When Shubhranshu Choudhary began working as a Knight International Journalism Fellow in India in 2009, he realized that even the most remote villages of the Chhattisgarh region where he was based had access to cell phones. Those phones offered an opportunity for him to build a cellular news network that allows the villagers to communicate with each other as well as with activists, government officials and mainstream media.

A simple phone call can bring needed assistance to people who live in the remote regions of India, says a report by the Public Health Global Network. Reporter Augustine Veliath wrote about villagers who called CGnet Swara, the cellular network created by Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary.

Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary delivered a TEDx lecture in Bangalore on how citizen journalism projects, like his CGnet Swara, are democratizing media in India.

India's Asian News International reports on a "revolutionary" initiative by Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary that allows tribals in a remote region of the country to communicate with each other and with mainstream media and activists outside of their region. In this video report, a citizen journalist trained by Choudhary says the service has allowed villagers to report significant problems that might have gone unreported in the past.

Arjun Venkatraman was a technical expert who helped Knight International Journalism Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary develop an advanced version of his CGNet Swara cell phone service in India. Recently, Venkatraman journeyed to Indonesia to work with Knight International Journalism Fellow Harry Surjadi on a similar project there.