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A few items in the Bangalore Declaration, quoted below, specifically highlight the role for a Simputer-like device.

• Facilitate the rapid and equitable development of infrastructure for I.T., and in the process,
  1. strive to provide I.T. for all citizens rather than simply responding to pressures from vested interests,
  2. facilitate the rapid creation of a backbone for national networking (by upgrading existing facilities and establishing appropriate new infrastructure) and expedite low-cost connectivity to the national backbone by resorting to innovative means such as cable-TV networks, wireless-local-loop technologies, railway signalling networks and power grids, and
  3. facilitate the availability of a range of computers, including cable-TV, modified telephone instruments, and rugged, low-cost, hand-held devices, along with traditional computers, for purposes such as information gathering, communication and transaction processing;
• Ensure access to I.T. for every citizen irrespective of gender, language, physical handicap, geographical location, caste or creed, in the same manner as they have access to telephones, and indeed provide access to I.T. even for illiterates
• Encourage a vibrant hardware industry which meets their diverse and specialised I.T. needs;
• Avoid blind transplants of I.T. solutions, proven in other infrastructural and cultural contexts, and instead, nurture local expertise that can adapt I.T. solutions to meet local requirements;
• Devise measures to create thriving markets for local language content and applications;
• Utilise the many sophisticated packages and systems tools that are available today, as free and public domain software, to create unique solutions using such software and thus contribute to the global enterprise in free software;

The full text of the Bangalore Declaration is available in HTML as well as Postscript .

Inquiries & questions to <simputer AT csa dot iisc dot ernet> dot in.
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