Chhattisgarh is a relatively economically and sociallybackward State with an essentially rural (80%)and tribal (32.5%) character. The State's financialresources are modest. Teledensity is less thanhalf the national average. Internet subscribers are less than five per tenthousand people. The State was created a littleover an year ago without basic State level infrastructure.44% area is under forests where many schools hadto be connected to electric lines before computerscould be placed. At other places, extra rooms hadto be constructed. Suitable instructors were notavailable locally in remote villages and these had to be drafted from cities. Even in these circumstances, ISS was initiated and implemented due to the will of the Government and due to its vision.

The level of acceptance by the community has been encouraging. Even in Year One, against 46,273 studentspaid for by the Government, another 9,000 odd paidtheir own fee. Three Local Governments (JanpadaPanchayats) resolved to provide US$ 511,000 forthe CHO i CE initiative to network all their 246 VillageCouncils headquarter villages seamlessly with ISSgirls as the volunteer corps for this.

Given this, one can say confidently that ISS can be replicated easily elsewhere in India and inthe developing world, provided the leadership sharesthe vision and has the will to pursue it.