NGOs have to fill the gaps with digital tools
Zuckerberg was visiting a “digi center” run by a non-profit body called the Digital Empowerment Foundation (DEF), which is meant to be a central point in the village for accessing the internet and other technical services. “The school and college-going youth in particular were very excited to see him,” said Osama Manzar, founder of DEF that runs 65 such centers in the country. The Chandauli center is supported by the ministry of minority affairs.
Not everybody recognized him. “When we asked them if they knew who he was, one young boy said – ‘mujhe pata hai, yeh to Jookerberg hai! (I know, he is Zuckerberg!)’,” said Manzar, who later shared pictures of the visit on Facebook and Twitter. “He spoke about the importance of being connected. He said that India is a beautiful country and the world can only know about it once they are connected,” said Manzar, who has worked with Facebook on various local campaigns.
Zuckerberg was in India to promote the Facebook-backed ‘internet dot org’ campaign to expand internet reach. “Elaborating upon the success achieved in Zambia in providing free basic services to people, he requested the government of India to support this initiative of Facebook in India. The minister welcomed this idea and extended all possible support from the government in taking this forward,” a government statement said. http://m.timesofindia.
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