>Monkbot at 14:14, 1 January 2021

2021-01-01T14:14:11Z

New page

{{Infobox website
| name = aAQUA
| screenshot =
| caption =
| url = https://aaqua.persistent.co.in/aaqua/forum/index
| alexa =
| commercial = Yes
| type =
| language = English, [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Hindi]], [[Telugu language|Telugu]], [[Kannada]]
| registration =
| owner = Agrocom Software Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
| author =
| launch_date = October, 2003
| current_status =
| revenue =
| content_license = http://aaqua.persistent.co.in/aaqua/forum/viewthread?thread=14509
}}
Almost All Questions Answered or '''aAQUA''' is a Farmer Knowledge Exchange available at aaqua.org answering questions from progressive farmers in 4 languages in any one of 420 districts in India and some places abroad.

==Open To All==
Any farmer, agriculturist or hobbyist can register and post questions and a panel of Agriculture Experts answers questions based on the problem description and photos if any. Contextual Information such as geographical location, weather, season are retrieved automatically and made available to experts. Apart from agriculture, aAQUA is a forum for questions regarding education, healthcare and other issues important to a developing population. Currently questions may be asked in one of four languages - [[Hindi]], [[Marathi language|Marathi]], [[Kannada language|Kannada]] and [[English language|English]].

== Typical Q&A ==
aAQUA uses discussion forum user interface to publish online the queries by one or more agri-users and responses and advice from other expert agri-users. Here are [https://aaqua.persistent.co.in/aaqua/forum/successstories links] to several Q&A including cucumber harvest, foot and mouth disease outbreak among cattle, assisting an ailing goat, solution to a green chilli (pepper) infection, sowing information on onions, solution to cucumber disease and a clarification on cattle feed. The most prolific farmer-users asking queries is found [https://aaqua.persistent.co.in/aaqua/forum/viewthread?thread=14447 here]. An older version of frequently asked questions on the aAQUA forum can be found [https://aaqua.persistent.co.in/aaqua/forum/viewthread?thread=9412 here].

==Background==
Originally developed at the [[Developmental Informatics Lab]], aAQUA uses [[relational database]] management systems and [[information retrieval]] techniques with [[query optimization]], intermittent synchronization<ref>{{cite web|url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1242722|title=Delay tolerant applications for low bandwidth and intermittently connected users: the aAQUA experience|last= Sahni|first=Saurabh|author2=Krithi Ramamritham|year=2007|publisher= ACM New York, NY, USA}}</ref> and multilingual support. An excellent technical introduction is available in the Internet Computing Article.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1399091.1399264|title=The aAQUA Approach: Innovative Web 2.0 Tools for Developing Countries|last=Ramamritham|first=Krithi|author2=Anil Bahuman|author3=Saurabh Sahni|author4=Malathy Baru|author5=Chaitra Bahuman|author6=Arun Chandran|author7= Manjiri Joshi|year=2008|publisher= IEEE Educational Activities Department}}</ref> A chapter on aAQUA was published in a book<ref>{{Cite book|url=http://www.apaari.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/Success%20Stories%20on%20ICTICM%20in%20AR4D%20in%20AP%20Region%202011.pdf|title=Success Stories in the Asia Pacific Region|last=Hazelman|last2=Attaluri|publisher=FAO of the UN Regional Office for Asia Pacific|year=2011|pages=1–19}}</ref> by the [[Food and Agriculture Organization]] as a Case Study in the Asia Pacific Region.

==Awards==
# Manthan Award by Digital Empowerment Foundation (handed by Prof Anil Gupta of IIM Ahmedabad, Sivakumar of ITC e-Choupal and Sachin Pilot, MP.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://manthanaward.org/e-inclusion-2005/|title=E – Inclusion, 2005|work=Manthan Award|access-date=2018-07-10|language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=https://manthanaward.org/appreciations/|title=Appreciations|work=Manthan Award|access-date=2018-07-10|language=en-US}}</ref>
# Indian Startups and Business Incubators Award (handed by Chief Minister of Maharashtra Prithviraj Chavan)<ref>[http://isba.in/awards/isba-awards-2010/ Graduate Venture in Agritech/Profitable Growth Category]</ref>

==Technology Transfer==
In 2014-15, the software was licensed perpetually to [[Tata Consultancy Services]] in a private agreement between Agrocom founders Anil Bahuman, Prof Ramamritham and TCS Chief Technology Officer Ananth Krishnan.<ref>[https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/Harnessing-technology-for-farmers/article16636991.ece "Harnessing technology for farmers]". ''The Hindu''. 2009-03-15. [[International Standard Serial Number|ISSN]] 0971-751X. Retrieved 2018-07-11. The "expert console software" referred to in the article is powered by aAQUA.</ref> aAQUA Software was used to power the databases of TCS's mKrishi project including multi-lingual keyword search across Indian language documents using [[Natural Language Processing]] methods.

==References==
{{Reflist}}

* [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1242572.1242722 Delay tolerant applications for low bandwidth and intermittently connected users: the aAQUA experience]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110609013540/http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/11472729641Robust_Network_for_Rural_Areas_Interim_Report.pdf Robust Network for Rural Areas]
* {{cite news | title = aAQUA–A Multilingual, Multimedia Forum for the Community | citeseerx = 10.1.1.132.5782 }}
* [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1242722 Delay tolerant applications for low bandwidth and intermittently connected users: the aAQUA experience]
* [http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1399091.1399264 The aAQUA Approach: Innovative Web 2.0 Tools for Developing Countries]
* {{cite news | title = Innovative ICT tools for information provision in agricultural extension |date=December 2005 | citeseerx = 10.1.1.75.1015 }}
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20110721150329/http://www.dil.iitb.ac.in/gsdl/collect/developm/index/assoc/HASHa2c0.dir/doc.pdf Information Need and Dissemination: Indian Rural Context]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20091227220053/http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Mehul_Shah/papers/IEEEPervasive_Apr_2006_gupta.pdf IT infrastructure in emerging markets: arguing for an end-to-end perspective]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100416162839/http://dev-ejournals.library.gatech.edu/redesign/index.php/itid/article/view/322/145 Digital Green: Participatory Video and Mediated Instruction for Agricultural Extension]

==External links==
* [http://www.aaqua.org/ aAQUA Webpage]

[[Category:Government-owned websites of India]]
[[Category:Indian agricultural websites]]

Aaqua - Revision history

>Monkbot at 14:14, 1 January 2021