While Kolkata has 30 lakh Internet users, the rest of West Bengal is predominantly offline. Out of all the Internet users across India more than 60% hail from non-metro cities and small towns.
After a very successful run in Bihar where close to 10 lakh people visited the Internet Bus, we are now entering the Bengali heartland. The bus will visit Kolkata, Durgapur, Asansol, Kharagpur, Uluberia, Chandannagar, Behrampore, Haldia, Bankura & Puruliya during its two month long stay in West Bengal.
The project has enjoyed success and interest among the people of 11 states, covering more than 2500 locations and touching the lives of more than 65,00,000 Indians across 130 towns. Surveys have indicated that more than 20,00,000 people have gone online for the first time after visiting the Google Internet Bus.
The bus will showcase informative content in English, Hindi and Bengali in addition to the basic familiarization on using services like search, email, social networking and online maps. The bus will also showcase how Internet services can be used on a mobile device. We will also continue to engage cyber café owners and school teachers with an aim to build local advocacy for this powerful medium.
Users across India can follow the bus through its journey, see pictures & videos,
and join online communities by simply visiting
http://www.google.co.in/internetbus
Posted by Nishant Nair, Program Manager, Google India
