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<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Sharing a front Page Sunday (31<sup>st</sup>
July, 2016) Article on Hindustan Times Delhi, India, on Cybercafes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Globally, internet penetration is related
to education. Apart from a dismal 19% internet penetration, India still has 25%
population, who are not literate. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Low Education penetration needs “<b>Assistance</b>”
for access to internet and that's what Cybercafes provide. To reduce the
digital divide in the country and improve internet penetration, the Cybercafes
should be encouraged, especially to improve internet usage and adoption amongst
the people who need assistance. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>We from CCAOI, urge the authorities to<b>
Save the Cybercafes and not let them be consigned to oblivion.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>After 20 years and pocket internet,
cyber cafes consigned to oblivion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><b><span style='font-size:14.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Manoj Sharma | Updated: Jul 31, 2016
09:51 IST<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>NEW DELHI: Aamir Khurso sits at the
front desk of his cyber café, watching the rain. On the wall behind him is a
black and white printout asking customers to present their ID cards.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>There aren’t too many customers,
just a few youngsters peering into bulky, old CRT monitors inside small white
cubicles. A musty smell pervades the place.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Few people come here. I wonder if
it’s time to shut down this place,” says the 37-year-old owner of
Firefox Internet Cafe in east Delhi. “A decade ago, there used to be a
waiting period to use the internet.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Cyber cafes symbolised India’s
nascent internet revolution and introduced a generation to the World Wide Web.
The first one, named simply Cyber Cafe, opened at Mumbai’s Leela hotel in
1996, a year after VSNL brought the internet to India. Soon after, Delhi got
its first, Cyber Club, at the ITC Maurya hotel. Both no longer exist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>By 2005, India had 200,000 Net cafes.
That number is now down to 72,000, according to the Cyber Café Association of
India.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>This year marks 20 years of the advent
of the cyber café in India, and their numbers are fast dwindling — the
Capital has 2,500 of them from 8,000 in 2008. Going back to the summer of 2000
when he started out, Khurso says, “I was 22 and wanted to do something
different. It was fashionable then to open cyber cafes. They were the start-ups
of those days. We were the first to spread digital literacy, but now we are out
of work.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>With growing internet access at home and
work, cyber café owners like Khurso now offer online utility services —
air and rail ticketing, money transfer, online applications, scanning and
printouts — to earn a living.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“In the early days, 200 people
visited my cafe every day and the wait for a slot could stretch to two hours.
We began to lose business sharply around 2011, when the smartphone became
popular,” says Naresh Kumar, 38, who runs the café True Education in
Janakpuri.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>According to a Tata Consultancy Services
study, 5% internet users in India visited cyber cafes in 2013 against 46% in
2009. During this period, internet use at home rose from 58% to 78%.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Mobile Internet user base went up from
238 million in June 2014 to 306 million in December 2015, says a report of the
Internet and Mobile Association of India-IMRB International.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Most cyber café owners started out in
their early 20s and say it is tough making new plans in their late thirties
.“The income is meagre. I charge Rs 11 an hour but there are still few
takers,” says Khurso.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>That’s a far cry from the days
when Calculus in Connaught Place charged Rs 150 an hour while the hourly rate
at cafes in five-star hotels was Rs 800. Cities like Bangalore had fancy cyber
cafes with liveried waiters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>For many, the demise of the internet
café means the end of landmarks of their youth.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>“Our customers came for Yahoo chats,
Hotmail and Orkut. For my generation, Yahoo was a tech giant. (Hotmail founder)
Sabeer Bhatia, and not (Facebook’s) Mark Zuckerberg, was our hero,”
says Khurso.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Aman Sharma, 40, of Paschim Vihar says
it was “cool” visiting cyber cafes. “We not only learnt to
use the internet but cyber cafes were asocial space where we made friends. I
met my girlfriend at one .”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>So, is it the end of the cyber café in
India?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Amrita Choudhury, president of the Cyber
Café Association of India, believes they can stay relevant, giving the example
of the Common Service Center — internet access points delivering
government-to-consumer services under the Digital India programme. “Internet
penetration is still very low in India and there are many who cannot afford a
computer or smartphone. Cyber cafes can bridge that digital divide, which is
creating an economic divide.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>(Source: <a
href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/after-20-yrs-and-pocket-internet-cyber-cafes-consigned-to-oblivion/story-TG5foYDtvdMcVQ70BehHhL.html">http://www.hindustantimes.com/after-20-yrs-and-pocket-internet-cyber-cafes-consigned-to-oblivion/story-TG5foYDtvdMcVQ70BehHhL.html</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Regards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Amrita Choudhury<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>Director CCAOI (Cybercafe Association of
India)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><a href="http://www.ccaoi.in">www.ccaoi.in</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'>+9899682701<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal style='text-align:justify'><span style='font-size:12.0pt;
font-family:"Times New Roman","serif"'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
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