Mobile news service CGnet Swara was recently featured on National Geographic as part of its "Innovators Project" series, which profiles “people who are transforming their fields by creating, educating, provoking, and delighting.”
Developed by Knight Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary with help from Microsoft Research India, CGnet Swara (Voice of Chhattisgarh) gives people in remote areas of India the abil
Growing up in a village in rural Indonesia, a young boy by the name of Alim dreamed of one day owning his own TV. He never imagined he'd be the head of a broadcast news operation that reports on indigenous issues and serves as a voice for people who have never really had one before.
Today, Alim is chief of news at Ruai TV.
For 10 years the government promised the remote Indian village of Sajan Khar its own well, and for 10 years the villagers struggled with the same four-mile trek to fetch drinking water for themselves and their animals.
Then early this year, Hem Singh Markam used a cell phone to call for help. And 15 days later, two hand-pump wells were delivered.
It is the latest example of what happens when indigenous, tribal communities are able to make their voices heard.
In the remote regions of India, demand is growing for access to Shu Choudhary’s cell phone network -- which allows citizens to send and receive news reports in their own language for the very first time.
Indian magazine Hardnews features citizen journalists who traveled to Delhi for a six-day workshop organized by Knight Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary. These journalists from rural India report local issues using Choudhary's mobile news network, CGNet Swara. CGNet team member Smita Choudhary discusses the marginalization of Indian tribes by mainstream news sources. “Media is politically and commercially controlled these days. Nobody wants to hear a villager’s story,” she said.
When government food deliveries provided for malnourished children in rural India suddenly stopped around the first of the year, Savita Rath and other indigenous workers who care for the children did the best they could to provide meals.
But with food supplies dwindling, Savita also picked up a cell phone and filed a report through CGNet Swara, a mobile news network created by Knight International Fellow Shubhranshu Choudhary.
At MalaysiaKini’s start-up community news operation, KomunitiKini, we have been working on bringing three things together into a business model for local community news – trained community based citizen journalists (CJ’s), an online platform for communities to create their own local newspaper and finally local advertising.
Lost in San Francisco, no need to ask for directions. Just pull out your mobile phone – iPhone or Android. Pinpoint your current location, “tell” your phone your destination and within a few seconds you have directions.
