Vote of Thanks Address by Administrator on the Occasion of launch of Sanchar Shakti

7th March 2011, Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi

Your Excellency the President, Honble Minister of Communications & I.T., Honble Minister of
State for Communications & I.T., Secretary Telecom Commission, Member Finance Telecom
Commission, distinguished guests and fellow officers.
It is indeed a great privilege for us to have had Her Excellency grace us with her presence on the
occasion of the inauguration of Sanchar Shakti scheme for rural women on the eve of
International Womens Day. Her Excellency has always supported womens empowerment and I
am sure that her kind patronage of this humble initiative will further enthuse and motivate all
stakeholders to bring their very best to making Sanchar Shakti a resounding success.
There is no doubt that unless women participate in and benefit from national development as
equals, we cannot achieve genuine welfare or progress for our people. Much needs to be done to
correct the gender imbalance in our country and we are very grateful to Her Excellency for the
inspiring words of encouragement that she has bestowed upon us as we embark upon this USOF
initiative to use telecommunications for the betterment of rural women. We will cherish them
and strive to live up to her expectations.
We in the USO Fund have been trying our very best over the last nine years since the Fund was
created to bring affordable access to voice and data services to the people of rural India. We have
implemented this mandate through various schemes. We are soon to roll out a pan India Wireless
Broadband scheme.
Given that women constitute 48% of the 70% of Indias population that resides in rural India, it
is inevitable that USOF should also undertake special initiatives for this important part of our
nations human resource. Hence our Wire Line Broadband Scheme provides for preferential
allotment of Wire Line Broadband Connections for womens SHGs and our Rural Public Service
Terminal Scheme is providing womens SHGs with Broadband enabled RPST terminals that will
enable them to offer banking and other value added services to the rural population. This scheme
is being rolled out on pilot basis in Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh.

We welcome suggestions from stakeholders on other measures which we could undertake in this
direction, in keeping with our mandate. On our part, we will continue to strive to ensure that
USOF schemes duly incorporate the gender perspective.
I wish to express our gratitude to Honble Ministers Shri Kapil Sibal and Shri Sachin Pilot for
their continued guidance and encouragement in implementation of various USOF schemes
including the present scheme.
I am indebted also to Member (Finance) who has been the driving force behind this scheme and
to the Secretary Telecom for his sagacious guidance and leadership.
I would like to thank the officers and staff of the USO Fund whose perseverance and dedication
have made this scheme possible. I thank also all participants in this scheme for their
contributions and efforts. I am also grateful to the National Institute of Communication Finance
and various officials of DoT who have laboured over the past few weeks to ensure that this
inauguration ceremony is a success. Finally I thank all our distinguished guests for having
honoured us with their presence
Thank you ladies and gentlemen.