About 600 kms from Mumbai, amidst the Melghat Tiger Reserve in the Satpura mountain ranges, Harisal village is situated in district Amravati. Villages in Melghat, inhabited by the Korku tribal community, were once characterised by the lack of roads, electricity, mobile connectivity and public infrastructure. Harisal had been plagued for years by atrocious child, infant and maternal mortality rate, high migration rate, general malnutrition, infant and maternal malnutrition. ‘The idea of establishing a digital village aided by government of Maharashtra in collaboration with various private sector partners was conceptualised after Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis met Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in Silicon Valley, USA, in June 2015. Harisal was chosen as the pilot nodal village because of its strategic location and a MoU was formally signed on April 21, 2016 between Microsoft Corp and the Government of Maharashtra. This led the way for various activities under a digitally oriented project aimed at addressing several issues simultaneously. Within a year they drove on-ground execution to build a model village showcasing digitallypowered telemedicine, digital education, agriculture and commerce, e-PDS etc. There was not even cell phone connectivity when the project began. So using a new technology called TV Whitespace, a high speed internet was enabled in just nine days which provided a 20 MBPS connectivity... Read More