Two TN villages linked to Nobel Laureates to become Wi-Fi hotspots

Chennai, June 18: Two small Tamil Nadu villages where two physics Nobel Laureates - C.V. Raman and Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar - had their roots will be networked by Wi-Fi hotspots on June 20, said a top official of Microsense India.

People of Agaramangudi and Purasakkudi are elated as their villages will be on the Wi-Fi hotspot maps.

City-based Microsense India provides Wi-Fi connectivity in star hotels, residential apartment complexes and other places.

"We are a member of Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA). The WBA had declared June 20 as Wi-Fi day. They had suggested to connect villages to the worldwide web. We decided to network two villages in Thanjavur district where two physics Nobel Laureates had their roots," S. Kailasanathan, managing director, told IANS.

"These are two little villages in Tamil Nadu not well known to the outside world and separated by around two kilometres," Kailasanathan said.

Bharat Ratna Raman who got the Nobel Prize in 1930 for his work in the field of light scattering hailed from Agaramangudi.

He was the paternal uncle of Chandrasekhar who also won the Nobel Prize for his discovery called Chandrasekhar limit.

Chandrasekhar had his roots in Purasakkudi, said Kailasanathan.

According to Kailasanathan, the Wi-Fi equipment is placed on the roof tops of the houses in the two villages.

"The Wi-Fi coverage will be around one km in each village. In a way it could be said the entire village is a Wi-Fi hotspot," Kailasanathan said.

Microsense India will also provide a computer to Sri Anandavalli Aided Primary School in Agaramangudi.

"We are very happy at the development. Only rich schools have computers. Now our school too will have a net connected computer," S. Christuraj, headmaster of the school, told IANS over phone.

According to him the village population is around 3,000.

Many from Agaramangudi go to schools in nearby villages and then to colleges in other cities.

"The Wi-Fi connection is a welcome development. The youth will be able to use this in a productive way. Till now Agaramangudi did not have a proper Internet connection," Vivek Kumar Mahendran, a software engineer in Oracle Corporation, told IANS over phone from Hyderabad.

He said with smart phones people used to connect to the Internet.

"The Wi-Fi connectivity may also prompt enterprising village youth to look at e-tailing as a business opportunity," Mahendran said.

As to the modality of connecting to the Internet, Kailasanathan said a person wanting to use will send an sms to a given number and the password will be messaged to him with which he can log in.

The entire service is free now, he added.

IANS