iShakti--Crossing the Digital Divide in Rural India

This paper describes iShakti, a real-world, intelligent, interactive and adaptive Web application. At present, iShakti is deployed across 1000 rural kiosks in India, covering 5000 villages and reaching 1 million people. Further scale up is underway, expected to cover tens of thousands of villages within the next 2 years. iShakti is a 'virtual information and marketing channel', deploying leading-edge technology in a developing-world environment. It allows rich interactions with people in previously 'media-dark' regions, with easy access to high-value community development services coupled with engaging and scalable market and brand development activities. The impact is already being felt - iShakti is giving some of the most deprived and disempowered people more choice and control over their lives, and providing significant independent revenue for the iShakti entrepreneurs. Computational intelligence is both in the design as well as the personalisation and synchronisation algorithms. The project was nominated as a finalist of the Stockholm Challenge (economic development category), an international award for ICT projects in 'under-served' regions of the world