Web casts its net wider in state

CHENNAI: Twelve-year-old Gautam lovescomputer games and is constantly on the lookout for new ones on the internet,his favourite playground. J Meera, a mother of two daughters, is also a regularvisitor to cyberspace. She loves to hook up with her daughters who live withtheir families in the US. Gautam and Meera are among the 1.4 millionpeople in Tamil Nadu who are responsible for the searing speed with whichinternet connections are growing in Tamil Nadu. Not surprisingly, the stateranks third in the number of internet subscribers in India, according to datasubmitted to Parliament on Monday. Maharashtra (including Goa) had2.93 million internet subscribers for the quarter ending March 31, 2009. Delhihad 1.57 million subscribers, but the figure includes customers from Noida,Gurgaon, Ghaziabad and Faridabad. Ironically, the ���silicon��� state ofIndia, Karnataka, with 1.09 million subscribers, lags much behind Tamil Nadu.���There are a lot of factors. Tamil Nadu���s educationsector is robust and we have a large number of institutions. They use theinternet extensively. Also, schools in our state have a focus on impartingcomputer education to students. Tamil Nadu is one of the four states in India tohave completed the State Wide Area Network (SWAN),��� P W C Davidar, stateIT secretary, said. SWAN connects the headquarters in each state with thedistrict headquarters and each district headquarters with the blockheadquarters, all through a minimum 2-Mbps leased line.With familiesand children migrating to other countries for work or study, even elderlypeople, hitherto shy of using the internet or who earlier found it difficult toembrace technology, are now learning the laws of ���cyberia���.