Examine some of the Case Studies presented at the event.

	AgriPortal
	Dairy Information and Services Kiosk
	Drishtee
	Honey Bee Network
	nLogue Communications
	PlaNet Finance
	Rapid Deployment of Telecommunications Kiosks in India (RADTEK-I)
	SEWA, Self-Employed Women's Association
	Simputer
	SKS-Smart Card
	TARAhaat: Achieving Connectivity for the Poor

Review a copy of "Software Applications and Poverty Reduction" by Jane Millar and Robin Mansell (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader).

Sunil Abraham is an Industrial and Production Engineer from Bangalore, Karnataka. He founded MAHITI in 1998 to provide affordable and appropriate IT products and services to voluntary organizations. Sunil was elected Ashoka Fellow in 1999. MAHITI is founding member of BangaloreCares.org and IndiaCares.org. MAHITI has a 10-member team that specializes in web, intranet and multimedia application development. MAHITI has held over 30 trainings for various organizations and networks. MAHITI's first product 'Knowledge Manager' [a finalist for ERICA 2000] has helped build over 40 web sites.

David Arnold is a Venture Partner with eFund, LLC, an entrepreneurial venture firm investing in early-stage technology and communication companies that gives all its upside to a non-profit foundation for the benefit of kids and education. Mr. Arnold has been a Board member, Chief Executive, and senior officer in telecommunications, energy, Internet infrastructure and education businesses, and has extensive international business experience. Recent investments include Talisma, a CRM software company based in Bangalore; Global Knowledge Point, providing knowledge center support for wireless companies from India; and Vibrant Communications, building IP-based communications infrastructure and related services in developing countries, including India.

Dr. Akhtar Badshah is the Executive Director of Digital Partners and an adjunct Professor at the University of Washington. Dr. Badshah has been instrumental in setting up the Social Enterprise Laboratory, the Global Classmates Initiative and establishing a Social Venture Fund to support innovative IT efforts that benefit the poor. Dr. Badshah has over 20 years of experience as a practitioner, educator, researcher, and development expert. He is the author of Our Urban Future: New Paradigms for Equity and Sustainability, (London: Zed Books, 1996); and has written numerous articles on Development. Dr. Badshah received his PhD from MIT.

Dr. Michael L. Best directs the eDevelopment group at the MIT Media Laboratory where he is a Research Scientist. He is jointly a visiting Research Fellow at the Center for International Development, Harvard University. At MIT and Harvard Michael researches technologies for social and economic development. He is interested in systems to empower, enrich, and inter-connect people and communities. Michael received a Ph.D. from the MIT Media Lab. Dr. Michael L. Best is a principal of the Media Lab Asia initiative in India.

Dr. Vijay Bhatkar was the founder Executive Director of the Center for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), which is India's national initiative in Supercomputing. He delivered India's first supercomputer PARAM 8000 in 1991 and went on to build PARAM 10000 in 1998, one of the world's largest supercomputers, propelling India into the select five nations who possess this strategic technology. Dr. Bhatkar has authored/edited 8 books and over 80 research publications in supercomputing, artificial intelligence and distributed computer control. He is a senior member of the IEEE, USA and member of the New York Academy of Sciences, New York.

Vinay Chawla joined Swayam Krishi Sangam (SKS), a microfinance organization based in Hyderabad, as IT Project Manager in February 2001. His current focus at SKS is development and implementation of a smart card solution to integrate rural field-level transactions with a suite of microfinance back-end applications. Prior to joining SKS, Vinay was a Manager for KPMG Consulting in the U.S. where he focused on IT professional services work for major telecommunications carriers (wireless, wireline, and Internet services). Mr. Chawla attended Northwestern University where he received his Bachelor of Arts degree (with Honors) in Political Science.

Vasant Gangavane is the founder of Samruddhi and an Ashoka Fellow elected in 1995. Ashok has developed a grassroots approach to comprehensive area planning in Vilye Village. This approach enables "barefoot planners" to develop their own detailed, technically and environmentally sound blueprints. Vasant Gangavane grew up in the mango-rich Ratnigiri region bordering the Indian Ocean. He returned to serve the people there after graduating with distinction from the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Management. He has built up both educational facilities and an institute to preserve the traditional arts of his tribal community. Most recently he has instituted a natural resource management approach that has led to the 15,000-acre National Watershed Development Program, and is based on creating sustainable livelihoods for local residents.

Satish Jha is the Chairman and Managing Director of James Martin and Company.

Prof. Ashok Jhunjhunwala is currently the Head of the Department of Electrical Engineering Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, India. Dr. Jhunjhunwala leads the Telecommunications and Computer Networks group (TeNeT) at IIT Madras. This group is closely working with industry in the development number of Telecommunications and Computer Network Systems. Dr. Jhunjhunwala has been received numerous awards including the Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for outstanding contributions in the field of Engineering Sciences in 1998, the Hari Om Ashram Prerit Dr.Vikram Sarabhai Research Award for the year 1997 and the Millennium Medal at Indian Science Congress in the year 2000.
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Rakesh Khanna is the Chief Operating Officer of TARAhaat Information & Marketing Services Ltd. With a B.Tech in Electrical Engineering from India's premier engineering school, the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Rakesh has more than 30 years of experience in marketing and corporate management. He started his career in marketing with Dunlop's India. Subsequently, he worked with Nirlon's KG Khosla Compressors among others. Over the years, his assignments have taken him increasingly into areas of environmental management, technology development and corporate social responsibility.

Naina Lal Kidwai is the Vice Chairman of J M Morgan Stanley, India and is one of India's most important investment banker in its most important investment bank in what may become its most important industry--information technology. She did a chartered accountancy course in India, then in 1982 became the first female Indian citizen to graduate from Harvard Business School. Back in India, she rose through the ranks at ANZ Grindlays during the 1980s and joined Morgan Stanley in 1994 as head of investment banking. Ms. Kidwai has won numerous awards including being raked 3rd in Asia by Fortune Magazine in their listing of The World's Top Women in Business.

F. C. Kohli chaired TATA Consultancy Services for 32 years and built it from 10 to 10,000 consultants with offices in 20 countries. Last year he retired as a Director of Tata Sons. Last year he received The Madras Management Association's Business Leadership Award. He serves on the Nasscom council. A computer-based reading program he initiated in Beeramguda, near Hyderabad, was expanded elsewhere. Born in Peshawar, he studied in the US and Canada before joining the Tata Electric Company.

Edson Kenji Kondo is a senior fellow at the United Nations University/ Institute of Advanced Studies. Dr. Kondo graduated from Sao Paulo University in Brazil with a Bachelor's degree in Industrial Engineering in 1980. He received a Master's degree and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Public Policy in 1990 and 1994, respectively. Earlier in his career, he was part of a reorganizing team for the most technologically advanced bank in Brazil, the Itau Bank. He later joined the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development of Brazil, serving as Division Chief for Bilateral International Cooperation, Division Chief for Science and Technology Indicators and member of its highest Board. More recently, before joining the UNU, he was the Director of the Department of Management at the Catholic University of Brasilia.

Shantaben Kosti is Research Co-ordinator at SEWA and conducts base-line and other research for SEWA, apart from conducting training programmes. Over the years, Shantaben (herself a grassroots worker) has a developed a core group of workers from the grassroots level, who have been trained in a variety of research modules primarily focusing on the rural poor, by using new ICT tools. These include managing and analysing computerised data, basic data warehousing and data mining.

Motoo Kusakabe is the World Bank's Vice-President for Resource Mobilization and Co financing. He joined the World Bank in 1997 after serving in senior positions at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development as Country Director for Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and held other operational positions there. Before joining the World Bank, Mr. Kusakabe had a long and distinguished career and held key positions at the Japanese Ministry of Finance in Tax Administration and Banking regulations. Mr. Kusakabe has led the Bank in a number of new global initiatives and has been instrumental in drumming up support for the present Conference on Connectivity. He is a graduate of the University of Tokyo and Yale University.

Shri Pramod Mahajan is the Minister of Information and Technology, Government of India. Shri Mahajan has been very active in Indian politics. He has been the President, All India BJYM, Chairman, Committee on Transport and Tourism, General Secretary, (i) B.J.P.State unit of Maharashtra, 1978-83 and (ii) All India B.J.P.; Member, Lok Sabha, 1996-97; Defence Minister, 1996; Political Advisor to the Prime Minister of India, 1998; elected to the Rajya Sabha in July, 1986, re-elected in July, 1992 and again in July, 1998.

Swami Manohar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science & Automation, Indian Institute of Science. He has a PhD and MS in Computer Science, 1989 and 1987 respectively from Brown University, USA and his ME from Electrical Engineering Department at IISc. He is the co-founder of the Simputer is a low cost portable alternative to PCs, by which the benefits of IT can reach the common man. Prof. Manohar is an expert on Virtual Reality Modeling Language (VRML) and has been instrumental in develop the Information Markup Language for the Simputer. The current focus of his work is in 3D user-interface requirements of interactive sculpting.

Satyan Mishra is the CEO of Drishtee.com an Internet based company serving the poor in India. Before founding Drishtee he worked for Rajiv Gandhi Initiative for Elementary Education and UNICEF for conducting Focus Group Discussions in the Chindwara district of Madhya Pradesh. He was also associated with the Education Guarantee Scheme, Madhya Pradesh. In 2000 Drishtee won the Stockholm Challenge Awards for competition in the Public Services and Democracy section. Satyan has an MBA in International Business from Delhi School of Economics, Delhi University.

Usha Rao-Monari is the Country Head, India for IFC.

Paul Mylrea is the London-based editor of AlertNet, Reuters Foundation's Internet information service for and about the disaster relief community. He joined AlertNet in 1997 after a 15-year career as a Reuter's foreign correspondent. He has reported on the end of military rule in Chile, Peru's battle against Shining Path guerrillas, coffee markets and carnivals in Brazil, politics in Britain, financial markets in Germany and the complexities of European politics in Brussels. Paul regularly speaks at conferences on the challenges of building online communities. He speaks English, French, German, Spanish and Portuguese.

Chandra Babu Naidu is Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. He left PhD studies at the Sri Venkateswara Arts College in Tirupati to enter politics, after completing undergraduate school and a Masters in Economics there. He was elected to the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Assembly in 1978 and has served his state in many posts. His Vision 2020 "is a State where poverty is totally eradicated; where every man, woman and child has access to not just the basic minimum needs, but to all the opportunities for leading a happy and fulfilling life; a knowledge and learning society built on the values of hard work, honesty, discipline and a collective sense of purpose".

Rajendra Pawar is Chairman of NIIT, one of India's top exporters in software training and development, which he co-founded in 1981. "We adopted a socially relevant entrepreneurship model for NIIT." NIIT provides scholarships to the poorest of the poor. Ernst & Young India named him their first 'Master Entrepreneur of the Year' in 1999. He has also played significant roles in guiding India's national IT efforts. Pawar is a founding member of Nasscom. He holds a B. Tech degree in electronics from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

Shri Sharad Pawar, Minister of Parliament, Government of India, elected from Baramati. Previously served as the Union Defense Minister from 1991-93. He has been thrice the chief minister of Maharashtra, from 1978-80 and 1988-91. His political career began in the 1967, when he became the member of the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly. He was also the General Secretary of the Pradesh Congress Committee, Maharashtra. From the year 1974-78, he remained the Cabinet Minister of Education, Agriculture, Industries, Home, Labor and Youth Welfare in Maharashtra.

Sam Pitroda is Chairman and CEO of the London-based Worldtel Limited - a specially created mission by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to fund telecom in the emerging markets. He came to India to develop a digital switch for which he holds a patent and ended up developing the entire telecom infrastructure. He rose to become the in charge of the National Technology Missions, assisting the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. As the Chief Technology Adviser he introduced small, rural exchanges and brought the telephone to some of the world's most previously isolated regions in India.

Monica Raina is at the Center for E-Governance at IIMA and is involved in identifying, studying and implementing e-governance projects. She began her career with Wipro Ltd., fifteen years ago, as a Software Engineer. She designed, developed and implemented software applications for the Ministry of Defense and government organizations in her tenure at Wipro. She continues to work further with ICTs for effectively implementing e-governance solutions that would impact the life-style at the grassroot level.

K. Raghunandan is the Project Head for Indiagriline and also looks after the IT initiatives of EID Parry. Mr. Raghunandan has worked with EID Parry/Murugappa Group since 1988 and is part of their change management team. Before joining the Murugappa Group he was with ICI (India) for 7 years. He has worked in Fertilizer, Pharma and Pesticides industries in sales, marketing and agri inputs. He is a chemical engineer by training.

Gopal Rajagopalan is Managing Director of Schoolnet India Limited, an institution sponsored by Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Limited (IL&FS). He serves on the board of IL&FS where he has been involved in the development of Joint Ventures and projects in telecom, infrastructure, private equity and e-business applications. Gopal has over 22 years of experience in the banking and financial services sector including in the areas of investment banking, project finance, capital markets and private equity. Gopal holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Madras and a Masters in Management Sciences (MBA), (1979-81), from the Jamanalal Bajaj Institute, University of Bombay.

Shibani Sachdeva is the Head of India Operations for PlaNet Finance a French non-profit organization whose mission is fighting poverty through the Internet. Shibani brings with her relevant work experience from the Indian IT corporate sector. In her last assignment Shibani was heading the India Marketing Operations for SAS Software, the eighth largest software firm in the world and the world leaders in Data Warehousing and Data Mining software. Prior to this Shibani worked with Microland one of India's leading IT companies.

Manu Seth is Chairman and Managing Director of Gyanada Information and Communications Pvt Ltd. Before staring Gyanada Mr. Seth was the Managing Director of Tata Chemicals, where he had an illustrious 15-year career with the Tata Group. He continues as director on the boards of Tata Industries and Tata Projects. Dr. Seth is a graduate from IIT Kanpur, and has a Masters and PhD in chemical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, California (USA). Before joining the Tata Group in 1985 as chief planning executive of the erstwhile Tata Fertilizers, which was merged with Tata Chemicals, Seth worked with Stanford Research Institute in California. He also had a five-year stint with the Royal Dutch/Shell Group in the Netherlands.

Robert Schware is currently Task Manager of the World Bank Group's Information and Communications Sector Strategy Paper. He has fifteen years of experience in public and private sector information technology applications. He joined the World Bank in 1987 and has since then worked on several telecommunications and information technology-related projects in East and South Asia, Africa, Caribbean, and the Middle East. Before joining the World Bank, Dr. Schware consulted for UNIDO, the UN Software Technology Institute in Macau, UNRISD, and USAID.

Vijay Pratap Singh is Project Manager for Knowledge Network for Augmenting Grassroots Innovations "KnowNet-Grin", at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India. At IIMA Vijay is responsible for implementation of Knowledge networking project and leads a team of developers & content creator. The project is jointly implemented by IIMA & SRISTI, Society for Research & Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies & Institutions. The project seeks to create a wide area network of innovative & creative communities across India & later across whole world. Vijay is an Electrical Engineering Graduate & has done his Post graduation in Management from Indian Institute of Forest Management, Bhopal, India.

Bjorn-Soren Gigler is Civil Society Specialist, Development Gateway, the World Bank. Soren is an economist with operational experience on indigenous peoples development and information and knowledge sharing initiatives in Latin America. Before joining the World Bank in 1997 he worked for the Americas Program of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a German environmental NGO. For the Development Gateway he has contributed to developing the concept of the Civil Society Forum and is currently working with the Civil Society team on external consultations and content development in the area of indigenous peoples.

K. Srinivas is Business Manager, for New Ventures at Hindustan Lever Limited and is responsible for developing a new rural business model. After graduating as a mechanical engineer, Mr. Srinivas did his post graduation in business management from IIM, Bangalore in 1987. For the first 4 years he worked with Britannia Industries Limited before joining HLL. In HLL over the last 9 years, he has held various assignments in Sales & Marketing.

Professor Ram Takwale is Emeritus Professor, University of Pune and Advisor, Dishnet DSL, Limited. He is also a consultant and advisor to the Center for Information Technology, University of Pune. Prof. Takwale is a former vice chancellor of Indira Gandhi National Open University and Pune University.

R. Venkateswaran was most recently he served as the Bank's Resident Representative in Rwanda and helped rebuild the Bank's operational program following the genocide of 1994. He is currently on a special assignment to monitor and evaluate the impact of Japanese Trust Funds. He has been involved in a number of new global initiatives under the aegis of the Resource Mobilization and Cofinancing Vice Presidency, including the focus on Connectivity and Empowerment of grassroots organizations of the poor. He is a graduate of IIT- Madras in Electrical Engineering, and the Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, in Business Administration and Finance. .