C V Raman’s ancestral village, gets into the Hotzone

Name the village where Nobel laureate Sir C V Raman was born. Chances are most people would were not have been be able to do until Sunday June 19.

But all that changed on Monday, June 20 as Agaramangundi in Thanjavur district of Tamil Nadu gets got networked to the world.

On the occasion of World WiFi Day, Microsense, a pan India Wi-Fi and Internet Service provider, connected the two villages that have produced two great Nobel Laureates – Agaramangudi, Sir C V Raman’s birthplace and Purasakkudi from where his nephew Subrahmanyan Chandresekhar hailed.

The irony is that despite producing such noted physicists these villages that are located a mere 20 kms away from Thanjavur town were not on any broadband grid. Many villagers do have smart phones but with patchy mobile broadband and they had to have to travel to Ayyampettai town, five kilometers away to get access.

For S. Kailasanathan, the managing director of Microsense, when the Wireless Broadband Alliance made a call to all its members to connect the unconnected, it made immediate sense to invest in these villages. After all it had produced two great scientists and access to Internet could only aid the development of scientific temperament among the children here. Moreover the world should know about these unsung villages, he felt.

As Microsense’s engineers went about laying the links for the wireless network, the excitement in the village was palpable. Children at the Sri Anandavalli Aided Primary School in Agaramangudi have been gifted two laptops by the company and managed to surf the net almost intuititively.

On June 20, the WiFi day festivities started with a meeting at the school and a session with the children on what all they could do with the Internet. Headmaster of the school, S. Christuraj said, “With this digital initiative students will be able to gain knowledge and explore education and job opportunities. We are very happy with the development.”

Around 150 villagers attended the inauguration of the WiFi services which was flagged off by A Rayappan, Technical Director and District Informatics Officer, Department of Information Technology, Ministry of Communications & IT. A desktop was donated by Microsense for the villagers to use and a demonstration session held.

But not just students and teachers, Farmers in the primarily agrarian village were enthusiastic about the development too. As Magesh Aiyar, a farmer in Agaramangudi said the internet service will aid development for his village. “Through Internet, farmers can learn about new pesticides, government subsidy schemes and it will be a medium of entertainment as well,” he said.

The WiFi service is being provided free to the villages and Kailasanathan says that a network support team is just a call away. “We are here for the long term. We will be setting up computer kiosks so that villagers can access the Internet,” S. Kailasanathan, the managing director of Microsense, said.

Meanwhile, Sir C V Raman’s family has lauded the development.

The Nobel Laureate’s grand niece Uma Parameswaran who is settled in Canada felt that the move from Microsense honoured his commitment to science and the younger generation. When C V Raman’s ancestral village gets into the Hotzone!