Naidu sets yet another example for Krishna

BANGALORE, NOV 5: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has done it again. He has set yet another example for our own pro-IT Ch...

BANGALORE, NOV 5: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has done it again. He has set yet another example for our own pro-IT Chief Minister S M Krishna.

And this time it is starting the rythu bazaar8217;, that is managing farmer markets on the net! The Karnataka Government is all set to adapt KisanNet, the Internet application developed using web technologies to present information about farmer bazaars on the Net.

Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly M V Venkatappa visited this e-governance application stall at Bangalore IT.COM 8217;99 to consider the possibilities of using the package to regulate farmer markets in Karnataka.

KisanNet, developed by Hyderabad-based Tata Consultancy Services TCS, effectively manages the various distribution channels of agricultural produce without middlemen8217;s involvement, a TCS executive said.

But how does this system work? A computer is installed at each farmer bazaar. A Remote Frequency Terminal RFT is then used to feed the pricing and stock information of the bazaar. This is recorded as database.

The web interface can also be used for the same purpose. All the user work stations in a district are connected to a server at the district headquarter, which in turn are connected to the State headquarters.

The ryuthu8217; can make use of the news-flashes on the terminal before he decides to sell his produce. A customer can find out at any given time what the market trend is or the price of commodities available in the market.

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The Government, on the other hand, can analyse details about commodity consumption, future price projections and commodity demand and supply.

The software package, developed using Java technologies like applets and servlets, can also provide graphics for market analysis.

The application is currently being piloted in as many as 90 farmer bazaars in Andhra Pradesh and will be extended to 52 more soon. The Naidu Government is also planning to extend it to Public Distribution Systems PDS, and farmer co-operatives that are known to be rampant with corruption, the official said.

A senior bureaucrat in the Food and Civil Supplies Department said it was just right that the State adopts different means of e-governance, with Chief Minister S M Krishna calling upon the State bureaucracy to change their style of functioning by imbibing the nuances of Information Technology into their work culture. He added that it would also help to declare the accessibility to data and information to the public as a fundamental right, which is otherwise held back in bundles of files in different departments.