Promoting IT-Centered Maintenance and Employment in Rural Areas
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Information and Communication 38920 Technology in Rural Development CONTENTS Public Disclosure Authorized About the Editors .............................................................................................vi Acknowledgments ......................................................................................... vii About the Authors ........................................................................................ viii Preface.................................................................................................................. x 1. Information Technology and Development: Foundation and Key Issues ............................................................................................................. 1 Public Disclosure Authorized Subhash Bhatnagar Decision Support to Public Administrators for Improving Planning and Monitoring of Developmental Programs 2. Electronic Support for Rural Health-Care Workers .......................... 14 Mike Graves and Naresh Kumar Reddy 3. Technological Challenges of the Disaster Management Plan for the State of Maharashtra................................................................... 25 Krishna S. Vatsa Public Disclosure Authorized Improving Services to Citizens and Bringing in Transparency 4. IT at Milk Collection Centers in Cooperative Dairies: The National Dairy Development Board Experience ............................... 37 Rupak Chakravarty 5. Computer-Aided Registration of Deeds and Stamp Duties ........... 48 J. Satyanarayana 6. Computerization of Mandal Revenue Offices in Andhra Pradesh: Integrated Certificate Application ....................................... 66 Public Disclosure Authorized Asok Kumar 7. Application of Information Technology for Rural Postal System . 76 Major. Ramakrishnan — iii — Contents Empowering Citizens Through Access to Information and Knowledge 8. Networking Knowledge-Rich, Economically Poor People ............. 84 Anil K. Gupta, Brij Kothari, and Kirit Patel 9. A Wired Village: The Warana Experiment .......................................... 99 N. Vijayaditya 10. Satcom for Extension Training............................................................. 107 B.S. Bhatia 11. Satcom for Barefoot Women Managers.............................................. 117 Reema Nanavaty 12. Effective Use of Information and Communication Technology for Physically and Socially Disadvantaged Groups ....................... 122 Bhushan Punani 13. Same Language Subtitling for Literacy: Small Change for Colossal Gains ......................................................................................... 130 Brij Kothari and Joe Takeda1 Private-Sector Development 14. Inmarsat Experience in Village Telephony ....................................... 140 Raj Gupta 15. Multipurpose Electronics and Computer Centers: Promoting IT-Centered Maintenance and Employment in Rural Areas......... 146 Santosh Choubey Future Strategies 16. Emerging State-Level ICT Development Strategies ....................... 152 Raja Mitra Conclusion 17. Useful Starting Points in Future Projects .......................................... 161 Robert Schware Annotated Bibliography .............................................................................. 168 —iv— Contents Figures 2.1 An ANM at work.............................................................................................. 15 2.2 Data Backbone .................................................................................................. 18 2.3 The Paper Reporting System ......................................................................... 21 4.1 Micro-Processor-Based Milk Collection System ....................................... 40 4.2 Farmers at the Automatic Milk Collection Station................................... 44 6.1 Functional Diagram of the APSWAN (AP State Wide Area Network) .................................................................................................. 70 6.2 View of a Citizen Customer Interface ......................................................... 70 7.1 Cost of Reliability............................................................................................. 78 7.2 Cost of Reliability and Failure ...................................................................... 78 7.3 Cost of Reliability and Failure with Maintainability ............................... 78 7.4 The CUPS machine .......................................................................................... 81 8.1 The Golden Triangle for Rewarding Creativity ........................................ 88 8.2 Knowledge Network Multimedia and Textual Database ....................... 89 8.3 Framework for Understanding and Augmenting Grassroots Innovations ........................................................................................................ 90 8.4 Jethabhai A. Kamariya, an innovator, with his innovation.................... 94 8.5 Bhanjibhai Mathukia, an innovator, with her innovation ...................... 95 8.6 Display of database to women using notebook computer ..................... 95 10.1 Training and Development Communication Channel .......................... 110 10.2 Overview of the Jhabua Development Communications Project ....... 113 13.1 Children watching Same Language Subtitling film songs .................. 133 14.1 Distribution of Telephones between Urban and Rural Areas .............. 141 14.2 Inmarsat LAMM and VSATs........................................................................ 142 14.3 Competitive Positioning Deployment and Data Capability ................ 142 Tables 3.1 Work Plan of Activities ................................................................................... 27 5.1 Quantitative Benefits....................................................................................... 56 13.1 Average Syllable-Level Reading Improvements for Different Word Lengths .................................................................................................. 134 13.2 Average Word-Level Reading Improvement for Different Word Lengths .................................................................................................. 134 15.1 Application Areas for Multipurpose Centers .......................................... 147 —v— ABOUT THE EDITORS Subhash Bhatnagar is CMC Professor of IT at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). His research, teaching and consulting work covers National IT Policy, IT for development, MIS design frameworks, and Decision Support Systems. He is currently coordinating a CIDA sponsored Telecom Policy Research Centre at the IIM in collaboration with McGill University. He is also coordinating the setting up a center for Electronic governance at IIMA with the support of the IT industry. He is Founder Chairman of the IFIP working group on Social Implications of Computers in Developing Countries and the editor of its newsletter on Information Technology in Developing Countries. He has published eighty papers, seven books and has lectured in forty countries. He holds a Doctorate in Management from the IIMA, where he has worked for 25 years and has also served as its Dean. He is a Fellow of the Computer Society of India. Robert Schware is a Visiting Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, currently on a World Bank sponsored External Development Program Assignment. He is a Senior Informatics Specialist in the Telecommunications and Informatics Unit of the World Bank, Washington, D.C., where he manages informatics portfolios consisting of projects to develop information infrastructure, computer literacy, and various applications of information and communication technology for government and rural development in Turkey, Indonesia, and India, among other countries. He has been at the World Bank for over 12 years, and has worked on projects in Africa, the Caribbean, South and East Asia. He holds a Ph.D. from the London School of Economics. —vi— ACKNOWLEDGMENTS For assistance of various kinds in preparing the Workshop on Information and Communication Technology for Rural Development held at the Indian Institute of Management in March, 1999, we are indebted to Gopal Pillai, Nina Musale, Janki Swaminathan, and Vivek Gupta. It was the inspiring work of the practitioners invited to speak at the Workshop that suggested to us the importance of compiling these cases for presentation to a wider audience of government officials, private sector firms, and bilateral and multilateral funding agencies. The World Bank’s Telecommunication and Informatics Thematic Group within the Energy, Mining, Telecommunications and Informatics Department provided financial support for the Workshop; special thanks to Dennis Gilhooly and Christine Moumal. Special thanks to Gayatri Khanna for editorial assistance and Shilpa Kedar for ably supporting us through the preparation of the final manuscript and annotated bibliography. For their special blend of encouragement and inspiration, we would also like to thank Deepti Bhatnagar and Alice Trembour. — vii — ABOUT THE AUTHORS Asok Kumar was Project Director of the Computerization of Mandal Revenue Offices Project, Government of Andhra Pradesh. He is now the Joint Collector, Chittoor, Andhra Pradesh. Anil Gupta is a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and Co-ordinator of the Society for Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technologies and Institutions (SRISTI). Bhushan Punani is Executive Director of the Blind People’s Association. Brij Kothari is a Professor