Bangalore, Karnataka -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/20/2009 -- In August last year Intel India announced the launch of an industry-wide movement called the ‘Connected Indians’ where government, industry associations and private enterprise come together for the common cause of connecting a billion Indians. The movement was intended to mobilize people, resources and infrastructure to connect citizens to information, ideas, people, capital and services leading to overall development and future success.

Commenting on the same, Intel South Asia’s Managing Director of the Sales and Marketing Group, R. Sivakumar said, “Intel recognizes that the Internet is capable of transforming lives and the future of our country. At the same time we also recognize that there is an urgent need for industry and government to collaborate to enable people to connect to the Internet. We therefore launched the ‘Connected Indians’ movement to achieve precisely that. Since then we’ve seen the momentum for this initiative building up rapidly. Till date we have forged partnerships with more than 20 companies, reached out to over 50 towns and 100,000 people through various initiatives.”

Since launch, a number of initiatives have been undertaken under the aegis of the Connected Indians movement. These may be broadly classified into :

I.Ecosystem partnerships like :

• NIIT Swift net-connect program which offers an affordable computing course on PC fundamentals and Internet basics,
• ‘Connected Indians’ Internet & PC basics course in partnership with IL&FS education and technology services which will educate youth in small towns on the benefits of Internet.
• ePCO initiative aimed at transforming PCOs in India through broadband and PCs to deliver the benefits of Internet to millions of citizens in the country in partnership with BSNL and Itz Cash.

II. Working with NGOs like DEF to drive digital empowerment by initiatives like Digital Panchayats & eNGOs

III. Consumer Outreach and Awareness

• Net Yatras – To this end, the ‘Connected Indians’ movement recently completed a Net Yatra, where a specially designed bus powered with laptops and Netbooks and Internet connectivity toured various cities in the country. The bus reached out to 53 cities, 60 schools and 81 colleges, educating over 90,000 Indians on the power of Internet showcasing demos to the audience and telling them about Internet and its various usages and benefits.
• Virtual Yatra – To reach out to many more Indians the movement has launched a Facebook application named the Virtual Yatra, wherein Facebook users are asked to push the virtual bus from one end of the country to the other by inviting their friends to register. Every registered friend earns internet points and the user to gather the maximum internet miles is awarded a Netbook.
• Website – The Connected Indians site (www.connectedIndians.com) itself contains a mine of information on the benefits of internet and how it has improved both lives and lifestyles in rural and urban India alike. Users post stories on how the Internet has transformed their lives giving hope and confidence to many more. Stalwarts from various industries speak of the movement and their reasons to support it.

“We realize that it takes an industry effort to successfully execute the monumental task of bridging the digital divide in our country,” said Prakash Bagri, Director – Marketing, Intel South Asia. “We therefore undertook various inclusion efforts in the form of a website where people could sign up to support this cause, Net Yatras which consisted of a bus fitted with Nettops and Netbooks journeying through Tier 2 and 3 cities in India, appropriate partnerships and much more.”

What can you do for the Connected Indians Movement?

Going forward the Connected Indians movement will continue to build momentum as a movement that can change the face of connectivity in India. Join it to be a part of history. Log on to http://www.connectedIndians.com to show your support.