Technology to Underserved

Science & Technology, are at its best when they ease the life of everyone and in particularly, when it improves the life of a common man.

We can talk to anyone acorssthe globe without worrying bout the bill, no worry bout the delay of a letter, no worry bout the delay in transferring money to dear ones, no worry bout finding a particular route, n absolutely  no irritation bout standing in a long queue to pay off our bills, cos we have internet phones, emails, google maps, ebanking. i know, technology has made our life easier n more fun.

But a question. how many people fit into this bracket of 'our'. answer, the educated elites (i don mean literates. only the educated ones). only the lucky few educated section who are embraced by the loooooooong looooooooooong hands of internet.but there's the bad luck again. not everyone . because of the language barriers. internet knows only one language; n that is text. yes....text of any language. n we have many people in this world  (stastically, 2 billion) n many such in developing n less developed countries. but the internet is generous enough to consider them.....n it is now learning a new language to do this. people's language. im v sure that there are very few people who cant understand symbols n signs.

n the teacher who is doing it is Ms Indrani Medhi

Indrani Medhi is an Indian, from the Assam State, working as Associate Researcher in Microsoft, Bangalore. Graduated from NIT, Nagpur.  Masters in Illinois University, USA. Pursuing PhD in IIT, Bombay.

She def made life easy for the uneducated n first-time-computer-users by making them access the computer n thereby the information with minimum help or may be none at all. She designed the text-free user-intefaces software, n with the help of which ebanking n knowing the info is also possible. This new software is text-free and depends upon symbols, signs n voice based services too. n there are videos to help too. this software is tested for 450 hours on rural people of India, South Africa and Phillipenes.

This project definitely shows what society means to her. this project has a very wide scope n when paired with the internet, lot many people can also experience the magic of internet n its services. it can definitely recreate the magic being done

She is been rated as one of the top 50 smartest people in technology,2010 by Fortune magazine

One among the top 30 outstanding innovators below the age of 35 by MIT

God bless Ms. Indrani Medhi

link to interview to WSJ (here)

what this blog is all about

 My blog is named as 'shrotha'

 Shrotha is a sanskrit word which means listener


And i want to record whatever i have heard from the world. It may be good or bad, easy or complex. It might be about a book I read or a dish I cooked or a place I visited or an incident that happened. It is not limited to me or to anyone or to a place. It is about anything and everything that is worth sharing. It is anything and everything that is worth listening.

I believe that everything in the universe has got something to say. Sometimes funny, sometimes serious, sometimes a lesson to learn, sometimes a music, sometimes a heal to any wound, sometimes a revenge, sometimes colorful, making a list of how things are expressed is difficult. Because expressing a feeling can be done in numerous ways.

And hence, the scope of 'shrotha' is undefined.

So here starts my journey