The cardinal role here is played by data centers that not just cradle the voluminous bulk of data generated by telecoms and government digital services, but also secure and endow business lines with scale, agility and actionable insights amongst others. As a result, rural communities of today are empowered with entertainment, news updates and weather forecasts, and have 24x7 access to a fathomless world of knowledge \u2013 right at their fingertips. Tapping into the power of data centers, the government has been able to capitalize on this digital wave and start offering and delivering e-governance services and other economic and social benefits to the rural sector -- unlocking the potential for a complete transformation in rural development.<\/p>

Rural sector fuelling growth<\/strong><\/p>

India happens to be the second-largest telecommunications market in the world. Over 67% of Indians live in rural areas, and of these, 290 million are internet users. With the country achieving a 4G coverage of more than 90% and wireless teledensity of around 57.6%, there has been a 93% year-on-year rise in rural mobile internet users. As a result, it is anticipated that the digital boom in the country will be propelled by the rural sector, which will contribute to 70% of the incremental growth in the customer base over the next two years. Telecom players must bolster their data center capacity to meet this demand.<\/p>

Government services changing the rural landscape<\/strong><\/p>

Under its Digital India initiatives, the government is investing in creating a gamut of digital platforms, which have the potential to empower rural communities in different spheres of life. Rising mobile internet penetration is enabling rural citizens to apply for services such as PAN cards and other government documents remotely. Services such as e-Seva and e-District are allowing people to register for government documentation, schemes, and benefits. Since these platforms and services deal in volume-centric and sensitive data, the data centers that support them would need to offer security, high availability of data, scalability, efficiency, and reliability.<\/p>

Farmers, for example, can use the AgriMarket app to get the prices of crops in a mandi within a radius of 50 km. Other platforms such as Crop Insurance, e-Choupal, mKisan, and KrishiMitr aim to help farmers improve their agricultural productivity and lifestyle. Using these government services, a farmer can learn how to maintain the health of the soil, select crops as per the season, learn about best farming practices, usage of fertilizers, and the judicial usage of pesticides, besides learning to connect with farmer producer organizations and establish market linkages. For a digital service such as a weather update for farmers to gain popularity of usage, the data center that supports it would need to offer a high degree of data reliability and minimum latency.<\/p>

Besides farmers, government schemes also reach out to MSMEs. Common Service Centers (CSCs) in rural regions play a defining role in MSME programs such as Udyam Sakhi and Udyam Sathi. Through over 360,000 CSCs located across India, training is imparted to entrepreneurs about the various schemes that can be delivered through common service centers. Village Level Entrepreneurs (VLEs) have been instrumental in revolutionizing India by empowering women, marginalized communities, and rural citizens, besides providing opportunities for digital access to various government and other services to them. CSCs also serve as a delivery point for financial services and products for rural citizens. People can deposit, withdraw, and transfer money from their bank account, subscribe to term deposit plans, obtain small-value loans, pay bills, and other services through CSCs.<\/p>

Data centers that power core banking functions will require several capabilities such as securing and encrypting data, ensuring data accuracy and integrity, making data available 24x7, minimizing latency, achieving almost 100% uptime, and offering analytics to bank business teams. The government's e-healthcare system uses Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to support the delivery of health care services directly to people outside conventional care centers such as hospitals. One of the ways this is done is through telemedicine and tele-referral services, both of which are bandwidth-intensive, demanding agile and scalable data center capabilities.<\/p>

Wrap up<\/strong><\/p>

With rising telecom and internet penetration in rural regions, governments across the world can design and deliver services and benefits to rural communities via e-governance and other channels, resulting in enhanced awareness, empowerment, and development. Regardless of the nature of the program, the underlying mechanism for running any digitally enabled service remains a robust data center infrastructure that has high reliability and uptime, low latency, adequate storage, processing and computing power and of course, analytical power that provides actionable insights for monitoring and further intervention. As more and more governments expand their bouquet of services in rural regions, the initial focus will need to be on building and running powerful data centers to support the growth objectives.<\/p>","blog_img":"","posted_date":"2020-05-17 11:39:10","modified_date":"2020-05-17 12:10:36","featured":"0","status":"Y","seo_title":"Data center infrastructure: Transforming rural communities through telecom penetration","seo_url":"data-center-infrastructure-transforming-rural-communities-through-telecom-penetration","url":"\/\/www.iser-br.com\/tele-talk\/data-center-infrastructure-transforming-rural-communities-through-telecom-penetration\/4268","url_seo":"data-center-infrastructure-transforming-rural-communities-through-telecom-penetration"},img_object:["","retail_files/author_1589697167_76399.jpg"],fromNewsletter:"",newsletterDate:"",ajaxParams:{action:"get_more_blogs"},pageTrackingKey:"Blog",author_list:"Prasanna Sarambale",complete_cat_name:"Blogs"});" data-jsinvoker_init="_override_history_url = "//www.iser-br.com/tele-talk/data-center-infrastructure-transforming-rural-communities-through-telecom-penetration/4268";">