An ISRO Report on VRC

ISRO’s Space Technology enabled Village Resource Centres (VRCs) for Rural Development

ISRO as one of the recent initiatives - for delivering the variety of space technology
enabled products and services directly to the grassroots - has embarked upon Village
Resource Centre (VRC) programme to facilitate overall development at village/
community level. The VRCs, being implemented in association with selected NGOs,
Trusts, Universities/institutions and Government agencies, are envisaged to serve as a
prime delivery system in the rural areas, for the services such as: vocational/ non-formal
education; healthcare; local weather; environment; advisories on agriculture, fisheries,
livestock; livelihood support; etc. Further, with the participation of the stakeholders at
local/ different levels, VRCs will also be able to provide a variety of other services such
as, information on price, market, pests & diseases, govt. schemes, e-governance related,
job opportunities, and a host of other ICT based services, and act as local helpline.

The VRCs are provided with fully interactive VSAT based communication facility,
linking them to selected knowledge/ expert centres/ hospitals. The network is operating
in Ext. C-band with uplink suitable for interactive purposes. Spatial and non-spatial data/
information relevant to land & water resources management at village/ micro-watershed
level are also being made available at the VRCs.

Towards setting up a VRC, ISRO provides the communication and telemedicine
equipments, satellite connectivity, and available/ customised databases of relevance to
management of land and water resources. Space based products and services related to
fisheries, etc. would also be made available by ISRO/ DOS. The associating/ partner
agency provides the civil infrastructure to house the VRCs, manpower to run the VRCs,
and also maintain the equipment and the facility after the initial/ warranty period. The
responsibility of content generation and community mobilisation is also the prime
responsibility of the associating/ partner agency.

The first cluster of 4 VRC nodes in Tamil Nadu was set up in association with MS
Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) in October 2004. And, as of now, 445
VRC nodes have been set up in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat,
Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh,
Meghalaya, Nagaland, Orissa, , Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Union Territory of Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar
Islands; and another 65 nodes are being set up.

Based on the experience gained by the VRC Programme so far, and taking into account
the concerted efforts of the Government as well as the private to empower the rural areas
with ICT based services; it is proposed to expand the VRCs to all the rural/semi urban
blocks/taluks of the country.

VS Hegde (vshegde@isro.gov.in) and RLN Murthy
Indian Space Research Organisation