According to (Reuters) – India launches an $18 billion plan to spread the information revolution to its provinces, the problems is monkeys
The 3,000-year-old holy city of Varanas where Hindus come to die , but the monkeys also feast on the fibre-optic cables that are strung along the banks of the Ganges river.
“We cannot move the temples from here. We cannot modify anything here, everything is built up. The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires,” said communications engineer A.P. Srivastava.
A shortage of electricity is further complicating efforts to set up stable Wi-Fi in public places – daily power cuts can last for hours during the sweltering summer in Varanasi and across much of India.
Modi’s government has pledged to lay 700,000 kms (434,960 miles) of broadband cable to connect India’s 250,000 village clusters within three years, build 100 new “Smart Cities” by 2020 and shift more public services like education and health to electronic platforms to improve access and accountability.
“We’ve built outdoor Wi-Fi-access routers specifically keeping in mind Indian environmental conditions,” Dinesh Malkani, Cisco’s India country head, said in an interview.
“You cannot predict what challenges you are going to come up against.”
Bringing some order to India’s chaotic cities with technology is a daunting task.
India’s urban population is forecast to swell by an additional 220 million to 600 million by 2031, potentially overwhelming already inadequate infrastructure.
Vinod Kumar Tripathi, an urban planning expert in Varanasi, said Modi’s initiatives needed to be coupled with huge investments in improving basic services like housing, roads and waste management.
“Everything here is old, outdated and the population pressure just makes it worse. This place was a small temple town and is now a commercial centre,” Tripathi said in his office overlooking the Banaras Hindu University.
According to (Reuters)
