The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Swaminathan foundation launches Mobile Fisher Friend project

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Dec 27, 2007
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Swaminathan foundation launches Mobile Fisher Friend project

Special Correspondent

CHENNAI: Overcoming a major obstacle in dissemination of information to rural areas, the M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation has, in association with telecom and software majors, developed applications to provide fishermen with up-to-date information of relevance to them.

On the third anniversary of the tsunami on Wednesday, the Mobile Fisher Friend project got off to a start with the Foundation handing over 40 mobiles to fisherfolk of Puducherry, Chidambaram, Nagapattinam, Manamelkudi, Thangachimadam, Vembar and Nagercoil.

By pressing the button of this mobile phone, fishermen can gain access to information on wave height, weather, potential fishing zones, news flashes, government schemes and latest market price.

Handing over the phones, M.S. Swaminathan, chairman, MSSRF, hoped the instruments would be put to good use. Technology upgradation would empower communities. It would also fit the long-term goals of post-tsunami rehabilitation by expanding the concept of village knowledge centres.

Other initiatives by the MSSRF included establishing a Fish for All training centre to come up at Poompuhar, integral coastal zone management research and capacity building and identifying new and additional livelihood opportunities.

K. Senthilkumaran, director, information education communication, MSSRF, said the organisation had been working on setting up village knowledge centres from 1992. A needs assessment study revealed that locale-specific, dynamic content such as market prices of fish or best fishing zones were in great demand. While the VKC had been able to provide this information in the village itself, fishermen away at sea do not have access to it. It was during discussions on how to expand the dissemination of such information that the idea of using mobile phone technology cropped up.

MSSRF tied up with Qualcomm, Tata Teleservices and Astute Technology System, Indore, to supply technology, service and application inputs, to take the idea further. A field run began in August 2007 and fishermen, who were trying out the instrument provided feedback to the Foundation, suggesting changes, some of which have since been incorporated into the project.

Parag Kar, senior director – Government Affairs (India and SAARC), Qualcomm, said the phones used CDMA service providers to integrate voice and data applications for subscribers. N. Ram, Editor-in-Chief, The Hindu, said the mobile phones were capable of providing content in an accessible and quick way. The technology was versatile and superior and the fisher folk would be able to meet the challenge of using technology to bring about improvements in their life.

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