C-Dot gets Applause for its Product Gyansetu at ITU World Telecom Event at Budapest 

The premier telecom technology R&D Centre of Government of India under Department of Telecom, Ministry of Communication and IT, Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) has once again got a unique recognition at the International level as its product Gyansetu being adjudged the best product capable enough to bridge the gaps in connectivity and meaningful communication dissemination at the vast rural part of the country. C-DOT showcased its products live during the ITU Telecom World 2015 at Budapest, Hungary this month as part of Digital India Pavilion. C-DOT’s GyanSetu, Terabit Router, 100G OTN Platform, GPON – Fiber to the Desk Solution and Telecom Geo-Intelligence Solutions were also demonstrated at the event.

It is a matter of great pride for the entire C-Dot team that GyanSetu, an innovative product for rural India, received Recognition of Excellence Award at the ITU World Telecom 2015 event. The product was launched by Honorable Minister of MoC&IT, Sh. Ravi Shankar Prasad on ‘Good Governance Day’ last year in New Delhi, India. C-DOT’s GyanSetu overcomes the limiting factors of rural masses and facilitates for connecting them to internet in local language. It bridges the digital divide between rural and urban areas by providing multi-lingual text, audio and video based solution. It was unanimously selected by the jury for an Excellence award at the ITU World Telecom 2015 for its innovative approach and Social impact.  The jury expressed its keen interest in the product and also expressed surprise over developing such a useful innovation which will go a long way in transferring the communication magic down at the grass root levels. The jury acclaimed with pleasure the efforts made by the technological experts in the C-DOT to provide a most feasible indigenous solution.

The Executive Director, C-DOT, Shri  Vipin Tyagi elated on getting an International recognition stated that the product Gyansetu would go a long way in facilitating the successful implementation of the Digital India Initiative,  brain child of the Prime Minister, across the country especially in the country side hence benefitting the people who really matter in this fast changing age of technology.  Shri Tyagi further stated that C-DOT would leave no stone unturned in realizing the vision of Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad.  The ED candidly gave all credit to the Team C- DOT which developed the product within the prescribed duration.  Overjoyed with an international recognition, he expressed confidence that C-DOT would be able to add more and more feathers in its cap in all times to come.  He added that C-DOT’s GyanSetu technology has already been transferred to ‘Electronics Corporation of India Limited (ECIL)’ and ECIL is the manufacturer for C-DOT’s GyanSetu System.

C-DOT is committed to soon make available the product to all potential users in order to feel the dominance of the PM’s Digital India initiative in the country by all concerned including users and beneficiaries.   C-DOT is also keen to provide other cost effective and simple solutions to take the country ahead in the race of communication technology.

ITU Telecom World is an annual ICT event organized by ITU Telecom, part of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the UN agency responsible for ICT-related issues. ITU Telecom World is a global platform for accelerating ICT innovations. It aims to deliver economic development and social good faster through its exhibition for digital solutions, forum for sharing knowledge, and networking hub connecting nations, organizations and individuals.

C-DOT’s GyanSetu is one such innovation of C-DOT, which is designed and developed to enable Rural ICT and bridge the digital divide by helping the rural population interact with the application in a way that is comfortable & understandable to them. This system is targeted at overcoming low/no-literacy levels and physical disabilities, thereby helping to achieve self-reliance, bringing the advantages of the digital world and facilitate inclusion in the mainstream society.  Depending on the type of Persons with Disabilities (PwDs), the system helps provide features like audio announcements in any languages, image driven GUIs with magnified visible icons, and Assistive devices for interaction with the system.

Gyan Setu features & Assistive devices available for PwDs:

Graphical User Interface (GUI): Gyan Setu GUI is a web based application which is user friendly with standard self-explanatory large image icons and minimal texts. It provides results in text format along with audio announcements in the language selected/preferred by the PwD user.

Numeric Keypad: Usage of Keyboard and any other text driven input is avoided by providing a numeric keypad with Braille stickers on the keys. The keypad contains 0-9 key along with special keys like Help, Easy Card, OK, Cancel, Up/Down and Back. This keypad will be useful for blind, aged and illiterate people to easily interact with the application.  

Audio announcements: Content based audio announcements in the user-preferred language are supported. The supported languages currently are English, Hindi or any other language.. This feature will help the PwD user to navigate through the various service options and understand the information received in the final result.

Multi-lingual support: For ease of navigation in the user understandable and comfortable language, Gyan Setu supports this feature. Apart from the standard languages like English and Hindi, other regional/foreign languages can be incorporated as per the requirements.

Easy card: Gyan Setu also provides special bar coded cards (named as easy cards) which can be used by the PwD users to convey block of input information to the system.  The PwD user will be able to map an “easy card” with a specified service and subsequently avail the service by displaying the card in front of the system supported web-camera.

Content Availability: Selected content already present in the third party websites / servers without modifying the same will be made available to the PwD user through the GUI in real-time. This integration is seamless and this feature is being patented by C-DOT. The PwD user will be able to access any video/audio content and other required training materials from the cloud server with the help of Assistive devices provided by the proposed C-DOT D-RAX.

Proprietary Hardware: The proprietary hardware designed by C-DOT is power optimized and less expensive. The proposed D-RAX site/cluster will contain a client system which works on 230 V AC with requisite interfaces and ports to connect a webcam, numeric keypad (Normal or Braille), Display unit (TV, Laptop, Monitor, Mobile etc) and server as assistive devices.

Advertisements: Provision for advertisements in the form of scrolling texts, images and full-fledged videos can be displayed before presenting the final result to the PwD user. This is feature is incorporated in order to evolve a revenue generation model, providing information of latest upcoming events in or around villages or rural areas etc.