With a surging population of over 1 billion people, India faces an array of challenges to its economic and social development. Rural poverty and underdevelopment are of particular concern to India’s short and long term development strategy, with 70% of the country’s enormous population residing in rural areas, the majority of which live on less than $2 a day. Demand for health, education, and government services remains high in the rural areas, but investment and development continue to be low, leaving a large, unfilled gap.

Established in 2000 with the mission to “connect India village by village,” Drishtee Development & Communications Ltd. (“Drishtee”) strives to link rural village communities with the latest information technologies and support systems through entrepreneur operated information kiosks. Inaccessibility of information negatively impacts the rural populations of India, leaving them disconnected from valuable social, economic and political information and services. With over 1000 kiosks across the 6 states, and plans to scale up and build more information kiosk centers, rural populations can now tap into the growing network of ICT services at an affordable cost, receiving information and services on education, employment, health, craftsmanship, and micro-finance. Over the past 6 years, Drishtee has provided access to valuable information and services to over 300,000 users and created approximately 2,000 new jobs in over 1,000 villages in rural India.

The International Finance Corporation’s (IFC) Grassroots Business Initiative (GBI) is providing Drishtee with grant funding to reinforce and scale up its ICT activities as well as provide the following services:

• Capacity building: including entrepreneurial training, soft skills, kiosk operation, and hardware training
• Community sensitization: increasing awareness among targeted demographies while incorporating a more elaborate kiosk monitoring and evaluation system and baseline surveys / impact assessments.

For more information on Drishtee, visit: Drishtee.com