eChapters

The term bioinformatics was coined by Paulien Hogeweg in 1979 for the study of informatics processes in biotic systems. It was primarily used in genetic and genomic studies, particularly in those areas of genomics involving large-scale DNA sequencing. Bioinformatics involves application of information technology to store, organise and analyse the vast amount of biological data available in the form of sequences and structures of proteins (the building blocks of organisms) and nucleic acids (the information carrier). There are umpteen ways to define bioinformatics, mainly owing to its rapid evolutions.

Abstract

The field of bioinformatics emerged as a tool to facilitate biological discoveries more than 10 years ago. Structure prediction is fundamentally different from the inverse problem of protein design. Protein structure prediction is one of the most important goals pursued by bioinformatics and theoretical chemistry; it is highly important in medicine and biotechnology. Structure prediction is fundamentally different from the inverse problem of protein design. While the genome of many organism have been sequenced over the last few year, transforming such raw sequence data into knowledge remains a hard task. A great number of prediction program for genes have been developed hat try to address this problem, which consists of locating the genes along a genome.

Abstract

Protein-protein interactions play a major role in most cellular processes. Many essential cellular processes such as signal transduction, transport, cellular motion and most regulatory mechanisms are mediated by protein-protein interactions. The study of protein-protein interactions is of great importance in determining the biological function and impact of proteins. The experimental techniques remain expensive, time-consuming and labor-intense. Computational methods play an important role at all the stages of determining protein-protein interactions. In this chapter, we describe the different types of protein-protein interactions, computational methods, currently available databases and tools, protein-protein docking and as well as protein-protein interactions as drug targets.

1. Introduction

Protein–protein interactions serve as the hub of the functioning of a living cell, coordinate biological processes as well as form core for interactomics system of living organisms. Various biological processes as signal transduction, cell-cell communication, ingestion or expulsion of any macromolecule, host parasite interaction, diseases as cancer and many other metabolic networks employ protein–protein interactions. During such a process two or more proteins interact transiently with each other or form complex for a long period of time. Thus attempts have been made for years to study comprehensive mechanism of such protein–protein interactions by various branches of sciences such as biochemistry, quantum chemistry, molecular dynamics, chemical biology and signal transduction. The availability of three-dimensional (3D) structure of proteins is a prerequisite for understanding functions of protein complexes at a molecular level as well as amino acid interactions within a complex.

Key words : CAVD, Drug Design, Bioinformatics, CADD, Co-factor, Vaccinology, infectious diseases, Jenner, immunity, Molecular modeling, Immunoinformatics, Antigen, Antibody, Live Vaccine, Alive Vaccine, Protein-peptide, Enzyme, Tools for Vaccine design,
 
Vaccine – Prevention is Better than Cure

A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe, its toxins or one of its surface proteins. The agent stimulates the body’s immune system to recognize the agent

Introduction

Data Mining is a complex subject that describes a type of database application used to search large amounts of data for patterns using specific tools. Advanced statistical methods and tools such as classification, association rule mining and cluster analysis search large volumes of data for previously unknown relationships within the data. Data Mining can be used to decipher trends in a wide variety of fields such as computer science, the marketing and advertising of goods, services or products, artificial intelligence research, biological sciences and high-level government intelligence. Data mining is a logical process that is used to search through large amounts of information in order to find important data.

Databases

A database is a collection of information that is organized so that it can easily be accessed, managed, and updated. Databases can be classified according to types of content: bibliographic, full-text, numeric and images and by their application area, for example: accounting, music compositions, movies, banking, manufacturing, or insurance. The term database may be narrowed to specify particular aspects of organized collection of data and may refer to the logical database, to the physical database as data content in computer data storage or to many other database sub-definitions.

Abstract

Last few decades have witnessed an immense technological advancement in the education sector in India. With an advancement of technology, new gadgets are flooding the Indian market continuously bringing an immense opportunity for the education sector to improve upon the course delivery system. Higher education sector in India is adopting such new technologies in course delivery at a slow pace; however, there remains still a far way to traverse for the Indian education sector in order to achieve a perceptible and effective technology-infusion in the academic delivery arena. This paper is devoted to present an expository review on the usefulness of new gadgets, like smart phones, e-book reader as well as tablet PC, in both class-room education-delivery segments as well as in distance education sector in India.

Abstract

Fusion is a well known entity in various fields (e.g. medical imaging, weapon detection, flood monitoring etc.) that surmises information originating from several modalities. This chapter is an attempt to assort the various image fusion techniques available for human face recognition and to put a review of the advancements being made by the different researchers. The various types of fusion those have been used or may be used for face recognition have also been discussed here.

1. Introduction

With the fairly recent advent of inexpensive, rapid sequencing technologies that continue to improve sequencing efficiency and accuracy, many species of animals, plants, and microbes have annotated genomic information publicly available. It is important to use this genomic information for the identification and isolation of novel and superior alleles of important genes from gene pools of the organisms

Abstract

The study of computational toxicity prediction is very crucial and necessary, as it is quite time consuming and expensive to measure the toxicity via experimental techniques (Quan Liao et al., 2006). The use of computational approaches particularly to reduce the time and cost for the evaluation of the kinetic and toxic behaviour of any drug has been increased tremendously in recent time period (Richard Judson et al., 2004). Machine learning is a powerful tool to discover new complex combinatorial relationships in various in vitro and in vivo data information (Richard Judson et al., 2004) and has been successfully used in many diverse fields with numerous applications such as pharmacodynamics properties prediction (Czerminski et al., 2001; Livingstone et al., 2003), protein function prediction (Cai et al., 2003), medical decision making (Veropoulos, 2001), spam categorization (Drucker et al., 1999), detection of oil spills (Kubat et al., 1998), and speech recognition (Nuttakorn et al., 2001).

Introduction

The capabilities and effort to collect the geographic data has increased dramatically in the last decade to cope up with the increasing demand for the support of decision making and planning process in the state, national and global level.  From the Government sector, there is a need for spatial data to make quick responses to natural disasters, industrial accidents and environmental crises as actions will be decided based on geography. There is constant pressure to make wise decisions in a more time and cost effective and efficient manner. Accurate and current geospatial data are critical to these decisions.

1. Machine Learning

Learning denotes changes in a system that enable a system to do the same task more efficiently the next time (Simon, 1983)or Learning is constructing or modifying representations of what is being experienced (Ryszard Michalski et al., 1986). Machine learning is a scientific discipline concerned with the design and development of algorithms that allow computers to evolve behaviors based on empirical data, such as sensor data or databases. A learner can take advantage of examples (data) to capture characteristics of interest of their unknown underlying probability distribution. Data can be seen as examples that illustrate relations between observed variables. Discover new things or structure that is unknown to humanseg. data mining.A major focus of machine learning research is to automatically learn to recognize complex patterns and make intelligent decisions based on data.

Abstract
    
The amount of data being collected across a wide variety of fields today far exceeds our ability to reduce and analyze without the use of automated analysis techniques. In addition, the whole data may not be of user interest and imperfect. Therefore, it is very challenging to organize this data in formal system, which provides outputs in more relevant, useful, and structured manner. There are many techniques available to retrieve knowledge from this voluminous data. This paper discusses different rough computing based information retrieval techniques to obtain meaningful knowledge from large amount of datasets. We also discuss a real life example to show the viability of proposed research.

Abstract

Currently, computers are changing from single, isolated devices into entry points to a worldwide network of information exchange and business transactions called the World Wide Web (WWW).Current web contains billions of documents and has many administrative problems and limitations; in addition to that the web content is still accessible only to humans. For this reason, support in data, information, and knowledge exchange has become a key issue in current computer technology. The success of the WWW has made it increasingly difficult to find, access, present, and maintain the information required by a wide variety of users. In response to this problem, many new research initiatives and commercial enterprises have been set up to enrich available information with machine processable semantics.

Introduction

The role of knowledge management as the key source for competitive advantage in our organizations has become a hotly debated topic. Indeed, it is a core competency for creating competitive advantage. In this environment that knowledge management is vital, therefore, at first we should determine knowledge management situation, and then to achieve a desired point, formulate a knowledge management strategy.

Abstract

Cloud computing is becoming a technology mature enough for its use in genome research experiments. The use of large datasets, its highly demanding algorithms and the need for sudden computational resources, make large-scale sequencing experiments an attractive test-case for cloud computing. So far I have seen cloud computing demonstrated using R. However, it remains to be seen a rigorous comparison of its performance using a BLAST search and its ability to cope with ever-increasing databases and open source frameworks such as bioperl or bioconductor.

“Knowledge Management is the process by which an organization identifies, creates, manages and delivers information to enhance workforce performance. The purpose of knowledge management is to provide information collected from employees, best practices, clients, competitors and other sources in a format that employees can use to the productivity and quality of their work”

Before attempting to address the question of knowledge management, it’s probably appropriate to develop some perspective regarding this stuff called knowledge. Consider this observation made by Neil Fleming [1996] as a basis for thought relating to the following points.

Now days, in every walk of our life, we deal with a lot of information. It can be for personal use or family matters or for official or business matters. We store, process and retrieve variety of information. Information is basically the collection of various facts, records, statistics, formula or methods, which we use for our official work, for our research or for other use. When all these (information, we keep/ accumulate, for possible future use) are put in an organized manner, we find it convenient to use and easy to remember/ apply. Today, as it is rightly said, information is power; information is our knowledge-strength. It is thus important to organize and manage this knowledge that mostly depends on (and derived from) an information pool.

Introduction

Individual bits or “bytes” of “raw” biological data (e.g. the number of individual plants of a given species at a given location) do not by themselves inform the human mind. However, drawing various data together within an appropriate context yields information that may be useful (e.g. the distribution and abundance of the plant species at various points in space and time). In turn, this information helps foster the quality of knowing (e.g. whether the plant species is increasing or decreasing in distribution and abundance over space and time). Knowledge and experience blend to become wisdom—the power of applying these attributes critically or practically to make decisions. This quotation is from the Atlantic Canada Conservation Data Centre, a non-profit organization established in 1999.Thus, we are led to think about Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom as we explore the capabilities and limitations of IT systems.

ABSTRACT

The concept of the Kissan Call Centres-KCCs (Farmers’ Call Centres-FCCs)) was a logical outcome of the Government of India’s (GOI’s) commitment to leverage the ICT for overcoming the constraints of distance and time in providing new generation extension services to the farmers of the country by facilitating their direct virtual contact with the agricultural extension and expert personnel. The study on KCC has shown that farmers in the age group of 29 to 48 years are the biggest user group of KCC helpline. In terms of academic background, farmers with a minimum exposure of six to seven years to formal schooling (86%) seek to utilize the KCC support and relatively inexperienced farmers with less than 10 years of experience are more likely (47.5%) to call the KCC. The scope to enhance awareness and access among women farmers to the KCC helpline is huge as their current levels of participation are negligible. As regards the performance of KCCs, 84% of the farmers who called the KCCs expressed overall satisfaction from the advice provided through the helpline.

ABSTRACT
  
The present study was conducted with 100 internet users in Lahowal CIC and Barbaruah CIC in Dibrugarh district of Assam to critically analyze the various aspects of internet utilization pattern. Results showed that majority (66%) of the respondents were between 18 to 26 years of age and were students (50%). Education qualification of majority of the respondents (32%) was above seventh standard and below graduation and seventy per cent were above graduation and below post graduation and also undergone training in computer.

ABSTRACT

As population explosion continues and the shortage of extension personnel becomes acute, the wisest proposition is to utilize the latest information and communication technology (ICT) to make information available to the common man. The ICT  tools with their recent advancements have become easily available in various forms such a mobile telephone, PDA, WLL phones, FM radio, community radio, television, wireless internet services, webcams, video conferencing facilities etc. Extension agencies need to harness the ICT tools usefully and improve the quality of extension services.

ABSTRACT

Information is basic element in any development activity. It is useful only if it is available, if the users have access to it, in the appropriate form and language. Information in the field of agriculture, to benefit farmers, has to be tailored to local agro-ecological and socio-economic conditions backed up by relevant input supply services and public policies. The impact of information revolution with its powerful information and communication technologies are making the whole universe into a small global village enabling easy access and faster sharing of knowledge among the world communities. Information Communication Technologies have great prospect and wide scope for disseminating information to the people in remote areas with great accuracy and with no loss or distortion of any information. ICTs can empower rural communities and give them ‘a voice’ that permits them to contribute to the development process.

ABSTRACT

Communication is now one of the central issues in developing societies. Knowledge expansion, information technology and technology dissemination are the three very important dimensions of any development system be it agriculture, industry and whatever. Revolutionary changes in communication policies, techniques and strategies are needed in order to make information is a fundamental right to the poor rather than making communication a privilege enjoyed by the rich and powerful. Transfer of agricultural technology generally aims at speedy diffusion of novel agricultural information from the place of invention to the place of adoption. In the current Information and Communication Technology (ICT) era, human dependency on computer and allied modern electronic gadgets for executing day to day activities is inevitable. All fields are being influenced by the interventions of ICT and agriculture is in no way an exception to it.

ABSTRACT

The study was undertaken to assess the effectiveness of ICT-Enabled Village Information Centres (VICs) with special reference to dairy farming in Tamil Nadu. Ex-post-facto research design was followed, wherein 180 users and 90 non-users of VICs constituting 270 dairy farmers covering three ICT-VIC initiatives viz., Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (TANUVAS), M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and n-Logue communication in Tamil Nadu were selected using random sampling technique. Data collected through personal interviews were analysed using appropriate statistical tools.

ABSTRACT

The major part of the agriculture in India is Rainfed. The increasing pressure of population on land has resulted into over exploitation of land, water and other ecological resources, resulting in water scarcity, land degradation and rapid depletion of ground water-table. Government of India has adopted watershed management strategy to address these problems, but all existing watershed management programmes are mainly fragmented and governed by different departments. This has resulted in formation of providing better service delivery and governance. In this study an attempt is made to identify the scope of convergence between National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) with Integrated Watershed Management Programme (IWMP) for generation of social capital and self-employment in the command area of a watershed using geospatial technology.

ABSTRACT

Probably since the beginning of agriculture, farmers have recognized the value of rows of trees/ shrubs planted in the farm (called as Agroforestry) which offers environmental protection, crop and livestock production and reduce the soil health hazards. The role of agroforestry is immense in the undulating terrains like North East India, rain fed area like Central India or the problem soils in general. Even though research and extension work is on the way to increase the trees out side the forest, the information and knowledge on best tree + crop combination is either scarce or limited to regions in the form of research articles, books or  journals. The recent scope of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and its applicability due to its easy, fast and any where accessibility have opened the window of opportunity towards the scientific agroforestry and farm forestry developments. One such means of ICT is through the availability of useful databases and websites on agroforestry.

ABSTRACT

The domestic buffalo occupies an important niche in agricultural systems by providing milk, meat and draught power. Indian buffalo population which is about 1/3 of the cattle population contributes more than half of the total milk production of the country.  Several biological and socio-economic problems restricted the efficiency of buffalo production which needs careful and intensive research. Studies pertaining to reproduction are one of the important areas in buffalo research. The reproductive process in buffalo is complex in nature, which differs on many aspects with the cattle. There is a need to undertake separate strategies to understand buffalo reproduction to disseminate the information to the livestock owners and researchers.

ABSTRACT

Veterinarians, appointed in field, rarely get the opportunity to update their knowledge and skills, through trainings or courses, due to their working conditions. More over, they feel isolated and neglected from colleges due to poor interactions. Looking to this need, the courses on Post Mortem Techniques and Diagnosis of Parasitic Diseases in Livestock were developed, based on the Need Assessment survey. The courses were developed on interactive CD ROM with audio, video clips and photographs along with some reading material. The courses were of one credit each and had minimum one face-to-face session. The response by the veterinarians was tremendous and around 210 veterinarians offered for the courses by paying fees. Participants and stakeholders expressed the need for additional courses and accordingly two more courses on surgical techniques in large and small animals were launched which also received good response.

ABSTRACT

A methodology for depiction of Brown Plant Hopper (BPH) pest incidence on rabi rice crop using Remote Sensing (RS) data was attempted. The reflectance and geographically registered RS images of Feb.12, Mar.13, and April 30, 2009  as well as Feb.23 and March 14, 2007 were used to classify the Godavari district for generation of rabi rice crop area map. The rice crop map thus generated was used as an overlaying layer of rice crop mask in GIS to derive other RS based indices described below over this crop mask. Land Surface Temperature (LST) data product for rice growing areas was generated using rice crop mask. Normalised Difference Water Index (NDWI), Temperature Vegetation Dryness Index (TVDI) onices derived from MODIS data and NDWI from AWiFS data were correlated with pest count data for two years 2007 and 2009.

ABSTRACT

Future is the era of ICT (Information Communication Technology) which is equally applicable in the field of Agriculture. Farmers database will be an important part of ICT which is required for smooth functioning of various agricultural activities like Farmer’s Trainings, Demonstrations, Crop monitoring, Support to farmers, implementation of various government schemes etc.  This software records farmers Name, Phone number, Sex, Category (SC/ST/Gen),  Number of dependents, Annual agricultural income, whether fully or partially dependent, Land holding size,  Major crops, Village, Block, Sub-division, Land situation (Plains/ Low Hills/ Mid Hills/ High Hills), Soil Reaction, Soil type, (Highly Acidic/Moderately /acidic/Neutral/Alkaline/Highly Alkaline), NPK status, Irrigation facility and information regarding Cattle. From the above record various reports can be generated according to the needs of the scientific personnel. For example soil scientist will have record of soil pH & NPK status of different farmers across the district. Scientist can filter the database to get farmers of a particular soil type to conduct training;

ABSTRACT

Agricultural growth is a catalyst for broad based economic development in most of the low-income countries. Over the last few decades, the share of agriculture in GDP has steadily declined in India from over 50 per cent in the 1950s to 18.5 per cent in 2006-07. The role of extension personnel in this juncture has become immense and there is a mammoth task ahead in the era of contract farming, organized retailing and market led extension. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an umbrella that includes all technologies for the communication of information.  It caters for individualized instruction and the contents could be easily updated and expanded.

ABSTRACT

Mandarin Orange (Citrus reticulata Blanco.), known as ‘Suntala’ to the local populace, is a major cash crop and was once a pride of Darjeeling hills. It is grown in approximately 930 ha with an annual production of 148.224 metric tones and annual turnover of Rs. 25 crores approximately. Since early 1970s, orange orchards in the Darjeeling hills started to be unproductive inflicting huge economic loss showing severe citrus decline. Gradually the malady assumed alarming proportions and threatening the cultivation of the crop. The major causes for the bottleneck of the citrus industry in Darjeeling hills  is  the heavy incidence of insect pests, diseases and nutritional deficiencies.

ABSTRACT

Expert Systems could be incorporated into extension education programmes to assist in solving problems using knowledge gathered from experts. During the process of problem solving, the Expert System becomes a source of educational material for the user. Hypertext may be incorporated into an Expert System as a means of providing the user with additional information. A hypertext approach to system development involves attaching information to specific phrases used in the system. The form of attached information can be textual, graphical or procedural. The methodology of developing expert system consists of two parts viz., developing computer-based Expert System and testing its effectiveness. The first part includes selection of most relevant subject matter area and procedure used in the development of an Expert System. The second part deals with the research design and technique adopted to test the effectiveness of computer-based Expert System versus human expert.

ABSTRACT

Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are for everyone and that does not mean for urban or rural communities. Recent developments in the fields of information and communication technology are indeed revolutionary in nature. By definition, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are a diverse set of technological tools and resources to create, disseminate, store, bring value-addition and manage information. Knowledge thereby becomes the fundamental resource for all economic and developmental activities in the knowledge society, of which rural poor form an equal part. The process of synthesis of knowledge possessed across communities with the global pool of knowledge and with the scope for further enrichment provides the genesis for information sharing.

ABSTARCT

The  Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust (HIHT) has been working in the agriculture field since, 1999. At present, it is focusing on a Research-based project on the cultivation of Aromatic/ Medicinal plants aiming to promote Medicinal and herbal cultivation and increase the income and participation of community. Initially the grant -in-aid is being provided to some farmer groups in  Shilogi village of Tehri District and  Malethi village in Pauri District.  These farmers came forward and offered their land for research work. The project supported the community through both, backward and forward linkages. Rural Development Institute, HIHT, is facilitating the whole operation, from choosing the coordinators to the advisory agencies. RDI is trying to make sure a proper people (especially poor) friendly delivery mechanism through village Resource Centre.

ABSTRACT

Jharkhand state is endowed with vast and rich natural resources. It’s 80 per cent population resides in 32,620 villages and depends mainly on agriculture and allied activities for their livelihood. Rural population in Jharkhand still suffers from several ailments, weakness and constraints which come in the way of the use of ICT for agricultural development. Low level of literacy, poor socio-economic status, low penetration of extension services, language barrier, lack of electricity, etc., are some of the problems due to which  the farmers are unable to access the latest techniques in farming through different ICT services and are using the traditional knowledge and techniques which yields very less.

ABSTRACT

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is the driving force for the fundamental economic and social revolution. It accelerates globalization, makes access to knowledge and information much easier for the people in respect of creation of technologies, diffusion of old innovation and diffusion of human skills for rural prosperity. The National Conference on Informatics for Sustainable Agriculture Development (ISDA) organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and National Informatics Centre (NIC), in May 1995, has given much needed “roadmap” to usher in “ICT led agriculture development” in the country.

ABSTRACT

The Cellular technology (mobile phone) is becoming popular day by day with companies up with low price handsets and nearly one-fourth of the India’s population possess a mobile phone even in the rural areas. The Indian government has set a target of 500 million users by 2010; half of this, 250 million, has reached till 2007 (IANS). Keeping in view the scenario, messaging agricultural information through computers to the end users on mobile phone is a means, which will go a long way for the farmers to receive timely information. There are different media platforms through which farmer’s access information in India. This includes radios, television, print, person to person and so many others. However, with the rapid growth in technology, there is a strong belief that there is a need to extend the mobile phones’ use to agriculture sector.

ABSTRACT

Farmers in India are at the mercy of traders especially the middlemen who fix lower rates at the farmers end. The farmers are desperate as they are not aware of the prices elsewhere and they have meager produce at their hand. Market led agriculture is need of the hour which needs market intelligence. Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu in collaboration with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, Hyderabad centre initiated the project for the benefit of farmers and traders covering six major markets of South India as Pilot project. Main emphasis of the project is covering Perishable items of 161 commodities, updating the daily wholesale and retail price through www.tnau.ac.in/ www.indg.in @ 1.00 PM with the help of Market Analysts recruited for this purpose. Ensuring the last mile connectivity and reaching the large number of users, the price information is being delivered through Mobile phone. This paper also explains about its additional features.

ABSTRACT

ICT has seen its vertical as well as horizontal growth in various domains, be it rural livelihood sectors and governance. India is well poised to take the benefits of ICT to the common man. There has been consistent progress in addressing the challenges that exists - be it infrastructure or social barriers. The India Development Gateway (InDG) initiative is in response to limitations that exist at the social front. InDG facilitates rural empowerment through provision of relevant information products and services that respond to the real and strategic needs of the rural communities, in their local languages.

ABSTRACT

India’s North-East is predominantly hill agriculture based and endowed with rich natural resources for the development. The average rainfall in the region is the highest in the country. However, low agricultural productivity and food in-security are largely prevalent in the North- East India. Lack of adequate information on advanced farm technologies, market intelligence and rural development schemes led to the income poverty in the region. The limited technical manpower, lack of transport and communication facilities, inadequate financial support to the technology transfer and less infrastructure facility creates huge technological gap among  rural tribal farming community.

ABSTRACT

Village Resource Centre (VRC) provides information services to the rural population to empower them to face day to day challenges. In this line, the Department of Space, ISRO & RRSSC is bringing its space technology to common man by setting up of Village Resource Centres, with a view to integrate the capabilities of communication and remote sensing satellites to address the changing and critical needs of rural communities. VRC is totally interactive VSAT based network for providing space enabled information related to land records, natural resources, drinking water wells, ground water recharge, soil types, alternate cropping pattern, waste lands, etc. VRCs also provide  variety of services in its tele-education and tele-medicine programmes, online decision support, weather forecasting, water management, interactive farmers advisory services (video conferencing) etc.

ABSTRACT

The Village Knowledge Centre programme was started in January 1998 in the Union Territory of Pondicherry (now Puducherry) in the east coast of South India with the support of IDRC and CIDA. In order to ensure access to all, the VKCs are located in public buildings (Panchayats, SHG’s building, Community Hall, School, Farmers and Fishermen Associations, Women Self-Help Groups, Community Based Organization, etc.,). The information content is developed in close interaction with the local people in a bottom-up manner.

ABSTRACT

Recent advances in Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) have changed the way we live, learn and interact.  They have transformed the way knowledge is produced, processed, retrieved and transferred between different stakeholders. The innovative ICT applications are dominating and driving the development scholarship and thinking in agriculture sector. The increasing availability and use of the Information and Communication Technologies offers the Extension System and all its stakeholders/partners an undeniable opportunity to redefine the way it provides information and interacts with farmers. ICTs are not just a new tool for information dissemination; it is empowering and changing the very culture of society’s information-seeking behavior. And Extension must change, too.

ABSTRACT
 
The term rural development also represents improvement in quality of life of rural people in villages. As per Chambers (1983) “Rural Development is a strategy to enable a specific group of people, poor rural women and men, to gain for themselves and their children more of what they want and need.”  ICT is an integral part of development strategies of both developing and developed countries. It has great potential to bring in the desired social transformations by enhancing access to people, services, information and other technologies (Dutton et al., 2004). ICT applications can enhance poor people’s opportunities by improving their access to markets, health and education. Furthermore, ICT can empower the poor by expanding the use of government services and reduce risks by widening access to micro finance (Cecchini and Scott, 2003). The uses of ICT for development are actively promoted for economic development, job-creation, rural development and poverty-alleviation. The term ‘ICTs’ can be interpreted as including a wide range of media, ‘new ICTs’ is used to denote “the use of computers and communication systems between computers” (CTA 1999:4).

ABSTRACT

Agriculture is an important sector of economy that ensures food security of the nation. About 58 per cent of the Indian population is engaged in Agriculture and planners are concerned to increase agriculture productivity. The National Knowledge Commission has also looked into various problems of this sector and made some recommendations from the knowledge perspective. This paper includes review of existing plans and programs for improvement of knowledge accessibility to Indian farmers. Article also discusses how the Information Communication Technology (ICT) applications, especially, the hand held devices like mobile phones can improve knowledge accessibility in the agriculture sector and describes how the ongoing programs of mobile telephony are helping Indian farmers.

ABSTRACT

In the recent years, the notion of ‘digital divide’ has been widely researched and has attracted much debate and speculation for its economic, social and political consequences. Existing studies reveals, the gap that exists between those who have access to ICTs and those who do not create exclusion, endanger social integration and hamper economic growth. The digital divide has many dimensions and can be categorized as global, regional and national. At national level, there is no single divide, but multiple divides: for instance; within countries, between men and women, young and elderly, rich and poor and most importantly rural and urban. The present paper is mainly focused on India and tries to explore the problem of digital divide mainly in rural-urban India. In the context of present paper, digital divide essentially means teledensity, mobile and Internet divide between the rural and urban areas. The paper reveals that obstacles such as illiteracy, lack of skills, infrastructure,  and investment in rural areas must be tackled if India is to diminish the gap of digital divide. At the government front, it should put thrust towards: connectivity provision, content creation, capacity augmentation, core technologies creation and exploitation, cost reduction, competence building, community participation and commitment to the deprived and disadvantaged which would definitely help in bridging digital divide.

ICTs are emerging as very important tools for agricultural extension and it is now essential for every extension worker to have working knowledge of ICT tools and devices like computers, internet, mobile phone, kisan call center, information kiosks, e-mails, expert systems, touch screen systems, mobile telephony and World Wide Web. Keeping in mind wide scope of ICT application in agriculture, the entire study entitled “Status and prospects of ICT application in agriculture through extension functionaries” was undertaken with following specific objectives.