Agriculture including Crop husbandry, Animal husbandry, Fisheries, Forestry, Agro-forestry and Agro-industries provides livelihoods to over 70 per cent of rural Indian population. Developing appropriate ICTs for sustainable development and livelihood is, therefore, essential at grass roots level, i.e., at community level. A study was performed for determining the information needs of different communities and designing system for linking the groups to relevant information and training resources ultimately to enable rural people to have information access for rural development. Data of two years period from July 2001-2002 to July 2002-2003 were collected from the beneficiaries of multimedia village information centers established by Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University in India. The users of village information centers who accessed different information technology tools during the study period were classified as users of Electronic media, Audio media, Video media, Print media and others. 28.97 per cent of the beneficiaries were accessed the electronic media during the second year with an increase of 8.98 per cent when compared to the first year which was only 19.99 per cent. The 8.98 per cent increased access shows the awareness, knowledge gain towards the electronic media access and overall built up of computer literacy and capacity in accessing information and communication technologies for information access and development, sense of ownership and empowerment.
