital libraries of Indian literature and creative works

 

Tele-medicine

  • Remote medical consultation and diagnosis

 

  • A local health worker with limited training can provide

- Paramedical assistance and first aid

- Screening for infectious diseases

- Monitoring and advice for chronic ailments

- Such as hypertension and diabetes

- Dispensation of drugs

- Access to commonly needed medicines

  • Action Items

- Creation of a high bandwidth low cast connectivity to rural areas.
 

Communication in a Multi-lingual Society
  • Translating telephone

 

  • Making possible video phones and video Email

- Many to many Video Conferencing

- To every office and home

  • Convergence of TV, phone and computers

- Computer will speak, TV will listen and telephone will show you pictures

  • Action Items

- Creation of a low cast digital communications infrastructure -Fiber to every office

 

Commerce in a   Multilingual Economy

  • Eliminate linguistic barriers to communication and commerce

 

  • Promote global trading and commerce using the Internet

- Develop Software exports

- Enable transnational business transactions

  • Trans-lingual Documents

    - A Hindi form can be read and completed in Telugu

    - Translated back into Hindi automatically.

  • Action Items
  • - Universal access to Multilingual Internet
  

Conclusion

  • Exponential Change in IT
  • Leads to Paradigm Shifts
  • Impacting every aspect of human endeavor
  • Increasing the gap between "haves" and "have-nots" unless we take proactive steps.

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