During the first phase of the rollout, owners of the e-kendra also had a stake in ensuring continuous awareness of computer learning. "Kerala is one of the most aware states in India," asserts Sadath. "Parents are educated, and so they want their child to get better education. I informed people that without IT, everybody today is as good as illiterate," he explains. The support of locals, he adds, has been instrumental in increasing demand at e-centers.

With the first phase of Akshaya operational, the original plan did undergo changes. Initially, there was one e-kendra for every 1,000 families; now, each center caters to 2,500-3,000 families. The sustainability of the e-kendras is still in question, but the entrepreneur community in Kerala has taken the plunge. Technologically, almost all barriers have been overcome and the project is regarded a success.

Still, more than three years after the success of the pilot project, the number of e-centers has reduced to 345.

There are various reasons for this, says Sadath. "Almost 200 e-centers either closed down or have merged with the nearest centers," he points out. In real terms, six e-centers per local body area were not found to be sustainable. So, nearly 60 of them closed down. With 345 functional e-centers today, we have an average of three centers per local body, Sadath says.

An e-center provides a host of services today, including:

• E-payment: Citizens can pay bills of agencies like the state electricity board, BSNL, among others.
• E-krishi: Online posting of farmers' products, query from experts, a recommendation system for farmers, e-library, etcetera.
• Basic e-governance functions: Online complaint mechanisms with access to different authorities, printout facility for application forms from government websites, government data entry works like land record digitization, etcetera.
• Nationalized Banks' Digitization services: Signature scanning, data entry, and small software building.
• Computer courses: Windows and Linux, Malayalam version of MS Office called e-Vidhya, Linux-based applications, and MS-Office.
• Web development for social and commercial agencies.

Sakeer, one of the successful Akshaya entrepreneurs in Malappuram, says: "The challenge was lack of knowledge in the public about ICT. But, the response of the locals in Malappuram has been very good. In fact, I started making profits two years after setting it up."

However, Sethumadhavan thinks it's too early to expect profits. "The project is still at a nascent stage. When the central government launches ICT projects across the country, we will be the first state with e-literacy in all districts. Akshaya's maturity and experience in the area could then help make it profitable, he believes.