Microsoft Corporation India Private Limited on Monday unveiled a "scalable and self-sustaining" initiative in north India. Essentially targeted at rural youth, Saksham, as the project is known, is aimed at taking the benefits of information technology (IT) to the grassroots.

The project, which aims to empower the rural unemployed youth, will have sons of the soil operating kiosks being set up by Microsoft. These kiosks, ranging between Rs 50,000 and Rs 5 lakh, would create job and entrepreneurial opportunities for rural, semi-literate youth.

Microsoft is already in talks with the State Bank of India to provide the credit option to these entrepreneurs and the company plans to launch 50,000 of these pan-India.

Tarun Malik, Head, Rural Computing, Microsoft, India, said Saksham (self-reliant), would be operated on public-private partnership basis. "It will not only provide local entrepreneurs with the opportunity to set up and manage these kiosks for content and services but also provide the local independent software vendor community with a chance to develop rural content and applications. On the whole, it is going to provide a slew of job opportunities, both at the skilled and unskilled levels," he added.

Malik said that they were already in talks with a number of universities based in west and south India, apart from a few agricultural universities in the North, to tailor-make a "mini-MBA" type study course, focussing on rural economics, for these entrepreneurs. "Microsoft will also provide 30 to 45 days of training to these entrepreneurs at the local level to make them self-reliant," he said, adding the village youth could earn as much as Rs 8,000 per month through these kiosks.

The company is working with various local independent software vendors to develop content in local Indian languages familiar to villagers.

Claiming that the initiative had already made MNCs sit up and take notice of the enormous potential the rural sector held, he said: "As much as 54 per cent of India’s GDP has its roots in villages. A lot of queries from tractor-makers like M&M and fertiliser manufacturers like Tata Chem are pouring in. Telecom companies, too, are evincing keen interest for Internet-enabling these kiosks," he said.

The kiosks would provide a mix of online and offline services to address a range of socio-economic needs. These would range from accessing government records to distance education and getting agriculture-related information.

Punjab, Haryana and Himachal were being targeted for the scheme because of the high disposable incomes of individuals in the region. "The governments of these states are very positive about launching e-governance projects through these kiosks. A pilot project had earlier been launched in Sirsa, which drew tremendous response," he added.