INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION

PAPER VII

DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION

1 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION

Unit I :

Definition and meanings of development - Role of communication in development – Concepts - Communication for development in third world countries - Developments in different sectors in India - Communication infrastructure and new media growth - Communication as a tool for social and economic change.

Unit II :

Mass media and dissemination of development news - Communication networks and opinion leaders in development - Communication for literacy and empowerment of women and the rural poor - Mass media and rural development - Community media and development l Challenges and issues

Unit III :

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Development - Technology related factors - Strategic ICT management in developing countries - New media growth - Access and control issues - Govt. and private agencies in development campaigns.

Unit IV :

Globalisation - IT Polices - Implementation of IT projects in India - Private participation – Competition - Public information and services through ICT - Specific development projects in Tamilnadu - Diffusion of innovation and adoption.

Unit IV :

e-Government : Concept and functioning of e-governance - System and operational control and management of e-government - Public and private participation- Information and services to the rural poor - e-Government projects in Tamilnadu - Policies and programmes of e-governance in India - Problems of access and use and challenges for the future.

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DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION All that is valuable in human society depends upon the opportunity for development accorded the individual. - Albert Einstein

UNIT I: INTRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION

Objectives of the unit:

 Definition and meanings of development  Role of communication in development  Concepts  Communication for development in third world countries  Developments in different sectors in India  Communication infrastructure and new media growth  Communication as a tool for social and economic change.

1.0 Definition of Development:

Development is a complex issue, with many different and sometimes contentious definitions. A basic perspective equates development with economic growth. The United Nations Development Programme uses a more detailed definition- according to them development is 'to lead long and healthy lives, to be knowledgeable, to have access to the resources needed for a decent standard of living and to be able to participate in the life of the community.'

Achieving human development is linked to a third perspective of development which views it as freeing people from obstacles that affect their ability to develop their own lives and communities. Development, therefore, is empowerment: it is about local people taking control of their own lives, expressing their own demands and finding their own solutions to their problems.

“A process which enables human beings to realize their potential, builds self- confidence, and lead lives of dignity and fulfillment. It is a process which frees people from fear of want and exploitation. It is a movement away from political, economic, or social oppression. Through development, political independence acquires true significance. And it is a process of growth, a movement essentially springing from within the society that is developing.”

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“Development consists of a set of practices, sometimes appearing in conflict with one another, which require for the reproduction of society the general transformation and destruction of the natural environment and of social relations. Its aim is to increase the production of commodities (goods and services) geared, by way of exchange, to effective demand.”

- Gilbert Rist’s

1.1 Meaning of Development: 1. The act of developing or disclosing that which is unknown; a gradual unfolding process by which anything is developed, as a plan or method, or an image upon a photographic plate; gradual advancement or growth through a series of progressive changes; also, the result of developing, or a developed state.

2. The series of changes which animal and vegetable organisms undergo in their passage from the embryonic state to maturity, from a lower to a higher state of organization.

3. The act or process of changing or expanding an expression into another of equivalent value or meaning.

4. The equivalent expression into which another has been developed.

5. The elaboration of a theme or subject; the unfolding of a musical idea; the evolution of a whole piece or movement from a leading theme or motive.

6. The process of economic and social transformation that is based on complex cultural and environmental factors and their interactions. 7. The systematic use of scientific and technical knowledge to meet specific objectives or requirements.

Nora Quebral, a leading academic in this field defines development communication as follows:

 Development communication is the art and science of human.

 Communication applied to the speedy transformation of a country.

 And the mass of its people from poverty to a dynamic state of economic.

 Growth that makes possible greater social equality and the larger.

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 Fulfillment of the human potential. (Quoted in Development Communication - rhetoric and reality by Pete Habermann and Guy de Fontagalland).

1.2 Role of Communication in Development:

A decisive role can be played by communication in promoting human development in today's new climate of social change. As the world moves towards greater democracy, decentralization and the market economy, conditions are becoming more favorable for people to start steering their own course of change. But it is vital to stimulate their awareness, participation and capabilities. Communication skills and technology are central to this task, but at present are often underutilized. Policies are needed that encourage effective planning and implementation of communication programmes. If we are to keep the promises made in the Millennium Development Goals to reduce poverty and improve poor people’s lives then policymakers must recognize the essential role played by communication in development.

1.3 Political processes

Poor people must have their voices heard and be able to participate in the debates and decisions that affect their lives.

1.4 Good governance

Governments must be open, accountable and responsive to their citizens - there must be free flows of information so that civil society can monitor government performance.

1.5 Civil society

Countries need a healthy, vibrant civil society with networks of individuals, groups and organizations; change is much more likely where people are involved in discussions on issues that affect them.

1.6 Economic development

Economic development depends on accessible information and communication at all levels - governments should try to ensure that new information technologies are available to everyone.

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1.7 Role of the media

The media are central to development and to holding the powerful to account - this will only happen when the media are diverse, dynamic and free, working in a supportive regulatory environment.

1.8 Communication for Development in Third World Countries: 1.8.1 Communication for development: The discipline of communication offers the development process a number of inputs:  a way to survey a new environment especially by establishing consultative vehicles

 a way of raising consciousness and awareness amongst communities of issues pertaining to a better life for all - something to aspire to

 a way of promoting feedback - a dynamic two-way process can be set up between people and ‘developers’

 a way to teach new skills selling

 a national dream and a vehicle for programmes directed at nation building.

Communication for development stresses the need to support two-way communication systems that enable dialogue and that allow communities to speak out, express their aspirations and concerns and participate in the decisions that relate to their development.

Communication for development is .a social process based on dialogue using a broad range of tools and methods. It is also about seeking change at different levels, including listening, building trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies, debating and learning for sustained and meaningful change. It is not public relations or corporate communications.

The evolution of communication for development has mirrored broader shifts in theories and models of economic and social development. For much of the post- World War II period, communication for development was informed by the ‘modernization’ paradigm, which sought to transform ‘traditional’ societies into modern, Western societies through the transmission of attitudes, practices and technologies. Correspondingly, communication initiatives adopted a diffusion

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approach, which uses communication to carry out a transfer of information. This includes large-scale media campaigns, social marketing, and dissemination of printed materials, ‘education-entertainment’ and other forms of one-way transmission of information from the sender to the receiver.

Proponents of diffusion theory recognized the limitations of mass media, however, in promoting sustained behavioral change. The theory also incorporated interpersonal communication: face-to-face communication that can either be one- on-one or in small groups. The objectives are to share information, respond to questions, and motivate specific behavioral practices. The belief is that while mass media allows for the learning of new ideas, interpersonal networks encourage the shift from knowledge to continued practice.

Criticism of the modernization paradigm grew in the 1970s and 1980s. The one- way flow of information and communication from the North to the South was criticized alongside calls for greater representation of voices from the South. At the same time, there was a push for more ‘participatory’ approaches to development. This triggered the emergence also of participatory development communication, which aims to empower the community towards collective decision-making and action through enhanced knowledge and skills to identify, prioritize and resolve problems and needs.

Communication for development has thus come to be seen as a way to amplify voice, facilitate meaningful participation, and foster social change. The 2006 World Congress on Communication for Development defined Communication for development as ‘a social process based on dialogue using a broad range of tools and methods. It is also about seeking change at different levels including listening, building trust, sharing knowledge and skills, building policies, debating and learning for sustained and meaningful change’. Such two-way, horizontal approaches to communication include public hearings, debates, deliberations and stakeholder consultations, participatory radio and video, community-based theatre and story-telling, and web forums.

Diffusion and participatory approaches have been increasingly integrated or adopted in parallel in communication for development initiatives. Such combinations allow for agencies to reach broad audiences through large scale

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campaigns, while promoting local community development, empowerment and ownership through participation.

Communication for Development approach goes beyond information dissemination that targets communication at passive audiences, to facilitate active participation and stakeholder dialogue. It integrates the power of media with local communication systems to increase the involvement of rural populations in development initiatives. Communication for Development activities place particular focuses on the convergence of different media (e.g. rural radio and ICTs) and the empowerment of local stakeholders. Emphasis is given to local content and community media to foster dialogue and improve the capacity of local institutions and people to plan and implement communication processes. Communication for Development strategies and activities are based on an initial participatory communication needs assessment so that the right tools are used to address specific needs. They prioritize horizontal information sharing and dialogue among development actors, giving the voice to those who are not always heard: farmers, community leaders and vulnerable communities in rural areas.

Communication for Development systems facilitates access to locally relevant information about markets, new technologies, credit and rural services. Access to this information helps to enhance food security, improve rural livelihood and foster new development opportunities.

Knowledge and information are essential for people to respond successfully to the opportunities and challenges of social, economic and technological changes, including those that help to improve agricultural productivity, food security and rural livelihoods.

To be useful, knowledge (whether it is farmer’s innovations, latest research findings, or pressing policy issues) must be effectively shared amongst people and institutions. Communication for Development is therefore a critical component of any development initiative.

1.9 Third World Countries

During the Cold War and era of the Soviet Union, the term third world referred to those countries those were unaligned with either the Soviet Union or the United

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States. These third world countries were often the less-developed countries of the world. The first world referred to the United States and its allies while the second world referred to the USSR and its allies.

1.10 Communication for Development in Third World Countries:

In 1964 Wilbur Schramm, on a grant from the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), wrote a book called "Mass Media and National Development." It painted a glowing picture in which the mass media would reveal the way to development and enable the Third World countries to achieve in a few decades the development that had occurred over centuries in the West. By the 1970s it became clear that population growth was overtaking development. The Third World nations began to see the mass media as tools of the conspiracy of transnational corporations in them to keep the Third World a source of cheap labor. The Third World countries began to seek an alternate route to development, without help from either the East or the West. Their ideal and model was China, where the radical alternative had been shown to work. The Third World countries joined together as the "Non-Aligned Movement," a organization which had been founded in Indonesia in 1955. By the 1970s the Third World countries constituted a majority in UNESCO, which they turned into a forum of resentment against the Western mass media, which they perceived as using dominance over world news flow to keep the Third World in a state of cultural dependency on the West. The poverty of the Third World nations, they claimed, was the heritage of colonialism, and the West owed them restitution. The Western news media were identified as the modern day equivalent of the colonial armies of imperialism. The debate over the dominance of Western influence in world news flow was launched in UNESCO by a request from the Soviet Union in 1972 for "a declaration on the fundamental principles governing the use of the mass media with a view to strengthening peace and understanding and combating war, propaganda, radicalism, and apartheid." The debate in UNESCO took on a new name, the "New World Information Order," in which the Third World nations argued that they had the right to restrict the free flow of news across their borders. UNESCO Director General, Amadou M 'Bow, tabled the resolution and appointed a commission, headed by Sean MacBride, to undertake general review of communications problems in modern society. The report, entitled "Many Voices,

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One World," was in many ways vague, but it at least endorsed the Western values of free flow of information. The US offered technological assistance to the Third World under the auspices of the International Program for the Development of Communication. This institution was designed as a world clearinghouse for communication development, but as such it accomplished little. Meanwhile, the Third World countries gave priority to developing their own national news agencies and the Non-Aligned News Agencies Pool, dedicated to the "journalism of national development." What this meant, if effect, was journalism limited to "development news" (which by definition was always good) and to "protocol news," i.e., ribbon-cutting and other ceremonial events. By the time of the US withdrawal from UNESCO at the end of 1984, the issue was becoming, if not resolved, at least quiescent, with some indications of progress. At the 1983 conference at Talloires, the World Press Freedom Committee and the Associated Press put together a list of 300 journalistic exchange, training, and internship programs in 70 countries. The World Bank issued a report on "Telecommunications and Economic Development," and a report by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the International Telecommunications Union pointed out the cost-benefit relationship of telecommunications to economic development. Finally, a report by an international commission headed by Sir Donald Maitland stressed the importance of shifting existing resources to telecommunications so that basic communications services would be available to everyone on earth by the early 21st century.

The development experiences of Third World countries since the fifties have been staggeringly diverse-and hence very informative. Forty years ago the developing countries looked a lot more like each other than they do today. Take India and South Korea. By any standards, both countries were extremely poor: India's income per capita was about $150 (in 1980 dollars) and South Korea's was about $350. Life expectancy was about forty years and fifty years respectively. In both countries roughly 70 percent of the people worked on the land, and farming accounted for 40 percent of national income. The two countries were so far behind the industrial world that it seemed nearly inconceivable that either could ever attain reasonable standards of living, let alone catch up.

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If anything, India had the edge. Its savings rate was 12 percent of GNP while Korea's was only 8 percent. India had natural resources. Its size gave its industries a huge domestic market as a platform for growth. Its former colonial masters, the British, left behind railways and other infrastructure that were good by Third World standards. The country had a competent judiciary and civil service, manned by highly educated elite. Korea lacked all that. In the fifties the U.S. government thought it so unlikely that Korea would achieve any increase in living standards at all that its policy was to provide "sustaining aid" to stop them falling even further.

1.11 Developments in different sectors in India:

India has been in the forefront of development. There have been great debates over the development of India as a force to reckon in the economic front. Though the country has to change in many ways and corruption being one of them, the development of the economy has been very rapid. There has been a great influx of funds into the country and the economy is in a state where it can break out any minute and zoom ahead. There are some sectors that have been developing at a very rapid pace and they are all listed in this article.

1.12 Telecommunications: The telecommunications sector has been on a roll. There has been an entry of many multinational companies into the fray. This has had the existing companies to provide the best services possible. Other than the services, the most important fact about the telecommunication sector is that the cost of this is very cheap. In fact the cost of making a phone call is the cheapest in the world.

1.13 Information Technology: The development of information technology in India has been on a massive scale. There are many universities that are providing good quality education to many students and this has helped them to produce professionals with an uncanny ability to be successful in any work they do. The massive educational system in India has been feeding the many companies in the information technology field with young and capable professionals. This has made the information technology to see a massive growth not only in India, but also in all countries around the world.

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1.14 Highways: The development of the highways in India has also been a major cause for the development of the country. Only if the roads are good and the connectivity between the various places is good, will there be a chance of development of the economy. The various highway projects like the Golden quadrilateral projects and also the various corridors connecting big cities all over India has made internal transport by road to be very good. This has made it easy to export and import products and then redistribute these to various cities. The connectivity is being further strengthened and so it is only set to increase the trade.

1.15 Railway Network

The Indian railway network is one of the largest in the world and also a very large employer. There are millions of people who are working in the Railway service. Just like the highways, development of the railway network and also the chance that is provided to all the people to transport things at a very competitive cost has made it possible for the economy to improve. The fact that there are dedicated freight corridors developed to transport various products has also made it possible for the improvement in trade and also the economy.

1.16 Communication as a tool for social and economic change: 1.16.1 Social Change The growing emphasis on participatory, ‘horizontal’ communication - such as stakeholder dialogue and consultation and bottom-up community media - has created spaces in which people can define development and give meaning to and claim their citizenship. Such spaces allow people not only to be heard but also to reshape boundaries and social and cultural norms that underpin knowledge and power relations. This in turn could contribute to empowerment and social change. Thus, while mass communication and behavioral change communication are considered useful in themselves and for promoting pre-determined reforms, participatory communication may have greater potential to contribute to locally- owned reforms and sustainable change at various levels of society.

Citizens' media and communication comprise social, cultural and political processes that have the potential to be transformative. These approaches and processes are often not well understood, however, by mainstream development

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policy and practice, resulting in weak implementation. This introductory article finds that citizens' media and communication is about more than bringing diverse voices into pluralist politics: it contributes to processes of social and cultural construction, redefining exclusionary norms and power relations. Local participation, ownership and control can allow people to reshape the spaces in which their voices find expression.

1.17 The new development context (economic change) Major changes and new emphases have appeared on the development scene. Societies are opening to debate and markets to individual initiative; privatization and entrepreneurship are being encouraged; new technologies are becoming widely available; management of government services is gradually being relocated closer to the users, if not handed over directly to users themselves, in order to cut costs and seek partners more committed to effective implementation. Indeed, a host of structural adjustments are profoundly affecting most aspects of production and human interaction. These structural adjustments make demands, and have direct economic and social effects on people. Governments of developing countries can no longer fulfill all social and regulatory services by themselves, especially in rural areas. Many economies are overwhelmed by the cost of servicing their foreign debt, and governments are under stringent requirement from international financial institutions to reduce spending. In their quest for greater cost-effectiveness in all their operations, governments must have the active support of, and a greater contribution from, the people. Governments are thus obliged to seek new and perhaps unfamiliar partners, ranging from local leaders to people in a variety of non-governmental organizations. These people are accordingly obliged to shoulder new and perhaps unfamiliar responsibilities.

Furthermore, as we near the end of the century, a number of specific issues have come clearly into focus as being central to socio-economic progress, equity, social stability, to the future of humanity- and perhaps even to its survival. The environment and its relation to sustainable agricultural development and food production present an enormous challenge. A prime consideration is the proper use and conservation of natural resources. These resources are often degraded at the hands of impoverished rural people who have no immediate alternative for

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meeting their needs for land on which to grow food, and for fuel wood. Their abuse of forest areas, with the negative consequences of soil erosion and dwindling water resources, will only be halted through new schemes of employment and income generation and through applying conservation techniques. Such solutions, however, will have to be made acceptable to local people, many of whom will need considerable encouragement and training in new skills. The provisions of Agenda 21, which emerged from the UN Conference on the Environment and Development held in Rio de Janeiro (1992), will only become a reality through large-scale changes in attitudes and behavior in societies worldwide.

1.18 Population growth Population growth is exerting pressure on natural resources, on food production and on the ability of governments to provide basic services and employment opportunities. Population growth depends on choices made by individuals. Helping people to make more informed choices by raising their awareness of the implications of family size and unwanted pregnancy, and of methods of contraception, requires much more than simply sending out messages. Instead it requires learning, from people and their leaders, how to make such issues socially acceptable and worthy of urgent action. Insight into people’s underlying attitudes is needed before they can be helped to change their views.

1.19 Rural poverty Rural poverty continues to increase in many countries, accelerating urban migration and creating intolerable economic and social problems. The solution, of course, lies in the development of rural areas. Most rural communities are characterized by reliance on traditional knowledge and production systems, based strictly on what has worked for survival in the past. This has led to a view that rural communities are resistant to change, even though their traditional wisdom has been hard-won and its reasoning are sound. Planners need to take this into account, as the first step of any planning exercise. For this, and for all rural development activities, communication between local communities and national planners and policy-makers is of vital importance but, unfortunately, in rural areas it is at it’s weakest.

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1.20 Malnutrition Malnutrition is both a cause and a consequence of underdevelopment. Recent decades have seen consistent reductions in the daily per caput supply of calories in many countries. The International Conference on Nutrition held in December 1992 drew attention to the fact that more than 780 million people in the world suffer from chronic malnutrition and that, each year, some 13 million children below the age of five die from infectious diseases that can be directly or indirectly attributed to hunger or malnutrition. Nutritional well-being is not just a question of food availability and economics among families, however. It also depends on sufficient knowledge and acceptance of appropriate diets. At the planner's level, incorporating nutritional concerns into development initiatives for agriculture, food security, forestry, land use, exports and so forth requires an increased awareness of nutritional priorities since these are not spontaneously identified in such disciplines.

1.21 Woman in development Woman in development is another priority issue. In many countries, women shoulder most of the work in rural areas. Given the opportunity, women have shown themselves again and again to be highly responsive and responsible when helped to mobilize themselves, build upon available resources and produce sustainable results. Women need to learn additional technical and organizational skills and more women are needed at the centre of decision-making. Specific challenges where communication is vital include helping women's groups to increase their self-determination and to broaden the dialogue between the sexes regarding rights, privileges and responsibilities.

1.22 Reference Books: Melkote, Srinivas and H.L. Steeves, Communication for Development in the Third World: Theory and Practice for Empowerment, Sage Publications, New Delhi, 2001, p. 144.

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UNIT II : MASS MEDIA AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Objectives of the unit:

 Mass media and dissemination of development news  Communication networks and opinion leaders in development  Communication for literacy and empowerment of women and the rural poor  Mass media and rural development  Community media and development  Challenges and issues

2.0 INFORMATION CHANNELS & DISSEMINATION STRATEGIES

The effectiveness of a given dissemination strategy depends on factors such as the characteristics of the innovation, the target audience, and the information channel. The strategy that works well for transmitting general information to the masses may be inappropriate for communicating specific research findings to policy makers. The strategy that works well for diffusing technological innovations among organizations may not be compatible with dissemination strategies linked to the development of third world countries. Strategies designed for reaching one minority group may not fit well with another minority group. Getting the proper fit among the innovation, information channel, purpose, and target audience is important. While the prosumer approach will help facilitate the dissemination process in ways not possible under the old paradigm, understanding channels for communication and how these are changing is essential to effective utilization efforts under either paradigm.

The information channels around which to strategize range from mass media to mass mailings, from print media to electronic media, from telephone contacts to face-to- face contacts. Purposes include informing, educating, and selling. The ultimate purpose may be to change attitudes and behaviors. Target audiences may be policymakers, service providers, consumers, organizations, or communities. Target audiences may include varied ethnic or minority groups. On the other hand, targeted audiences may include a given socio-economic level, educational level, or special interest category. No one channel assures success of the innovation (Pelz, 1983:22-

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23). The usefulness of each channel varies for differing innovations, for differing stages in the innovation process, and for soft vs. hard technology transfer.

Creating the proper fit begins with understanding the effectiveness areas of each media. Creating the proper fit also includes recognizing that no one channel is always sufficient (Reardon & Rogers, 1988). Sometimes the interplay among the varied channels generates awareness and interest simultaneously or sequentially. People may hear of an innovation via mass media but pursue it themselves only after a friend or acquaintance has introduced them to it in a comfortable setting. Reardon and Rogers (1988:286-287) caution against dichotomous separation of dissemination strategies into mass media and interpersonal. Each contributes to the other over time through the various stages of adoption proposed by Rogers (1983): knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation.

This section presents the features of the information channels in terms of their perceived or validated effectiveness areas. The channels highlighted include mass media (e.g., radio, television, teletext, videotext, newspapers, magazines, comics), personal contacts (e.g., informal: family, friends, neighbors, druggists, mail carrier; formal: change agents, consultants), information service systems (e.g., libraries, online databases), training and educational programs (e.g., professional preparation, workshops, computer-assisted), and other (e.g., billboards, posters).

Characteristics of communication channels worthy of note, according to Rogers (1986:21), are: message flow, source knowledge of the audience, segmentation, degree of interactivity, feedback, synchronicity, socio emotional vs. task-related content, nonverbal, control of the communication flow, and privacy afforded. He charted these characteristics across face-to-face interpersonal communication, interactive (machine-assisted interpersonal) communication, and mass media.

2.1 Mass media Mass communication includes electronic and print media. Electronic media includes radio, television, teletext, videotext, and satellite telecommunications. Print media encompasses books, newspapers, magazines, newsletters, and comics. Historically, as each new media entered the scene, owners of existing forms of mass communication reassessed the futures of their respective media. The advantages and disadvantages of each form of mass communication provide guidance for

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selecting the best medium to fit the intended audience and the dissemination purpose.

2.1.1 Effectiveness areas of electronic media

2.1.1.1 Radio

Radios with their great flexibility and adaptability wake us up, inform us, and entertain us. Hiebert and others (1988:173) say that radio has become more individualized and personalized. Talk show hosts communicate directly to each listener and caller. No longer is radio the medium that unites family members at night. Each family member now listens to differing stations at differing locations and at differing times of the day. Individualization of the radio is in keeping with the megatrends identified by Naisbitt and Aburdene.

Of the 8300 radio stations, according to Hiebert and others (1988:167), more of us listen to FM stations on the VHF broadcast frequency than to AM stations on the UHF frequency. The public can hear Class C stations up to 60 miles away and Class A stations up to 15 miles away. Black populations can find up to 300 stations targeted to them. His panic populations also can find a significant number of stations targeted to them. Many other stations devote a significant portion of their schedules to ethnic programming--primarily foreign language--including more than 20 stations that broadcast exclusively to American Indians and Eskimos.

The content of radio stations revolve around music, news, and talk. The program director designates each hour of programming for the disc jockeys, radio announcers, and others to follow. Classifications of radio programming which are based on format broadcasting targeted for audience segments are: (1) adult contemporary, (2) contemporary hit radio, (3) album-oriented rock, (4) easy listening, (5) country, (6) news/talk, (7) urban contemporary, (8) oldies/nostalgia, (9) ethnic, (10) religious, (11) classical . Efforts to disseminate knowledge via radio need to be linked to that station's specific audience and structure. The radio structure includes the local station, network, and program suppliers.

2.1.1.2 Television To reach the most numbers of people with general information, television is the logical, though most expensive, choice. Television is in more than 98 percent of

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the American homes. It appeals to more than one of the five senses and has become the dominant leisure activity. Televisions “are society's mass entertainer, mass informer, mass persuader, and mass educator".

In 1976 the average household viewed television almost seven hours a day (Ibid; Comstock et al, 1978 in Roberts & Maccoby, 1985). The increases in viewing between 1963 and 1976 correlated with an increase in the amount of available leisure time (Peterson, 1981; Sahin and Robinson, 1981; in Roberts and Maccoby, 1985). Television-use patterns have not changed significantly since then. In general women, children, and retirees view television more than men, adolescents and working adults. Viewing has been negatively related to education, income, and occupational status (Roberts and Maccoby, 1985). The differences between groups, however, have reduced over time on indexes such as educational level, income, occupational status, and gender. Comparisons of men and women in the paid labor force resulted in men watching much more television than women. Sahin and Robinson (1981 in Roberts and Maccoby, 1985)"characterize the trend in television use over the 1970's as moving in the direction of leveling of past differences and convergence towards truly mass viewing."

Blacks and Spanish surname groups reportedly view more television than do whites. Allen and Bielby indicate that there are wide variations in media behavior among blacks and warn against thinking of them as homogenous or as exhibiting behaviors similar to whites (1979 reported in Roberts and Maccoby, 1985). Younger black adults and better educated black people view television more than older black people or less educated ones (Comstock, et al., 1978 reported in Roberts and Maccoby, 1985).

The networks--NBC, ABC, and CBS--share 71 percent of the viewing audience (Heibert et al., 1988:212). Independents and cable television share the rest. Programming and schedules on the networks are put together one to two years in advance. Channels 2-13 on VHF have the greatest geographical span .Stations in major market areas get most of the national advertising dollar; stations in smaller markets depend heavily on local advertising.”The future of television rests on the ability of audiences to control and use it for their own purposes".Knowledge utilization proponents could contribute to that shaping.

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2.1.1.3 Teletext & Videotext

Teletext permits individuals to select textual and graphic information available through standard broadcasting signals. They access this information by using keypads or decoders connected to television sets. The information providers insert digital data into lines of television referred to as vertical blanking intervals. Users select pages of information from up to 400 potential frames of information and wait from ten to twenty-five seconds for the desired frame to appear. Because advertising supports teletext, the service is virtually free to anyone who buys a decoder.

Videotext, on the other hand, is a more highly interactive and speedier information service. Because videotext uses telephone lines or cable connectors between the data bank and television rather than on-air-broadcasting to transmit information, telephone charges, per frame charges, and special receivers ($600-900 purchase or $20-40 rental costs per month) make videotext more expensive. European forms are more sophisticated and prosperous thus far than American forms of videotext and teletext. Early companies sponsoring these newer technologies in America such as Knight-Ridder and Times Mirror have failed because of the expense of the technology, difficulty in use, and the lack of understanding of what consumers want (Heibert et al., 1988:201). Attempts in America to provide news services on television i.e., teletext, did not sell as well as anticipated.

Agritex, according to Pat MacDonald and Jim Marisi (1984), is a Canadian commercial videotext service targeted to Saskatchewan's large rural community. "Originally, Agritext was conceived only as a telephone/television videotext service, but Sasktel incorporated into the system American standard code for information interchange (ASCII) databases, making the service available to consumers whose home computers do not have videotext graphics capabilities" . Because many rural audiences use multiparty lines, Sasktel devised special arrangements for using Agritext. A party line emergency device, which connects the home computer and the telephone line, emits a tone indicates a neighbor needs to use the phone for an emergency call. The Agritext user, thereby, knows to log off immediately.

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Now farmers have access to tele-banking, teleshopping, news & weather services, distance educational courses, agricultural, farm management, and lifestyle databases. Agritext thus links information brokers and rural families. It provides direct access to information and reduces the need for county agents to visit farmers to demonstrate the latest innovations.

Heikkinen and Reese (1986) studied information need and information channel orientation as predictors of videotext adoption. They developed a model that assumed functional equivalency between newspapers and videotext and that people with high information need would desire both media as compared with individuals having low information needs. They cited several studies (Reese et al., 1984; Butler and Kent, 1983; Dozier and Hellweg, 1984; and Ettema, 1983) who point to young people having more favorable attitudes toward new communications media than their parents (Heikkinen and Reese, 1986:22-23). They identified three kinds of newspaper readers-loyalists, shifters, and adders, each having a higher level of probability of changing media for meeting information needs. Their study of 369 (randomly selected telephone directory listed) persons in Gainesville, Florida, measured information need in terms of newspaper subscriptions, time spent with newspaper, hard news motivation, education and family income. They measured channel orientation in terms of age, adoption of home computers, videocassette recorders, and perceived utility of various electronic services.

Findings suggest that while one-third of the respondents would shift to videotext if it were available more would add it to newspapers. "Adders included the well- documented, information rich group of early innovation adopters, characterized by high information need. The other group, the shifters-who indicated they would replace newspapers with videotext, is characterized by a relatively low need for information and a 'modern’ orientation toward new technologies". The authors recognized that their study did not address institutional, technological, or market developments surrounding the new technology.

2.1.1.4 Videocassettes/discs

Videocassette recorders (VCRs) have become integral to home entertainment. More than 40 percent of all American households have VCRs. Users average six

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hours a week for recording and more for playing (Heibert et al., 1988:202). Videodiscs are also becoming more prominent and are marketed much like records or books. Corporate videos are emerging as a major communication medium.

In the educational arena interactive video has come more and more to the forefront. Interactive video provides a way to be with knowledge as well as provides knowledge itself. It encourages individual autonomy and shows respect for individual pacing of knowledge acquisition. This instructional mode of information giving further individualizes information access and use.

2.2 Effectiveness areas of print media

2.2.1 Newspapers

Although newspapers are no longer the fastest medium for carrying the bulletins and headlines of the day, they still provide the best display and in-depth coverage of events and news. Hiebert and others (1988) say there has been an increase in readers at the same time there has been a decrease in the number of newspapers. Roberts and Maccoby (1985), on the other hand, cite studies that indicate a decrease in readership especially among younger adults who do not have the newspaper-reading habit and are less likely to develop it as they grow older. They even offer references and explanations for why there is a decrease. Factors they cite include decline in homeownership, increase in single-person households, increase of women in the labor force, fractionation of the city, and changes in amounts of available time. They also highlight Stamm and Fortini. Campbell's 1977 study that shows strong, positive correlations between people's sense of belonging to a community and newspaper relationship.

Hiebert ascribes that the decrease in the number of newspapers in part to the fact that more newspapers are now owned by chain newspaper companies" making the business more efficient and profitable".

Among the top papers are the NY Times, Wall Street Journal, Christian Science Monitor, Washington Post, & USA .Among the newspaper chains are Gannett Co., Inc., Knight-Ridder Newspapers, Newhouse Newspapers, Tribune Co., Dow Jones & Co. Inc., Times Mirror Co., News America Pub. Corp. and the NY Times Co.

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Small weekly newspapers and specialized weekly newspapers serve the local community or distinct ethnic, cultural, or professional groups. Some papers provide an English version of foreign ones for specific ethnic populations (e.g., company in Colorado publishes the Soviet newspaper PRAVDA in English) .More and bigger city newspapers such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Miami Herald, Baltimore Sun, Los Angeles Times, and the Cincinnati Enquirer are using zoned inserts to suburban communities.

Two hundred twenty (220) of 3,000 black newspapers founded in the United States still exist. They are financially strong and circulate to approximately 4 million The National Newspaper Publishers Association is a black press organization begun in 1940. After World War II, black press began declining as "blacks became increasingly assimilated into white culture" (Ibid). James D. Williams in his book, the black press and the first amendment, suggested the decline was in part due to more people turning to television, the indifference of major advertisers to black media, and the quality and quantity of reporting in some instances.

The newspaper audience includes 138 million Americans of whom 2 out of 3 read a newspaper daily, 9 out of 10 adults read at least 1 newspaper weekly and 2.2 people read each newspaper delivered to a household. The average reader is likely to be male, mature, college graduate, higher income, white and stable vs. mobile. Six out of ten readers read the comics daily, 100 million people read the Sunday comics section (supplied mostly by 25 syndicates and led by King Features with 65 of the 300 strips).

A study on dissemination of information about cancer in rural communities in South Carolina found the newspaper generally more effective than television or radio for almost all subpopulations studied (Cantor et al., 1979). Cantor cautioned against accepting too readily "the belief that housewives, economically deprived persons, rural dwellers and the aged have unique patterns of media utilization for acquiring health educational material". He found only two subpopulations (small town and blacks) where newspapers were not superior. "In those cases the sample sizes were small and the observed results could be attributable to chance" (Ibid).

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2.2.2 Magazines and Journals

Unlike newspapers with daily deadlines, magazines have time to look more closely at issues for analysis and interpretation. They can follow the flow of events over time through a series on a given topic in subsequent editions of the magazine. "Surveys of magazine readers' actions suggest that readers tend to take more action as a result of their reading than taken by consumers of other media" (Hiebert et al., 1988:92).

Four thousand of the more than 11,320 magazines published in the continental United States in 1986 were monthlies. The 11,320 does not include the private, institutional, or in-house publications (Ibid). New York based publishers produce one-third of the magazines published; the rest are scattered among the fifty states . More people buy magazines on a single-copy basis rather than subscriptions, partly due to the rising costs of postage.

Magazine publishers are increasingly using computers and demographic data to segment audiences for their advertisements and content. Readers preselect categories of interest and the magazine publishers assure that each issue has at least one appealing article for each segment. Neighbors, therefore, may get one differing article in their copy of the same magazine in a given month.

Unlike past practices where editors waited for freelance contributions for their editorial content, they now most often use staff-developed and staff-written materials. "Schedules are too demanding and story development is too complicated to allow the editors to depend on volunteer contributions”. This means dissemination of information must whet the appetite of staff to write the story on selected research discoveries.

Consumer magazines fall into 13 or more categories: Women's, men's, sophisticated, quality, romance, news, sports, travel, exploration, humor, shelter, class, and city. Specialized magazines consist of juvenile, comic, little literary (Prairie Schooner), literary (Paris Review), scholarly (Journalism Quarterly), educational (College & University Journal), business (Nation's Business), religious (Christianity Today), industrial or company (Western Electric World),

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farm (Farm Journal), transportation (Railway Age), science (Scientific American), and discussion (New Republic).

Most magazines keep subscription costs down by using advertisements. Only a few such as MS magazine attempt to control the content of their periodicals by eliminating all advertisements and the content controls associated with those ads. Advertisers in many cases must be taken into account when promoting articles on recent research findings.

2.2.3 Newsletters

Newsletters, generally free of ads, provide a more personal mode of communication. These timelier, modest styled, vehicles of communication appeal to all strata of society and varied forms of literacy. There are more than 4,000 commercial newsletters and thousands of subsidized newsletters published. The latter may be used to promote or persuade, or provide communication within an organization or a group. Congressional members use newsletters to keep in touch with their constituencies. Professional associations, church groups, factory workers, fraternal organizations, alumni, labor units, etc. also use newsletters to communicate with their members .While the newsletter is inexpensive and simple to produce; its longevity depends on its content appeal to its targeted audience. "Many newsletters have short lifetimes and make only a fleeting impression". A typical newsletter publishing company is Phillips Publishing of Washington, D.C. They now publish 20 newsletters.

The Kiplinger Washington Letters, begun in 1923, is a subject of imitation. Unlike the normal journalistic restrictions of objectivity and attribution to sources, Kiplinger made analyses and predictions for his readers, taking them into his confidence. He created a warm, personal, and intimate form of communication with his readers using a letter format beginning with dear reader and ending with his signature in blue ink (even though it was more costly).

2.2.4 Books

Books are more permanent but less timely than other print media. They are more personal and more respected. They have a higher rate of reusability .While books

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at one point in history were written for a more literate or elite audience, today's books, especially "how-to" ones appeal to the less literate. No longer does a person need to be a "reader" to appreciate and use a book's contents. As a tool for disseminating information about new research or technology, books contribute to the enlightenment models of utilization or the spread effect. Production schedules, display practices, and marketability factor into decisions on whether to communicate new research via books.

2.2.5 Comics Comic strips and comic books are still other print vehicles for communicating. While not the typical research dissemination mode, their potential may have been under-assessed. More than 100 comic book companies publish 300 titles and sell in excess of 250 million copies annually.

Five classes of comics serve mass communication functions:

1. The single-picture (panel) newspaper feature, such as Grin and Bearlt, The Family Circus, and the cartoons in the New Yorker, Playboy and other magazines.

2. The black-and-white multi-panel, daily-newspaper comic strip, such as Dick Tracy, B.C., and Mary Worth.

3. The multicolor Sunday supplement, which is a collection of strips that either continue the daily newspaper feature's story line or tell a separate story.

4. The multipage color narrative in magazine form, which is issued monthly, bimonthly, or quarterly and is called a comic book (Action Comics).

5. The anti-establishment of social-political-economic commentary comic or underground comic book, which is usually published irregularly in black and white (Zap, Despair, and the like).

While the amount of information that can be given in a comic strip is limited, people do read, cut out, display, and share comic strips. Many of the doors in the hallway by this author's office door have comic strips or scenes available for educators and students to smile over. This is an untapped mine for informing the public. A creative researcher or change agent might want to explore more fully its potential and even suggest a series that a comic writer might want to explore.

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2.3 Information selection process in mass media

Disseminating information by mass media is contingent upon having that information accepted by the selected media. Factors influencing the information selection process include individual personalities or biases mediated by professionalism, organizations, government and audience demand. Professionalism stimulates individuals in media settings to adhere to standards of objectivity and non-prejudicial practices. Organizations with their policies and procedures, roles and cultures provide the framework and the expectancy levels for performance of reporters and editors. Owners suggest or dictate directions to follow. For instance, new ownership at News American in Baltimore, Maryland, turned the paper into a pilot environment for U.S.A. Today. Content changed, formats changed and subsequently personnel changed.

National wire services and national networks impact information content. Even television producers who reign over reporters, writers and directors are only "middle men" when it comes to the network level of the media hierarchy (Hirsch, 1977:277). Decisions by local editors or program directors to use an item of information versus the many competing items for limited space have been found to coincide with the selections at the national level through syndicated services (White, 1950 in Hirsch, 1977:274).

The government laws and regulations influence content. Postal rates, mergers, copyrights, taxes, anti-trusts, VHF and UHF broadcast spectrums, television programming, and cable television policies contribute to decisions about content. Audience demand also enters into the information content selection arena. People with disabilities can help influence content individually and collectively directly and indirectly. To do so they must do their homework and identify the multiple influences on a given form of media.

There are guides to accessing the media that many skilled public relations directors know about. These guides, such as the Writer's Digest and the Writer's Market, describe how to query mass media about an idea for a column, a story, an op-ed piece, etc.

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2.4 Systematic approach to mass media

One media specialist, Robert Bombay, won a state award and a national award in 1990 for creating and documenting the effects of the Geisinger Medical News Service. The Service received the Meritorious Achievement Award of the Hospital Association of Pennsylvania Public Relations and Marketing Society and the Touch Tone Award of the American Society for Health Care, Marketing and Public Relations (part of the American Hospital Association). Those associations recognized the Geisinger Medical News Service for its replicable, cost-effective, and systematic approach to accessing the mass media to reach its consumers. More importantly, the approach "developed and buttressed the media's reliance on Geisinger and the Geisinger name, as a source of medical and scientific expertise" (Bomboy, 1990:1).

The news service provides a variety of public relations products to newspapers, magazines, television, radio outlets, and 1,000 freelance writers and columnists. It does not charge for its services. For radio stations in Pennsylvania, the service distributes weekly radio actualities (20-second cuts) that include physicians' comments on health news topics. Studies of the media's responsiveness report: "An average of 40 stations per week accepts the radio feed when a secretary from the service phones it to them. A phone survey by Mass Communication Department interns from Bloomsburg University found two-thirds of the stations reporting that they used between three-quarters and all of the radio actualities the service sent. All said they used some of the actualities”.

For 12 Pennsylvania television stations, the service develops six 90-second video news releases annually. Bombay reports:

Each video news release includes B Roll, natural sound and narration on a separate sound channel so that the TV station can repackage it, if necessary, according to the station's own news format. The cost of producing, duplicating and distributing each video news release is less than $1,000, compared to an average cost of between $12,000 and $20,000 for video news releases nationally. We supply TV stations with return-mail user cards: the average number of uses, according to those cards, is five per video news release, or 41.6 percent. During

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the years' time, 30 video news releases appeared on Pennsylvania TV stations (Ibid).

For the national magazines, Geisinger Medical News Service provides monthly Geisinger Media Lead Sheets. The service also stays abreast of the target audiences of national magazines and schedules visits to New York magazine editors. Bomboy, the creator of the service, not only provides material for staff to use in writing articles but also suggests a point of view for the articles that is likely to appeal to readers of a given magazine.

For the news media, the Geisinger Medical News Service goes beyond traditional hospital related news to offer 400-word monthly features on medical topics resulting from national media analysis. In nine months time the Burrelle Clipping Service identified 136 feature releases among Pennsylvania newspapers .The total annual budget for this ongoing 12-month multimedia approach to mass media is $32,260. That includes videography and secretarial support for mailing out the columns and sending the radio actualities. It does not include salaries of public relations staff.

2.5 Mass media campaigns

For a shorter-term approach to information dissemination through the mass media, consider some of the findings on health behavior communication campaigns (Backer, 1990). Backer and Rogers developed an analytic framework for mass media campaigns on health behavior. The framework consists of six areas: media components, collaborators, contexts, structure of campaigns, principles for what works, and effects (1990:322). From a review of mass communications literature, Backer extracted ten principles for effective campaigns (1988a). The abbreviated versions of these are:

a. Use multiple media.

b. Combine media and interpersonal/community strategies.

c. Segment the intended audience.

d. Use celebrities to get attention and entertainment programs to sustain attention.

e. Provide simple, clear, and repeated messages.

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f. Emphasize positive behavior more than negative consequences of current behavior.

g. Emphasize current rewards, not distant negative consequences.

h. Involve key power figures and organizations.

i. Take advantage of timing.

j. Use formative evaluation (Backer, 1988:322).

Among the media components suggested were: public service announcements, news programs, information programs, entertainment programs, celebrity personal appearances, fund-raising events, print media, posters, feature films, radio interview/discussion, educational films/video, and special events--contest, awards. Collaborators included mass media product developers, government, health care prevention, community/advocacy, media experts and expert organizations, and media trade/professional organizations.

In 1985 the Corporation for Public Broadcasting supported the creation of a national outreach program (CPB, 1989). The Public Television Outreach Alliance (PTOA), headquartered at WQED in Pittsburg with four regional headquarters, sponsors two projects per year. The PTOA collaborated with Capital Cities/ABC and launched a highly successful literacy campaign (PLUS) using prime time documentaries and showcasing successful community programs. PTOA worked through broadcast outlets, coordinated available local information about literacy projects, task forces and agencies. Each year the PLUS campaign added another focus such as literacy in the workforce, literacy and youth, and now literacy in the family. Among the campaign accomplishments are 366 local PLUS task forces in all 50 states with strong local PBS and Capital Cities/ABC station participation; local and statewide hotlines, 410 business breakfasts with a national one hosted by the First Lady, a 13% increase in enrollment in adult education programs, i.e., 500,000 students and a 44 percent increase in the number of volunteer tutors in federally funded education programs. In another outreach project PTOA's efforts generated 11,200 town meetings resulting in 8,000 permanent community task forces which are still in place four years later.

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2.6 Potential effects of mass media

Mass media can help acculturate or polarize its audiences (Heibert et al., 1988:696-7). Mass media helps speed the process of acculturation by making available to diverse audiences the opportunities for simultaneous exposure to a given event, story or kind of information. It polarizes through its channels and emphases on cultural or specialty interests.

Research on the effects of mass media has offered three models: direct effects, limited effects, and powerful effects under limiting conditions (Roberts and Maccoby, 1985). Each model has been influenced by the theories prevalent in the social sciences for a given time period. For instance, the stimulus-response theory influenced the simplistic, direct cause and effect model. The limited effects model indicated that generally mass communication does not "serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of audience effects" but rather only a means of reinforcing existing values and attitudes (Ibid). This model stemmed from assumptions and subsequent fears that the mass audience was at the mercy of the mass media (Bauer and Bauer, 1960; DeFleur and Ball-Rokeach, 1982 in Roberts and Maccoby, 1985). The third model built on new theories of social-learning and advances in political science studies of the media. It posits powerful media effects conditioned by a variety of contingent and/or contributory third variables.

Roberts and Maccoby (1985:552), building on work by McGuire (1969, 1973), developed a matrix to depict the variables conditioning the effects of mass communication. Those variables included exposure, attention, comprehension, acceptance, retention, and behavior on the first plane, person-, stimulus-, or environment-related on a second plane, and exposure to specific content before, during, or after in the third plane. These conditioning variables are important to understanding effects of mass media.

Chaffee and Schleuder (1986:104) warn against use of research results comparing media when researchers utilize only exposure as the measure of media use. While reading of newspapers often includes exposure and attention, Chaffee and Schleuder believe television may be viewed without engaging the mind in any serious sense. They suggest the use of only exposure may account for findings that one media is more effective than another.

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Research on effects of mass media also needs to consider, according to Rogers (1983), the amount of time within the exposure as well as between exposure and decision or action. It includes the duration of the consequence and the differing rates of change associated with differing consequences. Assessments of consequences involve attitudes, cognition, and/or behaviors. Consequences may include total change, reinforcement of existing responses, or crystallization of existing responses. Change may be minor, dramatic conversions, or nonexistent.

From a television viewing motivational perspective, Finn and Gorr (1988) have explored predictors of viewing that in this author's opinion also enter into the perceived effects picture. They suggest from a student sample of 290 two distinct sources of needs that subsequently lead to viewing: social compensation (including companionship, pass time, habit, and escape) and mood management (includes relaxation, entertainment, arousal, and information). "To the extent that individuals enjoy high levels of social support, they seem to utilize television in a more assertive and selective fashion, not so much to remedy social deficits as to satisfy relaxation, entertainment, arousal, and information needs".

2.7 Portrayals of people with disabilities in the media

The way the media portrays people with disabilities affects how it is likely to portray research findings about disability and rehabilitation. The media helps influence societal attitudes towards people with disabilities. To help change attitudes, the media could create positive images of people with disabilities, funnel information on research findings needed by people with disabilities, clarify issues related to integration of people with disabilities into society, and model people with disabilities in diverse career roles (Edwards, 1989).

Many organizations are concerned about how the media portrays people with disabilities. Some have developed guidelines for portrayal in the media. The President's Committee on Employment of People with Disabilities has sponsored awards for advertisers who depict people with disabilities in a more favorable image. Since those awards began, the public has seen a youth wearing Levi's doing a wheelie (i.e., raising the front wheels of his wheelchair and spinning around), two teenagers who are deaf signing "let's go get a Big Mac," a man getting his wheelchair out of his Bronco at the fishing lake, the award winning

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deaf actress communicating with her cat as she opens the can of cat food, special olympics participants practicing walking the beam, and many more depictions in normal every day settings. Media Access in California has helped promote the use of actors and actresses with disabilities in television entertainment. Two shows-- L.A. Law and Family Life-- in particular have illustrated the abilities of people with mental retardation. They are shown in everyday life situations rather than as heroes or superhuman and in Family Life the actor is retarded.

John Clogston studied portrayals of this population in the media. He distinguishes between the traditional and progressive ways to portray people with disabilities in the media. Traditional stories present persons with disabilities "primarily as malfunctioning in a medical or economic way. The source of these individuals' problems is perceived as lying within the individual. Society's role is either cure or maintain the individual medically or economically" (Clogston, 1990:1).

Progressive stories, on the other hand, "reflect the view that the major disabling aspect of a person lies in society's inability to adapt its physical, social or occupational environment and its attitudes toward full inclusion of all individuals, both with and without disabilities" (Clogston, 1990: 2).

After conducting a content analysis of perceptions of disability in the New York Times, Clogston determined that there is a trend away from portraying individuals with disabilities as charity recipients and toward a more minority/civil rights view of disability.

2.8 PERSONAL CONTACTS

Where do citizens go for information? Williams, Dordick and Hostmann (1977) sought answers to that question among citizens in three Los Angeles communities: Watts, Boyle Heights, and Reseda. Watts at the time of the study was almost totally black and low-income; Boyle Heights was predominantly Mexican- American; Reseda was predominantly white middle-income. They found marked differences in the patterns of information seeking among the communities. Watts’s residents preferred interpersonal networks of family and friends, as information sources. Boyle heights residents preferred institutions or agencies and Reseda residents preferred mass media (print, television, radio) and the telephone. The communities also differed in choice of newspaper or station to watch or hear.

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The Human Resources Center (1990) surveyed information seeking and using among people with disabilities (some of whom were his panic and some rural). Preliminary findings were:

-- most used sources of information include friends and social service programs -- of all sources accessed, users are most satisfied with friends and least satisfied with service programs -- the primary reason for preferring an information source is its low cost -- almost all respondents were users of formal sources of information, such as libraries, social service programs, newsletters, hotlines, etc. -- most people sought information at least once a month -- health information and information specific to disability were the most sought after -- the most prevalent ways of contacting a source were in person or by telephone -- people do not want to spend much money for information as they do not believe they can afford it.

Several studies have looked at information giving practices, especially in the patient-doctor relationship. Waitzkin found that doctors spent very little time giving information to their patients--"a little more than a minute on the average in encounters lasting about 20 minutes"(1984:2442). Studies of sex and information giving by doctors point to women receiving more time and more total and multilevel explanations .women asked more questions; Pendleton and Bochner, 1980:671).Similar findings applied to social class with the upper or upper middle class receiving more time and explanations (Waitzkin, 1984:2442; Pendleton and Bochner, 1980:671). "Lower-class patients tend to be diffident, that is, they usually ask fewer questions" (Korsch et al., 1968 and 1969 cited in Waitzkin, 1984:2442). Information-giving tended to increase when the doctor was less certain of the diagnosis and prognosis (Waitzkin, 1984:2443). "Patients with an unfavorable prognosis tended to get more doctor time, more total explanations, more multi-level explanations, and more non-discrepant responses".

Information giving and patients satisfaction have been linked to timing, amount, frequency, honesty, and completeness. Sample findings are:

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Patients express the desire to receive as much information as possible about their illness (Cartwright, 1967 and 1977cited in Penderton and Bochner, 1980:672). Details alone will not do, however, since many patients find medical information confusing or hard to remember (Ley, 1972 and Houghton 1968 cited in Penderton and Bochner, 1980:672).

In being given the diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, patients expected the physician to be straightforward, honest but not premature, sensitive to patients' readiness for information, and to convey some degree of hope (Beisecker, Cobb and Ziegler, 1988:553).

The vast majority of patients with seizures and parents of children with seizures wanted to be informed about all benefits and risks associated with medication, including rare side effects. On the other hand, a very small proportion of neurologists responded in a questionnaire that they routinely discuss each benefit and risk of medication (Faden, Becker and Lewis, 1981 cited in Waitzkin, 1984:2442).

Patients wanted to know almost everything and thought that the information would be helpful, but doctors under estimated the patients' desire for information and, when compared with the patients, underrated the clinical usefulness of information giving. In 65% of the encounters, doctors underestimated their patients' desire for information; in6%, they overestimated; and in 29%, they estimated correctly (Waitzkin, 1984:2442).

Information giving can be a form of permission giving for seeking remedial action such as in the case of doctors acknowledging the battered status of an abused woman (Chez, 1988). It can also be a form of uncertainty reduction for patients and physician power reduction. "Doctors may wish, therefore, not to give information and as to maintain an imbalance of power" (Waitzkin and Stoeckle, 1976 cited in Penderton and Bochner, 1980:672). However, the changes occurring in the doctor-patient relationship point to potentially more equal participation in the recovery process and "hence the paucity of threatening compliance-gaining tactics". Patients are becoming consumers of health care rather than passive recipients.

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"Patients are recognized as having the ability to participate in their own recovery, as being decision makers and as being more demanding than in the past"(Mechanic, 1976; Stimson, 1974 cited in Lane. Professional practice is changing through integration of clients' rights and control. Some professionals view this as "have to" let them have more control; others view it as "it's good for the patient." Still others assume treating patients equally is part of good professional practice on a par with "do no harm."

2.9 CHANGE AGENTS

Change agents link research sources with organizations and societies interested in change. Change agents may also be known as research utilization specialists, organization developers, consultants, or integrators. They facilitate communication about research results and the needs and problems of a specific group. As an example, Area Extension Personnel served as change agents for local and regional community changes (Goudy and Wepprecht, 1977). They provided summaries of a large community-based research study through the media, via mail, and presentations in town meetings. They helped structure planning and implementation programs to bring about changes identified by residents in designated rural communities.

Rogers, in generalizing from the many studies he has reviewed, says that success of change agents is positively related to: (l) the extent of change agent effort in contacting clients; (2) a client orientation; (3) the degree to which the diffusion program is compatible with clients' needs; (4)empathy with clients; (5) higher social status among clients; (6) greater social participation among clients; (7) higher education among clients; (8)cosmopolitans among clients; (9) homophile with clients; (10) credibility in the clients' eyes; (11) the extent that he or she works through opinion leaders; (12) increasing clients' ability to evaluate innovations (Rogers, 1983:317-322).

Aides may function in a change agent role to help influence innovation decisions. While they lack the credentials or 'competence credibility,' they provide the advantage of 'safety credibility,' "due to his or her social homophile with the client system" (Rogers, 1983:343).

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Organization developers assist leaders in producing change. Their role is "to enhance cultural elements that are viewed as critical to maintaining identity and to promote the 'unlearning' of cultural elements that are viewed as increasingly dysfunctional" (Argyris, Putnamand Smith,1985; Argyris and Schon, 1978; Beckhard and Harris, 1987; Hanna, 1988; Lippitt,1982; Walton, 1987 cited in Schein, 1990:117). Such cultural change efforts, Schein says, may involve tapping subcultures that have grown amid complacent and ill adapting organizations in the midlife of their life cycle. Or change may involve replacing the group that carries the old culture and putting in new people able to develop a new culture. Schein sees an analogous process between organizational development and individual psycho-therapy (Schein, 1990:117).

Patton (1986) highlights the importance of the right people assuming responsibility for getting information to the right people.

The specifics vary from case to case, but the pattern is markedly clear: Where the personal factor emerges, where some individual takes direct, personal responsibility for getting the information to the right people, evaluations have an impact. Where the personal factor is absent, there is a marked absence of impact. Use is not simply determined by some configuration of abstract factors; it is determined in large part by real, live, caring human beings.

But our data on the personal factor suggest that increased contact with the wrong persons (i.e., people who are not oriented toward the use of evaluative information) is likely to accomplish little.

The prosumer approach seeks to instill in consumers as well as current producers of research that element of caring about knowledge and its advancement. By becoming active, committed partners in knowledge production and use, researchers, practitioners, clients, etc. can improve the quality and usefulness of knowledge. The prosumer approach, however, once adopted points to changes in current roles. The partners, including change agents, will have new and different expectations of themselves in this collaborative effort.

2.10 INFORMATION SERVICE SYSTEMS Information service systems include libraries, clearing houses, online retrieval services, information and referral services, and centers whose primary role is

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information storage, retrieval, and dissemination or laboratories whose primary role is repackaging of information. Information service systems vary in how users access and use them (i.e., by phone, by mail, by computer modem, or in person) as well as in the nature of their collections of information. Some systems are highly specialized (e.g., National Library of Medicine) while others are fairly general (e.g., public library). Some systems are electronically accessed and may represent collections from other smaller systems (e.g., DIALOG, BRS, and NEXIS).

2.10.1 Libraries Libraries are becoming more technologically sophisticated. Computers are replacing card catalogs. Now users touch computer screens to access reference information and touch one key to print out the selected references. Users access entire books, documents, or references on CD-ROM disks or microfiche/film. Users are borrowing videotapes, records, and works of art as well as print materials. Specialized libraries offer curriculum, audiovisual aids, assistive devices, and other teaching resources. Librarians are becoming not only specialized in information sources, classification, storage, and retrieval but also in one or more disciplines.

Individuals responsible for library instruction in school systems are turning away from source and pathfinder approaches to instructing students in library use. Those approaches have been simplistic, specific to a given library and answer oriented. Instead they are exploring instructional strategies that promote thinking about and managing information for lifelong learning and problem solving. They are building on the research findings of cognitive and developmental psychologists in their curricula (Kuhlthau, 1987:27). "Marland, a British educator and curriculum specialist, have been concerned that schools are not teaching students to be an effective library and information users"(Cleaver, 1987:30).

His proposed curriculum would emphasize such concepts as selection, rejection, evaluation, organization, topic definition, and question definition. The student who masters these would be prepared to examine information critically, look for relationships, and put bits of information together in new ways that could result in new insights or knowledge.

Smith echoes a similar sentiment:

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It is not sufficient merely to teach students how to locate and retrieve information; we must also help them develop skill in manipulating that information by questioning, challenging, analyzing, comparing, contrasting, evaluating ,summarizing, and synthesizing it. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of students presently leave school with these skills (Smith, 1987: 38).

People who could benefit from the use of libraries may fail to take advantage of it unless they learn in youth or in special instructional programs how to find and use information. Chatman (1987) explored the information needs and information seeking behaviors of janitorial workers at a large southern university. He found that respondents did not use the available library though they had health, career, and relationship needs which library resources could help address.

2.10.2 Online databases Four electronic databases lead the market in knowledge storage and retrieval systems: DIALOG, Bibliographic Retrieval System (BRS), NEXIS and ORBIT. Glossbrenner views the relationship of BRS and DIALOG as somewhat analogous with Apple and IBM in personal computers (1987). BRS has fewer databases, a User Advisory Board, and "at times suffers from a lack of focus and a lack of follow-through in its online offerings”. DIALOG, on the other hand, according to Glossbrenner "is quite simply the world's premier electronic information system. No one else offers such a wide selection of databases. And no one else can match the breadth, depth, and quality of its training, search aids, and customer support".

Unlike BRS and DIALOG, NEXIS is a full-text database and has been from its 1979 start. NEXIS represented an expansion of the LEXIS database system for lawyers that began before personal computers were in wide use. NEXIS includes the full text of The New York Times, full-text magazines, wire services, industry newsletters, banking firm reports, and the Encyclopedia Britannica.

ORBIT began as an information retrieval system for the Advanced Research Projects Agency of the Department of Defense. This search service, according to Glossbrenner, is exclusive and highly technical with more scientific and technical databases than any other kind. Permission for access is required for several of the databases within the ORBIT Search Service.

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Online databases facilitate and deter access to knowledge. Such databases require access to telecommunications and finances to cover costs of use. Those who can afford it can gain a wealth of knowledge that can lead to more financial wealth. CD-ROM offers access to knowledge sources for less money and can enable Third World countries to gain more readily the knowledge they need for growth and renewal (Brito, 1987).

2.10.3 Information and referral centers While traditionally information and referral centers have been sources of information on community resources and governmental services, these could be expanded to reference information service systems that channel individuals to the desired research information.

2.11 TRAINING AND EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS

Training and educational programs have been a significant dissemination strategy. These include pre-service and in-service. Pre-service educational programs are also referred to as professional preparation programs. In service refers to education provided on the job in the form of induction training, apprenticeships, and short-term workshops or courses. Both offer vehicles for getting new knowledge into practice.

2.11.1 Professional preparation programs

Professional preparation programs are a major vehicle over time for knowledge dissemination. Such programs include, but are not limited to, lectures, labs, discussions, and practicums. Garkovich (1985), speaking from an applied sociologist's perspective, suggests that the practicum experience can become a means for mutually satisfying information exchange and knowledge development for sociology students and the rural information-poor agencies.

2.11.2 Workshops/seminars/conferences (face-to-face)

Takayama (1986) says that conferences and conference proceedings are more timely means of information transfer than publications. Conferences generally precede the publication. They supplement pre-service and in service educational efforts. Informal, as well as formal, information exchange marks this dissemination strategy.

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The decision seminar, according to Bolland and Muth (1984:75-88), can serve as a conduit for information not readily and timely accessed by decision makers. The decision seminar is an ongoing nucleus of people who meet regularly for an extended period of time to explore problems and the social, technical, and political implications of alternative solutions. The seminar can be especially useful in urban policy planning because it facilitates collective problem solving. It also can provide a more thorough analysis of issues. The authors reference Lasswell's five problem-solving tasks of the decision seminar: goal clarification, trend description, analysis of conditions, projection of developments, and invention, evaluation, and selection of alternatives. The authors describe examples of such seminars and cautions for groups structuring the decision seminar. The seminar itself can become a tool for teaching urban policymakers how to make better informed decisions.

2.11.3 Computer conferencing/electronic networking

Levin, Riel, Miyake, and Cohen (1987) demonstrated the use of electronic networking to interconnect students and teachers in the United States, Mexico, Japan, and Israel. These authors describe the water project conducted by the Inter- Cultural Network as a case study in problem solving. "By addressing a problem shared across the different locations, students learned to transfer solutions used elsewhere to their own problems".

Fulk, Steinfield, Schmitz, and Power (1987) describe the involving aspects of computer-mediated communication and the influence of peer’s and group membership on that process.

A number of studies of computer-mediated communication, for example, have demonstrated that highly emotional and interpersonally involving applications such as conflict and negotiation are more frequent than would be expected in what is typically considered to be a low-social-presence medium (Hiltz and Turoff, 1978; Kiesler, Siegel and McGuire, 1984; Phillips, 1983; Rice and Love, 1987; Steinfield, 1985). Hiltz (1984, p.90) notes that "being a member of one group (or subculture) rather than another seems to shape the experiences of the members and the quality of their (electronic) life." The extent to which relevant co-workers also used an electronic mail system was the primary predictor of task-related uses

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in a study by Steinfield (1986acited in Fulk, Steinfield, Schmitz, Power, and 1987: 534).

2.12 MULTICHANNELS

Bagenstos (1989) has pointed to the fact that people are individuals who often are also members of groups, organizations, and communities. Dissemination needs to recognize both aspects. Glaser et al. (1983) highlighted studies on 'cosmopolitans’, 'role accumulators,' and' professionalism' which reinforce the need for multiplicity of avenues for reaching potential users. Studies on this aspect cited by Glaser and others (1983:70-71) included, but are not limited to, Katz (1961), Rogers (1962a), Coleman, Katz, and Menzel (1966a, 1966b), Hemphill, Griffiths and Fredericksen (1962), Zaltman and Wallendorf (1979), Rogers (1967), Evan and Black (1967), Havelock (1969a), Aiken and Hage (1968), and Beyer and Trice (1978).

Fessenden-Raden, Fitchen and Heath (1987) identified factors related to getting risk information (such as contaminated drinking water) to communities and getting them to act on it. They conducted more than 12 case studies in New York and Maine to determine factors influencing what is heard and what is accepted by receivers of risk information. They identified as factors the mixing of official and unofficial messages and/or messengers; use of untrained vs. trained messengers; simplification and over-simplification of messages; individual experiences versus collective attitudes toward the messengers or the associated institutions. In discussing messages and messengers they pointed to potential conflicts for receivers when they hear experts, the media, and non-experts saying different things as well as hear words such as 'don't worry' and then see technicians dressed in 'moonsuits' gathering soil samples from an area where children usually play (Fessenden-Raden et al., 1987:100). Consistency of message giving a cross multi- channels is indeed important.

2.13 Other

Other dissemination strategies have been underutilized or under studied by researchers or change agents not in the fields of communication or marketing. These include the use of pre taped telephone messages such as Tele-Med, billboards, signs in and outside of stores, yellow pages, directories, welcome

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wagons, direct mail strategies, technical assistance, self-ratings, surveys. Instead researchers have relied mostly on abstracts, annotated bibliographies, executive summaries, manuals, handbooks, directories, and state-of-the-art reviews. All of the latter are outside of the daily experience stream of most citizens. Some innovative individual’s are sharing information about local services and resources on C-Span or cable. Why not add research results or where to go to learn more about the latest research on a disability or rehabilitation topic.

2.13.1 Introduction

Man has forever fought against the forces of entropy, working very diligently at creating order and meaning, dissecting and perusing until order is achieved. For civilization this has been important. It has lent the world many fascinating theories about our surroundings and the effect human beings can have. As order driven beings, we seek to stretch and apply knowledge gained in all aspects of life to situations and experiences very different from the origin of the knowledge. It is through the stretching and manipulating of old thought that new insights are made, and new psychological mountains are tackled. It is through this stretching and manipulating of one socio-political based theory that the field of Advertising has defined some of its capabilities and constraints in the area of mass communication. This theory involves the two-step flow of communication.

This paper will address insights to the history and development, the criticisms and praises, recent studies, and current applications of the two-step flow of communication theory. The ultimate goal is to answer one question: "What does a theory based on socio-political research have to do with advertising, anyway?"

2.13.2 Development of the Two-step Flow of Communication theory

As with most theories now applied to Advertising, the Two-step flow of communication was first identified in a field somewhat removed from communications-sociology. In 1948, Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet published The People's Choice, a paper analyzing the voters’ decision- making processes during a 1940 presidential election campaign. The study revealed evidence suggesting that the flow of mass communication is less direct than previously supposed. Although the ability of mass media to reach a large audience, and in this case persuade individuals in one direction or another, had

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been a topic of much research since the 1920's, it was not until the People's Choice was published that society really began to understand the dynamics of the media-audience relationship. The study suggested that communication from the mass media first reaches "opinion leaders" who filter the information they gather to their associates, with whom they are influential. Previous theories assumed that media directly reached the target of the information. For the theorists, the opinion leader theory proved an interesting discovery considering the relationship between media and its target was not the focus of the research, but instead a small aspect of the study.

Lazarsfeld et al., suggested that "ideas often flow from radio and print to the opinion leaders and from them to the less active sections of the population." People tend to be much more affected in their decision making process by face to face encounters with influential peers than by the mass media (Lazarsfeld, Menzel, 1963). As Weiss described in his 1969 chapter on functional theory, "Media content can be a determining influence. What is rejected is any conception that construes media experiences as alone sufficient for a wide variety of effects." The other piece in the communication process is the opinion leader with which the media information is discussed.

The studies by Lazarsfeld and his associates sparked interest in the exact qualities and characteristics that define the opinion leader. Is an opinion leader influential in all cases, on all topics? Or is the influence of an opinion leader constrained to certain topics? How does an opinion leader come to be influential?

2.14 The Opinion Leaders

2.14.1 Who are they? How have they come to be defined?

A study by Robert Merton revealed that opinion leadership is not a general characteristic of a person, but rather limited to specific issues. Individuals, who act as opinion leaders on one issue, may not be considered influential’s in regard to other issues (Merton, 1949). A later study directed by Lazarsfeld and Katz further investigated the characteristics of opinion leaders. This study confirmed the earlier assertions that personal influence seems more important in decision making than media. Again, influential individuals seem constrained in their opinion leading to particular topics, non-overlapping among the individuals. The

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opinion leaders seem evenly distributed among the social, economical and educational levels within their community, but very similar in these areas to those with whom they had influence.

Katz and Lazarsfeld did not identify any particular traits amongst opinion leaders that stand out. The traits that characterize each of the opinion leaders in their niche did have things in common, though. For one thing, the opinion leaders were identified as having the strongest interest in their particular niche. They hold positions within their community affording them special competence in their particular niches. They are generally gregarious, sociable individuals. Finally, they had/have contact with relevant information supplied from outside their immediate circle. Interestingly enough, Katz and Lazarsfeld observed that the opinion leaders receive a disproportionate amount of their external information from media appropriate to their niche.

Studies by Glock and Nicosia determined that opinion leaders act "as a source of social pressure toward a particular choice and as a source of social support to reinforce that choice once it has been made (1966)." Charles Glock explained that opinion leaders often develop leadership positions in their social circles. They achieve these positions based on their knowledge of situations outside their circles (1952).

2.14.2 Criticisms

Although the theory of indirect flow of information from media to the target was quickly adopted, the original study performed by Lazarsfeld, Berelson and Gaudet was not. It had a few faults. The panel method by which they attempted to better understand the influences reaching a voter was un-faulted. It very effectively allowed the researchers to notice changes in a voter's feelings almost immediately. The resulting unit of change was an objective measurement that could easily be recorded and compared. The faults lie in the manner with which the researchers addressed the flow of influences.

Since the research was not designed to specifically test the flow of influence, the experiment was decidedly lacking in explanations. The first problem concerning the findings of the study were that the data had to be collected in a random sample, but subjects in a random sample can only speak for themselves. For these

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reasons, each person could only say whether or not they considered his/herself an advice giver. Lazarsfeld and his associates in the 1940 election study were unable to determine the specific flow of influence. They determined there were a number of opinion leaders spread throughout the socio-economic groups; however, these leaders were not directly linked to particular groups within the socio-economic levels.

Even within studies specifically designed to determine who opinion leaders are and how they are different from the average populace, there have been problems born from experimental design. "The criticisms of the concept of opinion leaders have focused mainly on its methodological deficiencies (Weimann, 1991)." As Weimann suggested in his 1989 study of pervious research, much of the design problems involved determining the opinion leaders while studying the flow of information. There seemed to be too many factors to control. Despite the difficulties in qualifying the influentials, the theory of a group of individuals that filter the flow of media information has lived on.

2.14.3 Praises and Support

Although the empirical methods behind the two-step flow of communication were not perfect, the theory did provide a very believable explanation for information flow. The opinion leaders do not replace media, but rather guide discussions of media. Brosius explains the benefits of the opinion leader theory well in his 1996 study of agenda setting, "The opinion leaders should not be regarded as replacing the role of interpersonal networks but, in fact, as reemphasizing the role of the group and interpersonal contacts."

Lazarsfeld and his associates detailed five characteristics of personal contact that give their theory more validity:

2.14.4 Non-purposiveness/casualness

One must have a reason for tuning into a political speech on television, but political conversations can just "pop-up". In this situation, the people are less likely to have their defenses up in preparation; they are more likely open to the conversation.

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2.14.5 Flexibility to counter resistance

In a conversation, there is always opportunity to counter any resistance. This is not so in media, a one sided form of communication.

Trust: Personal contact carries more trust than media. As people interact, they are better able through observation of body language and vocal cues to judge the honesty of the person in the discussion. Newspaper and radio do not offer these cues.

Persuasion without conviction: The formal media is forced to persuade or change opinions. In personal communication, sometimes friendly insistence can cause action without affecting any comprehension of the issues.

Menzel introduced another strong point in favor of the two-step flow of information theory. First, there are an abundance of information channels "choked" with all types of journals, conferences, and commercial messages. These are distracting and confusing to their target. With the barrage of information humans are flooded with daily, it is not hard to understand why someone might turn to a peer for help evaluating all of it.

2.15 Recent studies based on the two-step flow of communication theory

The true test of a theory lies in its timelessness, its ability to spark interest and provoke thought years after its introduction. The two step flow of communication theory has been able to remain relevant throughout the years. This should not be difficult to believe considering it has fueled at least the past few pages this year, forty years after its debut. There have been several recent studies that have addressed issues arising from Lazarsfeld's, Katz's, and Merton's studies from the 1940s. In two such studies Gabriel Weimann (1994) and Hans-Bernd Brosius (1996) addressed the setting of agendas as a two-step flow of communication.

In Weimann's paper addressing the re-emergence of the opinion leader theory into modern day (1991), he addresses several problems that have been overcome sparking the new interest in the old theory. As is further discussed in the section on theory criticisms, the two-step flow of communication theory is difficult to witness in the field. Many researchers have attempted to design credible models for testing the theory, but with only minor success (Weimann, 1991). Brosius and Weimann set out to explain agenda setting using the basis of the two-step flow of 47 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION MASS MEDIA AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

communication theory determined by Lazarsfeld, Katz, and the many other researchers. To avoid the difficulties in studying the actual flow of communication, Weimann and Brosius separated the opinion leaders from their two-step flow of communication theory. Participants were studied against a scale to determine the "Strength of Personality".

The Brosius - Weimann study attempts to describe the individuals whose personal communication has impact on agenda setting. These individuals are the archetypal opinion leaders, who still control the flow of information. Weimann and Brosius define agenda setting as a two-step flow, wherein certain individuals (influential’s) "collect, diffuse, filter, and promote the flow of information" from media to the community. The difference between these influential’s and the opinion leaders, as Weimann stresses, is that these influential’s are usually elitists, not spread throughout the community as the old theory suggested (Weismann, 1991). Are these influentials a new breed? Or is there really a difference between influential’s and opinion leaders? This, as yet, has not been addressed. Weimann and Brosius suggest the influentials are a subsection of the opinion leaders.

2.16 Applications of the Theory

To those who claim that there are no applications of a socio-political theory in advertising, exhibit A is the barrage of articles written daily on the very subject. No longer does the advertising industry doubt the existence or qualities of influential’s, as they are most commonly referred to today. Instead, the discussion revolves around effectively targeting messages to reach these influential.

For fifty years, the research organization Roper has considered the group of "influential" important enough to track. Regularly, reports and studies are performed in an attempt to unlock the secret to reaching these influentials. Who are they? What has the term "influential" come to describe? According to Diane Crispell, these people are the "thought leaders" and "pioneer consumers". "Influential’s are better educated and more affluent than the average American, but it is their interest in the world around them and their belief that they can make a difference that makes them influential (Crispell, 1989)."

The influential’s today seem to be isolated in the upper class. They are the trend- setters. It is this group that is first to adopt new technology, and remains on the

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leading edge of trends (Poltrack, 1985). This is the group that advertising attempts to reach. Daily articles are published on maximizing the market by reaching these influentials. The idea remains that the most efficient media is word-of-mouth, and it is by reaching the influentials with other forms of media that this word-of- mouth is generated. It seems the opinion leaders of yesterday have been overlooked for the smaller subset of influentials.

2.17 Opinion leaders

Opinion leaders are a crucial target for any development program. Why? Because they have the ability to influence other people’s action through interpersonal contact. The challenge for development programme professionals is identifying these opinion leaders so they can build their understanding of and support for their organizations, enabling them to be advocates for those organizations and their actions.

Opinion leaders are in a position to influence other people’s actions because they:

– are respected. – have a view that carries weight in a community. – are catalysts for the formation of public opinion. – are highly interested in an issue or issues. – are better informed than the average person. – are believed to have more knowledge of a subject or issue. – are avid consumers of mass media. – are interpreters of media content. – actively search out information on a subject. – like to let their opinions be known – actively share information. Opinion leaders are a vital element of the diffusion process or two-step flow decision-making process that is based on a 1944 study by sociologists Paul Lazarsfeld, Bernard Berelson and Hazel Gaudet. In “The People’s Choice” they analyzed voter decision-making during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1940 re- election campaign.

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Their study showed media information did not get directly to target audiences and influence their behavior. It first reached opinion leaders, who evaluated it, then shared it with others in their social circles. The study showed only 5 percent of the voters was affected by direct exposure to media messages.

Lazarsfeld and Elihu Katz introduced the two-step flow theory of communication in “Personal Influence” in 1955. One of the key services opinion leaders provide, said fellow scholar Herbert Menzel, is that they interpret media messages for audiences who are confused by the flood of information they receive daily from the media.

More evidence of the role of opinion leaders came in 1959 when Iowa State University researchers Joe Bohlen and George Beal explained the five steps of decision-making they saw farmers go through in the adoption of a new kind of hybrid corn.

 Awareness

 Information or Interest  Evaluation

 Trial  Adoption

 Reinforcement (added by later researchers)

It is called two-step flow because media play an important role in the first two stages (awareness and information or interest). They play a less significant role in the last three stages, where opinion leaders and interpersonal communication take over as key elements that lead to behavior.

2.18 SMALL INTRODUCTION TO OPINION LEADERS

Research on opinion leaders dates back quite a while now. It was in 1944 when Lazarsfeld and Katz and his team researched public communication and found out that communication does not directly flow to the mass but is actually interpreted first by opinion leaders and then forwarded to the rest of the people. They have described this process as the "Two-Step-Flow of Communication".

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The Two-Step-Flow of Communication asserts the following points:

 Information is transferred not only by the (mass) medium but also through interpersonal communication

 There are people between the medium and the interpersonal communication network which are called opinion leaders

 The influence of such opinion leader is significantly larger than that of the medium

2.18.1 Characteristics of Opinion Leaders

Generally it is assumed that opinion leaders have certain characteristics which make them special. One definition of opinion leaders is the one of Kotler in his book defines them as "people who can influence members in the social community because of special techniques, knowledge, personalities and other uniqueness".

Rogers describes opinion leaders as people with

 high social participation

 high social status

 and a high social responsibility

Robertson (in his book Innovative Behavior and Communication) mentions that they are:

 more directive

 more innovative

 and more professional

2.18.2 Impact of opinion leaders

According to Rogers, who describes the process of innovation, the decision process has five stages

 Recognizing and understanding

 Forming an attitude

 evaluation of innovation

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 Testing and performing of innovation

 Adoption or Rejection

Especially in the recognition and evaluation of innovations people are under the influences of their interpersonal network. Here opinion leaders can play an important role.

In the recognition and understanding of an innovation opinion leaders can provide valuable information for members of their communication network.

In the evaluation stage opinion leaders can serve as a forming element publicly deciding for a group which innovations are good and which are bad. Having a central role in their community opinion leaders can help to spread the word about an innovation faster because of their many times they have with the members.

2.18.3 Measurement of opinion leaders

Rogers provides four ways of identifying opinion leaders:

 Observation (e.g. recording the communication network chain and behavior of members in a community).

 Identifying Key roles (e.g. find roles by instinct and grade them).

 Interpersonal Relationship measurement (e.g. Ask people in the community who they ask for information and suggestions).

 Self-identification (e.g. ask everybody in the group if they feel like an opinion leader).

2.18.4 Identification of Opinion leaders

To identify opinion leaders in e.g. twitter networks we can use the first suggested method since people in twitter leave tons of traces and their networks are public. A first attempt of doing this could be:

1. Collect a community on a given topic.

2. Determine the connections between all members and save the data in a network format.

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3. Find central players in the community by using social network analysis methods.

2.19 SCHOOL LITERACY STRATEGY

Five key questions both align and drive the Bundaberg Special School's response to achieving enhanced literacy outcomes. The relationship between the key components and the key questions in achieving enhanced literacy options is presented below in figure 1.

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2.19.1 What is literacy?

Literacy is the flexible and sustainable mastery of a repertoire of practices with the texts of traditional and new communication technologies via spoken language, print and multimedia and the ability to use these practices in cultural and social contexts.

Literate Futures

2.19.2 What are our beliefs about literacy learning and literacy teaching?

We believe that:

� Communication allows us to express our understanding of the world around

us. It is vital to become literate.

� Literacy enhances communication.

� Literacy is the foundation for all other learning.

� Literacy acquisition is a continuous process.

� Literacy begins from early in life everyone must be given multiple

opportunities to develop and apply literacy reading, writing or communication (verbal, augmentative, and sign).

� Literacy learning occurs most effectively in supportive and dynamic

classroom environments which employ authentic texts for real purposes and real audiences.

� All children possess a range of literacy skills which must be recognised,

valued and developed by teachers.

� Literacy is best developed through a balanced focus upon whole-language

and experience based approaches which centre on the explicit development of the child using appropriate practices, oral language, and multi literacy’s.

� Literacy learning requires teachers to continually reflect on their own

literacy knowledge, skills and pedagogy.

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� Effective literacy teaching requires collaborative analysis and sharing about

child achievement to inform planning and teaching.

� Literacy learning is most effective when it is enjoyable and students can see

a benefit in it.

� Literacy is everybody’s business.

2.19.3 What is the relationship between literacy and communication?

Every child can learn and needs a communication system to interact with the

world around them. Communication is critical to a student’s development both

personally and educationally. Students with complex communication needs often struggle with verbal language and may require Alternate Augmentative Communication strategies to provide a vital connecting link between language communication and literacy.

Language communication and literacy are tied together. The ability to communicate assists students to access literacy and literacy may be the vehicle that drives the purpose and desire to communicate. Alternative communication systems create links and opportunities where spoken language is limited. All systems of alternate communication have their intrinsic worth.

The diagram below indicates visually the elements of literacy learning and its relationship to communication and to each other.

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2.19.4 What are the implications for pedagogy? Effective pedagogy in Literacy is the responsibility of every teacher. Pedagogy needs to take account of the basic needs of the learner and the principles of effective teaching and learning. Pedagogy should be based on a sound knowledge of language and communication development in students with the purpose of knowing how to augment communication most effectively for each individual student as outlined in the Special School support documents Quality literacy learning also needs to be aligned with the school philosophy and current educational theory, be consistent with systemic requirements, have a balanced array of teaching strategies and be inclusive of all students. Effective pedagogy in literacy is founded upon ongoing, high quality professional development. Teachers and support staff will be provided with the opportunities to access whole school or individually targeted professional development in literacy. As we continuously improve our knowledge and skills in literacy pedagogy, we help ensure the attainment of enhanced literacy outcomes for all student

2.19.5 How do we ensure effective literacy learning is occurring? An effective assessment and monitoring program is essential if we are to know that the strategies used in our Literacy Plan are working. A comprehensive range of strategies are used at Bundaberg Special School. The purposeful, systematic 56 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION MASS MEDIA AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT

and ongoing collection of evidence informs us of our success and allows us to make more effective decisions about future planning and resourcing. A range of school based assessment data provide evidence that relevant targets in communication, oracy, reading, writing, are being met.

Teachers independently and collectively analyse data about literacy achievement. This information is tracked over time using various data bases and spreadsheets and is used to inform classroom practice and programs to continuously improve literacy outcomes. These literacy outcomes are reported on formally and informally to parents and members of the school community at regular intervals as outlined in the Bundaberg Special School Curriculum Plan.

An outline of the data collection process appears below.

2.20 Literacy is the key to learning!

Communication for Empowerment (C4E) is one of the practical approaches developed by OGC to address the lack of inclusion and participation of marginalized and vulnerable groups in decision making processes by identifying and meeting their information and communication needs through specific media strategies. OGC, in collaboration with the Communication for Social Change Consortium (CFSC) developed a three year C4E initiative (2007-2010) to pilot test the approach and tools articulated in the Practical Guidance Note on Communication for Empowerment (2006).

2.21 Media’s Role in empowerment of women in India

Communication is extremely important for women’s development and mass media play significant role. It is to be noted that growth of women’s education and their entry into employment has contributed to the growth of media. In all spheres of life whether for controlling population growth, spread of literacy or improving quality of life for vast masses, women have crucial role to play. However, women can be expected to play this role when they become conscious of their strength and are not deliberately marginalized by male domination. In this context, media has an important role to play to create awakening in women to achieve their potential as the prime movers of change in society. In today’s world print and electronic media play a vital role in effectively conveying message that needs to be conveyed.

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UNIT III : INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

Objectives of the unit:

 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in Development  Technology related factors  Strategic ICT management in developing countries  New media growth  Access and control issues  Govt. and private agencies in development campaigns.

ICT stands for "Information and Communication Technologies." ICT refers to technologies that provide access to information through telecommunications. It is similar to Information Technology (IT), but focuses primarily on communication technologies. This includes the Internet, wireless networks, cell phones, and other communication mediums.

In the past few decades, information and communication technologies have provided society with a vast array of new communication capabilities. For example, people can communicate in real-time with others in different countries using technologies such as instant messaging, voice over IP (VoIP), and video-conferencing. Social networking websites like Facebook allow users from all over the world to remain in contact and communicate on a regular basis.

Modern information and communication technologies have created a "global village," in which people can communicate with others across the world as if they were living next door. For this reason, ICT is often studied in the context of how modern communication technologies affect society.

3.0 Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in India

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can be broadly viewed under two sectors, information technology (IT) and Communication. In India, the growth of both of these sectors is very significant in the past two decades.

The Indian IT industry has not only transformed India's image on the global platform, but also fuelled economic growth by energizing higher education sector

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(especially in engineering and computer science). The industry has employed almost 10 million Indians and hence, has contributed a lot to social transformation in the country. The Indian IT industry has continued to perform its role as the most consistent growth driver for the economy. Service, software exports and business process outsourcing (BPO) remain the mainstay of the sector. Over the last five years, the IT industry has grown at a remarkable pace. A majority of the Fortune 500 and Global 2000 corporations are sourcing IT from India and it is the premier destination for the global sourcing of IT, accounting for 55 per cent of the global market in offshore IT services and garnering 35 per cent of the ITES/BPO market.

Furthermore, IT spending in India is projected to reach US$ 71.5 billion in 2013, an increase of 7.7 per cent as compared to US$ 66.4 billion projected for 2012, as per a report by Gartner.

On the other hand, the telecommunication services have been recognized as an important tool for socio-economic development of a nation. It is one of the prime support services needed for rapid growth and modernization of various sectors of the economy.

India with a user base of 120 million is the world's third largest internet market and is poised to have up to 370 million users in 2015.

India is expected to have 130.6 million mobile internet users by March 2014, according to a joint study by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB). The number of users accessing internet through mobile devices was 87.1 million in December 2012.

The Indian mobile phone market is highly competitive with more than 150 device manufacturers trying to woo the consumers with their offerings. Most of these producers focus their efforts on the low-cost feature phone market, which constitutes over 91 per cent of overall mobile phone sales, offering a huge scope for growth. Manufacturers like ZTE, Micromax, Karbonn Mobile, and Huawei stood at sixth, seventh and twelfth positions respectively, in the Indian smart phone market in the first half of 2012. They are constantly enhancing their smart phone portfolio to compete with big global manufacturers like Samsung and Nokia, which held the first and second position respectively.

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Information and communication technology (ICT) to social development are rarely researched, evaluated or reported, and even when they are, the conceptualization, design, conduct and reporting of this work often lacks quality. There is a need for far more rigorous research into ICT projects at the national, organizational and practitioner levels, to achieve a body of research that can guide future planning and practice. Policymakers, planners and practitioners alike need to be involved in undertaking formative and summative evaluation, and quantitative and/or qualitative research, not only to improve their own knowledge and skills in ICT for social development, but to provide robust and strategically significant findings that can influence and guide governments, donors, and other key stakeholders.

Research and evaluation of ICT for social development are needed at the:

1) National level: • to enable governments, national agencies and other key decision makers to

assess the quality, cost, relevance, effectiveness and potential of ICT‐ projects; and • to inform policy making, management and implementation in such projects.

2) Organizational level:‐ • to ensure that social development needs are understood and provided for; • to satisfy the internal and external reporting requirements and assure quality in processes and outcomes; and • to ensure that those engaged in the projects are granted the status, training and resources they need.

3) Practitioner level: • to improve the understanding and practice of the managers, course and materials developers, teachers, trainers and technologists; and • to persuade others to support such projects.

ICT for social development needs to be informed by:

• Empirical inquiry, through which projects are analyzed to guide future practice; • Theoretical inquiry, in which hypotheses and conceptual frameworks are developed to guide future thinking and action;

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• Formative research, which is conducted throughout the project to monitor what is occurring so that corrections and revisions can be made before it is too late; • summative research, which is carried out at the conclusion of projects to measure the outcomes against the missions, goals and key performance indicators, and to report on what succeeded and what failed, and why; • Quantitative research, which involves collecting numerical data through surveys and questionnaires to inform the planning, implementation and review of projects; and • qualitative research, which involves observing, questioning and documenting processes, actions, behaviors’, opinions, and values, to inform the planning, implementation and review of projects. ICT for social development calls for research into the needs and circumstances of the end users, the services provided the methods and technologies employed, the outcomes and‐ the benefits. Research is also needed into the policies and procedures that are needed to achieve successful outcomes. The following research and evaluation agenda is proposed for those concerned with ICT for social development. 3.1 National level Governments, donors and other national agencies need to be able to draw upon the following in order to develop well informed plans, policies and procedures: a) Meta surveys (surveys of a range of‐ initiatives) and meta analyses (findings derived from‐ a number of research studies) that provide robust‐ evidence of system wide gains in access, economy, efficiency, effectiveness and impact, the factors‐ that support or prevent the achievement of these outcomes, and ways to overcome any barriers to change that may arise in the process. b) Environmental scanning to establish: • The needs and opportunities for using ICT to achieve, for example, the UN’s Millennium Development Goals of eradicating extreme poverty and hunger, achieving universal primary education, promoting gender equality and empowering women, reducing child mortality, improving maternal health, combating HIV/Aids, malaria and other diseases, ensuring environmental sustainability, and developing a global partnership for development; and • ways to bridge the digital divide.

61 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY c) Research findings on:

• the political actions, policies and systems needed to achieve project sustainability;

• the technology, infrastructure and logistics needed for such projects;

• the funding and resource requirements;

• the staff training requirements;

• the potential for collaboration and partnership;

• leadership and management issues; and

• key performance indicators needed to measure the short term and longer term

benefits of projects. ‐ ‐ d) Formative and summative evaluation to provide robust information on:

• the appropriateness of projects; and

• the impact, efficiency, cost and cost effectiveness of the projects.

3.2 Organizational level: ‐

ICT based social development projects take many forms, from improving adult

literacy‐ and helping poor farmers to adopt new practices, to providing disadvantaged communities with ICT through community tele-centres. Many of these initiatives are experimental and new to the providers as well as the end users.

A number of stakeholders individuals or groups (including the end users)‐ are interested in influencing the projects, achieving the outcomes, and ensuring the ‐ ‐ projects’ viability. Organizations supporting such projects need to be accountable to these stakeholders and to undertake or commission research ensuring that:

• the end users’ needs and circumstances have been correctly defined;

• the projects‐ have been appropriately resourced, managed, implemented, provided and evaluated and delivered;

• the goals, targets and performance indicators have been met;

• problems have been resolved; and that

• dissemination and diffusion methods have informed all stakeholders of the projects’ outcomes and benefits.

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3.3 Practitioner level: Managers and staff engaged in such projects need to undertake: a) Personal inquiry to inform their understandings of: • the theoretical basis of ODL/ICT, lifelong learning and non formal adult and

community education; ‐ • global developments and trends in ODL/ICT; • adult and distance learners and their learning; • constructivist, independent, collaborative and problem and work based

learning; ‐ ‐ • cultural, gender and individual differences in learning; • curriculum, course and instructional design; • materials development; • learner support; • quality assurance; and • leadership and management b) Action research (work based research by individuals or groups that proceeds

through a cycle of planning,‐ action, observation and reflection and provides evidence that informs practice) regarding: • equity and access; • end users’ needs, circumstances, behaviors’ and achievements;

• curriculum,‐ course and materials development and delivery; • instructional design and technology; • learner support; and • assessment and evaluation. c) Formative and summative research into: • the effectiveness of the policies, planning and project management; • the effectiveness and cost effectiveness of the projects;

• the effectiveness and cost‐effectiveness of the technology; • the effectiveness of the teaching/training‐ and learner support systems; • the end users’ views on the methods and technologies employed;

• the benefits‐ to the end users; and • the social development‐ benefits for the wider community.

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3.4 Role of Information & Communication Technology (ICT) in Rural Development

ICT is an integral part of the development strategy of developed and developing countries both. It is highly capable in bringing about social transformation by providing easy access to people, services, information and other desired technologies. Also it can empower the people by expanding the use of government services. It is highly useful for economic development, job- creation, rural development and poverty alleviation.

ICT had a major contribution in transforming the public sector units in India during mid 90's. ICT improved civil society participation in the governing process, which is also known as e-governance which opens new ways of participation of citizens and communities. It empowers than to develop their self-sufficiency.

3.5 ICT & e-Governance for Rural Development

ICT helps n improving living standards in rural areas by providing important social, educational, economic and health benefits. In a developing nation like India, the role of ICT in overall development becomes more important. It can contribute in almost every area such as human rights protection, health, environment protection, education and agriculture etc. Especially in rural context, it acts as an intermediary between the government and the people.

3.6 Problems in the Implementation and Execution

Looking at the high population and higher incidence of poverty in rural India, implementation of ICT & e-governance to cover 135 million poor is a very tough task. As of now, there are more than 50 projects using ICT technology for developing India, but since no systematic study or evaluation has been conducted to access these ICT based projects so opportunities to learn the diverse creative Indian experience so far remains entirely wasted. Also existing e-governance models are more technology centric & have been adopted from the west. So they do not ensure complete rural development in a developing country like India.

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There are several gaps found in the execution of the ICT projects for rural India, where the larger goal of empowerment, digital and preservation of traditional technologies are lot considered. Therefore, taking in view of such limitations it is an important task to propose some alternative approaches to rural ICT projects.

3.7 ICT and Development

The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in combating poverty and fostering sustainable development has been the subject of increasing debate and experimentation within the development community. ICTs have been hailed as holding out great hope for developing countries, and have warned of a growing “digital divide” between rich and poor that must be narrowed by concerted action.

3.8 UNDP and ICT4D in India

In India, UNDP supports the mainstreaming of ICTs to achieve the country's national development goals. UNDP's approach is multi-stakeholder, aiming at innovative, result oriented policy guidance in the support of holistic, cross-sectoral e-development strategies and programmes. Together with Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, Government of India, UNDP has been supporting ICTD pilot initiatives in India since 2004.

3.9 Context of the Current Programme

The current UNDP project is a long-term multi-phased programme of support to the national initiatives on e-Government and e-Governance led by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, in collaboration with the UNDP. The broad objective of the ICTD project is to make ICTs work for people. The project seeks to demonstrate a range of ICT solutions to alleviate poverty, improve service delivery, enhance women's participation and promote transparency and accountability in governance. The project includes running pilot initiatives in the areas of e-Government and e-Governance, developing solutions & applications to bridge the digital divide, preparation of roadmaps for e-governance, and documenting success stories, transfer of knowledge and capacity building in the area of e-government.

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3.10 Themes of Focus and Elements of Interventions

The Project focuses on four broad themes of Integrated Citizen Services, Rural Livelihoods, Governance and Women’s Empowerment.

While each of the projects taken up under the above programmes is aligned to the themes mentioned above, each of them also spans the following elements of interventions.  Citizen-Centric Service Delivery;  Capacity Building;  Change Management;  Business Process Re-Engineering;  Public Private Partnerships;  Bridging the Digital Divide; and  Knowledge and Experience-sharing.

3.11 Project Objectives

The key objectives of the project are:

 to demonstrate the use of ICT for improved governance through sustainable initiatives in delivery of key public services in selected states in areas such as e-procurement, rural development, legal information and the like;  to encourage active Business Process Re-engineering efforts to make governance procedures simpler, rule-based, non-discretionary and transparent, thereby facilitating use of ICT on a sustainable basis and outsourcing of functions;  to build Public-Private Partnerships in ICT applications for governance;  to develop solutions and applications based on open source and other electronic communication technologies that would improve access to and reduce costs of ICT applications with a view to cover even those areas that now suffer from high access costs, inadequate communications infrastructure and insufficient localized content and media development;  to support the formulation of master plans and roadmaps for e-Governance; and  to document lessons learnt for horizontal transfer of success stories.

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3.12 ICTD Projects under Consideration

The table below is the clutch of the projects being undertaken.

Project Name Theme Implementing Agency Implementation State

Bangalore –One Integrated Citizen Dept. of Administrative Karnataka Services Reforms, Govt. of Karnataka

Integrated Community Integrated Citizen Dept. of IT, Govt. of Himachal Pradesh Service Centres (i-CoSC) Services Himachal Pradesh

Ashwini RuralLivelihoods ByrrajuFoundation AndhraPradesh

e-Krishi (Agri-Business Rural Livelihoods Kerala State IT Mission Kerala Centres)

Decentralized Rural Governance West Bengal State Rural West Bengal Information System & Development Agency Technology Initiatives (DRISTI)

e-Procurement Governance Dept. of Administrative Karnataka Reforms, Govt. of Karnataka

Mahiti Mitra Governance Kutch Nav Nirman Gujarat Abhiyan

Village Information System Integrated Citizen Gujarat Informatics Gujarat Services Limited

Mahiti Manthana Women IT for Change Karnataka Empowerment

Enterprise Development Rural Livelihoods Development Alternatives Madhya Service Pradesh/Punjab

e-Justice Governance (Access Centre for Good Andhra Pradesh to Justice) Governance

Mahiti Mitra – Phase II Governance Kutch Nav Nirman Gujarat Abhiyan

ICT School for Women’s Women SEWA Gujarat Empowerment Empowerment

ICT for Women Women VIDIYAL Tamil Nadu Conciliation Centre Empowerment

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Mobile Information Rural Livelihood PEDO Rajasthan Technology for Rural Advancement – MITRA

Using ICT for Improving Rural Livelihoods OCAC Orissa Livestock Productivity - NANDINI

Mobile – Government Governance West Bengal State Rural West Bengal Development Agency

Centre for Development Women’s IT for Change Karnataka Process Innovations through Empowerment ICTs – Community Radio Unit

Real Time Provisioning of Livelihood/ Early INCOIS- Kutch Nav Gujarat Fishing Zone Information Warning Nirman Abhiyan

3.13 Integrated Citizen Services

 Greater Convenience to the Citizens through

o Round the clock (ANYTIME), Jurisdiction free (ANYWHERE) services

o Optimal Location of Citizen Service Centres

o Reduction in payment cost and travel

o Reduction in time taken for payment of bills

o Additional vistas of employment

o Reduction in corruption was found, mainly due to the PPP approach of service delivery

o One-stop shops' availability

 Benefits to Government through lower defaults in tax and bill payments

 Empowerment of Citizens through availability of information and participation in governance

 Increase in accountability of government by giving powers to citizens to raise issues

 Benefits to the community a large through bridging the digital divide between the urban and the rural areas

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3.14 Livelihood  Increase in literacy and computer literacy increases employability  Expert consultation increases real-life decision making including increased productivity and yield through timely interventions  Increased incomes through ICT-enabled matchmaking  Improved negotiating abilities through better knowledge of market  Benefits from the registered agricultural input providers.  Increased entrepreneurship abilities through all-round knowledge enhancement  Improved standard of living of entrepreneurs‟ families, enhancing health, education and providing safety net with trickledown effect on communities  Enhanced system of alerts against emergencies and disasters  Reduction of cost of processing of receipt and compilation of accounts  Enhanced faith in Self-Help Group members who in turn have become more independent  Better pricing of plant and animal produce through touch with the market

3.15 Benefits to Citizens o Reduction in time for delivering services e.g. birth registration o Increased transparency o Considerable saving time/effort, owing to actual visits reduced o Empowering marginalized by information on rights/ entitlements o Reduction in corruption through transparency o Savings in time and cost due to intermediary being eliminated o Fair and fearless participation of vendors possible o Reduction of turn-around-time in tender processing

3.16 Benefits to Citizens owing to o Better decision support system o Savings to departments owing to lo lower bid values o Uniform procurement system o Significant reduction in vendor cartelization o Removed hindrances in information dissemination and collection o All layers of Government helped in terms of decision making o Services design aligned with user needs

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3.17 Women Empowerment  Increase in negotiation power has led to increase of financial assistance extended by local banks  Increased familiarity with judiciary officials and procedures for not just women but their families too  Increased awareness led to higher rates of application for developmental schemes  Increased Credit flow to women  Increased levels of literacy and computer literacy  ICT training led to livelihood generation/social up-liftment of rural women.  Horizontal and Vertical knowledge exchange and sharing  Increased awareness regarding their entitlements, worked to enhance citizenship, increased participation in governance.  Increased participation by marginalized women over the air-waves and other ICT channels and media  Women generally empowered which has led to an increase in social capital

3.18 Integrated Citizen Services  Integration amongst software applications to avoid duplication of entries and reduce time.  Expand services to include other departments along with back end automation; consider inclusion of private sector services to take advantage of the common infrastructure created.  Self-help kiosks for segments without internet connectivity and Telephone Helpdesk so that citizens do not visit centers’ for queries.  Categorizations of services and specific counters for high volume services for better service delivery  SMS based tracking of status of all applications based on unique identification numbers associated with applications.  Provide services that are in line with citizen expectations; receive citizen inputs through a formalized feedback process.  Sustainable business model to continue on expiry of funding.

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3.19 e-Governance Sustainable Business Model needs to be adopted as existing models may not survive without funding. Consider levying charges on services, PPP etc.  Inclusion of private sector services to take advantage of the common infrastructure created.  On-line status of work registers showing the status of work  Wherever applicable link GIS application with Land Records Department  Integration of the existing application with other government departments so that static information is not provided. Single data source may be developed out of existing ones  Standardized data and field definitions to enable comparison and compilation  Complete integration of front office applications with back office programs.  Set and operationalise a system of alerts and reminders; judiciously use mobile as a device on which to access services, including particularly, alerts and reminders

3.20 Livelihood  Adopt strategy for sustenance after implementation of CSCs under NeGP. Alternatively tie up with government to run CSCs in their area using existing infrastructure or provide services not covered by CSCs.  Use local language (other than English and Hindi) for greater reach.  Creating a Constitution or Guiding Manual for each community-oriented groupings to lay out roles and responsibilities.  Align services offered with Government schemes and collaborate with Government for funding, technical knowledge and cooperation.  Wherever possible replicate projects after due customization.  Create publicity and generate awareness among communities.  Provide two way communications between server and mobile.  Using one form instead of multiple forms reducing duplicate entry.  Regular and timely update of information on Electronic Display Boards (EDBs) for real time information.  More Awareness campaign to increase and convince target groups.  Display statistical data on wind, ocean, other messages in local.

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3.21 Women Empowerment  Develop social network, communication channels, so that groups can share and exchange information.  Improve efficiency and quality of services by imparting training in latest technology developments creating forward formal linkages.  Develop a Sustainable Business Model to continue on expiry of funding.  Reducing dependency on services like g-talk, Skype, Yahoo messenger, etc. for video communications as recent government move is towards restricting them on grounds of security.  Need to create a Constitution or Guiding Manual for each SHGs to lay out roles and responsibilities for participating stakeholders.  Require a sustainable Business Model for VKCs, as the current model will not suffice post expiry of funding from external agencies.  Alignment of services with Government Schemes and collaboration with Government for funding, knowledge and cooperation.  Improve efficiency and quality of services by imparting training in latest technology developments.

3.22 Recommendations for UNDP and the Implementing Partner

Besides the recommendations made above on existing projects certain other suggestions are due for both UNDP and the implementing partner.

While the above can continue to influence future project proposals, the UNDP could consider rolling out the pilots first to their immediate vicinity where word about the project would already have travelled, and then to locations beyond where similar conditions prevail. Newer areas and themes merit attention too; for example, the North-East of the country, is an area that was completely left out by the pilots. Forest-dwelling communities and their livelihood issues have not been covered by these pilots in any substantial way either. Local and decentralized interventions towards building up Early Warning Systems need to be considered too since large swathes of the country become exposed to that every year.

For the Implementation Partner it is suggested that closer and more frequent monitoring of projects be done since audit reports reveal some gaps in this area. Further, utilization of budgetary allocations for activities they are intended for is

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something that needs to be ensured. Diversions, if any, should get reported as soon as possible after they take place and revisions made accordingly. NISG is also at an excellent vantage point from where it can ensure that appropriate standardization, enhancement and replication of ICT applications that have resulted take place and benefit communities in other regions of the country too.

3.23 Terminal Evaluation of the ICTD Projects

This document represents a terminal evaluation of each of these projects after the conclusion of their pilot phase. Evaluation of the projects has taken into account the following different dimensions:

RELEVANCE or the extent to which the activity is suited to local and national development priorities and organizational policies, including changes over time.

EFFECTIVENESS or the extent to which an objective has been achieved or how likely it is to be achieved

EFFICIENCY or the extent to which results have been delivered with the least costly resources possible.

RESULTS/IMPACTS mean the positive and negative, foreseen and unforeseen, changes to and effects produced by a development intervention.

SUSTAINABILITY or the likely ability of an intervention to continue to deliver benefits for an extended period of time after completion.

3.24 Technology related factors:

a) The penetration of ICT particularly the mobile phones are really astounding. The way in which the entertainment and marketing industries have captured and making use of them to propagate their business has to be understood in context. We the social sector people have to learn from them the methodology and modify the contents to facilitate the development of knowledge, opportunities and markets for the under-served population. Using local language for effective communication is necessary.

b) Any new technology will have early adopters. In India, with low educational levels, ICT would be the medium to reach the vast population at affordable cost. ICT in education is likely to have better assimilation as students are

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open to adopting and learning new things. http://aaqua.org/ is a website which helps farmers to have their immediate problems solved by agricultural experts remotely. These days mobile cameras capture pictures of a pest and the expert can view it and immediately suggest a solution or protocol to be followed. Similarly, http://www.classle.net/ is a social learning forum for students in rural areas who do not have access to quality resources. Both are spreading rapidly giving credence that ICT will be making a big impact for rural transformation. c) ICT has created access of information by bridging the rural urban divide with a low cost revenue model generating employability to millions rural unemployed - visible proof is Kisan Soochna Kendra in thousands of villages in India on self-sustainable model. Refer www.jaikisan.org.With Employed and self-sustainable healthy families you can expect good citizens and prosperous nation. d) Radio is good example of ICT on line “hellow kastakar" programme popular among framers to solve immediate problem on line its even farmers stand on farm. e) With the delivery system, vocational training and relevant information can be delivered via Broadband or other Wireless methods. Education and Finance is needed to develop a sustainable community. Now in Northern Nigeria, the Niger and Mali a drought will set back the people's health and no food supply due to the lack of rain. I think Kenya now has a similar issue. Solar Powered Drip Irrigation needs a finance scheme. f) The acceptance of Smartphone technology is occurring at quicker rate among farmers than the rest of the population because of the additional access it gives them to pertinent market/weather information/etc. g) Distance Education is enhanced with a facilitator or teacher that can support the experience of the students. In rural development products in demand ought to be promoted in cooperation or in a collective framework by the communities. Technology exists and products are in demand, but finance is the bottleneck for the economic expansion. SKYPE is one way for face to face support and communication with working groups for an example. Education is also accessed via the internet.

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3.25 ICT MANAGEMENT IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Even when promulgated as distinct policy pronouncements, ICT policies of necessity have to take into account other policy areas, such as education policies, information policies, trade and investment policies, and cultural and linguistic policies. However, the mere establishment of a written national ICT policy has value in itself. At a minimum, it conveys the message that the government is forward-looking and intends to pursue the utilization of ICT in society. Governments should, of course, aspire to more by putting the policy content into actual practice and becoming a role model in applying ICT in their own administration and services.

3.25.1 Common objectives of ICT policies

The ICT evolution will take place with or without a systematic, comprehensive and articulated policy. However, the lack of a coherent policy is likely to contribute to the development (or prolonged existence) of ineffective infrastructure and a waste of resources. Listed below are some aspirations that ICT policies often try to meet:

 Increasing the benefits from information technology

 Helping people and organizations to adapt to new circumstances and providing tools and models to respond rationally to challenges posed by ICT

 Providing information and communication facilities, services and management at a reasonable or reduced cost

 Improving the quality of services and products

 Encouraging innovations in technology development, use of technology and general work flows

 Promoting information sharing, transparency and accountability and reducing bureaucracy within and between organizations, and towards the public at large

 Identifying priority areas for ICT development (areas that will have the greatest positive impact on programmes, services and customers)

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 Providing citizens with a chance to access information; they may further specify the quality of that access in terms of media, retrieval performance, and so on

 Attaining a specified minimum level of information technology resources for educational institutions and government agencies

 Supporting the concept of lifelong learning

 Providing individuals and organizations with a minimum level of ICT knowledge, and the ability to keep it up to date

 Helping to understand information technology, its development and its cross-disciplinary impact

3.25.2 Common ICT policy elements

National ICT policies usually address all or many of the areas listed below. They may also address specific technology problems, such as the year 2000 problem in computers and embedded systems. Organizational (department- or enterprise- level) policies cover more or less the same areas, but are usually more specific and business-oriented. While international cooperation and exchange of experiences is useful in almost any ICT area, certain policies depend on it. For instance, standardization of telecommunication protocols or setting rules for the administration of Internet domain names cannot be accomplished without international cooperation.

 Development of ICT infrastructure Infrastructure development Interoperation of information systems Enhancement of public services Cost savings in service delivery, purchasing, communication, etc. Electronic commerce and secure transactions Development of technological standards

 Development of skills Research and development ICT education and training

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 Development of legislation and policies to correspond to the requirements of new ICT Diffusion of information technology Development of ICT industries Trade policies for ICT-related goods and services Pricing and taxation of electronic services Protection of intellectual property Privacy of personal data Protection of cultural and linguistic diversity Protection against illegal and harmful content Adoption of standards

 Institutional development and coordination Institutional and regulatory structures National ICT development coordination International interface and cooperation

 Access to ICT Access to infrastructure Access to information

 Monitoring ICT Monitoring the use of ICT Measurement of the impact of ICT

3.26 Idealistic and realistic ICT application development compared If national and global ICT infrastructures were designed today from the beginning, they would look quite different from the ones that actually exist. The reality is, however, that the technologies and applications currently being used have been developed over a long period of time. The gap between an ideal ICT infrastructure and the everyday reality is likely to remain wide for many reasons. A major reason is, of course, the continuous and rapid pace of ICT innovation, which makes today's technology obsolete tomorrow. Another major reason is the lack of experience in managing ICT development at the organizational level in general, and ICT application development in particular. The information in chart 1 compares textbook application development with real-life circumstances.

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Chart 1. Comparison of idealistic and realistic ICT application development

Feature Ideal design Reality Development System goals are based on Most initiated applications are never used objectives well-defined programme or because their development is not completed business needs. or because they are not suitable for their All participants in the project intended purposes or are too difficult to put agree about how the system into operation. will serve the needs of users. Management and staff are ill-informed and The system objectives are poorly trained in how to use ICT reasonable given the resources effectively. They do not have mechanisms available. to keep themselves up to date with the The system objectives have the evolution of technology. support of elected officials and Staff is unable to articulate their needs. ICT top management. personnel have no time to relate to The objectives include organizational goals and study how performance measures and a business is being conducted. post-implementation Management has no practical measurement evaluation. indicators to optimize ICT spending and personnel. Consequently, it is difficult to set meaningful and realistic objectives for ICT development. Overambitious goals are set compared with available resources. Application development is started before the availability of requisite support resources is confirmed. In inter-agency projects, the substantive goals of participating organizations can overlap or conflict, even when the organizations are engaged in a joint project.

ICT project All participants are treated as Individuals and organizations resist management equals and have a substantial changes. stake in the project's success. Project goals are often comprehensive, but All participants understand the budgets to achieve them are usually project management process underestimated. and the roles and New projects are started with too little

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responsibilities of all the advance information, weak leadership players. support, inadequate user participation, too Available financial resources little funding, and less-than-comprehensive are invested where they are training and orientation. most needed. Many projects take considerably longer Information about project than originally planned. status is shared frequently. Especially in government projects, the roles The participants engage in joint of collaborating parties in project planning problem identification and and management can conflict with their problem-solving. (simultaneous) oversight and regulatory Collectively, the project team roles, and become a source of difficulty in has the skills needed to carry working relationships. out a successful system project.

Design of systems The system is designed to Usually, the existing infrastructure must be integrate with the related accommodated in a new design, making it systems and business processes second best from the beginning. of the affected organizations. Project priorities and desired system Standard definitions of key features are not static; they change during data are used by all the project implementation and so does the participants. best choice technology. The system is designed to Programme codes are written with varying support information-sharing degrees of compliance with industry across organizations and standards and adopted application programmes. standards. The code is more often than not Built-in safeguards assure poorly documented, with design documents system security and the being cryptic, inconsistent and incomplete. confidentiality of sensitive or The development of applications for personal information. information-sharing is often blocked by The design adheres to non-technological reasons which were not commonly accepted industry adequately analyzed before development standards and does not rely on was begun. proprietary technologies. New applications are felt to increase the There is no need for parallel or workload as they are often run parallel with supplemental systems or the old ones, and require more time for procedures to support the training and for learning than anticipated.

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service or business functions that the system is designed to meet. Built-in features reduce human effort and minimize duplication. The design takes into account the current technical capabilities of the participating organizations.

User support Complete user documentation The problems in using ICT applications (e.g., manuals, troubleshooting occur in real work situations and must guide) is available. usually be resolved at once. Most Continuing, up-to-date and organizations cannot afford to maintain accessible user training is user support that is able to provide offered. instantaneous support. Ongoing, adequate technical Organizations are not able to figure out support services are available how to use the full potential of existing for system maintenance and software and computers. Personnel enhancement. responsible for ICT development are An ongoing, adequate "help satisfied after applications are installed and desk" supports users. are running with reasonable stability, while There are built-in data non-ICT staffs are unwilling to commit management and analysis time to learn crucial features of new capabilities for users, including applications. access to local, regional and Organizations fail to change their working statewide databases for procedures and organizations in ways that planning and evaluation the new technology would require. purposes. Users are not sufficiently trained; Some provision is made for particularly in using applications' built-in local modification based on help features. Only a small percentage of local needs, including low-tech staffs are capable and willing to keep them and no-tech options where up to date through self-learning. local conditions do not support high-tech solutions.

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ICT policies need to recognize the above caveats and offer ways to overcome the constraints. Application development should be based on a sound development methodology, good practices found to work elsewhere, past experiences, realistic objectives and user needs. However, perfect planning is neither feasible nor possible, and eventually the success or failure of a development venture is judged on the realized use of the application.

The objectives and content of ICT policies have similarities and differences in international, national, local and organizational contexts. A comparison of some basic features and linkages between various ICT policy levels is given in chart 2.

Chart 2. Links between organizational, national and international policies

Feature Organizational policies National-level policies International policies

Creator Chief executives and Government, Intergovernmental bodies chief information government agencies, organizations, international officers. government agency business alliances, large coordinating national hardware and software and/or government-wide manufacturers, multinational ICT development. corporations.

Method of Various methods in use, Typically initiated by Working groups, creation some leading to explicit governments, triggered international meetings, articulated policies, by models of other research and development by others to ad hoc sets of countries. A drafting large hardware and software instructions or to related agency is selected and a manufacturers, standards insertions in sectoral draft is circulated for development by international policies. comments among the organizations. rest of the government agencies.

Compre- Highly variable, from Some developed Concentrate on policies that hensiveness non-existent to very countries are starting to are required in international comprehensive. have comprehensive transactions. Do not national ICT policies, effectively address several including national areas, including impact on information social development, access to infrastructure policies information and

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and government-wide effectiveness of technology policies. However, many transfer. developing countries have no articulated national ICT policies.

Main To support To provide all citizens To ensure that all countries objectives organizational business with equitable access to can benefit from information goals by improving information and and communication operational efficiency information technologies. and exchange of technologies. To develop and promote information. To ensure that ICT is international technology To maintain and part of national standards. improve education programmes. competitiveness. To improve efficiency and transparency of civil service. To address national ICT issues, such as those arising from national languages.

Main problems Resistance to change, Difficulty in making Enormous variation in in creating such especially when them pragmatic and country conditions. policies technology threatens meaningful. conventional structures. Setting of the balance Difficulty in deciding between national policy who is responsible for and sectoral policies in policy development. which ICT plays a role.

Links to global Indirect link. Mainly Direct observance of policies through adoption of international agreements international ICT and standards as standards and applicable to country observance of trading commitments. Global agreements. policies and standards provide material for setting components of national policies.

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Links to Enterprises may be Models and experiences International standards are national restricted by national of other countries are promoted at national level. policies laws and regulations, or useful in creating National policies may may benefit from national policies. address international issues national development and identify participating incentives, education agencies in international programmes, and so on. cooperation.

Links to Models and experiences Adoption of national Adoption of international enterprise of others, especially standards at enterprise standards at enterprise level. policies business associates, are level. useful in the creation of policies.

Main Inadequate enterprise Lack of systematic Lack of international deficiencies in level adjustments approaches to ICT mechanisms that could current necessitated by ICT development in effectively help in the policies development. developing countries. diffusion of ICT in developing countries. Lack of understanding of the impact of ICT on Lack of international laws society. and mechanisms to control undesirable aspects of ICT use.

Role of Mostly indirect, through Being independent from A central role in international intergovernmen effects on national and ICT vendors, an advisory standard setting, in tal global-level policies. role in ICT development coordinating rules and organizations in central government, in regulations. Direct advisory role in in various government respect of counterpart improvement sectors and agencies. government agency policies. International support for good governance usually includes ICT components.

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3.27 Factors affecting the formulation of national ICT policies in developing countries

The importance of ICT policies is understood at the highest political level in many developing countries, and some countries have already adopted their own policies. Selected references to these policies are listed at the end of this annex. The effectiveness of an ICT policy in one country does not guarantee that the same recipe would work in another and many developing countries face similar constraints that need to be taken into account when ICT policies are formulated.

ICT infrastructure is weak. Information presented elsewhere in this study illustrates that the lack of computer and telecommunications infrastructure is a key problem in many developing countries. National ICT policies therefore need to be very strong in this area. A master infrastructure development plan can be supported by detailed policies for administrative sectors, geographic areas, types of service, types of educational institute, etc. Government involvement remains essential in the construction of the infrastructure in the foreseeable future in rural areas and remote locations. At the present time, only large cities are sufficiently attractive for most private developers, such as mobile phone and Internet service providers.

ICT-related goods and services are made available on suppliers' terms and low per capita purchasing power does not allow markets to mature. While the processing cost per unit calculated or stored has dropped dramatically, the unit price of the average personal computer sold has not fallen very much. The fact that low-cost computers (although technologically feasible) are not available is largely because the development and trade of ICT components are almost entirely supply-driven, taking into account the needs of only the minority of potential users. It would be easier to learn how to use "poor man's PC" than those currently available; the hardware would be relatively simple, and the operating system and software applications would be reliable and small. Such a personal computer would still be able to perform the most common tasks in the workplace, at school and at home.

Basic information technology, such as personal computers, their peripherals and software are available in major cities of developing countries. However, low

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purchasing power keeps the number of vendors down. Government ICT policies can help the development of ICT markets by reducing red tape, reducing import taxes and creating a favorable entrepreneurial environment.

Telecommunications monopolies still exist. Developing countries in the Asian and Pacific region are mulling over the possibilities for reforming their telecommunications sectors, which are mainly in the hands of government monopolies. A fair degree of liberalization has been achieved in several domestic telecommunications markets, and private Internet service providers have become commonplace. Consequently, more countries are succeeding in eradicating waiting lists for telephone services.

The liberalization of international telecommunications is, however, taking place painstakingly slowly, and retail prices have practically nothing to do with transmission costs. Governments are protecting their rights to collect tax-like revenue through monopolies, and attempts to change the international accounting rate settlement system (which is an additional reason for the high price of international telephone calls) have not succeeded. National ICT policies cannot afford to ignore the fact that the need for low-cost telecommunications services in developing countries is higher than ever. The policies also need adjustments because the existing market mechanism is being taken over by new modes of operation.

ICT readiness varies significantly between government departments. Departments and agencies operating in a naturally ICT-intensive field are likely to be more advanced than others. A government can help by identifying a coordinator agency to maintain information about government ICT development ventures. Another way to benefit from the heterogeneity is to develop and test pilot applications in the more advanced departments before these are released for wider use within the government.

Public sector is a significant employer. The computerization of routine functions allows governments to reduce staff and simultaneously to improve the quality of their services. The effectiveness of such moves is often moderated by inflexibilities in employment contracts that limit the scope for staff retrenchments.

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Management structures and styles are not conducive. Most failures in ICT application development are caused by poor planning and management, and not by the lack of resources or wrong technology choices. Management of ICT projects is often made more difficult by overly hierarchical organizational structures that are not conducive to innovative ideas. This can create a problem if the management is unaware, or resists becoming aware, of the benefits that could be achieved through the application of ICT. National policies should emphasize the importance of involving senior executives in ICT development and making them accountable for their organization's ICT-related performance. Governments are struggling to find money for basic public services. Government budgets tend to be tight, especially in developing countries, and this can create problems for rational ICT development and hamper the ability to react quickly to new requirements or to buy the latest technology. In order to get value for money, ICT policies should require that the specifications of systems developed or purchased are reconfirmed by third-party experts before the order is placed. The penetration and influence of the Internet are still minimal. The Internet is changing the way in which data and information are collected and disseminated and how services are provided to clients. Thus, most new systems should be developed with either immediate or future Internet connectivity in mind. Governments find it difficult to recruit and retain qualified ICT staff. A key constraint for the effective application of ICT in developing countries is the shortage of human resources. Apart from a lack of qualified ICT-system personnel, there is often high turnover of such personnel which can seriously hamper systems development or daily operations. In addition, the ICT skills of other related personnel are not very developed. These problems can lead to delayed and uncoordinated ICT development and contribute to inadequate data security. ICT policies need to address human resource development needs in a broad educational context. 3.28 Selected ICT policy references in the Asian and Pacific region Some key ICT policy documents for selected countries are listed below. The list was compiled in January 1999, based on Web searches, and does not represent a full picture of the ESCAP region. Each entry shows the title, the originating institution and the Web site address.

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3.29 NEW MEDIA

We define "new media" as interactive forms of communication that use the Internet, including podcasts, RSS feeds, social networks, text messaging, blogs, wikis, virtual worlds and more!

New media makes it possible for anyone to create, modify, and share content and share it with others, using relatively simple tools that are often free or inexpensive. New media requires a computer or mobile device with Internet access.

A generic term for the many different forms of electronic communication, which are made possible through the use of computer technology. The term is in relation to "old" media forms, such as print newspapers and magazines that are static representations of text and graphics. New media includes:

 Web sites  streaming audio and video

 chat rooms  e-mail

 online communities  Web advertising

 DVD and CD-ROM media  virtual reality environments

 integration of digital data with the telephone, such as Internet telephony  digital cameras

 mobile computing

Use of the term new media implies that the data communication is happening between desktop and laptop computers and handhelds, such as PDAs, and the media they take data from, such as compact discs and floppy disks.

The term has actually been used since the 1970s by researchers conducting social, psychological, economic, political and cultural studies of information and communication technologies (Lievrouw 2002). But as the field met with enormous growth in the 1990s – as CD-ROM and Internet technologies became popular – its meanings changed significantly.

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Some writers have come to define new media with simple lists of technologies, such as: CD-ROM, HTML, streaming media, DV editing, web applications and DVD-video. The problem with this is that its specificity requires the definition to change constantly, as it would have in 1993, then again in 1995, 1998, 2000 and 2002. This effort would seem fruitless, as some technologies prosper and others falter over time.

Many writers take a different tack, instead focusing on the sense of interactivity that new media give users. Some take pains to differentiate new media from traditional mass media, such as radio, film or television. But this effort seems to us perhaps too vague to mean much to readers, especially as even traditional media such as television become interactive with devices such as the TiVo.

A more interesting definition would be one that explains "new media" in a way that promises to be more lasting, yet also seems meaningful to readers.

Perhaps that could be accomplished by defining new media as a family of genres that involve digital media: like "poetry" or "the novel", each new media format could be conceptualized as a collection of styles of production which have implications for the sort of content appropriate within the style. As with a poem or a novel, both the writer and reader have some knowledge before beginning the work as to what sort of work it will be, and what their role is supposed to be interacting with it.

3.30 New Media Growth

The rapid increase in mobile and wireless connections continues to drive the growth of internet penetration in India. With better access, through cheaper and smarter devices, audiences (especially the youth) are consuming more content and are getting increasingly engaged.

Key beneficiaries are emerging new media segments, which include internet advertising, online classifieds, and gaming, all of which are on a rapid growth path. Going forward, better uptake of 3G connections and the beginnings of the 4G rollout are expected to spur growth further.

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3.31 Internet in India

Internet was born in USA in 1960s to aid defense and scientific project. In India also, Internet was introduced by research institutes. India had 42,000,000 Internet users (not subscribers) in July 2007 compared to 5,000,000 at the turn of the last century. This showed an impressive 740 per cent usage growth. Yet for a population of 1,129,667,528, the penetration was just 3.7 per cent. When contrasted with tiny Japan, India’s progress in this area would seem unimpressive: Japan (population: 128,646,345) had 86,300,000 Internet users, which meant that the penetration was 67.1 per cent. The usage growth during the seven years ending 2007 was 83.3 per cent.

It would have to be acknowledged, however, that India made rapid progress in Information and Communication Technology within a very short span. This had to be viewed against the backdrop that Internet for private use was first available only in 1995. Within the first three years, there were 1,400,000 users while the number went up to 5,500,000 at the turn of the century though it meant a penetration of only half a percent for a population of 1,094,870,677. Thanks to a series of initiatives taken by the Union Government, the dial-up connectivity was available to government and local-self government offices, commercial establishments, educational institutions, domestic users and cyber café owners taking the number of Net users to 42,000,000 for a population that had gone up to 1,129,667,528 in year 2007. The penetration was only 3.7 per cent. Broadband connectivity was available in major cities in 2003. From a mere 19,000 broadband connections in 2004, the country had 1.82 million connections in September 2006 by which time dial-up connections had gone up to 8.8 millions.

Year Ending Internet Subscribers Broadband Subscribers 2005 6 million 3 million 2007 18 million 9 million 2010 40 million 20 million

3.32 Education and Research Network (ERNET)

The Department of Electronics initiated, under financial assistance from UNDP in 1986, the Education and Research Network (ERNET) which became the first major step in ushering in Internet era in the country. It practically brought Internet

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in India. It succeeded in building a large network for scientists and academics. The government adopted ERNET as the platform for launching a science and technology network in the country. The founding fathers were National Centre for Software Technology, Mumbai, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, five Indian Institutes of Technology at Delhi, Mumbai, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Chennai, and the Department of Electronics, New Delhi.

ERNET eventually became the largest nationwide terrestrial and satellite network of premiere educational and research institutions in major cities of India. Focus of ERNET is not limited to just providing connectivity, but to meet the entire needs of the educational and research institutions by hosting and providing relevant information to their users.

3.33 National Informatics Centre (NIC)

An important decision of the government in seventies was to set up National Informatics Centre (NIC) as the initiative of the Department of Information Technology. If ERNET’s mission was to network the science and academic community, NIC was created to provide network backbone and e-Governance support to government administration. Its mandate was to provide Information and Communication Technology services to Central Government, State Governments, Union Territory Administrations, Districts, and other Government bodies in India.

The NIC offers a wide range of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) services including Nationwide Communication Network for decentralized planning, improvement in Government services and wider transparency of national and local Governments. NIC assists in implementing Information Technology Projects, in close collaboration with Central and State Governments, in the areas of (a) Centrally sponsored schemes and Central sector schemes, (b) State sector and State sponsored projects, and (c) District Administration sponsored projects. NIC endeavors to ensure that the latest technology in all areas of IT is available to its users. (http://nic.gov.in/)

3.34 Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd

Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd, then a state-owned monopoly corporation, launched commercial Internet service in 1995 for industry, trade, home-users, and so on. In February 2002, the Government of India, as per its disinvestments plan, released

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25% of VSNL's equity to TATAs. The TATA Indicom and other private service providers have since been offering connectivity to the net users in all parts of the country. Along with these developments, private telephone operators have been spreading their markets with handsets that have camera, audio-visual add-ons and even a communicator incorporating MS Office which can send and receive e- mails. These developments have given a major push to ICT, mostly in major cities but also in smaller places in the countryside. Government and non-government agencies, enterprising institutions, and innovative individuals have been trying to effectively use the new generation tools not only for entertainment but also for development of the society.

3.35 Public Broadcasters and government web sites

The Public Broadcasters, Doordarshan and All India Radio have continued to cover, besides spot news, Science and Technology, Agriculture and Rural Development, Women and Children, Arts/Culture/Entertainment, Education and Social sector and so on. Those interested in the proceedings of both houses of Parliament can watch exclusive live coverage from channels dedicated for the purpose.

The Union government harnessed Internet technology to post these proceedings also at the web sites http://rajyasabha.gov.in/ and http://loksabha.gov.in/. Similarly, state governments have set up their own web sites to project the plans and achievement of the respective government. There are web sites that provide some static details of respective state assemblies, but most do not have question- and-answers, government's announcement, and reports of various committees as are posted at the web sites of Loksabha and Rajyasabha. Besides these, there are websites of Press Information Bureau (http://pib.nic.in/) that offers press notes and photographs about announcements of central government, Doordarshan (http://www.ddinews.gov.in/) and, All India Radio (www.newsonair.com). The NIC has designed and hosted websites for ministries and departments providing details about the policies and schemes.

Thus, enough resources are available on the websites hosted by the government which has made commitment to people about e-governance, transparency and the Right To Information Act. Administrations in the states, including local civic

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bodies, have transferred essential information on the net enabling people to get their work within minutes, and not days together as used to happen only in the recent past. An extract of the land record (or 7/12 as it is popularly known) is one of these transactions that were time-consuming and sources of rampant corruption.

This is not to say that these efforts of the government are adequate for the development of society. It is only submitted that these resources were not available earlier with the popular media, and whatever the newspapers in the past did for development is also not being offered to the people through their columns. The new technology has made it possible to provide essential contents in real time and also with very little cost.

3.36 Private Initiatives

These features of the new media have been harnessed by non-government organizations, academic institutes, cooperative ventures, and public-spirited individuals. They have set up web sites to provide details of the projects and policies or to offer advice on important issues. These web sites provide space for debates and discussions in a manner the government-hosted web sites cannot venture to do. Many of these web sites have been providing great service to the people interested in issues affecting them.

The following discussion centre’s around some such web sites that shows how the new media and their tools can play important role in the development of the society:

3.37 Centre for Agricultural Media (www.farmedia.org)

Centre for Agricultural Media (CAM) came into existence in Dharwad, Karnataka, on December 3, 2000. It has been expanding its activities successfully to accomplish its objective of strengthening the farmer friendly communication system. It is now registered as a trust under the India Trust Act.

CAM supports any pro-farmer issue in all possible ways. This is the first venture of its kind in India. This forum has initiated several activities, with the support from likeminded experts in farm and rural development journalism. It has been effectively using new media tools:

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Web activities: CAM maintains this website (www.farmedia.org) which acts complementary to CAM’s activities. Two important issues of water and organic farming have been addressed extensively in this website. Two separate sections have been created for the purpose.

Media for sustainable development: CAM introduced a programme called, ‘Media for Sustainable Development’ to facilitate media to focus on the positive efforts carried out in the rural areas.

As an extension of CAM’s efforts, the Centre ventured into book publication in 2005 and has published two books and is in the process of publishing the third one. Issue based networking: CAM has indicated a promising future in creating issue- based awareness through Internet. The centre has played an active role in drawing the public attention on the issue of endosulfan tragedy in certain districts of Kerala. Through its bulletins, CAM has disseminated related information to concerned people, which helped the people’s movement considerably.

CAM-Net: CAM has released 50 e-bulletins through CAM-Net until it became defunct due to lack of technical support. The bulletins reached over 10 thousand people across the world.

3.38 Reuters Market Light: A service to farmers

A novel initiative to harness mobile telephone technology has been undertaken by Reuters and Maharashtra government since October 2007. Under the service called Reuters Market Light (RML) introduced first time in the world, farmers receive through their mobile telephones local and customized prices of agro- products, news and weather updates in Marathi.

The idea is to help farmers take informed and quick decisions to dispatch their produce to a market place where the price is more attractive. Weather updates and advice about farm practices are intended to help the farmers take precautionary measures when sudden changes in the climate occur. This service is, thus, intended to aid farmers to develop their financial status using the modern communication technology and credibility of the Reuters.

For a monthly fee of Rs. 60, the scheme was a big draw within few days after Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar formally launched it. Over 7,500 93 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

farmers subscribed in October and two months later the subscriptions rose to 10,500.

On December 20, 2007, the Reuters announced that the RML would be available in local post offices across the state. It entered into a partnership with Maharashtra’s Postal Circle, to distribute, sell and support the RML.

RML promises help to farmers to enhance their crop yields and improve their productivity over a very wide range of produce including onions, cotton, soybean, pulses, pomegranates, and oranges.

The initiative thus acknowledges the need to combine modern technology, with the tried and tasted traditional postal service that reaches the remotest villages.

3.39 NGOsIndia.com

NGOsIndia.com is an online web directory and resource centre of Indian NGOs. The portal contains information about grass root level Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), government agencies, funding Agencies, social activists and concerned stakeholders, Funding Agencies, issues, projects, job opportunities in social sector, success stories of individuals as well as organizations, and other relevant links.

This web site has been set up by Delhi-based Srishti Sansthan. It has, among other things, alphabetically organized database of non-governmental organizations located in the states of the country. According to its vision and mission, it is committed to

 Social justice, sustainable development and human rights. The right to communicate freely is a basic human right and a necessity for sustainable development. Access to information is essential to informed decision-making at all levels.  Dissemination of information and promotion of sustainable development initiatives, in response to the needs of underrepresented and marginalized sectors of society.  Develop and establish an ideal medium for the participation and exchange of a trusted and accurate source of quality information.

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This NGO, through its web site, has made its objective very clear and specific to use new media:

 To promote Information collaborations and Constructive communication between NGOs, to develop effective partnership with each other.  To network for the access, sharing and dissemination of information, Collaboration and Partnerships between NGOs themselves and with other organizations.  Electronic networking to strengthen community organizations by boosting its knowledge base and its ability to share information and experiences with strategic allies and other partners in relevant field.  Capacity building of grass roots level NGOs, social workers through free online resources and information on a single platform.  To serve non-profit organizations, charities, grassroots and community groups, educational and research institutions.  Sharing of ideas among NGOs and development agents.

3.40 ITC's e-choupals (e-choupal.com) ITC Ltd is one of India's foremost private sector companies with a market capitalization of nearly US $ 18 billion and a turnover of over US $ 4.75 billion. Its e-choupal initiative, started in year 2000, is claimed to be the world’s largest rural digital infrastructure empowering over four million farmers. Around 80,000 hectares of plantations by marginal farmers have been supported by ITC’s R & D based propagation programme. More than 35,000 hectares have been brought under ITC’s watershed development projects. Integrated animal husbandry programmes have been extended to 1, 75,000 mulch animals. Its women empowerment programmes have created over 11,000 rural women entrepreneurs and its supplementary education support has touched the lives of 100,000 children in rural India. Choupal in Hindi means a meeting place in a village. The e-choupal concept has been borrowed from the age-old tradition of an earmarked place for such meeting. In the e-concept, an Internet kiosk is set up with the support of the ITC that also has a constantly updated database. Farmers assemble and use the new technology for the better their lot and to bring about rural development.

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The ITC, as part of its corporate social responsibility, funded the initiative and provided expertise to run the project successfully. Farmers now log on to the site through these Internet kiosks in their villages to order high quality agri-inputs, get information on best farming practices, prevailing market prices for their crops at home and abroad and the weather forecast – all in the local language.

In the very first full season of e-choupal operations in Madhya Pradesh, soya farmers sold nearly 50,000 tons of their produce through the e-choupal Internet platform, which has more than doubled since then. The result marked the beginning of a transparent and cost-effective marketing channel.

3.41 Agricultural Marketing Information System Network (http://agmarknet.nic.in/)

This initiative undertaken in the tenth plan period is another example, this one by the government and its agencies, to use new communication technology to help the farmers in improving their earnings and make farming remunerative. The website explains its purpose as follows:

Almost all the States and Union Territories are providing market information in one form or the other for the benefits of market users like producers, traders, and consumers. However, the information is collected and disseminated by use of conventional methods, which cause inordinate delay in communicating the information to different target groups, and thus adversely affects their economic interest.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to bring improvement in the present market information system by linking (i) all Agricultural Produce Wholesale markets in the States and Union Territories, and (ii) the State Agricultural Marketing Boards and State Directorates of Agricultural Marketing, with the Directorate of Marketing & Inspection of the Union Ministry of Agriculture, for effective and efficient information exchange. Investment in networking of about 7000 Wholesale Agricultural Produce Markets in the Country will facilitate globalization of Indian Agriculture (and also globalization of Indian Markets) in addition to strategically establish Supply-Chain Model (SCM).

The Department of Agriculture and Cooperation, in the Union Ministry of Agriculture sanctioned a Central Sector Scheme 'NICNET Based Agricultural

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Marketing Information Network (AGMARK-NET)', with a Project Cost estimate of about Rs. ten crore. Under the project, it was envisaged to link 810 nodes (735 agricultural markets and 75 State Marketing Boards/DMI offices) to begin with, through its attached office, Directorate of Marketing and Inspection (DMI), during the year 2000-02. During the tenth five year plan, further expansion to 2000 additional markets, Regional Portals and GIS based National atlas of Markets has also been approved. As part of the expansion programme, about 1400 more markets are being networked.

3.42 Internet Access in India

In 2012, more than 10,000 people in 20 countries were asked about their attitudes towards the Internet and behaviors online, offering one of the broadest views of people’s attitudes about key issues our world faces when it comes to the Internet.

The questions ranged from how users manage personal information online, attitudes toward the Internet and human rights, and the potential for the Internet to address issues such as economic development and education.

3.43 The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI)

The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) was set up in 1998 with a mission to 'Promote Internet for the benefit of all'. ISPAI is the collective voice of the ISP fraternity and by extension the entire Internet community. Over the years ISPAI has helped influence, shape and mould the telecom policies, so that ISPs and entrepreneurs in the business of Internet can setup and grow their services in an environment that is supportive and enabling.

In the last 10 years of its existence, it has been party to breaking down monopolistic structures in telecom, bringing down barriers to entry for ISPs. It helped shape India from being a bandwidth hungry to a bandwidth surplus country. It was the competitive spirit of the ISP members of ISPAI that, Internet access became so widely and cost effectively available to our countrymen. These very ISPs helped connect India to the rest of the world so effectively that today BPO and Call Centers cannot but make their global presence felt based on IP connectivity. India is today is arguably amongst the top 10 countries of the world in terms of the number of Internet users.

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Today ISPAI is the recognized apex body of Indian ISPs worldwide. ISPAI has access to and interacts frequently with international bodies and platforms and is frequently consulted by them on measures for future trends and growth of Internet. It works closely with the Government, the Regulator as well as the major Industry Chambers. It supports exchange of delegations, business visitors from across the globe which provides ISP members a chance to network widely and seek opportunities elsewhere too. It's a platform for the Solution Provider's community such as Hardware and Software manufacturers and suppliers to gain easy access to their ISP clients promote their products and services through personal meetings and through events supported or sponsored by ISPAI.

3.44 India Internet and Telecommunications Reports 3.44.1 India Key Statistics and Telecommunications Market Report India continues to be one of the fastest growing major telecom markets in the world. Sweeping reforms introduced by successive Indian governments over the last decade have dramatically changed the nature of telecommunications in the country. The mobile sector has grown from around 10 million subscribers in 2002 to pass the 350 million mark by early 2009. While GSM technology still dominates the mobile market, CDMA has claimed around 25% market share. The mobile industry should continue to boom. Fixed-line services grew strongly for a while but have been experiencing zero and negative growth of late. This report presents the key measures and takes a general look at the market direction. See report executive summary.

3.44.2 India Internet and E-Services Market Report Despite the considerable popular interest in Internet in India, the ISP market has been in disarray. According to the telecom regulator, there were around 180 operational ISPs in the country, after a period of market rationalization. Despite the large number of providers, 10% of the ISPs have 90% of the subscribers. The state-owned – BSNL and MTNL – have grown rapidly to hold first and second place in terms of subscribers. The growing popularity of cybercafés has been playing a big role in fuelling Internet development in India. This report looks at the ISPs and other aspects of India’s Internet market. There is also some information on Internet content and e-services. See report summary.

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3.44.3 India Broadband Market Report

India appears to have embraced the Internet with a degree of ambivalence. There is tremendous enthusiasm amongst the dial-up users and an estimated 60% of users regularly access the Internet via the country’s more than 10,000 cybercafés. But when it comes to high-speed broadband access, there is reluctance, especially within the corporate sector, and the take-up rate has been slow. By early 2005 there were about 700,000 broadband subscribers – a penetration of less 0.1%. This report looks at the stage the development of broadband Internet has reached in India. See report summary.

3.45 INDIA INTERNET MARKET BRIEFS

3.45.1 An overview of the start and history of internet usage in India

The state-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL) launched Internet Services in India in August 1995. For the first four years, VSNL was the sole provider of Internet Services in the Country. In the first years, broadband usage in India was growing 20% per month, according to the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI). Thanks to the progress in the penetration of ICT and especially, the Broadband Policy announced in 1995, the term “broadband” entered the mass lexicon and most Internet users were aware of faster Internet speeds.

In November 1998, the Government ended VSNL’s monopoly and allowed provisioning of Internet Services by Private Operators. The Terms and Conditions of the ISP’s License were unusually liberal with no License Fee and allowed unlimited number of players. ISPs could set their own tariffs and even their own International Gateways.

Women lead the rural Internet rush in India. In year 2004 the Internet was having a revolutionary effect on the 700 million people who lived in villages in India - and the change was led by women. A project set up by one of India's leading technology institutes put women in charge of forging the way across the digital divide as the proprietors of a fast-growing number of internet cafes or kiosks around the sub-continent. In total 80% of these new kiosks were run by women, many of whom have had very little or no acquaintance with technology before. See BBC News.

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3.45.2 India Internet usage surges

February 17, 2006 - Internet adoption continues to grow in India. According to the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) the low cost of broadband has helped increase Internet usage. E-commerce and high demand for .in domain registrations are also factors for the increase in online users. The ".in" domain registrations surpassed 150,000.

Broadband policy and other initiatives by the IT and Telecom Ministry encourage increased adoption. A monthly broadband subscription costs as little as 199 rupees (US $4.50). A second factor is the IT Telecom Ministry initiative to make computers available for purchase under 10,000 rupees (US $226). In addition to working with hardware manufacturers to remove the financial barrier for households in India, the organization continues to push development of language fonts to remove language and localization of content issues.

According to IAMAI, a trade association representing the online content and advertising, e-commerce and mobile content and advertising industry, Indians go online for a number of activities including e-mail and IM (98 percent); job search (51 percent); banking (32 percent); bill payment (18 percent); stock trading (15 percent); and matrimonial search (15 percent).

3.45.3 An update survey of internet usage in India According to a release dated September 19, 2006, the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) and IMRB International, Internet users in India have reached 37 million in the month of September 2006, up from 33 million in March 2006. During the same period the number of "active users" has risen from 21.1 Million in March 2006 to 25 Million in September 2006. "Active User" is an internationally accepted and widely used category to define users who have used the internet at least one in the last 30 days. The numbers are a result of the largest "offline" survey so far carried out in India to estimate the "ever user" and "active user" categories. The primary survey for the study was conducted in early 2006 amongst 16,500 households covering 65,000 individuals across 26 major metros and small towns in India, with additional coverage of 10,000 business and 250 cyber café owners. The survey did not include rural areas.

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IWS considers that the number of Internet users in India is now 100,000,000 to give credit to surveys and field work performed till December 31, 2010. See IAMAI news for India ICT.

3.46 GOVERNMENT AND PRIVATE AGENCIES IN DEVELOPMENT CAMPAIGNS

Goal: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

Targets by 2015:

Reduce by half the proportion of people living on less than a dollar a day.

Reduce by half the proportion of people who suffer from hunger.

Reducing poverty starts with children.

More than 30 per cent of children in developing countries – about 600 million – live on less than US $1 a day.

Every 3.6 seconds one person dies of starvation. Usually it is a child under the age of 5.

Poverty hits children hardest. While a severe lack of goods and services hurts every human, it is most threatening to children’s rights: survival, health and nutrition, education, participation, and protection from harm and exploitation. It creates an environment that is damaging to children’s development in every way – mental, physical, emotional and spiritual.

One than 1 billion children are severely deprived of at least one of the essential goods and services they require to survive, grows and develops. Some regions of the world have more dire situations than others, but even within one country there can be broad disparities – between city and rural children, for example, or between boys and girls. An influx or tourism in one area may improve a country’s poverty statistics overall, while the majority remains poor and disenfranchised.

Each deprivation heightens the effect of the others. So when two or more coincide, the effects on children can be catastrophic. For example, women who must walk long distances to fetch household water may not be able to fully attend to their children, which may affect their health and development. And children who themselves must walk long distances to fetch water have less time to attend

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school – a problem that particularly affects girls. Children who are not immunized or who are malnourished are much more susceptible to the diseases that are spread through poor sanitation. Poverty exacerbates the effects of HIV/AIDS and armed conflict. It entrenches social, economic and gender disparities and undermines protective family environments.

Poverty contributes to malnutrition, which in turn is a contributing factor in over half of the under-five deaths in developing countries. Some 300 million children go to bed hungry every day. Of these only eight per cent are victims of famine or other emergency situations. More than 90 per cent are suffering long-term malnourishment and micronutrient deficiency.

The best start in life is critical in a child’s first few years, not only to survival but to her or his physical, intellectual and emotional development. So these deprivations greatly hamper children’s ability to achieve their full potential, contributing to a society’s cycle of endless poverty and hunger.

Fulfilling children’s rights breaks that cycle. Providing them with basic education, health care, nutrition and protection produces results of many times greater magnitude than these cost-effective interventions. Their chances of survival and of a productive future are greatly increased – as are the chances of a truly fair and peaceful global society.

3.47 UNICEF responds by:

Building national capacities for primary health care. Around 270 million children, just over 14 per cent of all children in developing countries, have no access to health care services. Yet improving the health of children is one responsibility among many in the fight against poverty. Healthy children become healthy adults: people who create better lives for themselves, their communities and their countries. Working in this area also helps to further Goal 4 – to improve child survival rates.

Helping the world's children survive and flourish is a core UNICEF activity, and immunization is central to that. A global leader in vaccine supply, UNICEF purchases and helps distribute vaccines to over 40 per cent of children in developing countries. Immunization programs usually include other cost-effective

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health initiatives, like micronutrient supplementation to fight disabling malnutrition and insecticide-treated bed nets to fight malaria.

Along with governments and non-governmental organizations at national and community levels, UNICEF works to strengthen local health systems and improve at-home care for children, including oral re-hydration to save the lives of infants with severe diarrhea and promoting and protecting breastfeeding.

Getting girls to school. Some 13 per cent of children ages 7 to 18 years in developing countries have never attended school. This rate is 32 per cent among girls in sub-Saharan Africa (27 per cent of boys) and 33 per cent of rural children in the Middle East and North Africa. Yet an education is perhaps a child’s strongest barrier against poverty, especially for girls. Educated girls are likely to marry later and have healthier children. They are more productive at home and better paid in the workplace, better able to protect themselves against HIV/AIDS and more able to participate in decision-making at all levels. Additionally, this UNICEF activity furthers Goals 2 and 3: universal primary education and gender equality.

To that end, UNICEF works in 158 countries, calling on development agencies, governments, donors and communities to step up efforts on behalf of education for all children, and then coordinating those efforts. Programmes differ from country to country according to needs and cultures, but may include help with funding, logistics, information technology, school water and sanitation, and a child- and gender-friendly curriculum.

Supporting good nutrition. UNICEF seeks to help stem the worst effects of malnutrition by funding and helping countries supply micronutrients like iron and vitamin A, which is essential for a healthy immune system, during vaccination campaigns or through fortified food. UNICEF, governments, salt producers and private sector organizations are also working to eliminate iodine deficiency, the biggest primary cause of preventable mental retardation and brain damage, through the Universal Salt Iodization (USI) education campaign. UNICEF also works through communities to talk with child caregivers about how to provide sound nutrition for children, particularly via breastfeeding.

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In emergency situations, UNICEF assesses the nutritional and health needs of affected people, protects and supports breastfeeding by providing safe havens for pregnant and lactating women, provides essential micronutrients, supports therapeutic feeding centre’s for severely malnourished children, and provides food for orphans.

Assisting in water and sanitation improvement. One in three children in the developing world – more than 500 million children – has no access at all to sanitation facilities. And some 400 million children, one in five, have no access to safe water. Meanwhile, unsafe water and sanitation cause about 4,000 child deaths per day. Through advocacy, funding and technical assistance, UNICEF works in more than 90 countries around the world to improve water supplies and sanitation facilities in schools and communities and to improve and promote safe hygiene practices.

In emergencies UNCIEF provides safe water, and helps displaced communities replace or find new water resources and build latrines. Increasingly, UNICEF emphasizes preventive programs that strengthen the capacity of governments and partners to prepare for these worst case situations.

Creating a protective child environment. Conflicts are most frequent in poor countries, especially in those that are ill governed and where there are sharp inequalities between ethnic or religious groups. An environment of unrest heightens the risk of abduction, sexual violence and exploitation of children, as well as the struggle for shelter, education and survival.

Toward fulfilling a central goal of the Millennium Declaration, protection of the vulnerable, UNICEF advocates for awareness and monitoring of these issues, and for tougher laws for child exploiters. Working with individuals, civic groups, governments and the private sector in the field, UNICEF helps establish and strengthen local safety nets for children, like community child-care centers, schools, and basic social services.

Advocating, raising awareness and helping effect policies for children’s well- being. Lastly, UNICEF complements these on-the-field activities with policy advocacy at every level of government. Spreading awareness and offering

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technical assistance, UNICEF aids countries in forming and effecting programs that help ensure children’s rights to survive and thrive.

These include working with governments on developing broad national planning frameworks like Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) and Sector-wide Approaches to Programming (SWAPs), which help countries and donors identify needs and form a results-based plan for change.

These policies and programmes don’t take shape in a void. Along with national committees, other UN agencies and international private groups, UNICEF helps countries carry out assessment research to define and measure child poverty, and then helps put a system in place to monitor results.

3.48 Progress

Some countries have made progress meeting this Goal, but success is mixed. India and China are on track to meet the income target at least, but in a classic example of national disparities, some 221 million people in India and 142 million in China are still chronically or acutely malnourished.

More than half of undernourished people, 60 percent, are found in Asia and the Pacific. Thirty per cent of infants born in South Asia in 2003 were underweight, the highest percentage in the world.

Most sub-Saharan African countries will likely miss both targets. The region has 204 million hungry and is the only region of the world where hunger is increasing. More than 40 per cent of Africans cannot even get sufficient food on a day-to-day basis.

3.49 United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM)

3.49.1 Core Areas

The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), established in 1976, works to help improve the living standards of women in developing countries and to address their concerns. UNIFEM provides financial and technical assistance to innovative approaches aimed at fostering women’s empowerment and gender equality. Currently, the Fund has activities in more than 100 countries. UNIFEM focuses its activities on four strategic areas: (i) reducing feminized poverty; (ii) ending violence against women; (iii) reversing the spread of

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HIV/AIDS among women and girls; and (iv) achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as war. UNIFEM strives to link the needs and concerns of women to critical issues on national, regional and global agendas. UNIFEM also helps make the voices of women heard at the United Nations – to highlight critical issues and advocate for the implementation of existing commitments made to women. The Organization relies on voluntary financial contributions for all its work. Funding comes from contributions by governments, foundations, corporations, organizations and individuals. UNIFEM has 15 regional offices and ten country programme offices and 44 project offices. In 2008, contributions to UNIFEM from governments and other donors amounted to US$121,342 million. Ms. Inés Alberdi is the current Executive Director of UNIFEM.

3.49.2 Engagement with External Actors UNIFEM works with governments, the UN, women’s organizations, NGOs and the private sector to advance gender equality, empower women and girls economically, foster women’s roles in governance, ensure that adolescent girls and women have the knowledge and means to prevent HIV infection, and eliminate the injustices stemming from political, economic and social inequalities.

3.50 Civil Society From its inception, UNIFEM has worked in close collaboration with NGOs at the local, regional, and international level and throughout recent years has strengthened its relations with civil society. NGOs are an important mechanism for diagnosing and alleviating problems at the grassroots level, information sharing, networking and advocacy. Often NGOs are partners in its development work, implementing or executing projects supported by UNIFEM funding; they may also be beneficiaries of UNIFEM programmes and initiatives. The Fund devotes a significant percentage of its resources to encouraging local NGOs.

UNIFEM has no set mechanism for in-house coordination and cooperation with NGOs because it works with NGOs at different levels and in many different capacities. NGO activities permeate all areas of UNIFEM’s work and strategic planning. Under the overall supervision of the Director, the Communications and Strategic Partnerships Section handles fundraising and outreach. Communicating

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with NGOs about programming is done under the overall guidance of the deputy director by the chief of the appropriate section.

The NGO Committee on UNIFEM was established to promote the work of UNIFEM. It consists of representatives of 25 NGOs in consultative status with ECOSOC. UNIFEM works with the NGO Committee and its 17 national committees, as well as other NGOs to publicize UNIFEM projects worldwide, help raise monetary resources, and promote UNIFEM’s visibility.

UNIFEM’s mandate focuses on two areas of activities: serving as a catalyst, with the goal of ensuring women’s involvement with mainstream activities, and supporting activities to benefit women that are in line with national and regional development priorities. UNIFEM has pursued a range of strategies for mainstreaming women in development: * joint programming with other UN agencies, national governments, financial institutions, regional entities, and international NGOs; * integrating the micro experience of localized projects with macro policies and programmes by publicizing field-level innovations that are effective with women and advocating the broader adoption and application of these innovations by mainstream agencies; * advocating to secure political and financial support for gender equality and women’s rights; * aligning with the national and regional priorities of other UN agencies, governments, and NGOs, and adding the perspective of gender analysis; * aligning with others around critical global issues, in some cases by funding and placing a special adviser on women within another agency or project so that women’s concerns are fully integrated, at an early stage, into recommendations and programmes; * advocating the placement of senior women in positions where critical decisions are being made and ensuring that there is a critical mass of women together on committees, caucus groups, and decision-making fora; * providing a platform where previously voiceless people can be heard by positioning women as decision makers, sponsoring women experts to attend international meetings and conferences, and publishing the voices of women;

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* expanding the data about women through improving systems for collecting and reporting it as well as publishing and disseminating it;

* advocating for women and women’s issues by providing information, skills training, and other forms of support to help women advocate for themselves; and

* training people at all levels in gender analysis so as to expand the numbers of women’s allies and build the capacities of local people to understand the importance of gender in development programming.

Most of the Fund’s projects and programmes follow an integrated model and thus involve UNIFEM working with NGOs in more than one of these ways. Increasingly, NGOs are the executing agencies for projects managed by UNIFEM: CSOs are responsible for progress reporting, financial management, and operational matters. The degree of their involvement in the day-to-day operations varies. These activities may be partially or totally taken over by implementing agencies working under the NGO executors, and the implementers may themselves be NGOs. As executing agencies, NGOs work throughout the project cycle and participate in project meetings, performing community analyses, project design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.

In order to advance women and women’s issues in the context of public policy debate and promote women’s voice and visibility within the UN system and in society at large, UNIFEM assists NGOs to prepare for and participate in national and international fora. It also conducts training workshops for women to hone their negotiating, advocacy, and leadership skills on drafting resolutions, consensus building, negotiating with government representatives, and influencing the outcome of conferences; fosters coalition building; and publishes a variety of materials, such as books, occasional papers and training manuals.

3.51 Private Sector

UNIFEM collaborates with the private sector in a number of areas, such as ending violence against women, expanding economic opportunities, and promoting women’s full participation and realization of their human rights. Below are examples of such collaboration.

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3.51.1 Extent of Collaboration

Calvert Women’s Principles

A partnership between UNIFEM and Calvert—the largest family of socially responsible mutual funds in the United States—is advancing the first comprehensive code of corporate conduct focusing on gender equality and women’s empowerment. Unleashing women’s economic capacity is essential to alleviate poverty, spur equality, and achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The seven Women’s Principles, originated by Calvert in consultation with UNIFEM and many others from the worlds of labour, business, human rights, and women’s advocacy, cover such issues as: employment and compensation; work-life balance: health, safety and freedom from violence; management and governance; civic and community engagement; transparency and accountability; business, supply chain and marketing practices.

The Women’s Principles, jointly launched by Calvert and UNIFEM in June 2005 and revised in 2009, offer strategic entry points to engage the private sector and others to achieve women’s equality.

Companies can use them as a set of goals they can aspire to and measure their progress against, or add them to their internal compliance standards. Investors can use them as tools to assess corporate performance on gender. Governments and international organizations can integrate them into regulations and negotiations with companies already operating in their country, or planning to locate there. Civil society, labour groups, women’s and human rights organizations can use them to monitor company behavior toward women and the workplace.

The Principles are: 1. Employment and Compensation: Corporations will take concrete steps to attain gender equality by adopting and implementing employment policies and practices that eliminate gender discrimination in areas such as recruitment, hiring, pay, and promotion. 2. Work-Life Balance and Career Development: Corporations will take concrete steps to attain gender equality by adopting, implementing, and promoting policies and practices that enable work-life balance and support educational, career, and vocational development.

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3. Health, Safety, and Freedom of Violence: Corporations will take concrete steps to attain gender equality by adopting and implementing policies to secure the health, safety, and well-being of women workers.

4. Transparency and Accountability: Corporations will take concrete steps to attain gender equality in operations and in business and stakeholder relationships by adopting and implementing policies that are publicly disclosed, monitored, and enforced.

5. Management and Governance: Corporations will promote and strive to attain gender equality by adopting and implementing policies to ensure women’s participation in corporate management and governance.

6. Civic and Community Engagement: Corporations will take concrete steps to attain gender equality by adopting and implementing policies to promote equitable participation in civic life and eliminate all forms of discrimination and exploitation.

7. Business, Supply Chain and Marketing Practices: Corporations will promote and strive to attain gender equality by adopting and implementing proactive, nondiscriminatory business, marketing and supply chain policies and practices.

Cisco Systems

UNIFEM’s partnership with Cisco Systems and the Government of Jordan, established in 2001, helped shape gender-sensitive training programmes that have increased women’s access to job opportunities in the information technology sector. So far, some 1,600 participants, 57% of them women, have been trained in Jordan, and many students have found employment through the programme’s job placement activities. In 2004, the initiative was replicated in Lebanon and Morocco. Plans are underway to also include Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman and the United Arab Emirates in the regional initiative.

Full Jazz Comunidade

In Brazil, UNIFEM joined forces with the private sector to combat violence against women. In collaboration with Full Jazz Comunidade, a woman owned

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advertising agency, a nationwide publicity campaign was developed under the slogan “Bem Querer Mulher” (Caring for Women). Donations received from the private sector as a result of the campaign will be used to establish a UNIFEM managed national trust fund to address violence against women in Brazil.

3.52 Indigenous Peoples

In working to support the realization of indigenous women’s rights, UNIFEM uses a human-rights based approach, which recognizes the need to build the capacity and awareness of the State to uphold these rights, while simultaneously increasing knowledge and capacity among indigenous women themselves. UNIFEM’s most significant work in this area has been in the Andean Region, Mexico and Central America.3 Since 1995, UNIFEM has worked with its partners to utilize local knowledge and systems within indigenous communities, build synergies with decision-makers, human rights activists and women’s groups, and foster leadership among indigenous women. A key focus in current programming priorities is to support increased inter-agency cooperation among UN Country Teams in addressing issues facing indigenous women. In order to promote knowledge-sharing, capacity building, raise social awareness around indigenous issues, and increase economic security, UNIFEM works in partnership with fair trade organizations, governments and UN agencies to promote greater recognition of women’s contribution to their families’ livelihoods. In Peru, in cooperation with the Manuela Ramos Movement, indigenous women received training and skills-building in the areas of business management, marketing and crafts production. More than 600 workshops took place, benefiting more than 2,000 women, and a series of craft trade shows were also organized. In Mexico, a project with indigenous communities in Oaxaca focused on building women’s networks to enable them to better control local economic resources and support environmental protection. Oaxaca women expanded their skills, actively sharing knowledge learned with neighboring communities.

A Regional Conference of Indigenous Women was held in Mexico City in June 2005 to discuss how UN agencies could better support indigenous women’s processes, including proposals to improve communication between their communities and governments, the creation of an exchange programme among

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indigenous women and UN agencies, participation in UN inter-agency meetings, creation of an indigenous women database, support for training programmes, and the organization of regional meetings around the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to promote the indigenous communities’ experiences and strategies to promote sustainable development.

3.53 Multi-stakeholder Processes

In Komi Republic, Russian Federation, UNIFEM assisted the Women’s Chamber of Commerce to forge a broad-based alliance between the government, the private sector and civil society to foster development. Using the MDGs as a common platform to determine priority needs, the partnership resulted in a survey examining the informal sector and its impact on the status of women. In addition, a law has been drafted to ensure the participation of civil society in developing socio-economic policies and programmes in Komi. In Nigeria, UNIFEM supported a gender assessment of the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy to identify gender gaps. The Ministry of Women Affairs used the evidence to successfully advocate for a strengthened recognition of gender equality commitments. In Mozambique, UNIFEM and UNDP provided assistance for training of trainers in gender-responsive budgeting that led to the formation of the Gender Special Interest Group. Comprised of government, civil society and donors, the group supports mainstreaming of gender in the country’s poverty reduction strategy (PRS) and the national budget. UNIFEM supported gender mainstreaming in PRSs in seven countries in 2004.

UNIFEM’s Work in ICTs

UNIFEM recognizes the importance of guaranteeing women’s active and equal participation in the development of knowledge societies. In the lead-up to the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), the Fund partnered with governments, UN organizations, NGOs and the private sector to facilitate women’s participation in developing programmes that demonstrate women’s visions of the use of ICTs, encourage their employment in ICT fields and facilitate their access to new technologies.

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3.54 Conclusion

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) are no longer a luxury for developing countries. In fact, many of the innovations are emerging from developing countries. They are creating new ways of communicating, doing business, and delivering services. Through extending access to ICTs and encouraging the use of ICTs, the World Bank aims to stimulate sustainable economic growth, improve service delivery, and promote good governance and social accountability. ICT initiatives in rural India emphasize the use of a more systematic approach for liking traditional knowledge systems (TKS) & ICT to ensure sustainability of rural e-governance. The main issue to be resolved is the lack of localization for rural communities in rural ICT initiatives. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt the system-approach to integrate TKS & ICT in the design of e-governance system for rural development.

3.54.1 The United States Agency for International Development (USAID)

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is the United States federal government agency primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid. USAID seeks to "extend a helping hand to those people overseas struggling to make a better life, recover from a disaster or striving to live in a free and democratic country." USAID's stated goals include providing "economic, development and humanitarian assistance around the world in support of the foreign policy goals of the United States”. It operates in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Europe.

President John F. Kennedy created USAID in 1961 by executive order to implement development assistance programs in the areas authorized by the Congress in the Act. The Congress updates this authorization through annual funds appropriation acts, and other legislation. Although technically an independent federal agency, USAID operates subject to the foreign policy guidance of the President, Secretary of State, and the National Security Council.

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UNIT IV : GLOBALISATION

Objectives of the unit:

 Globalisation  IT Polices  Implementation of IT projects in India  Private participation  Competition  Public information and services through ICT  Specific development projects in Tamilnadu  Diffusion of innovation and adoption.

4.0 GLOBALIZATION

'Globalization' is a favorite catchphrase of journalists and politicians. It has also become a key idea for business theory and practice, and entered academic debates. But what people mean by 'globalization' is often confused and confusing. Here we examine some key themes in the theory and experience of globalization.

'Globalization' is commonly used as a shorthand way of describing the spread and connectedness of production, communication and technologies across the world. That spread has involved the interlacing of economic and cultural activity. Rather confusingly, 'globalization' is also used by some to refer to the efforts of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and others to create a global free market for goods and services. This political project, while being significant - and potentially damaging for a lot of poorer nations - is really a means to exploit the larger process. Globalization in the sense of connectivity in economic and cultural life across the world has been growing for centuries. However, many believe the current situation is of a fundamentally different order to what has gone before. The speed of communication and exchange, the complexity and size of the networks involved, and the sheer volume of trade, interaction and risk give what we now label as 'globalization' a peculiar force.

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With increased economic interconnection has come deep-seated political changes - poorer, 'peripheral', countries have become even more dependent on activities in 'central' economies such as the USA where capital and technical expertise tend to be located. There has also been a shift in power away from the nation state and toward, some argue, multinational corporations. We have also witnessed the rise and globalization of the 'brand'. It isn't just that large corporations operate across many different countries - they have also developed and marketed products that could be just as well sold in Peking as in Washington. Brands like Coca Cola, Nike, Sony, and a host of others have become part of the fabric of vast numbers of people's lives.

Globalization involves the diffusion of ideas, practices and technologies. It is something more than internationalization and universalization. It isn't simply modernization or westernization. It is certainly isn't just the liberalization of markets. Anthony Giddens (1990: 64) has described globalization as 'the intensification of worldwide social relations which link distant localities in such a way that local happenings are shaped by events occurring many miles away and vice versa'. This involves a change in the way we understand geography and experience localness. As well as offering opportunity it brings with considerable risks linked, for example, to technological change.

Globalization, thus, has powerful economic, political, cultural and social dimensions. Here we want to focus on four themes that appear with some regularity in the literature: de-localization and supraterritoriality; the speed and power of technological innovation and the associated growth of risk; the rise of multinational corporations; and the extent to which the moves towards the creation of (global) free markets to leads to instability and division.

4.1 Globalization: delocalization and supraterritoriality

Manuel Castells (1996) has argued persuasively that in the last twenty years or so of the twentieth century, a new economy emerged around the world. He characterizes it as a new brand of capitalism that has three fundamental features:

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Productivity and competitiveness are, by and large, a function of knowledge generation and information processing; firms and territories are organized in networks of production, management and distribution; the core economic activities are global - that is, they have the capacity to work as a unit in real time, or chosen time, on a planetary scale. (Castells 2001: 52)

This last idea runs through a lot of the discussion of globalization.

4.1.1 Globalization and de-localization

Many of the activities that previously involved face-to-face interaction, or that were local, are now conducted across great distances. There has been a significant de-localization in social and economic exchanges. Activities and relationships have been uprooted from local origins and cultures (Gray 1999: 57). One important element in this has been the separation of work from the home (and the classic move to the suburbs - see Putnam's discussion of the impact on this on local social relations). But de-localization goes well beyond this. Increasingly people have to deal with distant systems in order that they may live their lives. Banking and retailing, for example, have adopted new technologies that involve people in less face-to-face interaction. Your contact at the bank is in a call centre many miles away; when you buy goods on the internet the only person you might speak to is the delivery driver. In this last example we move beyond simple notions of distance and territory into a new realm (and this is what Scholte is especially concerned with when he talks of globalization). When we buy books from an internet supplier like Amazon our communications pass through a large number of computers and routers and may well travel thousands of miles; the computers taking our orders can be on a different continent; and the books can be located anywhere in the world. The 'spaces' we inhabit when using the internet to buy things or to communicate (via things like chat rooms and bulletin boards) can allow us to develop a rather different sense of place and of the community to which we belong.

Not everything is global, of course. Most employment, for example, is local or regional - but 'strategically crucial activities and economic factors are networked around a globalized system of inputs and outputs' (Castells 2001: 52). What happens in local neighborhoods is increasingly influenced by the activities of

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people and systems operating many miles away. For example, movements in the world commodity and money markets can have a very significant impact upon people's lives across the globe. People and systems are increasingly interdependent.

The starting point for understanding the world today is not the size of its GDP or the destructive power of its weapons systems, but the fact that it is so much more joined together than before. It may look like it is made up of separate and sovereign individuals, firms, nations or cities, but the deeper reality is one of multiple connections. (Mulgan 1998: 3)

Businesses are classic example of this. As Castells (2001) noted they are organized around networks of production, management and distribution. Those that are successful have to be able to respond quickly to change - both in the market and in production. Sophisticated information systems are essential in such globalization.

4.1.2 Globalization and the decline in power of national governments

It isn't just individuals and neighborhood institutions that have felt the impact of de-localization. A major causality of this process has been a decline in the power of national governments to direct and influence their economies (especially with regard to macroeconomic management). Shifts in economic activity in say, Japan or the United States, are felt in countries all over the globe. The internationalization of financial markets, of technology and of some manufacturing and services bring with them a new set of limitations upon the freedom of action of nation states. In addition, the emergence of institutions such as the World Bank, the European Union and the European Central Bank, involve new constraints and imperatives. Yet while the influence of nation states may have shrunk as part of the process of globalization it has not disappeared. Indeed, they remain, in Hirst and Thompson's (1996: 170) words, 'pivotal' institutions, 'especially in terms of creating the conditions for effective international governance'. However, we need to examine the way in which national governments frame their thinking about policy. There is a strong argument that the impact of globalization is most felt through the extent to which politics everywhere are now essentially market-driven. 'It is not just that governments can

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no longer "manage" their national economies', Colin Leys (2001: 1) comments, 'to survive in office they must increasingly "manage" national politics in such a ways as to adapt them to the pressures of trans-national market forces'.

The initiation, or acceleration, of the commoditization of public services was... a logical result of government's increasingly deferential attitude towards market forces in the era of the globalized economy... A good deal of what was needed [for the conversion of non-market spheres into profitable fields for investment] was accomplished by market forces themselves, with only periodic interventions by the state, which then appeared as rational responses to previous changes. (Leys 2001: 214)

In other words, the impact of globalization is less about the direct way in which specific policy choices are made, as the shaping and reshaping of social relations within all countries.

4.2 Risk, technological innovation and globalization

As we have already noted, a particular feature of 'globalization' is the momentum and power of the change involved. 'It is the interaction of extraordinary technological innovation combined with world-wide reach that gives today's change its particular complexion' (Hutton and Giddens 2001: vii). Developments in the life sciences, and in digital technology and the like, have opened up vast, new possibilities for production and exchange. Innovations like the internet have made it possible to access information and resources across the world - and to coordinate activities in real time.

4.2.1 Globalization and the knowledge economy

Earlier we saw Castells making the point that productivity and competitiveness are, by and large, a function of knowledge generation and information processing. This has involved a major shift - and entails a different way of thinking about economies.

For countries in the vanguard of the world economy, the balance between knowledge and resources has shifted so far towards the former that knowledge has become perhaps the most important factor determining the standard of living - more than land, than tools, than labour. Today's most technologically advanced economies are truly knowledge-based. (World Bank 1998). 118 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION GLOBALISATION

The rise of the so-called 'knowledge economy' has meant that economists have been challenged to look beyond labour and capital as the central factors of production. Paul Romer and others have argued that technology (and the knowledge on which it is based) has to be viewed as a third factor in leading economies. (Romer, 1986; 1990). Global finance, thus, becomes just one force driving economies. Knowledge capitalism: 'the drive to generate new ideas and turn them into commercial products and services which consumers want' is now just as pervasive and powerful (Lead beater 2000: 8). Inevitably this leads onto questions around the generation and exploitation of knowledge. There is already a gaping divide between rich and poor nations - and this appears to be accelerating under 'knowledge capitalism'. There is also a growing gap within societies (and this is one of the driving forces behind the English government's Connexions strategy). Commentators like Charles Lead beater have argued for the need to 'innovate and include' and for a recognition that successful knowledge economies have to take a democratic approach to the spread of knowledge: 'We must breed an open, inquisitive, challenging and ambitious society' (Lead beater 2000: 235, 237). However, there are powerful counter-forces to this ideal. In recent years we have witnessed a significant growth in attempts by large corporations to claim intellectual rights over new discoveries, for example in relation to genetic research, and to reap large profits from licensing use of this 'knowledge' to others. There are also significant doubts as to whether 'modern economies' are, indeed, 'knowledge economies'. It doesn't follow, for example, that only those nations committed to lifelong learning and to creating a learning society will thrive (see Wolf 2002: 13-55).

4.2.2 Globalization and risk

As well as opening up considerable possibility, the employment of new technologies, when combined with the desire for profit and this 'world-wide' reach, brings with it particular risks. Indeed, writers like Ulrich Beck (1992: 13) have argued that the gain in power from the 'techno-economic progress' is quickly being overshadowed by the production of risks. (Risks in this sense can be viewed as the probability of harm arising from technological and economic change). Hazards linked to industrial production, for example, can quickly spread beyond

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the immediate context in which they are generated. In other words, risks become globalized.

Modernization risks possess an inherent tendency towards globalization.A universalization of hazards accompanies industrial production, independent of the place where they are produced: food chains connect practically everyone on earth to everyone else. They dip under borders. (Beck 1992: 39)

As Beck (1992: 37) has argued there is a boomerang effect in globalization of this kind. Risks can catch up with those who profit or produce from them.

The basic insight lying behind all this is as simple as possible: everything which threatens life on this Earth also threatens the property and commercial interests of those who live from the commoditization of life and its requisites. In this way a genuine and systematically intensifying contradiction arises between the profit and property interests that advance the industrialization process and its frequently threatening consequences, which endanger and expropriate possessions and profits (not to mention the possession and profit of life) (Beck 1992: 39).

Here we have one of the central paradoxes of what Beck has termed 'the risk society'. As knowledge has grown, so has risk. Indeed, it could be argued that the social relationships, institutions and dynamics within which knowledge is produced have accentuated the risks involved. Risk has been globalized.

4.3 Globalization and the rise of multinational corporations and branding

A further, crucial aspect of globalization is the nature and power of multinational corporations. Such companies now account for over 33 per cent of world output, and 66 per cent of world trade (Gray 1999: 62). Significantly, something like a quarter of world trade occurs within multinational corporations (op. cit). This last point is well illustrated by the operations of car manufacturers who typically source their components from plants situated in different countries. However, it is important not to run away with the idea that the sort of globalization we have been discussing involves multinationals turning, on any large scale, to transnational’s:

International businesses are still largely confined to their home territory in terms of their overall business activity; they remain heavily 'nationally embedded' and continue to be multinational, rather than transnational, corporations. (Hirst and Thompson 1996: 98).

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While full globalization in this organizational sense may not have occurred on a large scale, these large multinational corporations still have considerable economic and cultural power.

4.3.1 Globalization and the impact of multinationals on local communities

Multinationals can impact upon communities in very diverse places. First, they look to establish or contract operations (production, service and sales) in countries and regions where they can exploit cheaper labour and resources. While this can mean additional wealth flowing into those communities, this form of 'globalization' entails significant inequalities. It can also mean large scale unemployment in those communities where those industries were previously located. The wages paid in the new settings can be minimal, and worker's rights and conditions poor. For example, a 1998 survey of special economic zones in China showed that manufacturers for companies like Ralph Lauren, Adidas and Nike were paying as little as 13 cents per hour (a 'living wage' in that area is around 87 cents per hour). In the United States workers doing similar jobs might expect US$10 per hour (Klein 2001: 212).

Second, multinationals constantly seek out new or under-exploited markets. They look to increase sales - often by trying to create new needs among different target groups. One example here has been the activities of tobacco companies in southern countries. Another has been the development of the markets predominantly populated by children and young people. In fact the child and youth market has grown into one the most profitable and influential sectors. 'The young are not only prized not only for the influence they have over adult spending, but also for their own burgeoning spending power' (Kenway and Bullen 2001: 90). There is increasing evidence that this is having a deep effect; that our view of childhood (especially in northern and 'developed' countries) is increasingly the product of 'consumer-media' culture. Furthermore, that culture:

Is underpinned in the sweated work of the 'othered' children of the so-called 'Third World'. With the aid of various media, the commodity form has increasingly become central to the life of the young of the West, constructing their identities and relationships, their emotional and social worlds. Adults and schools have been negatively positioned in this matrix to the extent that youthful power and pleasure

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are constructed as that which happens elsewhere - away from adults and schools and mainly with the aid of commodities. (Kenway and Bullen, 2001: 187).

Of course such commodification of everyday life is hardly new. Writers like Erich Fromm were commenting on the phenomenon in the early 1950s. However, there has been a significant acceleration and intensification (and globalization) with the rise of the brand (see below) and a heavier focus on seeking to condition children and young people to construct their identities around brands.

Third, and linked to the above, we have seen the erosion of pubic space by corporate activities. Significant areas of leisure, for example, have moved from more associational forms like clubs to privatized, commercialized activity. Giroux (2000: 10), for example, charts this with respect to young people

Young people are increasingly excluded from public spaces outside of schools that once offered them the opportunity to hang out with relative security, work with mentors, and develop their own talents and sense of self-worth. Like the concept of citizenship itself, recreational space is now privatized as commercial profit-making venture. Gone are the youth centers, city public parks, outdoor basketball courts or empty lots where kids call play stick ball. Play areas are now rented out to the highest bidder...

This movement has been well documented in the USA (particularly by Robert Putnam with respect to a decline in social capital and civic community - but did not examine in any depth the role corporations have taken). It has profound implications for the quality of life within communities and the sense of well-being that people experience. Fourth, multinational companies can also have significant influence with regard to policy formation in many national governments and in transnational bodies such as the European Union and the World Bank (key actors within the globalization process). They have also profited from privatization and the opening up of services. As George Monbiot has argued with respect to Britain, for example: the provision of hospitals, roads and prisons... has been deliberately tailored to meet corporate demands rather than public need' (2001: 4). He continues:

Biotechnology companies have sought to turn the food chain into a controllable commodity and [there is an] extraordinary web of influence

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linking them to government ministers and government agencies. Corporations have come to govern key decision-making processes within the European Union and, with the British government's blessing, begun to develop a transatlantic single market, controlled and run by corporate chief executives. (Monbiot 2001: 5).

While with globalization the power of national governments over macro- economic forces may have been limited in recent years, the services and support they provide for their citizens have been seen as a considerable opportunity for corporations. In addition, national governments still have considerable influence in international organizations - and have therefore become the target of multinationals for action in this arena.

4.3.2 Branding and globalization

The growth of multinationals and the globalization of their impact is wrapped up with the rise of the brand.

The astronomical growth in the wealth and cultural influence of multi-national corporations over the last fifteen years can arguably be traced back to a single, seemingly innocuous idea developed by management theorists in the mid-1980s: that successful corporation must primarily produce brands, as opposed to products. (Klein 2001: 3)

As Naomi Klein (2001: 196) has suggested, 'brand builders are the new primary producers in our so-called knowledge economy'. One of the key elements that keep companies as multinationals rather than transnational’s are the extent to which they look to 'outsource' products, components and services. The logic underlying this runs something like the following: .... Corporations should not expend their finite resources on factories that will demand physical upkeep, on machines that will corrode or on employees who will certainly age and die. Instead, they should concentrate those resources in the virtual brick and mortar used to build their brands. Nike, Levi, Coca Cola and other major companies spend huge sums of money in promoting and sustaining their brands. One strategy is to try and establish particular brands as an integral part of the way people understand, or would like to see, themselves. As we have already seen with respect the operation of

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multinationals this has had a particular impact on children and young people (and education). There is an attempt 'to get them young'.

Significantly, the focus on brand rather than the inherent qualities of the product as well as advantaging multinationals in terms of market development also has an Achilles heel. Damage to the brand can do disproportionate harm to sales and profitability. If a brand becomes associated with failure or disgrace (for example where a sports star they use to advertise their brand is exposed as a drug-taker; or where the brand becomes associated in the public's mind with the exploitation of children - as for example has happened with some of the main trainer makers) then it can face major problems in the marketplace.

4.3.3 Globalization and the multinationals

While there does no doubt the growth in scale and scope of multinational corporations - the degree of control they have over the central dynamics of globalization remains limited.

In reality, they are often weak and amorphous organizations. They display the loss of authority and erosion of common values that afflicts practically all late modern social institutions. The global market is not spawning corporations which assume the past functions of sovereign states. Rather, it has weakened and hollowed out both institutions. (Gray 1999: 63)

While multinationals have played a very significant role in the growth of globalization, it is important not to overplay the degree of control they have had over the central dynamics.

4.4 Capitalism, free markets, instability and division

Amartya Sen (2002) has argued that 'the market economy does not work by itself in global relations--indeed, it cannot operate alone even within a given country'. Yet, for some proponents of globalization the aim is to expand market relations, push back state and interstate interference, and create a global free market. This political project can be seen at work in the activities of transnational organizations like the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and has been a significant objective of United States intervention. Part of the impetus for this project was the limited success of corporate/state structures in

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planning and organizing economies. However, even more significant was the growth in influence of neo-liberal ideologies and their promotion by powerful politicians like Reagan in the USA and Thatcher in the UK.

A new orthodoxy became ascendant. In the USA a Democrat President renounced 'big government'; in Britain, the Labour Party abandoned its commitment to social ownership. The 'markets were in command' (Frank 2002: xv). The basic formula ran something like the following:

Privatization + Deregulation + Globalization = Turbo-capitalism = Prosperity (Luttwak quoted by Frank 2002: 17)

As various commentators have pointed out, the push toward deregulation and 'setting markets free' that so dominated political rhetoric in many northern countries during the 1980s and 1990s was deeply flawed. For example, the central tenet of free market economics - that unregulated markets 'will of their own accord find unimprovable results for all participants' has, according to Will Hutton (1995: 237), 'now proved to be a nonsense. It does not hold in theory. It is not true'. Historically, free markets have been dependent upon state power. For markets to function over time they require a reasonable degree of political stability, a solid legal framework and a significant amount of social capital. The push to engineer free markets has contained within it the seeds of its own destruction.

The central paradox of our time can be stated thus: economic globalization does not strengthen the current regime of global laissez-faire. It works to undermine it. There is nothing in today's global market that buffers it against the social strains arising from high uneven economic development within and between the world's diverse societies. The swift waxing and waning of industries and livelihoods, the sudden shifts of production and capital, the casino of currency speculation - these conditions trigger political counter-movements that challenge the very ground rules of the global free market. (Gray 1999: 7)

Capitalism is essentially disruptive and ever-changing - and takes very different forms across the world. While it produces wealth for significant numbers of people, many others have suffered. The gap between rich and poor has widened as global capitalism has expanded. For example, David Landes (1999: xx) has

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calculated that the difference in income per head between the richest nation (he cited Switzerland) and the poorest non-industrial country, Mozambique, is now about 400 to 1. 'Two hundred and fifty years ago, the gap between richest and poorest was perhaps 5 to 1, and the difference between Europe and, say, East or South Asia (China or India) was around 1.5 or 2 to 1' (op. cit.).

The development of markets, the expansion of economic activity, and the extent to which growing prosperity is experienced by populations as a whole has been, and remains, deeply influenced by public policies around, for example, education, land reform and the legal framework for activity. Economists like Amartya Sen have argued that 'public action that can radically alter the outcome of local and global economic relations'. For him the: Central issue of contention is not globalization itself, nor is it the use of the market as an institution, but the inequity in the overall balance of institutional arrangements--which produces very unequal sharing of the benefits of globalization. The question is not just whether the poor, too, gain something from globalization, but whether they get a fair share and a fair opportunity. (Sin 2002)

Strong markets require significant state and transnational intervention. To be sustained across time they also require stable social relationships and an environment of trust. Moreover, they can be organized and framed so that people throughout different societies can benefit.

4.5 Conclusion

One commentator has argued that there is a very serious case not against 'globalization’, But against the particular version of it imposed by the world's financial elites. The brand currently ascendant needlessly widens gaps of wealth and poverty, erodes democracy, seeds instability, and fails even its own test of maximizing sustainable economic growth. (Kuttner 2002)

The gap between rich and poor countries has widened considerably. However, as Sen (2002) has commented, to 'see globalization as merely Western imperialism of ideas and beliefs (as the rhetoric often suggests) would be a serious and costly error'. He continues: Of course, there are issues related to globalization that do connect with imperialism (the history of conquests, colonialism, and alien rule remains relevant today in many ways), and a postcolonial understanding of the

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world has its merits. But it would be a great mistake to see globalization primarily as a feature of imperialism. It is much bigger--much greater--than that.

For example, while the reach and power of multinationals appears to have grown significantly, neither they, nor individual national governments, have the control over macro-economic forces that they would like. Ecological and technological risks have multiplied. Globalization in the sense of connectivity in economic and cultural life across the world is of a different order to what has gone before. As we said at the start, the speed of communication and exchange, the complexity and size of the networks involved, and the sheer volume of trade, interaction and risk give what we now label as 'globalization' a peculiar force.

4.6 GLOBALIZATIONPROCESS

Globalization is a process of interaction and integration among the people, companies, and governments of different nations, a process driven by international trade and investment and aided by information technology. This process has effects on the environment, on culture, on political systems, on economic development and prosperity, and on human physical well-being in societies around the world.

Globalization is not new, though. For thousands of years, people—and, later, corporations—have been buying from and selling to each other in lands at great distances, such as through the famed Silk Road across Central Asia that connected China and Europe during the Middle Ages. Likewise, for centuries, people and corporations have invested in enterprises in other countries. In fact, many of the features of the current wave of globalization are similar to those prevailing before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914.

But policy and technological developments of the past few decades have spurred increases in cross-border trade, investment, and migration so large that many observers believe the world has entered a qualitatively new phase in its economic development. Since 1950, for example, the volume of world trade has increased by 20 times, and from just 1997 to 1999 flows of foreign investment nearly doubled, from $468 billion to $827 billion. Distinguishing this current wave of globalization from earlier ones, author Thomas Friedman has said that today globalization is “farther, faster, cheaper, and deeper.”

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This current wave of globalization has been driven by policies that have opened economies domestically and internationally. In the years since the Second World War, and especially during the past two decades, many governments have adopted free-market economic systems, vastly increasing their own productive potential and creating myriad new opportunities for international trade and investment. Governments also have negotiated dramatic reductions in barriers to commerce and have established international agreements to promote trade in goods, services, and investment. Taking advantage of new opportunities in foreign markets, corporations have built foreign factories and established production and marketing arrangements with foreign partners. A defining feature of globalization, therefore, is an international industrial and financial business structure.

Technology has been the other principal driver of globalization. Advances in information technology, in particular, have dramatically transformed economic life. Information technologies have given all sorts of individual economic actors— consumers, investors, businesses—valuable new tools for identifying and pursuing economic opportunities, including faster and more informed analyses of economic trends around the world, easy transfers of assets, and collaboration with far-flung partners.

Globalization is deeply controversial, however. Proponents of globalization argue that it allows poor countries and their citizens to develop economically and raise their standards of living, while opponents of globalization claim that the creation of an unfettered international free market has benefited multinational corporations in the Western world at the expense of local enterprises, local cultures, and common people. Resistance to globalization has therefore taken shape both at a popular and at a governmental level as people and governments try to manage the flow of capital, labor, goods, and ideas that constitute the current wave of globalization.

To find the right balance between benefits and costs associated with globalization, citizens of all nations need to understand how globalization works and the policy choices facing them and their societies. Globalization101.org tries to provide an accurate analysis of the issues and controversies regarding globalization, without the slogans or ideological biases generally found in discussions of the topics. We welcome you to our website.

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4.7 IT POLICIES

1. To increase revenues of IT and ITES (Information Technology Enabled Services) Industry from 100 Billion USD currently to 300 Billion USD by 2020 and expand exports from 69 Billion USD currently to 200 Billion USD by 2020.

2. To gain significant global market-share in emerging technologies and Services.

3. To promote innovation and R&D in cutting edge technologies and development of applications and solutions in areas like localization, location based services, mobile value added services, Cloud Computing, Social Media and Utility models.

4. To encourage adoption of ICTs in key economic and strategic sectors to improve their competitiveness and productivity.

5. To provide fiscal benefits to SMEs and Startups for adoption of IT in value creation

6. To create a pool of 10 million additional skilled manpower in ICT.

7. To make at least one individual in every household e-literate.

8. To provide for mandatory delivery of and affordable access to all public services in electronic mode.

9. To enhance transparency, accountability, efficiency, reliability and decentralization in Government and in particular, in delivery of public services.

10. To leverage ICT for key Social Sector initiatives like Education, Health, Rural Development and Financial Services to promote equity and quality.

11. To make India the global hub for development of language technologies, to encourage and facilitate development of content accessible in all Indian languages and thereby help bridge the digital divide.

12. To enable access of content and ICT applications by differently-abled people to foster inclusive development.

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13. To leverage ICT for expanding the workforce and enabling life-long learning.

14. To strengthen the Regulatory and Security Framework for ensuring a Secure and legally compliant Cyberspace ecosystem.

15. To adopt Open standards and promote open source and open technologies.

4.8 IMPLEMENTATION OF IT PROJECTS IN INDIA 4.8.1 Vision and Mission of NPIU (National Projects Implementation Unit)had successfully completed the following projects: 4.8.1.1 Vision: To develop and nurture a Technical Education System in the country which would produce skilled manpower of the highest quality comparable to the very best in the world and in adequate numbers to meet the complex technological needs of the economy; and provide the nation a comparative advantage in the creation and propagation of innovative technological solutions and in the development of a technological capacity of the highest order, both for its application in economic development of the country and for becoming a major supplier of technology and technological services in the world. 4.8.1.2 Mission: To plan and design innovative projects for total quality improvement in technical education system in the country. To develop a model project management system To coordinate, monitor and review project implementation To liaise with project stakeholders such as Central Government, State Governments, State Technical Education Departments, Institutions, Training providers, funding agencies and industry etc.; To disseminate widely, success stories and lessons learnt from the successful projects. To undertake research studies for developing models of successful Project implementation. To prepare guideline documents To conduct training workshops on effective implementation of the Projects. To develop close linkages and network among different agencies. 4.9 NPIU (National Projects Implementation Unit) had successfully completed the following projects:

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4.9.1 Completed Projects: a) TECH ED I : TECHNICIAN EDUCATION PROJECT (TECH ED - I) Objectives of Tech. Ed. I, Tech. Ed. II and Tech. Ed. III The modernization of the Indian Industry, which began in the 1980s, and subsequent liberalization of the economy exposed the shortage of high quality technicians as a major impediment to the globalization of Indian Economy. As a follow up to the National Policy of Education (NPE), the Government of India, formulated the Tech. Ed I and Tech. Ed. II Projects to facilitate supply of technical trained manpower to the Industrial Sector and to make education the Polytechnics more responsive to the expansion of science and technology and the needs of the Industry & the rural sector through the introduction of new technology and training approaches in the Project States. Specifically the objectives were to: Expand the capacity of the polytechnic education system Improve the quality of polytechnic programmes Enhance the efficiency of management and operation of the polytechnic system.

First Technician Education Project (TECH ED-I)

Starting Date December 5, 1990

Completion Date September 30, 1998

Total Project Cost Rs. 977 crore

Allocation Rs. in Expenditure Rs. S. No. State No. of Polytechnics Crore in Crore

1 Bihar 25 68 66

2 Goa 4 26 25

3 Gujarat 22 103 101

4 Karnataka 39 95 92

5 Kerala 30 58 56

6 Madhya Pradesh 40 164 164

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7 Orissa 13 79 78

8 Rajasthan 21 78 77

9 Uttar Pradesh 86 256 251

10 NPIU & TTTIs - 73 68

Total 280 999 997

Major achievements of Tech Ed - I & II Projects

1. Women's enrollment increased from 11% to 28%. Two special polytechnics for the Physically Handicapped have been established i.e. one at Mysore, (Karnataka) and the other at Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh).

2. 27 number of new co-education polytechnics were set up, 30 women's polytechnics and 14 women's wings in co-education polytechnics were established. This facilitated increase in number of student places by 48925.

3. The facility of hostel was created for 8646 boys and 11549 women in the project polytechnics.18 Continuing Education Centers and 194 Continuing Education Cells were created.

4. 128 polytechnics offer flexible programmes based on Multi Point Entry and Credit System (MPECS).

5. 5374 labs and workshops were modernized for offering advance and high technology courses in the project polytechnics.

6. All existing curricula were revised and were upgraded every 3 to 5 years. Curriculum for the new courses was prepared with latest technology input.

7. 21 Learning Resource Development Centre’s (LRDCs) and 501 Learning Resources Utilization Cells (LRUCs) were established for producing multimedia packages, video programmes, models and manual and other learning resource material.

8. 480 Computer Centre’s were established in the project polytechnics.

9. 27 State level Industry-institute-Interaction Centre’s and 465 polytechnic level cells were established for contributing to the quality of training and industrial exposure to students.

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10. Limited autonomy was granted to 66 polytechnics under the projects.

11. 501 State level maintenance centers and cells in polytechnics were created for adequate maintenance of equipment.

12. Extensive effort was made to enhance interaction with industry as a result of which the institutions generated revenue to the tune of Rs. 105 crores during the project period.

13. Passout rate of students increased from 46% to 76%.

14. Dropout rate decreased from 8% to 4.6%.

15. Employment rate increased from 45% to 65%.

b) TECH ED II: TECHNICIAN EDUCATION PROJECT (TECH ED - II)

Objectives of Tech. Ed. I, Tech. Ed. II and Tech. Ed. III

The modernization of the Indian Industry, which began in the 1980s, and subsequent liberalization of the economy exposed the shortage of high quality technicians as a major impediment to the globalization of Indian Economy. As a follow up to the National Policy of Education (NPE), the Government of India, formulated the Tech. Ed I and Tech. Ed. II Projects to facilitate supply of technical trained manpower to the Industrial Sector and to make education the Polytechnics more responsive to the expansion of science and technology and the needs of the Industry & the rural sector through the introduction of new technology and training approaches in the Project States.

Specifically the objectives were to:

Expand the capacity of the polytechnic education system

Improve the quality of polytechnic programmes

Enhance the efficiency of management and operation of the polytechnic system. Second Technician Education Project (TECH ED-II)

Starting Date January 29, 1992

Completion Date October 31, 1999

Total Project Cost Rs 1097 crore

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S. No. of Allocation Rs. Expenditure State No. Polytechnics in Crore Rs. in Crore 1 Andhra Pradesh 59 140 139 2 Assam 9 56 57 3 Haryana 16 163 160 4 Himachal Pradesh 5 48 46 5 Maharashtra 50 269 268 6 NCT of Delhi 9 55 54 7 Pondicherry 3 19 20 8 Punjab 17 112 112 9 Tamil Nadu 52 100 91 10 West Bengal 32 140 142 11 NPIU/TTTIs - 12 9 Total 252 1113 1097

Major achievements of Tech Ed - I & II Projects

1. Women's enrollment increased from 11% to 28%. Two special polytechnics for the Physically Handicapped have been established i.e. one at Mysore, (Karnataka) and the other at Kanpur (Uttar Pradesh). 2. 27 number of new co-education polytechnics were set up, 30 women's polytechnics and 14 women's wings in co-education polytechnics were established. This facilitated increase in number of student places by 48925. 3. The facility of hostel was created for 8646 boys and 11549 women in the project polytechnics.18 Continuing Education Centers and 194 Continuing Education Cells were created. 4. 128 polytechnics offer flexible programmes based on Multi Point Entry and Credit System (MPECS). 5. 5374 labs and workshops were modernized for offering advance and high technology courses in the project polytechnics. 6. All existing curricula were revised and were upgraded every 3 to 5 years. Curriculum for the new courses was prepared with latest technology input. 7. 21 Learning Resource Development Centre’s (LRDCs) and 501 Learning Resources Utilization Cells (LRUCs) were established for producing multimedia packages, video programmes, models and manual and other learning resource material.

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8. 480 Computer Centre’s were established in the project polytechnics.

9. 27 State level Industry-institute-Interaction Centre’s and 465 polytechnic level cells were established for contributing to the quality of training and industrial exposure to students.

10. Limited autonomy was granted to 66 polytechnics under the projects.

11. 501 State level maintenance centers and cells in polytechnics were created for adequate maintenance of equipment.

12. Extensive effort was made to enhance interaction with industry as a result of which the institutions generated revenue to the tune of Rs 105 crores during the project period.

13. Pass out rate of students increased from 46% to 76%.

14. Dropout rate decreased from 8% to 4.6%.

15. Employment rate increased from 45% to 65%.

c) TECH ED III: TECHNICIAN EDUCATION PROJECT (TECH ED - III)

Objectives of Tech. Ed. I, Tech. Ed. II and Tech. Ed. III

The modernization of the Indian Industry, which began in the 1980s, and subsequent liberalization of the economy exposed the shortage of high quality technicians as a major impediment to the globalization of Indian Economy.

As a follow up to the National Policy of Education (NPE), the Government of India, formulated the Tech. Ed I and Tech. Ed. II Projects to facilitate supply of technical trained manpower to the Industrial Sector and to make education the Polytechnics more responsive to the expansion of science and technology and the needs of the Industry & the rural sector through the introduction of new technology and training approaches in the Project States.

Specifically the objectives were to: Expand the capacity of the polytechnic education system Improve the quality of polytechnic programmes Enhance the efficiency of management and operation of the polytechnic system.

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LIST OF THE STATES & POLYTECHNICS WITH ALLOCATION IN TECH ED - III

Starting Date January 17, 2001 Completion Date June 30, 2007 Total Project Cost Rs. 386 crore

Tech Ed - III participating States/UT and number of Polytechnics

No. of Allocation Rs. in S. No. State Polytechnics Crore 1 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 2 35 2 Arunachal Pradesh 1 37 3 Jammu & Kashmir 4 72 4 Meghalaya 3 51 5 Mizoram 2 43 6 Nagaland 3 43 7 Sikkim 2 60 8 Tripura 2 24 9 NPIU - 15 Total 19 380

Tech Ed - III participating States/UT and number of Polytechnics

Realising the need for development of the northeastern states, Jammu & Kashmir and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and to bring in equity and balanced growth nationwide, Government of India has announced a number of schemes for economic and industrial development. To make these schemes successful, it was felt that among other things, quality of adequately qualified technical manpower would be required. Consequently, the Government of India negotiated a Technician Education Project III with the World Bank to include the states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, Jammu & Kashmir and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands. Assam was part of Technician Education - 11 Project in which 10 polytechnics were supported by the project with investment of Rs 55.6 crores. The state of Manipur decided not to participate in the project.

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The northeastern region of the country, including Jammu & Kashmir and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, has been blessed with natural scenic beauty and large reserves of natural resources. Although majority of the population in these states/UT except Jammu & Kashmir, belongs to different tribes, there is high rate of literacy, which is a matter of pride for the whole country. The state of Sikkim and UT of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, have already achieved much higher rates of primary and secondary school enrollment and literacy than the national average.

In spite of high literacy rate and educated work force and existence of significant natural resources, this States/UT have not been able to gain from the ongoing economic reforms in the country because of their remote location, low population densities, difficult terrain and lack of competent technical manpower. Nevertheless, with India aspiring to become one of the competing developed nations in the World by 2010 and consequently announcing changes in its economic policy, it is inevitable that the ground be prepared in the northeast, in Jammu & Kashmir and UT of Andaman & Nicobar Islands so that these States/UT are able to contribute in the goals and aspirations of the country and be part of the development movement as the rest of the country.

Objectives of Tech. Ed. I, Tech. Ed. II and Tech. Ed. III

Objectives of TEQIP Phase I

The broad objectives of the Programme as given below have been derived from the National Policy on Education (NPE-1986 as revised in 1992):

To create an environment in which engineering institutions selected under the Programme can achieve their own set targets for excellence and sustain the same with autonomy and accountability.

To support development plans including synergistic networking and services to community and economy of competitively selected institutions for achieving higher standards.

To improve efficiency and effectiveness of the technical education management system in the States and institutions selected under the Programme.

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Important Dates

i) EFC approval August 16, 2002 ii) Cabinet approval December 19, 2002 iii) Signing of Programme Agreement with World Bank 1st cycle States February 04, 2003 2nd cycle States April 12, 2004 iv) Effectiveness of the Programme March 12, 2003 v) Closing of the Programme March 31, 2009 Selection of States and Institutions First step, eligibility of applicant institutions was determined at State/BTE level, separately for Lead and Network Institutions. Second step, Proposal from clusters of institutions (each cluster comprising a lead institution and 3-4 networked institution)-based on their vision, strategies and action plans were selected through a national level competition. Accreditation was also mandatory component for inclusion in the programme. For judging academic attainment, some parameters were designed and benchmarks values were assigned to each parameter. The maximum score was 68. To be eligible for the status of a Lead Institutions, an applicant institution must score 51 or more marks. In case of Network Institution, the benchmark was 34.

40 (Centrally Funded Institutions 16 + No. of Lead Institutions: State Institutions 24)

87 (Centrally Funded Institutions 2 + No. of Network Institutions: State Institutions 85) Total No. of Institutions 127 In the first cycle the following 6 States and 5 Centrally Funded Institutions have been selected: States Centrally Funded Institutions

1. Haryana 1. MNIT, Allahabad 2. Himachal Pradesh 2. NIT, Calicut 3. Kerala 3. NIT, Kurukshetra 4. Madhya Pradesh 4. VNIT, Nagpur 5. Maharashtra 5. MANIT, Bhopal 6. Uttar Pradesh

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In the second cycle following 7 States and 13 Centrally Funded Institutions have been selected:

States Centrally Funded Institutions 1. Andhra Pradesh 1. NIT, Rourkela 2. Gujarat 2. NIT, Trichy 3. Jharkhand 3. NIT, Warangal 4. Karnataka 4. NIT, Srinagar 5. Tamil Nadu 5. NIFFT, Ranchi 6. Uttarakhand 6. SVNIT, Surat 7. West Bengal 7. NIT, Durgapur 8. NIT, Surathkal 9. DBRANIT, Jalandhar 10. NIT, Jamshedpur 11. NIT, Silchar 12. MNIT, Jaipur 13. NIT, Hamirpur

PROGRAMME COST AND FUNDING MECHANISM

The original allocation for the project was 189 million SDRs. An amount of 26.529 million SDRs was deducted from the project by GoI/World Bank for Tsunami relief activities reducing the allocation to 162.471 million SDRs. Correspondingly the project in INRs got reduced and all States/CFIs allocations were also reduced. The funds released and expenditure incurred by CFIs and States for TEQIP Phase I is given below:

Project Life Cumulative Disbursement S. Centrally Funded Allocation Expenditure (Figures in No. Institution/NPIU/States (Figures in (Figures in Million Rs.) Million Rs.) Million Rs.) 1 MNNIT, ALLAHABAD 170.000 170.000 170.000 2 MANIT, BHOPAL 201.200 200.267 200.267 3 NIT, CALICUT 211.606 211.606 211.606 4 NIT, DURGAPUR 210.000 210.000 210.000 5 NIT, HAMIRPUR 183.634 183.700 179.717 6 MNIT, JAIPUR 85.394 85.394 85.394

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7 DBRANIT, JALANDHAR 102.700 102.700 102.700 8 NIT, JAMSHEDPUR 93.729 88.484 88.485 9 NIT, KURUKSHETRA 187.513 177.193 176.392 10 VNIT, NAGPUR 200.000 200.000 200.000 11 NIFFT, RANCHI 93.819 90.810 90.810 12 NIT, ROURKELA 152.796 152.700 152.700 13 NIT, SILCHAR 126.780 126.800 126.780 14 NIT, SRINAGAR 79.252 75.729 75.719 15 SVNIT, SURAT 229.300 229.286 229.300 16 NIT, SURATHKAL 218.654 218.654 218.654 17 NIT, TIRUCHIRAPALLI 200.000 200.000 200.000 18 NIT, WARANGAL 194.100 194.100 194.100

NPIU 125.000 54.155 54.155 SUB TOTAL (A) 3065.477 2971.578 2966.779 1 ANDHRA PRADESH 1452.834 1451.154 1451.154 2 GUJARAT 503.703 498.393 498.496 3 HARYANA 326.860 322.707 320.885 4 HIMACHAL PRADESH 79.953 79.452 79.452 5 JHARKHAND 318.700 318.700 318.700 6 KARNATAKA 1624.757 1606.577 1604.898 7 KERALA 529.765 529.950 529.950 8 MADHYA PRADESH 458.476 444.321 441.297 9 MAHARASHTRA 1625.594 1625.239 1612.571 10 TAMIL NADU 961.630 954.680 954.251 11 UTTARAKHAND 349.951 349.073 346.835 12 UTTAR PRADESH 625.060 621.262 616.433 13 WEST BENGAL 1470.970 1468.096 1455.234

SUB TOTAL (B) 10328.253 10269.604 10230.156 TOTAL (A+B) 13393.730 13241.182 13196.935

Major achievements during the Project Period

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1. 89 new PG programs started in emerging areas. 2. 93% courses are either accredited or under assessment for accreditation. 3. 50% graduates with high academic performance (>75% marks). 4. 76% graduates placed through campus interviews with average annual salary of Rs 2.90 lac. 5. 13,389 students admitted in ME/MTech programs during last year. 6. 587 PhDs awarded during last year in project institutions. 7. 88% of the sanctioned faculty positions and 78% of the staff positions filled. 8. 180 Patents obtained and another 367 filed. 9. 37,542 research papers published. 10. Grant of autonomy: Academic Autonomy : fully implemented in 81 institutions and substantial in 40 Financial Autonomy : 110 full and 17 substantial Administrative Autonomy : 102 full and 25 substantial Managerial Autonomy : 112 full and 15 substantial

11. Block grant : One State has provided in full and 9 States in partial.

12. All institutions have BOGs.

13. Governance is with stakeholders' participation.

14. Four Funds i.e. Corpus Fund, Staff Development Fund, Depreciation Fund and Maintenance Fund created in all TEQIP institutions and augmented with substantial amount.

15. All curricula revised and all syllabi updated in all programme institutions.

16. Campus wide networking established in all institutions.

Significant best practices

1. Flexibility in the pace of learning - NIT Warangal.

2. Community service cell - NIT Hamirpur.

3. Integrated Institute Automation System - NIT Durgapur.

4. MIS for online admission test - SGSITS Indore.

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5. Insurance coverage for students - BMS College of Engineering Bangalore.

6. Component manufacturing for industries - NMAM Institute of Technology Nitte.

7. Cost sharing book bank scheme for students - College of Engineering Chengannur.

Ongoing Project:

d) TEQIP I:TECHNICAL EDUCATION QUALITY IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME (TEQIP) PHASE-II

Introduction:

Technical Education Quality Improvement Programme (TEQIP) was envisaged as a long-term programme of about 10-12 years duration to be implemented in 2-3 phases for transformation of the Technical Education System with the World Bank assistance.

As per TEQIP design, each phase is required to be designed on the basis of lessons learnt from the implementation of an earlier phase. TEQIP-I started a reform process in 127 Institutions. The reform process needs to be sustained and scaled-up for embedding gains in the system and taking the transformation to a higher level. To continue the development activities initiated through TEQIP-I, a sequel Project is planned as TEQIP-II.

Objectives:

The Project has following objectives:

Strengthening Institutions to produce high quality engineers for better employability,

Scaling-up postgraduate education and demand-driven Research & Development and Innovation,

Establishing Centers of Excellence for focused applicable research,

Training of faculty for effective Teaching, and

Enhancing Institutional and System Management effectiveness.

What is Public-Private Partnership?

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The expression public-private partnership is a widely used concept world over but is often not clearly defined. There is no single accepted international definition of what a PPP is (World Bank, 2006). The PPP is defined as “the transfer to the private sector of investment projects that traditionally have been executed or financed by the public sector” (IMF, 2004). Any arrangement made between a state authority and a private partner to perform functions within the mandate of the state authority, and involving different combinations of design, construction, operations and finance is termed as Ireland’s PPP model.

The PPP is sometimes referred to as a joint venture in which a government service or private business venture is funded and operated through a partnership of government and one or more private sector companies. Typically, a private sector consortium forms a special company called a special purpose vehicle (SPV) to build and maintain the asset. The consortium is usually set up with a contractor, a maintenance company and a lender. It is the SPV that signs the contract with the government and with subcontractors to build the facility and then maintain it.

Thus, the PPP combines the development of private sector capital and sometimes, public sector capital to improve public services or the management of public sector assets (Michael, 2001). The PPP may encompass the whole spectrum of approaches from private participation through the contracting out of services and revenue sharing partnership arrangement to pure non-recourse project finance, while sometime it may include only a narrow range of project type. The PPP has two important characteristics. First, there is an emphasis on service provision as well as investment by the private sector. Second, significant risk is transferred from the Government to the private sector.

The Indian Case

In the Indian context, the term PPP is used very loosely while at the international arena, the PPP is adopted for developing public assets in various forms as explained in Table 1. According to Ministry of Finance Government of India the PPP project means a project based on a contract or concession agreement, between Government or statutory entity on the one side and a private sector company on the other side, for delivering infrastructure service on payment of user charges. This is a narrower definition as compared to world best practices

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where the private sector participation in any form of concession agreement, divestiture of the public sector, green field projects and management and lease contract are considered as PPP. The Planning Commission of India has defined the PPP in a generic term as “the PPP is a mode of implementing government programmes/schemes in partnership with the private sector. It provides an opportunity for private sector participation in financing, designing, construction, operation and maintenance of public sector programme and projects”. In addition, green field investment1 in the infrastructure development has also been given more encouragement in India.

Indian Experience in Private Participation in Infrastructure Development

Before the launching of economic reforms in the country, the infrastructure projects were mainly developed by the Government. Since the initiation of the economic reforms, the development of infrastructure has been given thrust through varied means. Along with the initiation of structural reforms in the country, the Government of India has announced new industrial policy in 1991 to develop the industrial and infrastructure sectors, which gave more emphasis on private participation. Policy announcements relating to sector-specific infrastructure developments with the PPP have also been announced in the subsequent annual Budgets of the Union Government. The coverage of the term infrastructure was expanded from time-to-time to enable the sector to avail of fiscal incentives such as tax holidays and concessional duties during the course of their development.

Since the initiation of the reform process, measures were introduced to strengthen the existing infrastructure and to develop new projects with private participation. The private sector participation in the infrastructure building have broadly been taken place through corporatization of existing PSUs (e.g. GAIL, ONGC, IOC, etc.), greenfield investment for development of new projects, PPP in the form of BOT or BOOT model in the road sector and concession agreements with the private sector such as rehabilitate, operate, and transfer; or rehabilitate, lease or rent and transfer; or build, rehabilitate, operate, and transfer basis. Recently established joint venture structure of institutions to develop and modernize the Delhi and Mumbai airports is an apt form of PPP.

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According to the PPI database of the World Bank, about 249 infrastructure projects in India have attracted private sector participation and reached financial closure between 1990 and 2006, which constituted a share of 6.1 per cent of the total project among 150 low and middle income countries in the world. Of which, transport sector has a major share at 54.2 per cent followed by energy sector at 30.5 per cent during the period (Table 4). The telecom sector accounted for a share of 13.7.

Table 4: Number of PPI Projects in India, 1990-2006

Financial Water and Energy Telecom Transport Total closure year Sewerage 1 2 3 4 5 6 1990 0 0 1 0 1 1991 1 0 0 0 1 1992 2 0 0 0 2 1993 3 0 0 0 3 1994 1 4 1 0 6 1995 6 10 0 0 16 1996 6 6 4 0 16 1997 2 4 6 0 12 1998 7 2 8 0 17 1999 8 0 13 0 21 2000 9 0 1 1 11 2001 1 8 4 1 14 2002 4 0 8 0 12 2003 6 0 17 0 23 2004 9 0 6 1 16 2005 3 0 14 1 18 2006 8 0 52 0 60 Total 76 34 135 4 249

Source: Compiled from Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) Database of the World Bank.

Per cent in private participation during the period. Many number of infrastructure projects under private participation have attained financial closure during 2006 particularly in the transportation sector due to mass development of National Highways Development Projects (NHDP) like Golden Quadrilateral and North South-East West Corridor (NS-EW) projects.

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Investment requirements of the infrastructure projects are huge and the private sector contribution to the development of public infrastructure has increased many folds during the recent period due to various policy initiatives by the Government towards more encouragement for private participation. However, when compared to other EMEs, private participation in the infrastructure development in India has gained momentum only recently and its share is not much encouraging. India has attracted only about 6.5 per cent of the total investment among 150 low and middle income nations. The investment has flown mainly into the telecom sector which constituted a share of 49.6 per cent of total investment in India, followed by energy sector at 28.9 per cent and transport sector at 21.3 per cent between 1990 and 2006 (Table 5). Among the developing countries, India stood at fourth position, after China, Brazil and Russian Federation, in terms of Table 5: Investment in PPI Projects in India, 1990-2006 (US $ Million)

Financial Water Total Energy Telecom Transport investment and Sewerage Investment 1 2 3 4 5 6 1990 0 0 2 0 2 1991 614 0 0 0 614 1992 13 0 0 0 13 1993 1,051 0 0 0 1,051 1994 311 97 125 0 533 1995 1,008 683 0 0 1,691 1996 1,553 1,229 182 0 2,964 1997 970 3,827 405 0 5,201 1998 1,066 673 296 0 2,035 1999 2,500 1,045 467 0 4,012 2000 2,357 682 30 0 3,068 2001 345 3,445 343 2 4,136 2002 386 4,615 715 0 5,717 2003 835 1,968 550 0 3,352 2004 4,144 3,731 1,117 111 9,103 2005 755 6,201 1,526 0 8,482 2006 2,750 7,271 9,473 0 19,494 Total 20,658 35,466 15,230 113 71,467

Source: Compiled from Private Participation in Infrastructure (PPI) Database of the World Bank. Attracting the projects and fifth position in terms of volume of investment under private participation. Major share of investments have flown mainly to the sectors where the return on the investments and commercial considerations are high.

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However, while considering the investment requirements of the country to develop the basic infrastructure, it is considered to be a miniscule share.

The PPP Process

4.1 To make the decisions needed to plan, develop, and execute successful PPPs, the process can be broadly divided into four phases, viz., identification stage, development stage, procurement stage and contract management and monitoring stage.

4.2 Phase 1: PPP identification

Covers activities such as strategic planning, project pre-feasibility analysis, Value for Money analysis, PPP suitability checks, and internal clearances to proceed with PPP development.

4.3 Some of the critical drivers are discussed below.

4.3.1 PPP Plan to generate a steady pipeline of PPP projects

To make efficient use of existing assets and harness new investments for greater efficiency, the Government shall set out, over a period, a long term vision and plan document for each sector which defines the role of public and private participation. For each financial year, based on a pre-determined and envisaged level of public services to be rendered, different agencies would set out an annual PPP Plan which would identify a shelf of projects flowing from the overall vision and specify the extent of private investment for each project in the Plan.

4.3.2 Pre-feasibility analysis would be undertaken by the project proponents to assess broad viability of every project envisioned to be procured on a PPP mode. Identification of the key risk factors for the project shall also be undertaken to establish the likely cost and revenue streams of the projects.

4.3.3 Value for Money Drivers

Value for Money assessment plays a central role in decision around investment prioritization and in the selection and presentation of the choice of procurement approach. This is particularly relevant to annuity based payment schemes, where a framework is needed to assess whether or not it is the appropriate procurement route given the alternative of more traditional procurement approaches.

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i. Value for Money (VfM) analysis shall be undertaken to support key decisions. At the outset, VfM analysis shall be undertaken to establish whether to develop a project as a PPP project. Subsequently, the VfM analysis should be undertaken to affirm whether to award a PPP contract on the basis of the bids received. A VfM analysis is most eminent upon structuring a PPP by comparing a shadow bid resulting from the financial analysis with a public sector comparator (or costs in case of conventional procurement).

ii. VfM analysis should be conducted for every project in order to ascertain whether the Project being procured as a PPP is in a way offers good Value for Money to the public sector. VfM analysis would be conducted even if no fiscal support is required, as the costs may be recovered through user charges (as there is an obligation to ensure that charges users pay are fair and reasonable).

iii. VfM assessment would be based on the efficiency savings that can be realized by utilizing the private sector managerial skills, integration and synergy between the design, build and service operation, optimal risk allocation, whole of life costing, innovation, focus on outputs and a robust competitive process to elicit the best bids.

iv. It is recognized that information availability is a constraint in the formulation of VfM analysis and also that sectors have different characteristics that influence the VfM outcomes. The public sector entities, either directly or through agencies such as PPP Cells, would set in place mechanisms for creation of a database which would facilitate this exercise.

The PPP Process

4.3.4 Conformance with State and Sector Legislation

Before structuring a PPP project, an assessment would be carried out to ascertain whether private participation in the delivery of a public service is permissible under the extant legislations. If the same is not allowed but it is deemed prudent to adopt a PPP framework, suitable modifications/amendments would be made to the legislations.

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4.3.5 Adherence to Processes

In addition to the above, a project would be deemed suitable for PPP, only if risks could be allocated in such a manner that maximizes the stakeholder benefits and the implementing agency commits to adhere to the process of development, procurement and post award governance of the project. If a project is found not suitable after the PPP suitability assessment, the implementing agency would consider alternative methods of taking up the project including EPC contracts, corporate sponsor, community participation, etc.

4.4 Phase 2:

Development Stage covers project preparation (including technical feasibility and financial viability analysis), project structuring, preparation of contractual documents and obtaining of project clearances and approval. During this stage, activities would be undertaken with the following objectives:

a. Articulate the scope of the project, implementing agencies requirements and set forth roles/ responsibilities of the parties;

b. Establish that the revenue model is robust and sustainable over the project life;

c. Ensure that the underlying risks are defined and appropriately allocated between the contracting parties;

d. Ensure that the contractual arrangements and documentation accurately reflect the scope of the project, roles and obligations of parties, performance standards, monitoring arrangements, penal provisions, reporting requirements, dispute resolution mechanism and termination arrangements as well as & and effective post award governance mechanisms;

e. Ascertain that contractual arrangements are permissible under the policy, legal and regulatory regime; and

f. Establish stakeholder buy-in and commitment is ensured throughout the process.

4.4.1 As part of the project development activities, implementing agencies would undertake studies and investigations relating to technical, market analysis,

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financial, legal aspects, with the assistance from advisors/consultants wherever required. The output of the project development activities, to the extent feasible, would be made available to the potential bidders during bid process. Some of the core activities critical at this stage are discussed below. 4.4.2 Economic, Financial and Affordability Assessment i. To structure the projects optimally, the implementing agency would evaluate the project from an economic perspective (to ascertain whether the project is warranted public need), then whether the project generates positive value to the private sector (financial viability), and finally ascertain whether defined viable PPP is better than conventional procurement or which of the defined viable PPPs is most attractive (VfM analysis). All these analyses would be based on the same valuation methodology calculation of net present value where future benefits (revenues), and costs (capital, O & M), are discounted to reflect the current value. ii. Economic analysis would form a key input for decisions regarding the (public) need for a project, and would encompass, in addition to the cash flows and items that have financial impact, other external costs and benefits to the stakeholders, regardless of whether they have any financial impact. The future economic benefits and costs will be assessed and discounted using a discount rate that reflects the systematic risk of the projects. iii. Financial analysis would assess whether the project generates sufficient revenues for the capital providers to generate an acceptable rate of return. The future financial benefits and costs (in terms of cash flows) are discounted, using a discount rate reflecting the cost of capital, and which also takes into account the systematic risk of the project. iv. Affordability analysis, with respect to both the implementing agency (viz., committed and contingent liabilities, such as land acquisition costs, rehabilitation and resettlement costs, annuity payments, management fees, etc.) and the likely users (tariffs, user charges, etc.) would be a critical determinant in addition to the VfM analysis, on whether to take up the project on the PPP mode. It is also an effective tool to establish the reasonableness of assumptions underlying the financial analysis.

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v. Bankability assessment would also be carried out to assess the debt service capabilities of the proposed project structure. A Debt Service Coverage Ratio (DSCR) (a ratio of cash flow available for debt servicing divided by the amount of debt service) is a key measure to assess the credit worthiness of a project. In case the analysis suggest that the project is not bankable, the implementing agency might consider developing credit enhancement mechanisms, such as viability gap funding, capital grant or maintenance grant, alternative revenues structures, including shadow user fees, etc. Such credit enhancement structures would be facilitated through institutional and contractual provisions.

vi. Existing loans, guarantees, other statutory and contractual liabilities and contingent liabilities affect the fiscal resources of the project proponents and would be considered while structuring PPP contracts.

4.4.3 Value for Money Analysis

A similar (as adopted for economic and financial analysis) methodology would be utilized for quantitative assessment of Value for Money. The future benefits and costs of applying PPP in comparison with conventional procurement are assessed and discounted using a discount rate reflecting the systematic risk of the project.

4.4.4 Management of Risks

i. The Government, through the implementing agencies, shall identify different types and degree of risks during the project life cycle, and configure appropriate mitigation measures. The objective would be to optimally allocate the project risks, rather than maximize their transfer to the private sector. The attempt would be to allocate risks, taking into account the legitimate concerns of the stakeholders, to the entity that is best suited to manage the same.

ii. In the normal course, the public sector would not retain the risk that the private sector has better ability to bear. However, risks that the public sector is more competent to mitigate/bear in the normal course of its business, such as ensuring availability of unencumbered land for the project or obtaining mandatory clearances of regulatory authorities prior to commencement of the project, would be retained by the public sector.

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iii. The allocation of risk shall be enshrined in the contract document and under normal circumstances shall not be subject to modification after the award of the project. Contractual documentation would provide adequate protection to lenders against non-commercial risks related to force majeure, regulatory changes, contract termination etc. The contract would also prescribe the key performance indicators and output parameters to ensure that the delivery of services adheres with the aspired levels.

iv. To ensure that the projects conform to the guiding principles of PPPs, the Government has notified the Guidelines for Formulation, Appraisal and Approval of Central Sector PPP Projects. The procedure enshrined in these guidelines shall continue to be observed for all central sector projects. States are encouraged to put in place a similar mechanism.

v. Government, where required, would set out mechanisms for periodic review and reallocation of the risks that could not be transferred for the entire contractual period.

Box 2: Criticality of robust legal contracts

A clear legislative and regulatory foundation enabling the public entities/utilities to enter into PPP contracts and arrangements is desirable, to secure:

1. A transparent and objective process for selection of infrastructure projects taking into consideration concessionaire concerns about Value for Money and welfare consideration. In doing so, the process design must be consistent with the governing framework for public procurement;

2. A clearly defined approval, compliance and performance monitoring jurisdiction. This is especially relevant in relation to the rights of local and other authorities such as the Development Authorities, Municipal Authorities and Panchayat Raj Institutions;

3. A clear definition of the role, responsibility and rights of various parties in the governing instruments including the scope of public service, service standards, pricing, and scope of governmental intervention or assistance ;

4. The participation of private parties in ownership and/or management of public assets and/or delivery of public utility services;

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5. The vesting in such private party, the power to –

(a) Collect, retain and appropriate revenue to meet reasonable expenses incurred in implementation of the PPP project including a pre-determined/ agreed return on the funds employed; and

(b) Seek revision of the charges and/or collection in terms of the concession agreement, in order to facilitate business planning and financing.

6. The role of the Concessionaire in maintaining and managing the PPP asset/services and in controlling access to and usage of the infrastructure facility; and,

7. The scope of bankability and securitization of the Concession, Project Assets and revenue (including assign ability) so that the Concessionaire is in a position to avail affordable debt finance by securing lenders.

4.5 Phase 3:

Procurement stage would cover procurement and project award. Transparent, accountable, non-discriminatory, competitive and timely procurement processes would be followed so as to encourage maximum participation by private sector and to imbibe public confidence in the procedure. The PPP rules notified by the Government would define the norms and procedures for procuring PPP projects.

4.5.1 The bid documents used for procurement of private sector entities may comprise one or more of expressions of interest, request for qualifications, and request for proposals. Technical proposals would be invited, depending on the complexity of a project, to assess the ability of the private entity of their appreciation of the desired outcomes. Financial proposals would ideally be in the form of a single objective parameter.

4.5.2 The Government has prescribed the bid process and the model bidding documents (viz., model Request for Qualification and model Request for Proposal) for PPP projects in infrastructure sector, through notifications issued from time to time. The implementing agencies shall observe the prescribed process or take necessary approvals of the competent authority on the process, relevant to their sector, proposed to be undertaken prior to commencement of the bid process.

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4.5.3 A web based market places, including e-tendering and auction would be promoted based on the project requirements to promote wider participation and transparency in the process.

4.5.4 Draft contract agreement1, containing provisions on the roles and obligations of the parties, performance standards and monitoring arrangements, reporting requirements, penalty conditions, force majeure conditions, dispute resolution mechanism and termination arrangements, shall be provided to the prospective bidders as part of the bid documents.

4.5.5 Timelines to be followed during the procurement process would be indicated by the procurement entity in the bidding documents. In order to minimize delays, the procurement entity would endeavor to obtain all necessary approvals for a project from the agencies concerned in a timely manner.

4.5.6 Procuring entities would, on best efforts basis, facilitate all necessary clearances for speedy implementation of a PPP project.

Box 3: Provision for Competitive Dialogue in exceptional circumstances to bring in innovation and design flair from the private sector

In complex contracts where an implementing agency is unable to objectively establish the exact project parameters needed to achieve project objectives, due to a number of possible technological, legal and /or financial options for developing a project, a competitive dialogue process might offer a solution to arrive at clarity on the optimal project scope. This would involve the working together of an implementation agency with likely bidders to explore all possible technical, commercial and legal options and arrive at the optimal solution through an iterative procedure. The dialogue ends when the authority can identify the solution or solutions which meet its needs. Any such exercise must still be followed by the development of appropriate base financial and project models by the implementing agency and a competitive, fair and transparent tendering process avoiding discrimination or bias towards any single party. Bidders then submit tenders based on the solution resulting from the dialogue. Competitive Dialogue cannot be considered as a default position, and must be used with prior approval of competent authority.

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4.6 Phase 4:

PPP contract management and monitoring stage, covers project implementation and monitoring over the life of the PPP project. Contract management is not a passive box ticking/reporting exercise: it is an active process that involves a wide range of skills. Projects are not static, conditions change and the capability of the public authority at the interface with the private sector party is therefore crucial. The contract manager needs to be empowered to take action responsively and effectively only escalating up the chain issues that cannot be managed at the project interface. This calls for effective and efficient governance processes and people with the right mix of skills (or at time access to skills) including project management, commercial expertise and negotiation skills;

4.6.1 The Government and the implementing agencies shall endeavor to ensure timely and smooth implementation of the project. The implementing agency shall put in place a suitable contract administration framework for monitoring project performance milestones over the contract period.

4.6.2 The project implementing agency shall establish appropriate mechanisms for project monitoring such as Project Monitoring Unit (PMU) and inter-department committees that would oversee project implementation, facilitate coordination between departments and render assistance during events of dispute resolution or arbitration. The contract management teams identified would be well prepared and resourced in advance of the contract management stage. In particular, those charged with managing the contract would have a close knowledge and understanding of the relevant terms of the contract, especially, where relevant, the performance criteria and payment mechanisms;

4.6.3 The dispute resolution mechanism would be in accordance with contract conditions and applicable legislation. The implementing agency shall endeavor to speedily resolve and dispose disputes during the contract period through appropriate mechanisms including mediation processes.

4.6.4 The Government recognizes that appropriate capacity is critical to effectively undertake project monitoring and, therefore, appropriate human resources and management systems would be established for the above.

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4.7 Management Information Systems

In order to continuously monitor the performance of the PPP projects over the project life cycle, the Government would establish the MIS for PPP projects. The evaluation of the PPP projects would also be tabulated and summarized so as to utilize the same for improving the quality of service delivery levels and sustainability of PPPs in the future. The database of the projects would not only contain information on the ongoing projects but also set out frameworks for monitoring them during various stages of the project cycle. The database would be so developed so as to generate information for undertaking VfM analysis. PPP Cells would be responsible to set up MIS systems and disseminate information to Government agencies from time to time so as to effectuate suitable policy changes based on the previous experience of managing PPP projects.

4.8 Post Project Award Negotiations

It is acknowledged that including conditions in a PPP contract that allow a party to negotiate post award and execution is not advisable, and to the extent possible, the contract must cover all possible aspects that would required subsequent adjustments. Hence, modifications in the contractual terms should be rare events and subject to the following principles:

4.8.1 The implementing agency must justify that risk sharing at allocation stage has significantly changed due to rare circumstances beyond the control of the parties.

4.8.2 Any such post award negotiations would be undertaken in the spirit of adhering to the VfM analysis established during the project development process.

4.8.3 The implementing agency would obtain prior approval of the sector regulator (if any), the appraising entity and the authority granting approval to the investment decision in the project before effecting any change in the contract.

4.8.4 All negotiations shall be undertaken in a transparent manner aimed at generating awareness among the stake holders about the original bid and contractual conditions, the proposed changes and justifications, thereof. The transparency herein would include mandatory disclosure by both parties.

4.8.5 All such negotiations and contractual modifications would be subject to audit, including stage audit, by the authorities.

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What are the Advantages of a Public Private Partnership?

The advantages of Public Private Partnerships (PPP’s) include the following:

 Speedy, efficient and cost effective delivery of projects

 Value for money for the taxpayer through optimal risk transfer and risk management

 Efficiencies from integrating design and construction of public infrastructure with financing, operation and maintenance/upgrading

 Creation of added value through synergies between public authorities and private sector companies, in particular, through the integration and cross transfer of public and private sector skills, knowledge and expertise

 Alleviation of capacity constraints and bottlenecks in the economy through higher productivity of labor and capital resources in the delivery of projects

 Competition and greater construction capacity (including the participation of overseas firms, especially in joint ventures and partnering arrangements)

 Accountability for the provision and delivery of quality public services through an performance incentive management/regulatory regime

 Innovation and diversity in the provision of public services

 Effective utilization of state assets to the benefit of all users of public services

PUBLIC INFORMATION AND SERVICES THROUGH ICT

 Access to Information (A2I) – to seek, receive and exchange publically held information necessary for voicing opinions and making informed decisions – is fundamental to exercising citizens’ rights. Underpinning the democratic ideal of transparency and accountability in governance with the objective of citizen empowerment to demand their rights-based entitlements, A2I is best defined through a multi-stakeholder model under which facilitators of access will be many including government, social institutions, and/or individual citizens.

 Information and communication technologies (ICT) facilitated public information can play a significant role in improving public scrutiny with regard to the management of public resources; and more accountable and inclusive governance.

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Governments in many countries are now exploring ways to take advantage of these emerging technologies to encourage openness in government and promote citizens’ participation in decision making, ultimately for improving public service delivery and deepening overall democratic processes. With the aim of advancing access to information for enhanced transparency and accountability towards the improvement of democratic practices and public service delivery, One World Foundation India (OWFI), in collaboration with the World Bank Institute (WBI), conducted research on ICT Facilitated A2I Innovations.

Recommendations and Action Plan 2.1 Ensure more progress on e-Government. More information and services should be available online and through electronic channels. i. Establish a Public Service Chief Information Officer (CIO) Council to assist and advise the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform to develop and drive ICT and e-Government initiatives across the Public Service. ii. Develop and publish a new e-Government Strategy. iii. Each Department/public body will complete Project Plans in relation to this new e-Government Strategy. Such plans are to be developed in accordance with advice issued by the Centre for Management and Organizational Development (CMOD). This will include public bodies examining their own services, particularly public facing ones, moving these services, or elements of them, online. It will also include new initiatives such as exploiting the ‘apps’ market to delivery functionality through smart devices.

iv. Seek to progress, in collaboration with relevant Departments and public bodies, the electronic delivery of a range of additional services over the next two years. This delivery will be subject to the sufficient availability of resources, financial investment, management and operational capability. Decisions will also be impacted by normal value-for-money considerations, the need to fulfill legal and international obligations, service control obligations and political priorities. Examples include – - Renewal of adult passports - National rollout of fixyourstreet.ie across all Local Authorities - Planning Applications and Objections - Dev Plan GIS (national spatial data information system)

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- Partial application for Driver Licences - Welfare Benefit and Entitlement Applications - Incorporation of Companies - Relevant Contracts Tax - Manifests System for Trade Facilitation - Business Reporting with XBRL for Corporation Tax - Land registry services for individuals.

v. Monitor progress of each Department/Agency e-Government Plan.

vi. Publish existing online information and services through a centralized portal to increase awareness and access. Leverage this portal to provide centralized and structured access to public service data online.

2.2 Increase the take-up of electronic services and self-service facilities and reduce dependence and traffic on offline channels, to reduce the costs of service provision and facilitate the redeployment of staff to other priorities.

i. Analyze existing legislation, regulations, and service procedures to examine provisions that could mandate the use of online/self-service channels, and thereby eliminate non-electronic delivery where possible and desirable; and/or facilitate the implementation of both positive and negative incentives that would encourage the use of online service offerings. Each Public Body will do this.

2.3 Develop an approach for the consistent identification of residents, across the Public Service.

i. Develop a central system to provide a single view of the identity of residents (the Single Customer View) based on the PPSN and the associated Public Service identity data set.

ii. Develop applications that facilitate identity checking and matching using this Single Customer View – subject to compliance with Data Protection law and principles.

2.4 Ensure implementation of the Public Services Card (PSC) and its rollout as the access mechanism for the vast majority of public services.

i. Agree on an investment programme and the allocation of required resources.

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ii. Develop an awareness programme for both Public Service bodies and for residents on the availability of the card and its potential.

iii. Seek Government approval to mandate all public bodies to use the PSC as the means of accessing their high-value services or explain to the Department why this is not possible.

iv. Examine the best way of using the PSC and its underlying registration facilities and data services as the means of accessing public services over electronic channels.

2.5 Citizens and businesses should have access to information on the availability and performance of key services. Increased sharing and publication of public data will increase transparency, aid the democratic process and drive better decision-making for individuals and businesses, as well as for Government and the Public Service.

i. Publish data held by Public Service organizations online where possible within legal constraints. This should be explored both within the Public Service and with academic and private sector organizations, and should seek to identify how such publishing can be done in a way that provides value to the general public and facilitates the development of both free and commercial products.

2.6 Improve sharing of data on businesses across the Public Service. i. Introduce a common vocabulary for identifying businesses using the Revenue Commissioner’s Business Register. This should be done by all public bodies. ii. Introduce legislation to allow public bodies to collect one of the business identifiers included in the Revenue Business Register and match these identifiers against that Register. iii. Provide technology solutions to allow public bodies to match data against the Revenue Business Register and/or synchronies with it.

2.7 Improve engagement and communications with customers (citizens and businesses), as part of a process to improve service delivery.

i. Continue to drive the Customer Charter initiative in the Public Service, particularly with regard to consultation with customers, identification of

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service targets and channels, and reporting annually on progress made. There should be ongoing focus on the use of plain and accessible language.

ii. Consider whether all parts of the Public Service should undertake two types of annual surveys; a customer satisfaction survey and a staff climate survey. The objective would be to enable trends over time to be identified and enable the organizations to track their progress in addressing any weaknesses that are found and to ensure that their strengths do not become diminished. This will allow the Public Service to better hear the customer’s voice and therefore more effectively tailor its services.

iii. Develop a structured process (which includes published rules, etc.) and facilities on the central portal to allow members of the public to make suggestions online, vote on those suggestions that have been made, get information on their acceptance or otherwise, and track their implementation if agreed to.

2.8 Enhance the use of Cloud computing in the Public Service.

i. Conduct research and trials in conjunction with major ICT companies.

ii. Develop a Cloud Computing Strategy for the Public Service.

iii. Seek, through market exercises, to develop a compelling case over traditional computing provision for Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) provision for the Public Service.

2.9 Implement measures to reduce the costs of ICT provision in Public Bodies. i. Enhance the self-sufficiency of public bodies and reduce their reliance on external resources within the terms of Employment Control Frameworks. ii. Consolidate ICT infrastructure by rationalizing the number of data and computer centre’s in use throughout the Public Service. iii. Assess the potential for data containers and new cooling technologies to reduce operational costs.

iv. Examine the potential for developing shared pools of ICT staff resources to develop centres of excellence, maximize productivity, and reduce duplication of activities.

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2.10 Develop a code of practice for data gathering and its use for statistical purposes across the Public Service, to facilitate improved usefulness of the data gathered for decision-making, planning and service delivery and the reduction of the potential for fraud.

i. Assign the lead role for the development of a code of practice and standards for the gathering and use of data for statistical purposes in the Public Service.

ii. Develop an integrated approach to the collection of administrative data across the Public Service, including a strategy to promote consistent approaches to, and systematic uses of, data (including identifiers, classifications and geo-spatial/postcode data) in service planning and delivery.

iii. Assess the legislative environment with a view to identifying the scope for additional and greater uses of statistical data, including any potential legislative changes where necessary.

ICTACT – Information and Communication Technology Academy of Tamil Nadu is a society formed by a consortium of Government of India, Government of Tamil Nadu & Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

ICTACT is a non-profit autonomous organization, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975, located in Chennai, which has embarked on the novel path of improving the quality of students passing out of educational institutions in Tamil Nadu, the focal point being to make them industry ready and immediately employable in the ICT industry comprising the ICT services and the ICT manufacturing sectors.

The main objective of ICTACT is to train around 5000 Higher education teachers of the Engineering, Arts and Science Colleges, ITI and Polytechnics across Tamil Nadu in three years. This program is expected to benefit over 2, 50,000 students. Beyond the first three years, it is expected that ICTACT shall be self-sustainable through the income from program fees and contributions from voluntary donors, both industry and individuals.

It is also proposed that other regional headquarters and infrastructure for ICTACT shall be planned in subsequent phases. ICTACT is expected to establish itself as a Virtual University.

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DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS IN TAMILNADU

DIFFUSION OF INNOVATION AND ADOPTION

Everett M. Rogers is widely known as the inventor of the “Diffusion of Innovation” theory from his research on how farmers adopt agricultural innovations. After pursuing a degree in agriculture, Rogers earned his PhD in Sociology and Statistics at Iowa State University (1957). His doctorate work stemmed from both his personal interest in understanding why farmers in Iowa, including his father, resisted using such new inventions in their fields as high-yielding hybrid seed corns, chemical fertilizers and weed sprays as well as how such new applications diffuse among farmers over time.

Rogers reviewed the existing studies on diffusion of innovations from educational, medical and marketing domains and found considerable similarities among these different disciplines. His book, Diffusion of Innovations (1962), gave him academic fame and still remains the second most cited book title in social sciences today.

Diffusion is defined as the communication process by which a new idea or new product is accepted by the market, while the rate of diffusion is defined as the speed that the new idea spreads from one consumer to the next. Adoption, similar to diffusion, also deals with the psychological decision making processes of the individual, rather than those of an aggregate market.

Rogers showed that a diffusion process in a social system follows an S-Curve in which the adoption of a technology begins with slow change, is followed by rapid change and ends in slow change as the product matures or new technologies emerge. He also held that people adopt new technological innovations at different times and at different rates. He then used the varying rates of adoption to distinguish different phases in the diffusion process allowing practitioners to assess such things as the life of a new product or service and the application of the correct set of marketing activities at the appropriate time.

The adoption process tracked through the diffusion curve is a decision-making process in which an individual passes from the initial knowledge of an innovation to forming an attitude toward the innovation, to a decision to adopt or reject it, then to its implementation and the use of the new idea, and finally to confirmation of this decision.

The cumulative number of adopters follows the above mentioned S-shaped curve. The number of newly ‘converted’ adopters plotted as a frequency histogram against time follows a bell-shaped Gaussian curve where the number of new adopters rises until 163 DEVELOPMENT COMMUNICATION GLOBALISATION halfway the S-curve after which their numbers decrease, To make the model actionable, Rogers introduced ‘innovativeness’ - the degree to which an individual is relatively earlier in adopting new ideas than other members in a social system. This allowed Rogers to distinguished five groups of adopters as ideal types:

1. INNOVATORS The first 2.5% of adopters are called "Innovators". Innovators are venturesome and educated, have multiple sources of information and show greater propensity to take risks. They appreciate technology for its own sake and are motivated by the idea of being a change agent in their reference group. They are willing to tolerate initial problems that may accompany new products or services and are willing to make shift solutions to such problems.

2. EARLY ADOPTERS

The next 13.5% of adopters are "Early Adopters". They are the social leaders, popular and educated. They are the visionaries in their market and are looking to adopt and use new technology to achieve a revolutionary breakthrough that will achieve dramatic competitive advantage in their industries. They are attracted by high-risk, high-reward projects and are not very price sensitive because they envision great gains in competitive advantage from adopting a new technology. They typically demand personalized solutions and quick-response, highly qualified sales and support.

3. EARLY MAJORITY

The next 34% of adopters are formed by the "Early Majority". They are deliberate and have many informal social contacts. Rather than looking for revolutionary changes to gain productivity enhancements in their firms, they are motivated by evolutionary changes. They have three principles in the adoption of new technology:

 “When it is time to move, let’s move all together”. This principle defines why adoption increases so rapidly in the diffusion process and causes a landslide in demand.

 “When we pick a vendor to lead us to the new paradigm, let us all pick the same one”. This principle explains which firm will become the market leader.

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 “Once the transition starts, the sooner we get it over with, the better”. This principle shows why the transition stage occurs rapidly.

4. LATE MAJORITY

The next 34% of adopters are the "Late Majority". They are skeptical, traditional and of lower socio-economic status. They are very price sensitive and require completely preassembled, bulletproof solutions. They are motivated to buy technology just to stay even with the competition and often rely on a single, trusted adviser to help them make sense of technology.

5. LAGGARDS

The last 16% of the adopters consists of "Laggards". Laggards are technology skeptics who want only to maintain the status quo. They tend not to believe that technology can enhance productivity and are likely to block new technology purchases. Roger’s model has found wide appeal and application in such disciplines as marketing and management science. The model’s most significant application is the Bass Diffusion Model where the process of how new innovations are adopted through the interaction of current and potential users is described mathematically.

Pros:

Adoption/Diffusion of Innovations theory underlines the importance of differentiating customer segments. Furthermore, it depicts the need to convince innovators and early adopters to first make an innovation successful. Using ‘innovativeness’ as variable, Rogers was the first person to group adopters in a scientific and meaningful way.

The model’s ideal types and percentages can be used as a first draft to estimate target groups for communication purposes.

The model shows patterns of consumer adoption at each of the various stages during a product's life cycle by focusing on different characteristics of each adopter categories in terms of (1) socioeconomic status (2) personality & values and (3) communication behavior.

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Cons:

Critics of this model concluded that it is an overly simplified representation of a complex reality. Adopters often fall within different categories for different innovations: a current laggard can be an early adopter the next time around.

The model is not predictive. It does not provide insight in how well a new idea or product will do before it has gone through its adoption curve.

Customers often adapt technology to their own needs, so the innovation may actually change in usage when moving from the early adopters to the majority of users. The model does not include these kinds of mutations. The lubricant WD-40 is a famous example of such a mutation.

Disruptive technologies may radically change the diffusion patterns for established technologies by starting a different competing S-curve. The model does not provide pointers how to best manage such transitions.

Path dependence may lock certain technologies in place that may seriously influence the adoption process and the normal course of the diffusion curve. Innovation is often not a free-standing process, but part of a larger historical setting. An example is the QWERTY PC keyboard whose design originated from 19th century mechanical typewriters. Corporate typing rooms first adopted the PC. To make the transition easier for typists, the keyboard design of mechanical typewriters was copied although one knew that this design from the 1860s was aimed at reducing the number of keystrokes to prevent the typewriter’s mechanical hammers from sticking together. A problem that electronic PCs clearly did not have.

Diffusion of Innovation Theory

Diffusion research examines how ideas are spread among groups of people. Diffusion goes beyond the two-step flow theory, centering on the conditions that increase or decrease the likelihood that an innovation, a new idea, product or practice, will be adopted by members of a given culture. In multi-step diffusion, the opinion leader still exerts a large influence on the behavior of individuals, called adopters, but there are also other intermediaries between the media and the audience's decision-making. One intermediary is the change agent,

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someone who encourages an opinion leader to adopt or reject an innovation (Infante, Rancer and Womack, 1997).

Innovations are not adopted by all individuals in a social system at the same time. Instead, they tend to adopt in a time sequence, and can be classified into adopter categories based upon how long it takes for them to begin using the new idea. Practically speaking, it's very useful for a change agent to be able to identify which category certain individuals belong to, since the short-term goal of most change agents is to facilitate the adoption of an innovation. Adoption of a new idea is caused by human interaction through interpersonal networks. If the initial adopter of an innovation discusses it with two members of a given social system, and these two become adopters who pass the innovation along to two peers, and so on, the resulting distribution follows a binomial expansion. Expect adopter distributions to follow a bell-shaped curve over time (Rogers, 1971).

Adopter Categorization

The criterion for adopter categorization is innovativeness. This is defined as the degree to which an individual is relatively early in adopting a new idea then other members of a social system. Innovativeness is considered "relative" in that an individual has either more or less of it than others in a social system (Rogers, 1971).

Fig. 1 - Adopter categorization on the basis of innovativeness

Adopter distributions closely approach normality. The above figure shows the

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normal frequency distributions divided into five categories: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. Innovators are the first 2.5 percent of a group to adopt a new idea. The next 13.5 percent to adopt an innovation are labeled early adopters. The next 34 percent of the adopters are called the early majority. The 34 percent of the group to the right of the mean are the late majority, and the last 16 percent are considered laggards (Rogers, 1971).

The above method of classifying adopters is not symmetrical, nor is it necessary for it to be so. There are three categories to the left of the mean and only two to the right. While it is possible to break the laggard group into early and late laggards, research shows this single group to be fairly homogenous. While innovators and early adopters could be combined, research shows these two groups as having distinctly different characteristics. The categories are 1) exhaustive, in that they include all units of study, 2) mutually exclusive, excluding from any other category a unit of study already appearing in a category, and 3) derived from one classificatory principle. This method of adopter categorization is presently the most widely used in diffusion research (Rogers, 1971).

Adopter Categories

Innovators are eager to try new ideas, to the point where their venturesomeness almost becomes an obsession. Innovators’ interest in new ideas leads them out of a local circle of peers and into social relationships more cosmopolite than normal. Usually, innovators have substantial financial resources, and the ability to understand and apply complex technical knowledge. While others may consider the innovator to be rash or daring, it is the hazardous risk-taking that is of salient value to this type of individual. The innovator is also willing to accept the occasional setback when new ideas prove unsuccessful (Rogers, 1971).

Early adopters tend to be integrated into the local social system more than innovators. The early adopters are considered to be localities, versus the cosmopolite innovators. People in the early adopter category seem to have the greatest degree of opinion leadership in most social systems. They provide advice and information sought by other adopters about an innovation. Change agents will seek out early adopters to help speed the diffusion process. The early adopter is

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usually respected by his or her peers and has a reputation for successful and discrete use of new ideas (Rogers, 1971).

Members of the early majority category will adopt new ideas just before the average member of a social system. They interact frequently with peers, but are not often found holding leadership positions. As the link between very early adopters and people late to adopt, early majority adopters play an important part in the diffusion process. Their innovation-decision time is relatively longer than innovators and early adopters, since they deliberate some time before completely adopting a new idea. Seldom leading, early majority adopters willingly follow in adopting innovations (Rogers, 1971).

The late majority are a skeptical group, adopting new ideas just after the average member of a social system. Their adoption may be borne out of economic necessity and in response to increasing social pressure. They are cautious about innovations, and are reluctant to adopt until most others in their social system do so first. An innovation must definitely have the weight of system norms behind it to convince the late majority. While they may be persuaded about the utility of an innovation, there must be strong pressure from peers to adopt (Rogers, 1971).

Laggards are traditionalists and the last to adopt an innovation. Possessing almost no opinion leadership, laggards are localite to the point of being isolates compared to the other adopter categories. They are fixated on the past, and all decisions must be made in terms of previous generations. Individual laggards mainly interact with other traditionalists. An innovation finally adopted by a laggard may already be rendered obsolete by more recent ideas already in use by innovators. Laggards are likely to be suspicious not only of innovations, but of innovators and change agents as well (Rogers, 1971).

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UNIT V : E-GOVERNANCE

Objectives of the unit:

 e-Government : Concept and functioning of e-governance  System and operational control and management of e-government  Public and private participation  Information and services to the rural poor  e-Government projects in Tamilnadu  Policies and programmes of e-governance in India  Problems of access and use and challenges for the future.

5.0 National e-Governance Plan

Over the years, a large number of initiatives have been undertaken by various State Governments and Central Ministries to usher in an era of e-Government. Sustained efforts have been made at multiple levels to improve the delivery of public services and simplify the process of accessing them.

5.1 E-Governance in India:

E-Governance in India has steadily evolved from computerization of Government Departments to initiatives that encapsulate the finer points of Governance, such as citizen centricity, service orientation and transparency. Lessons from previous e- Governance initiatives have played an important role in shaping the progressive e- Governance strategy of the country. Due cognizance has been taken of the notion that to speed up e-Governance implementation across the various arms of Government at National, State, and Local levels, a programme approach needs to be adopted, guided by common vision and strategy. This approach has the potential of enabling huge savings in costs through sharing of core and support infrastructure, enabling interoperability through standards, and of presenting a seamless view of Government to citizens.

5.2 National e-Governance Plan (NeGP):

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), takes a holistic view of e-Governance initiatives across the country, integrating them into a collective vision, a shared cause. Around this idea, a massive countrywide infrastructure reaching down to the remotest of villages is evolving, and large-scale digitization of records is

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taking place to enable easy, reliable access over the internet. The ultimate objective is to bring public services closer home to citizens, as articulated in the Vision Statement of NeGP.

5.3 Government approved:

The Government approved the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), comprising of 27 Mission Mode Projects (MMPs)and 8 components, on May 18, 2006. The Government has accorded approval to the vision, approach, strategy, key components, implementation methodology, and management structure for NeGP. However, the approval of NeGP does not constitute financial approval(s) for all the Mission Mode Projects (MMPs) and components under it. The existing or ongoing projects in the MMP category, being implemented by various Central Ministries, States, and State Departments would be suitably augmented and enhanced to align with the objectives of NeGP.

5.4 E-Governance Infrastructure

 State Wide Area Network (SWAN)

 Data Centre

 NSDG

 Common Services Centers

5.5 National e-Governance Division:

The Capacity Building Scheme under the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) of Government of India envisions establishment of an institutional framework for State-Level decision- making including setting-up of State e-Mission Teams (SeMTs) having relevant expertise and experience to provide technical and professional support to States and Union Territories.

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For this purpose, the Department of Information Technology (DIT), Government of India, has created NeGP as an autonomous business division within Media Lab Asia, under the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India, for taking up the tasks being carried out by the Programme Management Unit National e-Governance Plan (PMU-NeGP) at DIT.

Immediate tasks for NeGP include the following projects:

 Programme Management of NeGP, inter-alia including facilitating and supporting DIT in undertaking the following tasks and responsibilities assigned to DIT under NeGP:

 Facilitating implementation of NeGP by various Ministries and State Governments  Providing technical assistance to Central Ministries and State Line Departments  Serving as a secretariat to the Apex Committee  Undertaking technical appraisal of all NeGP projects to examine issues such as overall technology architecture, framework, standards, security policy, service delivery mechanism, sharing of common infrastructure etc.  Human Resource Development, Training and Awareness Building  Framing core policies, technical assistance, R&D, awareness and assessment and creation of organization structure  Acting as a Central Agency for an effective implementation of Capacity Building Scheme inter-alia involving provisioning of manpower at various SeMTs across States/ UTs

 Positioning of a Capacity Building Management Cell for effective management of manpower at SeMTs together with management of other Scheme activities including training, setting up HR policies, etc.

5.6 Objectives:

This paper outlines concepts of e-government, some of the goals and benefits embedded in the practice of e-government and ways e-government is being implemented, and some of the issues involved. The paper also examined e- government as an element in the process of development and some of the goals

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and benefits involved, as well as some of the challenges being encountered. Digital divide issues of e-government are discussed.

The paper concludes that e-government is a key factor in effective government in shaping public sector activities and processes, building relationships between citizens and government, enhancing transparency and accountability, and providing a key channel for citizen participation in government.

5.7 What is E-Government?

E-government describes the use of information and information and communication technology (ICT) to support the operations of government. E- government most often is associated with computer applications and the Internet and the World Wide Web, but also encompasses other ICT applications, such as cellular telephone, satellite communication and geographical information systems.

E-government is not a new concept, in that the business of government in most countries has for many years employed ICT, in communications, administrative systems, data gathering and storage, security and surveillance, and dissemination of information. However, emerging and expanding ICT applications are expanding the capacity and reach of government and offer many new opportunities and potentials for strengthened performance in the public sector.

In practice, “e-government” has several meanings. One narrow definition focuses only on Internet-applications inside government. This narrow definition sometimes is expanded to include the use of the Internet in restructuring government-citizen interactions and related political relationships. Another narrow view relates to e-government as the public sector equivalent of e-commerce and government-citizen transactions.

A broader definition looks at e-government as the use of ICT to strengthen government performance in areas such as more effective and more efficient provision of services, opening new channels for people to access government and official information, and making government more accountable to its citizens. This broad definition of e-government centers on tools and applications that can transform the ways government is practiced and the ways public administration reform and good governance goals can be met. In general, a broader view of e- government may be preferred, referring to overall strengthening of government-

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people relationships, in making internal government processes more efficient and effective, improving the delivery of public services, and expanding processes for democratic accountability and control, citizen participation, and collective decision-making.

E-government is separate from e-governance, the latter referring more specifically to how governments perform, in terms of measures such as meeting expectations, judging performance, and evaluating decision making. E-government also is not Internet governance, which refers to administration and regulation of the Internet.

E-government relates in many ways to, but is not completely the same as, e- democracy, which focuses on more-political issues such as equitable access to ICT, political communication through ICT, and concerns encompassed in the socioeconomic elements of digital divide.

5.8 Goals of E-Government: Government often is seen as inefficient and unresponsive in meeting citizen expectations; and citizens do not have an alternative to government. Increasingly, governments are working to overcome such circumstances through the application of e-government. In many places - globally, within regions and countries, and within government structures - government is beginning to take a more customer- oriented view, regarding citizens as clients and adopting values of consumer satisfaction. In many ways, this is a part of the online, 24/7 availability and response of business carrying over to citizens’ expectations of government. At the same time, government is realizing the efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and improved performance that comes with the ICT applications of e-government. Again, a broad definition of e-government seeks governments becoming stronger and more effective in three main directions: • Making internal administrative processes more efficient and effective • Enhancing the delivery of public services • Strengthening democratic accountability, control and collective decision making. In employing and applying ICT processes and tools, e-government addresses some specific points that improve access to information and services and make government more accountable to citizens:

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• Citizens as clients and customers - effective delivery of public goods and services to citizens without the interventions and inconveniences of traditional bureaucratic and administrative systems. • Strengthened governance - providing improved access to information and to the systems and structures that constitute government, particularly for marginalized and disadvantages segments of a citizenry that most need the benefits and protections government provides.

• Broadened public participation - expanded and more accessible opportunities for the direct participation of all citizens, from all segments of the population, for them to be more actively involved in the policy and decision making processes of government, again, particularly the marginalized and disadvantaged segments of a citizenry, which most often have the fewest opportunities to participate.

• Improved public sector productivity and efficiency -more effective delivery of services, greater productivity of bureaucratic and administrative systems, and more efficient performance cost wise.

• Greater support for private sector performance - government also works with and provides services to business; benefits of e-governance for the private sector include streamlined bureaucracy and administration, more immediate and efficient delivery of benefits and services, and better performance of government as a customer.

5.9 Applications of E-Government: In general, e-government has had significant impact in four specific areas of government operations:

• Government to citizen – e-government facilitates processes for citizens to communicate with government and exchange information, access government services and benefits, and interact with regulatory and licensing agencies; ICT establishes multiple channels and enables citizens’ remote and distributed access to government and government processes overall.

• Government to business – e-government eases business’ access to the bureaucratic and regulatory processes of government, as subjects of

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government or as vendors, lowering transaction costs, shortening time involved, and increasing efficiency, on both sides of the transaction.

• Government to government – transactions within government relate to the transactions between the many units of government at national, regional and local levels, as well as transactions with foreign governments; electronic communication tools can allow government entities to communication more quickly and effective and more easily share resources and information and data, through faster, more efficient, more effective processes.

• Intra government – ICT can improve the relationships and processes within individual government entities; ICT can improve the way government does its basic business, managing processes more effectively and efficiently through electronic best practices; ICT has direct applications in processes such as human resource management and information and knowledge management.

5.10 Issues in E-Government:

While adoption of ICT in government processes and moving toward e-government carries a number of benefits, several significant issues emerge as well.

a) Privacy and Security

Privacy and security of information is a priority issue. ICT offers unprecedented opportunities to gather and store data and information about citizens. Comprehensive and detailed information profiles can accumulate, which can be easily accessed, analyzed, merged and shared. Confidential information about individuals and aspects of individuals’ lives is routinely exchanged through channels such as the Internet, by individuals themselves and by others, official and private sector. Such information can include financial information, criminal records, personal life information, and political preferences. Devising and implementing clear and effective measures for data security and protection of privacy is critical and indispensable. Such measures would prevent a government big-brother scenario as well as unauthorized parties gaining access to secure information.

It is likely that citizens would actively accept communication of sensitive information through electronic channels only when they are confident that

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communication infrastructure and networks are reliable and secure. At the same time, information security becomes a concern of government as government processes move online, putting the functioning of government and its systems at potential risk, including potential exposure of sensitive and confidential government information and data.

Privacy and security of information will become ever more important as more and more government processes become electronic and as e-government moves toward integrated, seamless ICT systems, locally and globally.

b) Information Management As e-government progresses, managing “content” become an increasingly important issue. As ICT systems increase effectiveness in gathering and storing data and information, attention is required as to the actual nature of information and data, and processes for its actual capture, processing, exchange and application. In many respects, government is an information and knowledge industry, information and data is a resource, and government employees are information and knowledge workers. Sound information and knowledge management strategies are needed to ensure that information and knowledge resources and information and knowledge skills are managed appropriately and effectively. The many dimensions of the information and knowledge that government possesses must be considered with regard to the types of information governments possess, such as that employed in basic government functions and in operating administrative systems; in policy and decision making; and in providing services and benefits to citizens. Basic issues of compatibility and interoperability within and between and within government units must be a consideration. c) Citizen Participation E-participation must be a consideration in e-government – engaging citizens in government not merely as customers of agencies or consumers of services, but as clients and constituents of government entities. E-government offers expanded opportunities for strengthening relationships between government and citizens and for citizens to become engaged in the formulation and implementation of public policy and public services.

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E-government can establish new electronic mechanisms through which citizens can comment in the development of policy, and provide input and feedback related to provision of government services. Online communication, such as online polls and surveys, consultation facilities, and bulletin boards and discussion groups are some obvious possibilities. In efforts to strengthen government and improve the relevance and quality of government processes and services, a central purpose in e-government, citizen participation and the ability of citizens to interact with government is very important.

d) Intra-Government Communication

Government becoming more efficient and effective in the ways it communicates within is critical in efforts to improve and strengthen government, and would be a key focus of establishing e-government. Integration of government units and networking in government toward seamless integration of processes and service provision would be an objective of e-government. As governments move toward implementing e-government practices, modalities for achieving networks would require significant attention. An ideal of collective government and an open, interactive, multidisciplinary and collaborative government style obviously would require significant resources as well as major changes and reform in the practice of government.

5.11 Concept of PPP for e-Government:

A variety of solutions in the generic name of Public Private Partnerships are being employed today to bridge the gap between the expected levels of speed, efficiency and spread of public projects especially in the areas of creation of infrastructure and provision of services. The concept of Public Private Partnership (PPP) essentially arises out of considerations like, the imperative to provide infrastructure of high quality, shortage of public funds and above all, the profit motive driving high efficiencies and quality in the privately managed areas. The Public Private Partnership can assume a wide spectrum of shapes like, BOO, BOOT (Build-Own-Operate-Transfer), BOT for specified periods -otherwise called concession contracts, Joint Ventures, private finance initiative (PFI), partial privatization through partnering with strategic investor etc. The idea is to arrive at

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the right combination of public sector accountability with private sector efficiencies and to also to share the risk correspondingly.

Experiences across the globe show that IT is one of the areas which is eminently suited for PPP – especially, in areas such as driving licenses, utility bill collections, management of land records etc. Investments in information technology by governments have an opportunity cost since there are limited resources of money, time and attention. Investing these in IT would explicitly deny such investments in other development areas like provision of water, sanitation, health, shelter, and production technology and skills development. Investments in information technology have therefore to be made very strategically by governments. The Government of Andhra Pradesh has focused its energies on creation of content and digitization of databases so that transaction based services become attractive for private sector players. For example, in the case of the TWINS project after a successful demonstration of the pilot, private sector partners have been involved to provide services to citizens. In the case of infrastructure creation, government has leveraged assets like land for attracting private sector investments to set up facilities like Hitec City. Similarly, government has used the provision of a royalty free right of way for attracting investments into setting up high-speed optical fibre networks. The possible usage of such networks for e-government applications in the future has in turn enhanced their commercial viability.

5.12 Public-Private Partnership and E-Governance:

PPP is an arrangement between a public (government) entity and private (non- government) entity by which, services traditionally delivered by the public entity are now provided largely by private entity under a set of terms and conditions well defined at the outset. Hence, under the PPP approach, output based indicators are much more important- level of cleanliness in the city ward, for instance. PPPs therefore, imply sharing of management control, and impose local, as opposed to distant accountability. The Ministry of finance has defined PPPs for the core infrastructure sectors, as a project based on a contract or concession agreement, between a Government or statutory entity on one side and a private sector company on the other, for delivering infrastructure service on payment of user charges; such private sector company is to be selected through a process of open

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competitive bidding. The essential elements are payment of user charges; under a contract or concession agreement. Further, PPPs are advocated especially at the city Government level, and in the social sectors such as Health and Education.

So far, PPP’s main charm seems to be in leveraging private money as a supplement to public funding. It should be realized that service quality and output is much better in PPP, since private sector rewards and incentives efficiencies. Projects get executed faster, and are maintained better, given a good contractual relationship.

E-Governance enhances the efficacy of citizen and Government interaction. This has been made possible by public private sector partnerships leading to the availability of more affordable and rugged PCs to suit operating conditions in the hinterland and deepening Internet penetration. With the realization of e- Governance projects in India, the time has come to review the role of the public sector as well as private sector to speed up the process of implementation of different projects related to e-Governance. The Government agencies throughout the world are considering and conducting e-Governance initiatives with the help of private players; the scene in India is much the same.

The development of network-based distributed systems that serve numerous and diverse constituents and improve the overall efficiency and functioning of Government is a priority. Considering these requirements, private players such as IT vendors are extending their overall support to realize e-Governance projects for Indian citizens. Not just the Central Government, State Governments are also actively participating in these projects. Today, most states have drafted state- specific IT policies that are in various stages of implementation.

The Central Government has also taken several initiatives to advance ICT usage across all Government bodies as this will benefit the common man. These include the roll-out of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP), the launch of Mission 2007, and the formation of e-panchayats across the country. R.Chandrashekhar, Additional Secretary, e-Governance, Ministry of Communication and Information technologies, Government of India., states that “We welcome private participation in fulfilling the e-Governance initiatives of the Government of India. But this participation can only happen at the front-end level since the government is

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handling all the back-end work. For example, in the case of ICT kiosks, any private party can do the setting-up of a kiosk, but to run that kiosk the government will provide all Vinay Sharma and Piyush Seth / Effective Public Private Partnership through E-Governance Facilitation support.” If we have a closer look at the various projects already implemented in India, as well as those at the pilot stage, then we get a clear idea of the PPP model. Some of the IT companies that have taken a pioneering role in e-Governance projects include Microsoft, Sun, IBM, TCS, HCL Info systems and Adobe.

5.13 Perspectives on Public-Private Partnerships:

PPP provides a unique opportunity for public agencies to partner with private organizations on government initiated projects.

The key features of a PPP infrastructure have been identified as: • a private partner investing in public infrastructure and providing related non- core services. • the government retaining responsibility for the delivery of core services. • the government and private party working together under long-term arrangements.

The use of PPPs entails changes to the role of government. This often entails a shift from being the supplier to the buyer of services. A significant feature of the PPP approach is the allocation of risk to the partner, that is, a private or public institution most able to manage that risk. For example, a public agency would be responsible for environmental clearance, conceptual engineering, agency permitting and any necessary enabling legislation while the private partner is most readily equipped to handle the financial risk due to the ability to manage construction procedures, incorporate technological innovations and attract financial investment capital (Australian Government, 2002). In addition to the risk sharing between the partners, there are also other reasons governments are attracted to PPPs. They include the potential for value for money, early project delivery; gains from innovation, obviating the need to borrow to finance infrastructure investment and access to improved services. The last few decades have witnessed the application of PPP within the implementation of e-government services. The maturing of ICT and its dominance since the dawn of the century

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has enabled public agencies to work together with IT partners in the private sector in providing e-services to citizens, which complements the traditional mode of the delivering these services by governments to their stakeholders.

The e-government applications require new business processes and also collaboration across different government entities. Therefore, given the vast experience in dealing with e-business and e-commerce, private partner scan help governments worldwide deliver better services to their citizens. In addition, governments today are moving towards results and performance oriented measurement. For all these reasons, it is timely for governments to partner with private sector where the former can lay the foundation using open platforms through private partnerships and build upon it.

Public-Private partnership modeling for integrated services; Public access to Government services is uncoordinated, cumbersome and paper based, which is further compounded in case more than one agency is involved. We work through various listed frameworks to design a transparent partnership to create win-win situations for all stakeholders such as;

Government-to-Business (G2B) Government-to-Government (G2G) Government- to-Employees (G2E).

5.14 E-services:

5.14.1 E-government to citizens:

 Tax payment  Biometric identification cards  Government websites  Irrigation management  Digitized land administration  SMS extension services  Mobile or radio pricing information  Citizen report cards  Complaint lines  Discussion forums  Virtual communities  Participatory budgeting  Chat rooms

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 Mailing lists  Opinion polls  Citizen juries  Online  Focus groups  Petitions  Blogs  Online media  Social networks  Online video or news broadcasts

5.14.2 E-government to business:

 Regulatory information  Procurement  Automated tax payments  Electronic toll collection

5.14.3 E-government to employees or government:

 Knowledge management systems  Intranet  Financial management systems  Automated payroll  Online timesheets

5.14.4 E-services to citizens:

 Agriculture websites  E-learning  Radio broadcasts  Online petitions  Video-based information  Dissemination  SMS alerts  Innovation hubs

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5.15 E-govt. Projects in Tamilnadu:

5.15.1 Core Infrastructure projects under NeGP:

1. Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Networks (TNSWAN)

Tamil Nadu State Wide Area Network or TNSWAN forms the backbone of the IT infrastructure in the state. The project has already been implemented in the state. The implementation of the project started with the GoI approval during April 2005. The Project estimate is 181.69 crores (DIT share Rs. 97.17 crores & State Share Rs. 84.52 crores). The whole network has been successfully commissioned connecting 708 locations and BOOT operation by TCS commenced from 01.12.2007. Tamil Nadu has become the first state in India to complete the vertical connectivity.

TNSWAN interconnects 42 tier-1 offices {State Secretariat & five Government complexes (Metro Centre’s), Five Special Offices & ELCOT Perungudi office (Network Operating Center-NOC) at Chennai and 30 District Collectorates, and 666 tier-2 offices {73 Revenue divisions, 208 Taluk offices and 385 block offices}. It also provides Voice, Data and Video connectivity for improving the delivery of services to the Citizens.

ELCOT is the implementing agency of the project. HCL Info systems Ltd. is the consultant of the project. Tata Consultancy Services is the Operating Agency of the network, who has set up and maintaining the network on BOOT (Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) basis over a period of 5 years. BSNL is the bandwidth provider of the network.

Now, Government of Tamil Nadu proposes for the horizontal connectivity from the existing POPs of TNSWAN so that large number of last mile offices can be made part of this huge intranet. All last mile offices of various Government departments will progressively be brought into this intranet.

2. State Data Centre

The State Data Centre (SDC) has been recognized as one of the building block of the core infrastructure for supporting e-Governance initiatives under NeGP (National e-Governance Plan). The establishment of State Data Centre (SDC) for Tamil Nadu has been initiated as per the guidelines of SDC. On

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completion, it will combine services, applications and infrastructure to provide efficient electronic delivery of G2G, G2C and G2B Services.

Under Phase-1 of the project, Main Frame Servers have been commissioned adjacent to the Network Operating Centre (NOC) of TNSWAN at ELCOT Premises, Perungudi to meet the immediate requirements of the Departments to roll out their applications through TNSWAN from July 2007 onwards. ELCOT has been nominated as the Implementing Agency of the project in the state.

Project Implementation Committee had been formed by the State Government as per the guidelines of DIT, GOI to monitor the project. M/s. PricewaterhouseCoopers Pvt. Ltd (PWC), New Delhi is the Consultant empanelled by DIT, GOI and allocated for Tamil Nadu. The project is under progress and will be completed during the year 2010-11.

3. Common Service Centre’s (CSC)

In order to comprehend the vision of National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) in providing all Government services in an incorporated mode at the doorstep of the citizen at a reasonable cost, Department of Information Technology, GoI has formulated the Common Services Center (CSC) scheme and planned to roll out 100,000 + CSCs across the country using Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model. The CSCs are envisioned as the front end delivery points for Government and Private Services to the common citizens of the country.

In Tamil Nadu, 5440 CSCs are either being implemented or are in various stages of implementation. Two Service Center Agencies (SCAs) have been selected by the state through a transparent bidding process to rollout the CSCs in their allotted divisions.

The scheme is based on a three-tier structure:

 At the first level would be the Tamil Nadu e-Governance Agency, to assist the execution of the scheme within the state and to provide policy level support to the SCAs.

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 At the second Level would be the Service Center Agency who is the key driver of the business, who would establish and operate the CSCs at the Village Level in their specified areas of operations.

 At the third level would be the Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) who would be appointed by the SCA to run the business at the village level to cater to the rural consumer within a cluster of 3 villages.

Two Service Center Agencies have been selected by the state to establish and operationalize the Common Service Center across the state:

 3i InfoTech Pvt Limited - 2100 CSCs

 Srei-Sahaj e-Village Limited - 3340 CSCs

 Currently, more than 2500 CSCs are operational across the state.

4. State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG)

The National e-Governance Plan (NeGP) envisages for Common Service Centers (CSCs) to ensure efficiency, transparency & reliability of such services. One of the goals of the Government to meet this vision is the need to assist team up and integrate information across different departmental levels. The State e-Governance Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) aims at easing this job by acting as a standards-based messaging switch and providing seamless interoperability and exchange of data across.

Government of Tamil Nadu is planning to generate an integrated information infrastructure that will enlarge, incorporate and augment the efficacy and reach of the services provided by the Government through the network of Common Service Centre’s. DIT has already empanelled five implementing agencies through a central empanelment process and out of these five, one agency will be chosen by the state to carry out the implementation of the project.

The basic components of the project are as follows:

 State Portal and Content Management System(CMS)

 Training and Manpower for SSDG, State Portal , CMS, e forms and Gap Infrastructure

 Electronic forms

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 State Service Delivery Gateway (SSDG) Stack

 Compliance/Certification by STQC

 Infrastructure requirements for State Portal

 Computing Infrastructure at the destination offices including gaps in connectivity.

M/s Infrastructure leasing and Financial Services Limited has been appointed as Consultants for this project. Government of India has sanctioned Rs.16.13 crores towards implementation of the Tamil Nadu State Portal, TNSSDDG and Electronic forms. The SPC meeting was held on 15.04.2010 and the RFP for selection of Implementing Agency approved by the SPC, RFP has been circulated to empanelled agencies on 07.05.2010.

5. State e-Mission Team (SeMT)

SeMT shall bring in the knowledge of critical issues throughout the e- Governance project life cycle, besides setting up of large data centers, networking hundreds of sites, issues of capacity building and change management, ERP roll outs, importance of data entry, back end data bases and migration etc.

To get sanction for a large e-Governance project also needs an excellent understanding of the Government rules, regulations, and funding mechanisms. SeMT helps in bridging this gap. SeMT also helps in monitoring the Pre- project activities like preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) of the project. SeMT will run the RFP process, Technical evaluation and financial evaluation in short listing the Implementing Agency (IA). During the course of the project, SeMT capacity building team will work towards the change management issues so that the project attains its objectives and is sustainable. In the Post-execution period of the project, the SeMT intervenes in firming up the scaling up effort of the Projects and ensure the eventual complete roll out and success of the Projects.

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State MMP’s and other e-Governance Projects:

E-Governance Initiatives in Land Administration and Management:

1. Tamil NILAM

Tamil NILAM is an e-Governance project taken up by the Revenue Department of the state for the delivery of all possible Citizen-centric e- services related to land administration and management. It deals with the following activities:

 Creation of Master database storing plot wise and owner-wise details of land, crop, revenue, etc

 Generation of periodic reports through the computerized system

 Issue of Chitta Extract (Record of Right) / A Register Extract / Adangal Extract to citizens

 Easy maintenance and updates of Land Records

 Availability of information to public through Touch Screen Kiosk

 Exchange of data to other departments such as Sub Registrar Office, Agriculture Department etc.

The software used for Tamil NILAM uses local Tamil language for the ease of citizens. It also come up with features like role based privileges Subdivision order printing, Patta transfer order printing, Maintenance of Crop details, Adhoc Query facility etc.

The transactions handled by the Tamil NILAM software includes Full field Patta Transfer, Joint Patta Transfer, Subdivision, Change of Classification, Adangal, Land Revenue etc. So far, the project has been implemented in all the rural Taluks of the state. Touch screen kiosks have been installed in 127 Taluks of the state.

2. CollabLand

CollabLand is a Java based Field Measurement Book (FMB) Map Drawing Software developed by NIC, Tamil Nadu. It uses open standards to attain inter application operability. The software has been developed

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using Open Domain Development Tool Sets, Libraries and Software Packages. It comes with following features:

 Viewing/Printing FMB Extracts as a Citizen Service

 Create FMB Maps using Ladder Data

 Perform transactions like Sub-Division, Merging

 Mosaicing of FMB maps to create village boundaries

 Provide integrated Solution with non-spatial Data

Collabland has been implemented in Perambalur and Pudukkottai taluks on pilot basis and efforts are on for its implementation in the entire state.

3. Taluk Acknowledgement and Assurance System (TAAS)

NIC TNSC has developed the Taluk Assurance and Acknowledgement System (TAAS) for the Taluk office. The software accepts petitions from the rural citizens and gives a acknowledgement to them. The TAAS software currently handles the following types of Petitions:

 Patta transfer

 Sub Division

 F Line

 Birth Certificate

 Death Certificate

The software TAAS ver 1.0 has been initially implemented in one Taluk in 8 Districts on pilot basis. The software is work flow based and on the basis of type of service, the concerned Revenue staff at Taluk office can view the petitions relating to them and take necessary action and update the same on the Taluk server. It is proposed to install a separate PC with printer at every Taluk connected to Taluk server for this purpose.

This software has been approved by the Special Commissioner of Land Administration and the Special Commissioner of Survey and Settlement.

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4. Anytime / Anywhere Land Records e-Services:

This new website by the Revenue Department of Tamil Nadu enables the land owners to view their Patta Copy (Chitta Extract) and A-Register Extract for the agriculture land.

E-Governance Initiatives in Transport Sector:

5. Vahan and Sarathi Applications

Vahan and Sarathi are application Software developed for State Transport Authority, Tamil Nadu by the State NIC unit.

Vahan is for doling out all transactions related to vehicles while Sarathi software is for processing Driving Licence, Learners Licence, Permanent Driving Licence, Conductor Licence and also Driving School Licence to the applicant. Vahan can also be used for the issue of Registration Certificate and Permits.

On pilot basis, the system was implemented in RTO Chennai (North). The system was then approved for implementation in all other RTOs in Tamil Nadu and now the systems have been implemented in all the 71 offices.

6. Smart Cards

For ensuring a faster, expedient and more focused process for obtaining Driving Licenses and Registration Certificates, the Smart Card project has been implemented on a pilot basis in three Regional Transport Offices namely-Chennai (South), Cuddalore and Sivaganga in the state. It is proposed to extend this project to cover all the Regional Transport Offices/Unit Offices throughout they can access the database.

The Smart card would capture and store the Biometrics, Photographs, Signature etc., of the individual Licence / Permit holder etc. These details would be held in the card in electronic form. Moreover, the date in the Smart can be updated but cannot be erased, which provides for a permanent audit trial and prevents intentional tampering. The data stored

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in optical strip is digitally signed to prevent unauthorized access. Also, to enable quick access of vehicle details mobile hand terminals have to be provided to Department.

E-Governance Initiatives in Employment Sector:

7. Professional Employment Exchange Office (PEEO)

The main objective behind initiation of Professional Employment Exchange Office (PEEO) is to cater to the employment needs of professionals registered in Tamil Nadu. The PEEO office comes under the Directorate of Employment and Training. It registers the candidates seeking employment opportunities and recommends to various departments / offices requesting suitable professionals. The PEEO has decided to open their databases for access to the private sector employers, to create more avenues for the registered candidates. The mushrooming growth of private sector employment in this information era necessitates making online web access of the entire database of registered candidates. In this scenario, the department has created a online web portal for the welfare of candidates and thrown open the entire online database for private sector employment opportunities. The website was launched on 6th June 2003.

The objectives of this web site are as follows:-

 To develop a Data Bank of highly qualified, marketable candidates from the Live Register of the Employment Exchanges in Tamil Nadu with the accent on persons with professional, executive and engineering diploma and degrees.

 To allow the private sector employers easy access to this database to fill up vacancies arising in their establishments and to offer facilities for screening and short-listing of prospective employees

 To provide online information on application deadlines, hot track careers and future trends in employment.

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8. Computerization of Employment Exchanges

In an effort to provide a transparent, proficient, speedy and complaint- free services, all the thirty three Employment exchanges across the state have been provided with computer systems. Computerized counter services are now offered for registration and issue of identity cards to job seekers.

9. Online Interactive Web Site cum Portal

An on-line interactive web-site-cum-portal is set up to develop a data bank of highly qualified, marketable candidates from the Live Register of the Employment Exchanges in Tamil Nadu to allow private sector employers and others for easy access. This will encourage the placement of students in Private companies.

The job seekers can login into the website by providing their Registration Number & Date of birth as password. Upon successful login, the candidate can perform the following activities:

 Browse his Registration details  Renew his Registration online  Additional – General details entry  Record his Experience  Browse his modified resume  Hot jobs posted if any by the Employer.

10. Online Registration for Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission

Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission (TNPSC) has been delegated with the responsibility of carrying out more than 170 tests meant for Government servants as required under various service rules, including those of TNEB, TWAD & Chennai Metro water, are conducted . This is a fairly large piece of work as about 60,000 personnel take the exams every May and 25,000 every December.

The Online Registration web application has been designed, developed and hosted by NIC Tamil Nadu State Centre as per the specifications prescribed by the Tamil Nadu Public Service Commission. It is a web-

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based project that captures the essential details of the candidate applying to that particular Examination through a user-friendly form, assigns an Application No. and generates both the pages of Application forms in A4 size papers, with sufficient space for photograph, signature and postal receipt. Candidate can take the print out of these Application Forms. The Candidates have to send this duly signed Online Application Form and other document copies along with the Demand Draft or Postal Receipt towards the Application and Examination Fee and photographs, to TNPSC by post. Up to now, 112 Online Registration projects have been successfully designed, developed and hosted by NIC-TNSC.

E-Governance Initiatives in Finance Department:

11. E - Karuvoolam: Automated Treasury bill Passing System

E-Karuvoolam is an automated Treasury Bill Passing System that is aimed at computerizing the existing manual billing system of Treasury Department. This application software has been developed by the State NIC unit provides online environment with systems available on all working tables starting from the bill submission counter. The officials can process the bills online and take action for passing / rejecting the claim.

The Workflow based Systems developed for the Treasury Department enables to capturing the data starting from bill submission stage at the counters. The system has two features viz. Bill can be sent online with digital signature and bills can also be accepted at the counters. The project had been taken up for pilot implementation at the following locations:

 Karur District Treasury and its 3 Sub Treasuries

 Theni District Treasury and its 5 Sub Treasuries

12. Computerization of Treasuries and Accounts Department Treasuries and Accounts Department is one of the first departments in the state to adopt computerized systems. The computing facilities at Government Data Centre, Chennai were used in 1972 for preparing monthly accounts.

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Tamil Nadu is the only state, which compiles and renders the monthly accounts to the sub-detailed level to the Accountant General. In respect of other states, AG prepares the monthly accounts based on the list of payments / receipts sent by the treasuries. Thus, for the limited purpose of preparation of monthly accounts, preparation of pension statements and watching of budget provision to certain extent the need for computerization was felt. In the 1990s, with the advent of low cost Personal Computers, the distributed computing became feasible.

The Pilot Electronic Clearing System (ECS) for payment of pension is introduced in the Pension Pay Office, Chennai (PPO) in 1998. The tremendous success of ECS for pensioners in PPO led to the extension of ECS for payment of salary to the employees of offices attached to PAO (Secretariat) and PAO (East) in Chennai w.e.f. April 2003. Later in 2005, payment of non-statutory deductions like LIC premium, Co-operative Society payment, Bank payments etc., through ECS were introduced and being implemented. At present, more than 95%of the Government servants are getting their salary only through ECS throughout the State.

13. Automated Treasury bill Passing System

Initially started under the name of Online Bill Passing System, the Automated Treasury Bill Passing System- was revived again in 2003. The system implemented so far had been loaded with back-office system operations for capturing the details from the passed bills for generating required Accounts Statements and Registers.

The whole system is a Workflow based System that captures the data starting from bill submission stage at the counters. The officials can process the bills online and take action for passing / rejecting the claim. The application software developed by NIC is under Windows and ASP.NET environment with SQL Server 2000 as database. The system was taken up for pilot implementation at Karur and Theni District Treasuries and their Sub Treasuries besides PAO Secretariat. Regular run of ATBPS commenced at PAO (Secretariat), Chennai, Karur and Theni Districts from 2007.

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14. Other e-Governance initiatives in Revenue and Accounts Department:

 Intranet based system for capture of salary details under Electronic Clearance System implemented at PAOs and all District Treasuries

 Health Fund Scheme Management System developed in- house by the office of T&A

 All India Service Officers Group Insurance Accounting System developed in-house the office of T&A

 Stamp account Management Information System developed by NIC

 ECS Information System developed by NIC through which any employee may access status of salary and non salary bills by entering GPF account no./bank account no./token number.

15. Allotment and Expenditure (Budget) Monitoring System

On the basis of budget prepared by the Finance Department to the Departments, the Departments allocate funds to the respective districts or to its sub-ordinate offices. A web based application called Allotment and Expenditure (Budget) Monitoring System has been developed to monitor the expenditure of these funds, which collects data regarding allotment of funds on various schemes from Finance Department on different categories like Non-plan, Plan, State sponsored schemes etc., for a department. Based on this, district wise allotment on each account head for a quarter is reorganized. The system comprises of three user levels:

 An Individual User is able to view his/her information.

 The Administrative User has access to all the users of that Department.

 The Super User has access to all the users of all the Departments. Individual User can login and access his data only. Here the individual user is the district or the sub-ordinate office.

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The system consists of four major modules viz: Allotment for the Department, District-wise Allotment, Expenditure Entry, Reports and Query.

E-Governance Initiatives in Agriculture Sector:

16. AGRISNET Portal

The main aim of the AGRISNET Portal of Tamil Nadu is to provide all farmers with an advanced, reliable and faster information retrieval system, which provides comprehensive information regarding crop cultivation and related information. The portal also provides all relevant information for policy making, planning and monitoring, and forewarns the farmers precisely through the Extension Service delivery system.

This portal provides farmers with latest information related to recent developments in the field of agriculture along with the availability of seeds, fertilizers and pesticides and their pricing details. Besides this, the portal provides farmers with the weather forecast and soil fertility details.

17. Website for Domestic Export and Market Intelligence Cell

After harvesting the crop, the farmers do not have any information on how the prices would move in the near future; they are not able to decide the best time of selling their produce even for the commodities that can be stored for short periods in the farm itself. To overcome this, the State NIC has developed and hosted a website for Domestic & Export Market Intelligence Cell (DEMIC) for the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. The DEMIC website aims to disseminate market and price information to the farmers to facilitate better planning, production, storage and sale. The Market Intelligence Cell provides periodic bulletins on the following, which are uploaded on the website:

a) forecast the supply and demand of important agricultural commodities in Tamilnadu.

b) forecast future prices of major agricultural commodities

c) study the state and national market situation related to important commodities.

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18. AGMARKNET Portal

The AGMARKNET website (www.agmarknet.nic.in ) is a G2C e- governance portal that caters to the needs of various stakeholders such as farmers, industry, policy makers and academic institutions by providing agricultural marketing related information from a single window. It facilitates dissemination, over web, of the daily arrivals and prices of commodities in the agricultural produce markets spread across the country.

E-Governance Initiatives in Education Sector:

19. ICT Academy

ICTACT – Information and Communication Technology Academy of Tamil Nadu is a society formed by a consortium of Government of India, Government of Tamil Nadu & Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

ICTACT is a non-profit autonomous organization, registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975, located in Chennai, which has embarked on the novel path of improving the quality of students passing out of educational institutions in Tamil Nadu, the focal point being to make them industry ready and immediately employable in the ICT industry comprising the ICT services and the ICT manufacturing sectors.

The main objective of ICTACT is to train around 5000 Higher education teachers of the Engineering, Arts and Science Colleges, ITI and Polytechnics across Tamil Nadu in three years. This program is expected to benefit over 2, 50,000 students. Beyond the first three years, it is expected that ICTACT shall be self-sustainable through the income from program fees and contributions from voluntary donors, both industry and individuals.

It is also proposed that other regional headquarters and infrastructure for ICTACT shall be planned in subsequent phases. ICTACT is expected to establish itself as a Virtual University.

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20. IT in Tamil

In order to take Tamil to the masses, Government of Tamil Nadu has undertaken many unique IT initiatives. State Government of Tamil Nadu is already a member of the international “Unicode Consortium” (to deal with issues regarding the coding of Tamil characters. Besides this, coding schemes for Tamil monolingual and bilingual scripts have been finalized and notified.

A certification mechanism, supported by the Tamil software industry has been put in place to certify compliance of hardware and software offerings with the standards referred to above. So far, 26 software and hardware offerings have been certified which conform to the standards and have been authorized for use in Tamil Nadu Government and its institutions. A Tamil Software Development Fund with an amount of Rs.5 crores has been set up to encourage the development of innovative Tamil software - the fund has supported seven projects till date.

The three reputed Universities, i.e. Anna University, Chennai, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Regional Engineering College, Tiruchirappalli, authorized to set up one Endowment Chair each for Tamil in IT.

The Tamil Virtual University or TVU has been set up by the Government in order to promote virtual (online) learning of Tamil by the students- anywhere, anytime all around the world. It will also function as a facility for creating multimedia teaching content in Tamil for both IT enabling of education and for training of teachers. A certificate programme and a degree programme have been launched. A digital library has been setup by TVU.

21. IT in Education

To popularize IT at School and College level, Government of Tamil Nadu has taken many heartening steps. In this direction, Computer Science syllabus for Classes 11 and 12 of the State Higher Secondary Board has been completely revised and updated. Also, an innovative public - private partnership program has been launched to make Computer Science available as an option in all Government Higher

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Secondary Schools in the State. So far, 1197 schools in the state producing 40,000 students per year have been covered in the project. Further, 5 teachers per school per year in each of these schools including the Principal, are also imparted computer literacy skills.

Based on the success of the school program, a one-year computer literacy program for students in all 60 Government Arts and Science Colleges, all 11 Medical Colleges, the only Dental College and in all 5 Law Colleges in the State has been launched. This will cover about 30,000 students every year. This program will also include Internet skills. The program is fully operational.

22. e-Attendance Monitoring System

The e-Governance Cell of DoTE has developed e-Attendance Monitoring System to monitor the attendance details of about 2.71 Lakhs Diploma Students studying in about 340 Polytechnic Institutions all over the state. Every Institution has to enter the Monthly Attendance details of every student in the first week of the following month. Duly signed hard copies of the Branch-wise Attendance Registers are to be generated from this application and to be sent to DoTE for filing purposes.

Any time, a student can login to view his/her Attendance Details for the current Academic Year. At the end of the semester, Hall Tickets will be generated only for the Eligible Students taken from this e-Attendance Database. Thus, this Intranet application helps the DoTE to streamline and to bring transparency to the Examination Processing System in the DoTE.

The Staff Profile Intranet application of the system has been designed to collect the essential details of about 12,000 Teaching Staff of the DoTE working in various Polytechnic Institutions all over the State, like Qualification, Service, Teaching Experience etc. These details are to be updated by the respective Institution at regular intervals.

The Institution Profile Intranet application of the system has been designed to collect the essential details of about 340 Institutions

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functioning under DoTE like Contact details, Infrastructure details, Courses details, Performance details, Placement details etc.

Miscellaneous e-Governance Initiatives:

23. ICT Repository

For the storage and upkeep of operating manuals, software code set, CDs, Training records, roles and responsibilities of various stakeholders, System manuals etc.

The ICT Repository shall be established at TNeGA. This shall provide guidelines and roadmaps on how to access and use common resources and the necessary budgetary support required.

All IT application systems source code will be kept in Government Repository along with their User Acceptance Test and audit reports (Technical and Financial). Newer applications being developed by any agency shall also comply with this requirement and TNeGA would be responsible for maintaining and managing the repository.

24. PATRAM: Postal Accounts Transaction Maintenance Software

In order to maintain all accounting details in one-single repository, NIC Tamil Nadu has developed PATRAM (Postal Accounts Transaction Maintenance). It follows the auditing functions carried out by the Cash Certificates Section. The PATRAM software consists of 18 modules (Supply, Discharge, Issue, ATD-in - Foreign Circle transfers, Clearance of Objections, Clearance of Un-posted items, Non-Cash Transactions, Unsold Stock, Backlog, Supervisory, Sent-out CCs, Monthly HO Returns, Reconciliation with Detailed Book, Clearance of Outstanding items, Forms and Broadsheets, Unclaimed Deposits, Undeliverable CCs). This system was developed taking Tamil Nadu Postal Circle as the pilot site with a plan to replicate the software at other sites in the country subsequently. The system is running successfully at the pilot site.

PATRAM Backlog module was developed to carry over all current accounting details being maintained in various registers, mainly the S&I register, which would be the base data for PATRAM Software. This

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includes data such as - Details of all CCs issued but not discharged, Un- posted / Objection / Outstanding items not cleared, various Opening Balances etc. at the time of software installation. PATRAM Supervisory Module handles creation of directory tables and maintenance of basic system administration functions.

25. E-Governance at Madras High Court

A comprehensive suite of IT initiatives have been taken up at High Court of Madras so as to ease down the work load by increasing the efficiency in dealing with the pendency of cases. In this regard, the following steps have been taken:

 Display systems are installed at the Principal bench and Madurai bench of the Madras High Court so as to facilitate the people to know about the status of cases being heard at court. Up to now, 35 court hall displays and 6 composite displays are installed at Principal bench.

 Certified copies of Final orders, Bails/Anticipatory Bails and interim application orders are entered and issued through the system. The computerized system has reduced the time delay in issuance of copies to the litigants. Systems for posting Case Status have been developed. The case details have been hosted on Internet.

 New Codification system is introduced at Madras HC in which the advocates are required to fill up the coding sheet for easy classification of cases. The system is implemented from 12-06-2006.

 Daily Cause Lists are being prepared using the system and are being hosted on Internet. Systems are installed at Filing Counter, Posting sections for preparation of cause list. Reported Judgments are being hosted on Internet. More than 1500 users visit the Madras HC Judgment site every day.

 Madras High Court Bench at Madurai has more than 130 systems with Local Area Network connecting all the systems. All the application systems in use at Chennai are implemented at Madurai.

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 Interactive Voice Response System is installed at Madras High Court to know the Case Status through telephone. Touch Screen Kiosk is installed at Madras High Court for public dissemination of information.

 Information Centre functions at Madras High Court for the benefit of Litigant public to know the status of cases filed at Madras HC. Around 700 case enquiries are received at the enquiry counter every day.

 The newly launched website of Madras High Court is a repository of more than 15 lakh case details, including the particulars on disposed cases.

26. Information System on Prisoners

The Prison Department, Tamil Nadu has developed prison software namely ‘Information System on Prisoners’ (ISP). It swathes the core functions of a prison performed by the Remission Section of the prison. It is useful for both performing the day-to-day routine jobs as well as for providing appropriate information for the administration at different levels including District Collector, District Police Office, Courts, the Prison Headquarters, etc. The core functions of a prison covered by the ISP include Admission and Disposal of prisoners, Detention of Detente / Civil Prisoners, Production of Remand / Under Trial Prisoners in Courts for hearing and Maintenance of History Ticket for Convict Prisoners. The system has been implemented in 9 Central Prisons and 3 Special Prison for Women in Tamil Nadu.

27. Common Integrated Police Administration

The CIPA software is designed and developed to maintain the details pertaining to all the activities of the Police Stations relating to Crime and Criminals. The system provides required information to the higher levels periodically and as and when required. The system also generates various statutory reports for the smooth functioning of the police station. The ultimate goal of the computerization would be an integrated networked

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system with state of the art hardware and software in place for police access and use the Information in their day to day work and to take decisions. The software is a total work-flow system having the following three major modules along with reports and queries viz., Registration, Investigation and Prosecution. It is currently being implemented on a pilot basis at a few police stations in Delhi.

28. Application Systems for SIPCOT

With the objective to catalyze the development of Medium and Large Scale Enterprises in Tamil Nadu, SIPCOT (Small Industries Promotion Corporation of Tamil Nadu) was established in 1971. SIPCOT is totally committed to assist the entrepreneurs provides institutional finance with refinance assistance from Industrial Development Bank of India and Small Industries Development Bank of India for meeting fixed capital investment in Industries. It also provides financial services like, Lease Finance Scheme for Capital Goods, Term Loan assistance for Industrial projects. SIPCOT is also involved in formation and managing of Industrial complexes/Parks and allotment of developed plots for location of industries.

Many activities of SIPCOT have been computerized by NIC which includes- Incentive Department (System for monitoring Incentive Schemes), Accounts Department (Financial Accounting System, Term Loan Accounting System, Payroll and EPF accounting System, Area Development Monitoring System), and Establishment Department ( Attendance Monitoring System).

29. File Management System

The File Management system is the Computer based system for maintenance of the Personal Registers in an office. Details about Files/Letters received and the stages of processing it undergoes like submission to an officer, letters issued to different offices, replies received in connection with this file from different offices are registered in this register.

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So far, The FMS has been implemented in the CM’s Office and Departments of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Prohibition and Excise, Department of Agriculture at district offices,

Directorate of School Education and at all District Treasury offices. The FMS is categorized as 4 modules namely:

 Assigning Current Number

 Note Sheet

 Action Taken and / Disposal

 Revoking Call book Entry

30. e-District

Districts are the irrefutable interface for G2C interactions. Therefore, computerization of these front-ends will assist in easy roll-out of G2C services by the Government to the citizens. The whole e-District project is spearheaded by Department of Information Technology, Government of India. The project proposes for setting up of Citizen Facilitation Centers across the country that will serve as front-ends. Each of these centres will function at District-, Tehsil-, Sub-division- and Block- levels.

e-District has been envisaged by Government of Tamil Nadu as automation of workflow and internal processes of District Administration with the possibility of seamless integration of various departments including Revenue, Adi- Dravidar and Tribal Welfare, BC & MBC Welfare, District Social Welfare, etc. for providing services to the citizens. The broad objectives of the project include

 IT enablement of internal processes of district administration and subordinate offices to increase functional efficiency.

 Automation of workflow and internal processes of district administration

 Seamless integration of the departments for providing services to the citizens - by integrating various District databases

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 Creation of IT infrastructure for rolling out e-Governance plan up to the Taluk levels

 Infusion of transparency and accountability in operations

 Decrease of workload of officials involved in service delivery

 Develop machinery for maintenance of the departmental electronic database

 To enable easier access to Government services and dissemination of information required by the citizens

 To provide self-sustainable operational model extending Taluk levels with zero-down failure risk. E-District pilot projects have been initiated in 41 districts across 16 states at a total cost of 126.62 Crore. In Tamil Nadu, 5 districts have been identified for the implementation of e-District project:

 Thiruvarur

 Ariyalur

 Krishnagiri

 Coimbatore

 Perambalur The detailed break up of activities in the e-District project includes:

 Provisioning of IT Hardware, Licensed Software and Networking (Local Area Network)

 Site preparation of administration offices

 Implementation of the e-district applications

 ‘As –Is’ Assessment

 Target Envisioning

 ‘To –Be’ Processes

 Requirement Analysis

 Planning

 Development of software application systems

 Data entry/ digitization of manual records

 Training of the departmental personnel and users

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Indicative services planned to be delivered through this MMP include:

 Issue of Certificates including Domicile, Nativity, Caste, Marriage, Income, Employment ,etc

 Pensions – Social welfare Pensions (Old age, Widow, Handicap, Destitute)

 Revenue Court – including Case listing, Case adjournment, Stay orders, Final orders, Status of execution of orders: Information, Tracking, and filing of misc. applications.

 Government dues and recovery as part of Land Revenue – including Issue of notices, Record payments, Track default processes, Up-dation of treasury receipts etc

 Public Distribution System, Ration Card related services –including Registration, Change of address, Addition of members, Issue of duplicates etc.

 RTI services including redressal of Grievances – (Application, tracking, monitoring, redressal, appeals etc.).(Education, Electricity, Drinking Water, Panchayats, Health, Police, Revenue, Road, Treasury, Social Welfare, Irrigation, Woman & Child, Public Distribution System, Transport, Disaster Relief

31. Family Card Maintenance System:

A workflow based Family Card Maintenance System has been developed by the NIC, Tamil Nadu Unit, for the Department of Civil Supplies & Consumer Protection Department, to assist in maintenance of consumer database. Citizens interact with the AC/TSO offices for issue of new family cards, various types of alterations to existing cards, issue of surrender certificates, etc. The software provides a work flow application to manage these services at the AC/TSO offices. All the TSO and Assistant Commissioners’ Offices are provided with internet connectivity. The card database in the central server at the office of the Commissioner of Civil Supplies is kept updated through online interaction with all the AC/TSO offices. This provides accurate data for

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computing card-wise entitlement, which is used for preparation of Shop- wise, Taluk-wise, and District-wise monthly allotment statements.

32. Seamless Communication Network for Ramanathapuram District Fishermen Community

In an attempt to provide fishermen community with the benefit of e- Governance, the Government of Tamil Nadu has planned to introduce a seamless VHF radio communication system fitted with GPS receiver in the fishing crafts after details analysis of the various alternatives. These directives are formulated for fulfilling the needs described below:

 For the sea going fishing vessels safety at sea is paramount and today they do not carry any gadget.

 A marine radio VHF set is really useful to establish voice calls between the crafts and send their L/L position data to the shore station using an external GPS receiver or internal to the set at normal times and at times of crises.

 The fishing crafts need to be warned of dangers especially when they are near the International Boundary Limits (IBL) for any mistaken identity.

 The scientific data on fish catches collected by INCOIS with Geo- coordinates can be broadcast to them at regular intervals.

 Weather forecast on impending cyclone or depression or even Tsunami warnings can be sent at the best possible manner using the radio system.

 The case of missing personnel while at seas has caused serious concern to the search and rescue operations by the Coast Guard and to the Fisheries department.

Before implementing this project on a state wide basis, the Government of Tamil Nadu has decided to implement a pilot project at Ramanathapuram District.

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33. System for Revenue Administration, Disaster Management and Mitigation Department

The Revenue Administration Department provides a large number of services to the citizens. These services include:

 Sanction of pensions under various schemes

 Issue of Certificates

 Disaster Management and Mitigation

At present, there are many Web based reporting systems that have been developed and hosted at the website of the Revenue Department in order to help Headquarters monitor activities of the department across the state:

1. Tsunami Relief Monitoring & MIS software

This is an Intranet based MIS software to monitor the Relief and Rehabilitation undertaken for the thirteen Tsunami affected coastal districts. This also included tabulation of Damaged Community Assets Survey & Individual Survey.

2. Drought Schemes Monitoring software

Drought Schemes Monitoring software is an Intranet based monitoring software to monitor the progress of various schemes undertaken by the Govt. as drought mitigation measures, in all the Districts.

3. Daily Flood Situation Monitoring Daily Flood Situation Monitoring is an Intranet based software to monitor the daily Flood situation and related Relief activities in all the Districts of Tamil Nadu during the annual North-east Monsoon season.

4. Web based reporting for Monthly Periodicals This is a web based application developed for helping out in collection and consolidation of monthly periodicals from each District.

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5. Revenue village database on the web

6. Departmental Manual

More e-Governance Initiatives:

32. Intra Management Information System Portal for Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board (TNPCB)

33. Custom House Offices Computerization

34. Central Excise Offices Computerization

35. Systems for DGFT

36. Software Support for MEPZ Special Economic Zone

37. BSNL, Chennai- SIM Card Management System

38. Passport Office Computerization

39. Websites of following Departments:

 Controller of Communication Accounts, Tamil Nadu Circle Directorate of Estates

 Employment & Training Department Employees' Provident Fund Organization, Chennai

 Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department

 Staff Selection Commission (Southern Region), Chennai

 Tamil Nadu Chief Electoral Officer

 Tamil Nadu Text Books Online

 Tamil Nadu Government Tenders Information Systems

 Commercial Taxes Department

Teacher Recruitment Board Results:

40. RCS Web portal for Cooperation, Food and Consumer Department.

41. PACB Software for Cooperation, Food and Consumer Department.

42. Municipal e-Gov system for Municipal Administration and Water Supply Department.

43. Reginet on-line web portal for Revenue Department

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