This is a news that should warm Indian hearts.
India's cellular phone base has crossed the
500 million mark, sooner than expected, with 140 million new customers being added in the first 11 months of 2009. This has taken the country's teledensity to over 46%. The year is expected to close with a world-record 155 million new customers.
According to some reports, nearly
77% Indians are living on an income of less than Rs 20 a day, or Rs 600 pm.
The figures just don't add up. Next year teledensity should cross 60%. If that be so, how can 77% Indians be as poor as we are being told?
May be someone can explain how a person who earns less than twenty rupees can buy a mobile phone and then use it too?
The tiny village of Wagharwadi, in Thane District, Maharashtra, has yet to get electricity. Until recently, the villagers had to use candles, kerosene lamps and torches fashioned out of sticks, after dusk.
Till a year ago, they thought that Rs, 1,600/- was too steep an amount to pay for a solar lamp.
Electronics entrepreneur Kumaar Thakkar made just one modification- the addition of a tiny plug to charge mobile phones- and suddenly the lamps were in great demand!
Solar lamp sales increased, and so did those of cellphones too.
Accidental fires, respiratory ailments, and other problems are becoming things of the past with the increased use of these lamps.
The villagers have recently discovered another use for the lamp- it is possible to plug a tiny six-volt television into the solar socket and view cricket matches!
