An article on “Power of technology in empowerment of Indian citizens" in "The Economist Times" encourage me to share key learnings with you all. This blog is all about penetration of Internet & PC in rural India. The planning & problems government tackle to reach rural citizens.
Some village boys in Andhra Pradesh, recorded folk music & marketed it companies like Disney over the internet. Now villagers earn loyalty from music sales. Another example of railways e-ticketing an innovation that is biggest breaks through by technology. Now, around 40% tickets in India sold through online. This has reduced the problem of waiting in long queues; I think this is the biggest achievement of technology in India.
Paul Bell, President, Dell computer said: "In every country we deal, we see that the government is all about 5 years behind the private companies if they don’t take IT as an enterprise wide strategy."
The steps taken by Indian government to empower rural citizens are:
1) Setting up 250,000 Common services centers (CSC) called e-Kiosks by 2012 which will provide IT empowerment.
2) Out of 600,000 Panchayats in India around 82,000 village Panchayats have set up CSCs.
3) The idea behind CSCs project is to provide broadband access and internet center in every village in India.
4) CSCs not only provide services related to land records, birth certificates and farm prices to citizens, but also act as a business and provide livelihood to a large population.
"There are glaring levels of inequalities in India in terms of access to ICT. Around 70% of Indian population lives in rural areas. But out of a total of 9 million broadband subscribers, majority is limited to large cities. Almost 84% of rural citizens are unaware of the internet usage." Mr. Sachin Pilot, Minister of state, IT & communication
Reasons of low penetration of internet in rural India :
1. Failed to provide proper power supply necessarily to run computers/Laptops.
2. Failed to identify those services which pull for IT demand for rural citizens & unawareness of internet.
3. Difficult to afford high cost of PC/laptop for rural citizen.
Government is planning to overcome these problems:-
(1) Bring the cost of laptop in range of Rs1000 -2000, so a rural can afford it.
(2) Government to dole out computers on rent to spread IT literacy at cost Rs 15 -20/day.
(3) Govt. plans to deploy WiMax in rural Panchayats and 3G all over India reach broadband via wireless to the poor.
(4) For better power supply set up solar power panels & more battery back up.
(5) Basic level of self help in education & healthcare can be done by technology.
