Digital Bh@rat Learning from 50 digital footprints Copyright 2014-15, Digital Empowerment Foundation All Rights Reserved Disclaimer: All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be utilized, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Published by INOMY Media Pvt. Ltd. Editors Saleema Razvi Syed S. Kazi Cover Design & Layout: Jaspreet Singh & Sapna Subba The content of the book can also be seen at www.digitalknowledgecenter.in Edition: 2014 ISBN: 978 - 81 - 927717 - 3 - 1 Price: Rs. 500; $25; €20 Printed in India by Shree Jee Enterprises Contacts: Digital Empowerment Foundation Tel: 91-11-26532786 [email protected] www.defindia.net Content Introduction 8 aAqua 12 Reuters Market Light 18 MouthShut 24 Eko 30 Grassroutes 36 Panjab Digital Library 42 Pratibadh 48 Gramin Radio Inter Networking System (GRINS) 54 Vasundhara Krishi Vahini 90.4 MHz 60 Radio Active 66 Farm ERP 72 Mango Technologies 78 DigitALly 84 Kissan Krishideepam 90 School Report Cards (DISE) 96 Bookbox 102 Drona 108 Kisan Sanchar 114 Mobile Antakshari 120 ToeHold 126 DesiCrew 132 Common Service Centre 138 NREGAsoft 144 SWHITS 150 Old Age Pensioners’ Payment and Monitoring System 156 Fishnet ReALCraft 162 Akshaya 168 IPaidABribe 174 Prison Management System (PRISMS) 180 The Public Distribution System, Chhattisgarh 190 Empowering India 196 Rajiv Aarogyasri Community Health Insurance Scheme 202 104 HMRI 208 Wireless for Communities (W4C) 214 AirJaldi 220 EGMM 226 Online Hearing Screening Project 232 HarVa 238 FINO 244 Panini Keypad 250 Raftaar 256 HindiWordNet 262 Infochange India 268 India Water Portal 274 Peer Water Exchange 280 BIOTIK ( Biodiversity Informatics and Co-Operation in Taxonomy 286 for Interactive Shared Knowledge Base) AWATAR 292 Barefoot College 298 Chanderiyaan 304 SMSOne 310 Introduction The existing developmental and governance challenges and the continued search for means and channels to improvise and scale up performance and delivery of services brings in the relevance and significance of how Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) can play a wider facilitative role. In the last decade this focus has found increasing place in policy, programme, research and implementation domains. The advent of ICTs powered by the World Wide Web has given a new insight, meaning and significance to plug the gaps in development divide and bring the majority of the periphery population to the mainstream. Pilots and experiments have been rolled out nationwide in India covering all 35 States and Union Territories. There have been illustrations on the ground of how innovative deployment of ICTs have brought in transformations for the end beneficiaries and helped to streamline processes and mechanisms to serve the citizens. This is being documented in the 50 case practices brought out in this publication. In the midst of so many ICT interventions, concerns and apprehensions have time and again been pointed questioning of longevity of pilot projects is valid. Sustainability and overcoming duplicity are concerns still being raised. And there are other genuine concerns well known. Attempts are and ought to be continued to infuse long term insights and meaning and substance to various ICT programmes at both national and state level. The Greater Developmental Challenges There are multiple facets to the challenges in inclusive, holistic and decentralised development and governance framework in India. The challenges are split into – vision, mission, method, processes, mechanisms, platforms, will power and what not. The development lag has been attributed to the poor vision and achievement rates in UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that this country has been a key party to the visibility of a missing network of knowledge and experiments on ground has denied sharing of ideas and examples within this country. The missing element also lies in absence of a fool proof mechanism till date to provide grievance redress provisions for the millions who deserves to be heard all the time. The capability of the human resource to manage and run the system and institutions has been another wider manifestation of a ‘wrong man in the right place’ or ‘right man in the wrong place’ phenomena. The meaning and significance of social investment has lacked continued upgraded interpretations and actions there upon. The lack of the technology component to better social outcomes has lacked holistic consideration until now. The insight of technological exclusion and social inclusion has lacked a smooth relationship. The real meaning and experimentation of community participation in development and governance processes has still not ensured a meaningful engagement of the millions to determine their own needs and solutions supported by the social welfare mandate of the governments of the day. The sectoral area of development that continues to hog policy-programme priority maintains a slow progress rate be in health, education, livelihood and women empowerment domains. At procedural level the challenges continues to be in enabling transparency and accountability in services delivery. The limitations in affordability and accessibility of services for the end citizen users poses a wider question mark on the increasing capacity of the government systems to absorb pressures and challenges even after 60 years of country’s independence. One of the most critical development needs, perhaps the most fundamental inputs required, that continued to be ignored is information dissemination of citizen entitlement based schemes and services. This ‘information poverty’ holds the key in continued alienation of the silent majority from the mainstream development and growth process as well as denial of the fundamental civic right to good governance. Another notable hindrance is identified in centralized nature of services delivery that has caused a gigantic road block towards decentralised and democratized services delivery involving grassroots agencies. And there are other hindrances highlighted time and again. The Positive e-Vibes The advent of ICTs has been a democratic boon to meet some of our major development and service delivery limitations. The utility of ICT devises, platforms and applications have found relevance in health, education, livelihood, good governance, entertainment, culture and heritage promotion, environmental sustainability, connectivity and access, agriculture development, language promotion, natural resource management, social inclusion of excluded groups, and women empowerment. A few examples are – Project 104, HMRI in health sector that provides information, consultancy, and counselling services to more than 80 million people in Andhra Pradesh; project DigitALLY that caters to enhanced teaching and learning in government schools in rural India; project TOEHOLD that uses the web to promote famous Kolhapuri chappals in Karnataka made by poor women collective; project Panjab Digital Library that has digitized more than 4000 periodicals, over 80000 books and over 9000 rare photographs in Punjab; project RAFTAAR that has been credited to bring out world’s first Hindi language search engine for the 300 million plus Hindi speaking citizens; project Wireless for Communities (W4C) considered as India’s one of the first wireless solution for rural communities; project KISAN SANCHAR that caters to agricultural information services needs of lakhs of farmers in North India; and project EKO that has been instrumental in financial inclusion practices for rural customers. The diversity in deployment of ICTs is notable. The use of the Internet has been widespread in all ICT interventions as front end delivery channel especially for information services delivery. Customized solutions in terms of automated decision support system, monitoring and tracking system, work flow process management and others are notable. Wireless technology and solutions with low carbon footprint has been on ground. The usage of the mobile platform has seen tremendous expansion with more than 800 million mobile subscriber bases in India. The new found relevance in community radio and social media are the latest entrants in development sector having wider development and governance ramifications across the country. The digital interventions and experiments in development and governance have enhanced the effectiveness and transparency in services delivery until last mile. The delivery rate has increased with affordability and accessibility concern removals. The vast opening of knowledge networks and sharing has been proven on ground with many pilots and few sustainable interventions. An alternative and yet complimentary mechanism for grievance redress has been found out with neutral support of ICTs. There is a new pool of IT talented manpower that has redefined a new ‘Digital Bharat’. Social investment in the country has found new meaning in ICT inclusion element. Social and digital inclusiveness has found a common ground. Community participation has found a new meaning and interpretation with ICT facilitated set ups. Political will and administrative support has a new significance with positive waves nationwide. The relevance in ICTs deployment has found substantive impact in information dissemination, training of front line workers, interpersonal communication, and monitoring and tracking of service delivery measures. The multitude of digital solutions has offered dynamic