Informat ion and Communicat ion
Technology (ICT) has largely been
recognized as a technological tool that
can serve as a catalytic intervention in
improving the lives and livelihoods of
rural fami l ies. Since 1992 the
M.S.Swaminathan Research Foundation
(MSSRF) has been pioneering knowledge
empowerment in resource-poor, marginal
farming, fishing and landless rural families
in India. Harnessing the modern computer
and satellite-based ICT applications, the
Village Resource and Knowledge Centres
(VRC & VKC), set up by MSSRF and using
the bottom-up approach, have been
providing local, time-specific and
demand-driven information to the rural
communities. The VRCs and the VKCs
use traditional as well as modern
technologies to provide information and
knowledge to rural women and men with
the objective of improving their
socioeconomic lives. Notably it plays a
significant role in being a bridge between
the research and rural communities, thus
facilitating the process of providing realtime
solutions to address the issues
pertaining to the lives and livelihoods of
the rural community in the changing
scenario.