audience was noted. School children found new interest 

 in making things that had been demonstrated on the 

 television screen. More people began to visit the 

 extension agencies and other sources of information to 

 ask about subjects treated in the daily telecasts. 



The SITE program was made possible by an agreement 

 between the United States and India that gave the 

 United States responsibility for the space hardware and 

 India management of ground installations and program 

 content (Chitnis 1976, also see Pal 1975). The cost 

 has been estimated at between $15 and $20 million (or 

 about 50 cents per person per viewing hour) without 

 considering the outlay for the ATS-6 Satellite which 

 was lent by the United States. 



From a technical performance standpoint, the SITE 

 project was a success, and it was also managed 

 effectively. In-school programming was considered 

 successful as was the teacher training program, but 

 effects of the community programming were more 

 difficult to measure. In any case, India is continuing 

 instructional television for rural areas with the use 

 of terrestrial facilities, covering 40 percent of the 

 villages served by the satellite. 



India has also made a firm commitment for an 

 operational satellite system, INSAT, and has requested 

 a 1981 NASA launch. It is expected that a hybrid 

 system of national satellite programs and local 

 telecasting by terrestrial means will provide an 

 economical mix. Further decisions on the mix of radio, 

 television, terrestrial, and satellite uses will rest 

 on a number of considerations, including the extent to 

 which satellite use for development purposes 

 complements other planned uses of the satellite to 

 expand India's telecommunications capabilities. 



The potential economic justification of 

 telecommunications for the delivery of technical 

 assistance and information to rural villages is 

 indicated by the high cost and limited effectiveness of 

 current procedures: one-third of the roads serving 

 India's half a million villages have no surfacing and 

 are generally impassable when it rains. Thousands of 

 villages are served only by foot paths and animal 

 tracks. Agricultural extension workers, literacy 

 workers, and other technical assistance personnel 

 traveling by jeep or by bicycle can visit only a few 

 villages a week, and their help is highly intermittent. 

 The use of radio, telephone, television, and other 

 methods of communication, however, can provide complete 

 coverage and continuous service almost immediately, 

 without awaiting the long and costly process of 

 building all-weather roads, providing vehicles, and 

 training the large number of extension workers required 



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