Noida, India

Question Box was first piloted in rural Noida, India, through a collaboration with The NIIT Institute. Open Mind brought the Question Box concept and funded hard costs, while TNI team members executed.

We learned in Noida that there is a need and desire for information, and that the Question Box concept is a valid one. Common questions included market prices for produce; cricket scores, and high school examination results.

We also learned that landline phones were not the right backbone, as they were difficult to obtain and often broke down. The Noida learnings sparked the switch to mobile phone-based Question Boxes in our subsequent pilots in Pune.