Broadband connectivity as well as development of applications in regional languages related to health, education, and government services is being encouraged to fulfil rural requirements. During a live demonstration of tele-medicine initiative in Ajmer yesterday Union Minister of State for Communications and IT, Sachin Pilot emphasized the need of extending high speed broadband to all village Panchayats in the country.

Patients were seen and examined and prescribed treatment through the Video enabled tele-medicine set up in which doctors and patients were able to see and speak to each other. This live tele-medicine demonstration between Kanpura village in Ajmer and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Chandigarh was showcased today to an an American delegation comprising senior officials of US Administration and industry. The demonstration took place in the context of recent meeting of the Union Minister of State for Communication and IT, Sachin Pilot with Anish Chopra, Chief Technology Officer to the US President,Barack Obama. The team witnessed the access the system was providing to rural people pertaining to health and education, its role in streamlining the functioning of MNREGA processes and in improving impact of indigenous technology on lives of rural people.

The system has been developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) under the Ministry of IT and the optical fibre connectivity provided by BSNL. Senior officials of National Informatics Centre (NIC) were involved from Delhi through live video presence.