"Normal ATMs require atleast 10 lakhs rupees (around $20,000 ). If we were to convince banks to install one in each of the 650,000 villages in India, this was too expensive. So we went and created one that was just Rs.50,000 (around $1000 USD)"
This was just one of the several amazing things I heard yesterday from Dr.Ashok Jhunjhunwala. He was doing a talk at the Indian School of Business, Hyderabad and since Microsoft is literally next door, he dropped by and did a talk here as well.You can see him deliver a similar here on Google Video.
I've never been a big believer in technology changing the quality of life in rural India. Until yesterday. I (and the rest of the audience) was completely floored as Dr.Jhunjhunwala related story after story of how he and his gang of IIT professors have used startups and technology to change the quality of life in India. Be it getting 100 million phones in India or be it doubling the rural GDP, they have some incredible targets.
When looking at the screenshots of some of the products they had created, I was slightly ashamed of myself and the work I do. Day in and day out, I think about products like Windows Live, the iPod and Zune, the XBox and so on. I think of these as 'products that matter'. But here was this IIT professor showing off a really ugly-looking Windows application that allowed doctors to remotely diagnose patients through video conferencing all at a very cheap rate. These applications change lives. Not an iPod or a XBox 360.
None of the technology was rocket science. Just good ol' fashioned ingenuity and perseverance. Truly amazing.
Forget the politicians and the corruption. This guy gives me hope for the entire country.
People talk of how movies like 'Rang De Basanti' make the feel patriotic. For me, listening to Dr.Jhunjhunwala made me feel patriotic.
I wish the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation or Google.org would throw a few billions atim and ask him to change the country. I'm sure he will.
Heck! He already has.
