Rainfed Farming and Sustainable Agriculture · Rainfed Farming and Sustainable Agriculture *Dr....

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1 Rainfed Farming and Sustainable Agriculture *Dr. Sharad Kumar Rainfed agriculture, or ‘dryland farming’, sustains 67% of the arable land area in India. They are called ‘Grey’ because they are dry most of the year and lack a sufficient amout of fundamental input that is so essential for agriculture. Unreliable rainfall distribution is the leading factor inhibiting the development of rainfed agriculture. This erratic rainfall is also the primary cause of droughts and floods in India. In addition, soils in these regions are degraded and have poor fertility, and farmers are resource- poor with small, scattered, marginal holdings. Efficient rain water management and integrated nutrient supply systems would be needed in rainfed areas. According to Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru. “Everything else can wait, but not agriculture”. This is even true today. On the beginning of new millennium, the challenge before of the wind of globalization, keeping in view of environmental conservation and conservation of natural resources. To make India food secure nation, it is necessary either to bring more area under cultivation or increase productivity of existing agriculture. Land is shrinking day by day because of increasing pressure of urbanisation and industrialisation. Therefore the need is to increase the productivity of existing agriculture and minimise the use of water. Optimum fertilisers with another input play an important role in maximissing the agricultural production. Towards the end of sixties, the Government adopted the agricultural strategy “Green Revolution”, i.e. the period from 1967 to 1978. Green Revolution in India ushered the use of hybrid seeds that were particularly responsive to chemical fertilizers. The Green Revolution I of 1967-68 was the result of introduction of new high yielding varieties of Mexican wheat and dwarf rice varieties. The Green Revolution II of 1983-84, stressed on the expansion in input supplies to the farmers and water management. Mexico improved varieties of wheat dramatically increased yields because they were more responsive to controlled irrigation and chemical fertilizer. The benefits of Green Revolution remained largely confined to the Notth Northwest parts of country. *Associate professor and Head, P.G. Department of Economics and Research Hindu P.G. College, Zamania, Distt.-Ghazipur (U.P.), India, ISSN No. - 2319-2755 IJSSL : JIF- 3.630

Transcript of Rainfed Farming and Sustainable Agriculture · Rainfed Farming and Sustainable Agriculture *Dr....

Page 1: Rainfed Farming and Sustainable Agriculture · Rainfed Farming and Sustainable Agriculture *Dr. Sharad Kumar Rainfed agriculture, or ‘dryland farming’, sustains 67% of the arable

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Rainfed Farming and Sustainable Agriculture

*Dr. Sharad Kumar

Rainfed agriculture, or ‘dryland farming’, sustains 67% of the arable landarea in India. They are called ‘Grey’ because they are dry most of the yearand lack a sufficient amout of fundamental input that is so essential foragriculture. Unreliable rainfall distribution is the leading factor inhibitingthe development of rainfed agriculture. This erratic rainfall is also the primarycause of droughts and floods in India. In addition, soils in these regions aredegraded and have poor fertility, and farmers are resource- poor with small,scattered, marginal holdings. Efficient rain water management and integratednutrient supply systems would be needed in rainfed areas.According to Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru. “Everything else can wait, but notagriculture”. This is even true today. On the beginning of new millennium,the challenge before of the wind of globalization, keeping in view ofenvironmental conservation and conservation of natural resources.To make India food secure nation, it is necessary either to bring more areaunder cultivation or increase productivity of existing agriculture. Land isshrinking day by day because of increasing pressure of urbanisation andindustrialisation. Therefore the need is to increase the productivity of existingagriculture and minimise the use of water. Optimum fertilisers with anotherinput play an important role in maximissing the agricultural production.Towards the end of sixties, the Government adopted the agricultural strategy“Green Revolution”, i.e. the period from 1967 to 1978. Green Revolution inIndia ushered the use of hybrid seeds that were particularly responsive tochemical fertilizers. The Green Revolution I of 1967-68 was the result ofintroduction of new high yielding varieties of Mexican wheat and dwarf ricevarieties. The Green Revolution II of 1983-84, stressed on the expansion ininput supplies to the farmers and water management. Mexico improvedvarieties of wheat dramatically increased yields because they were moreresponsive to controlled irrigation and chemical fertilizer. The benefits ofGreen Revolution remained largely confined to the Notth Northwest partsof country.

*Associate professor and Head, P.G. Department of Economics and ResearchHindu P.G. College, Zamania, Distt.-Ghazipur (U.P.), India,

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Introduction:-

The eighties saw the effect of GreenRevolution waning, with problem of stagnation,decline of yields on irrigated land, waterlogging,increased soil salinity rapid rate of landdegradation, contamination and over-exploitation of groundwater resources resultingin drought. Extensive use of chemical inputs haspolluted surface water and groundwater, causingenvironmental and health hazards. Use ofpesticides generates new breed of resistant pests.Green Revolution basically focused onproduction but widened the regionalimbbalances. Even Seed Companies have givena wrong impression around the world thathybrids are more productive. Increasedproductivity means more for thefarmers. Itseemed like a miracle. But the miracle was shortlived. It didn’t take too long for the farmers todiscover that in order to reap the promisedharvests, large amount of chemical fertilizer wererequired. Most of the bybrids were ill suited totheir new growing environments which resultedin unhealthy, less nutrient plants that had pestand disease problems. These called forexpensive chemical pesticides. But this was notthe concern of the chemical companies whowere making big profits. The new hybrids wereprogressively replacing all the traditional varieties.The older varieties were not saved in case theymight be needed in the future-they were eaten.The chemical companies (who own most of thebig seed companies) were gaining market controlof the seed supply. Because most of the farmerswere now growing hybrid varieties, they couldnot have their own seed for replanting the next.The come back to the seed company each year

for a new supply. The seed companies dubbedthis “The green Revolution” The only green thingabout it was the greenbacks that went in to theirpockets. So need is to go for non-hybrid naturalone, which would be more fruitful in the longrun.

The Green Revolution cannot thereforebe considered to be a 100 per cent success.With recognition of “Green Revolution Fatigue”the time has reached to take serious actions todecrease the ill effects of green revolution.Simultaneous efforts need to be made topromote a more sustainable form of agriculturaland identify sources for future spurt in agriculturalproductivity.

Sustainable Agriculture

In the context of agriculture,“sustainability” refers to the capacity to remainproductive while maintaining the resource base.According to Gips 1986, “agriculture issustainable if it is ecologically sound,economically viable, socially just, humaneandadaptable”. Sustainable agriculture is beingrepresented by farming systems in which the useof purchased chemical-based inputs issignificantly decreased in comparison toconventional agricultural systems; soil erosion iscontrolled and weeds managed. There ismaximum efficiency of on-farm and purchasedinputs, maintenance of soil fertility by properaddition of plant nutrients, and the basicutilization of biological principles throughout thefarming operation.

An Indian agricultural expert has calledfor an “evergreen Revolution” in growing food

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crops that would combine science, economics,and sociology boost production in a way thatcan be maintained for decades to come. It israther an integrated and complete approach. Itcannot be restricted to any single crop or to afew states. Instead it willl cover almost all-majorcrops of India or all agro-climatic zones of India.Green revolution was mainly due to high yieldingvarieties, fertilizers and irrigation facilities,whereas Evergreen Revolution would becontributed by integration of several factors likeSoil Management, Water Management,Integrated Weed Management, Integrated PestManagement, Integrated Nutrient Management,Tissue culture, Genetic Engineering etc.

Plant Tissue Culture can be used ascommercial tool for growing Orchid in Kerala.The programme was aimed at housewives.Interest was generated through articles onfloriculture in a leading women’s magazine.Tissue Culture planting material and other inputswas provided at reasonable costs. Technicalknow how was imparted through regular trainingprogrammes and workshops. Marketingassistance was provided. Over a thousandhousewives have benefitted from thisprogramme.

Dryland and fertigation

Crop Rotation is a planned sequenceof growing different annual or perennial crops inthe same field. Rotations are the opposite ofcontinuous cropping, which is growing the samecrop in same field year after year. Crop rotationscan be used to improve or maintain goodphysical, chemical, and biological conditions of

the soil. Rotation also reduces fertilizer needs.Crop rotation can be an important part of anintegrated pest management i.e. pesticide costsmay be reduced by n aturally breaking the cyclesof weeds, insects and diseases Grass andlegumes in a rotation protect water quality bypreventing excess nutrients or chemicals fromentering water supplies. They can be used toreduce the average rate of erosion from a field.Including a grass or legume in a rotation can bevery effective for reducing soil erosion andeliminate the need of fertiliser. Leguminous plants(like peas) have bacteria living in nodules on theirroots, which are able to ‘fix’ the nitrogen fromthe soil, so that it may be released lateer for thenext crop. Catch Cropping is one of its tools,which is used for filling gaps. Sometimes onecrop come to an end a couple f moths beforeyour next begins on the same spot of ground.Suitable crops for filling such gaps include springonions, radishes and lettuce. Growing smallcrops in the spaces alongside larger plants, oralongside plants, which are so slow, growing thatbefore they reach maturity the smaller crop hasbeen harvested. Some plants (such as spinach)may be grown this way because they benefitfrom the shade given by the larger frop. Suitablevarienties fro intercropping include radishes,lettuce etc.

The best answer to the challenge is“fertigation”, whereby both water and fertilizersare delivered to crops simultaneously throughthe irrigation system. Fertigation ensures thatessential nutrients are supplied precisely at thearea of most intensive root activity. Fertigationinvolves specialised irrigation techniques such asmicro-irrigation enabling the application of water

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by means of drippers, micro-sprinklers andmicro-sprayers. This, combines the benefits ofdrip irrigation efficient fertiliser application forincreasing the productivity.

Well-balanced fertigation results in:Nutrient availability to the plant is im-provedNutrient uptake efficiency is increasedFertilizer application rates and waterrequirements are reduced.

Suggestion & Conclusions:-

Now there is need to cut down chemicalfertilsers and pesticides and improve resistanceof crop from various diseases. This will end upNo-No in international market. Probioticefertilizer are a complete substitute since they arecomposed of agricultural wastes, animal manureand local soil. The fertilizer nourishes themicrobes in the top soils and the plant root zoneswhich in turn nourish the plant, based on thetheory of indirect nutrition. Gujrat s happy tohave shifted from chemical to probioticfertilizers. To protect the plants, farmers usuallyspray a mixture of buttermilk, old millet flouranimal manure which in kept is and earthen potwhich is immersed in a pile of dung for fortnightfermentation. This spray stimulates resistance andboosts up immunity in plants.

Biofertilisers a solution for GreenMillennium. Biofertilisers are derived fromvarious nitrogen-fixing and phosphate-solubalizing microorganisms. These organismsare found in soil, water and leaves surface. AFarmer has to be educated or trained in farm

production of biofertilisers like Azolla and bluegreen algae.

Azotobacter was one of these nitrogen-fixing organisms and was till then being used asa soil inoculares or for seed treatment. On dryweight basis, azolla contains 13-30 per centcrude protein in addition to 4.4-6.3 per centcrude fat. It is also rich in potassium, phosphorus,calcium, magnesium and sulphur.

BGA forms scum likes greenish biomasson the surface of water during rainy season inponds and flooded rice fields. The BGA fixatmospheric nitrogen from the atmosphere intheir heterocyst and provide it to the soil eitherby exosmosis (or) on the death and decay oftheir living biomass, Besides fixing nitrogen, thesealgae excrete Vitamin B 12, ascorbic acid andauxins, which may also improve the growth ofrice plants. There are also convincing reportsthat BGA possess the properties of solubalizingthe bound phosphate of the soil.

Vermicomposting is garbage disposal atits best because recycling is done on-site. Itcontributes not only to water conservation,energy conservation, and soil preservation, buthelps one get closer to a zero waste goal.Vermiculture is the process by which organicmaterial is fed to a variety of worm species withthe purpose of converting the organic materialin to increased worm biomass and vermicast.Vermicast is the excreta from worms which isbiogenic fertilizer. This helps in plant growth andis soil conditioner. The worm biomass has beensold for bait, animal feed and acts as smallcompostion systems. It is important from the

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point of view of abatement of pollution hazardscreated by large amount of organic waste in ourcountry and increases soil fertility level.

Information technology will also have ahuge impact in helping farmers adapt their cropsand management to their environment allowingfarmers to get vital information about weather,disease and pest epidemics, input market prices,crop management advice, and many oter things.The availability of direct web-site link to differentagricultural institutions in India that can beexploited by farmers and public extension systemfor information dissemination.

Today we have amazion tools ofbiotechnology and information technology toachieve sustainable development in agriculture-A commitment to Science with a Human Face.So, what we need is marriage between traditionaland modern approach that will ensure food andnutritional security resulting for sustainabledevelopment.

REFERNENCES:-

1. Arbinda Ghose (Yojana Vol. 45) :Diversifying Agriculture.

2. Barbier, Edward B. Economics andecology: new frontiers andsustainable development.

3. Bhatia and Singh (Yojana Vol. 45):Rainfed Agriculture : Research andDevelopment.

4. Edward Wolf: Beyond the Green

Revolution: New Approaches forThird World Agriculture.

5. Gordon Conway: The Doubly GreenRevolution : Food For All In the 21st

Century.6. Jasbir Singh: Agricultural

development in South Asia: Acomparative sdudy in the greenrevolution experiences.

7. Lawrence Pringle : Twist, Wiggle andSquirm : A Book about Earth Worms.

8. Mary Appelhof, Kalamazoo: “WormsEat My Garbage.”

9. Mitra G.N. (Yojana Vol. 44) : Vision2021 for Progressive Agriculture inOrissa.

10. Oxford Paperback Encyclopedia :Agricultural Biotechnology.

11. Santra and Bhowink (Yojana Vol. 44)Vermiculture and development ofagriculture.

12. Simmons, G, ‘Humanity andEnvironment: A Cultural Ecology”.

13. Stuart W. Styles, Charles M. Burt:Drip and Micro irrigation for Trees,Vines, and Row.

14. Thomas Ruehr, Charles M. Burt :Fertigation.

15. Twist, Wiggle and Squirm: A Bookabout Earth worms.

16. World Bank Technical Paper, No 133:Agricultural Biotechnology : Next“Green revolution” ?

17. ht tp; \ \www.grain. jouy. inra.f r/linksframe.html

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Technology Transforming the lives of Farmers

*Dr. Rakeshwari Prasad

The present era is augmented onInformation and Communication Technology.This technology has proved its potential invarious sectors of development in urban and rurallandscapes. Urban areas are seems to moreinclined to accept and adopt Information andCommunication Technology due to advantagesof literacy and better infrastructure as comparedto rural areas. Due to such suitable situations ofurban landscapes good amount of success ofthis technology is visible in the form of smartcities and better livelihood of residing humanbeings. But the problems, consequences andopportunities in urban areas are different foreffective utilization of Information andCommunication Technology for sustainabledevelopment of rural masses. Digital Technologyhas become a great enabler for Farmers’empowerment, which has been a major focusarea for the government. If we have to create avibrant Agri and Rural business ecosystem, it isnecessary to create a technology platform tobring farmers, financiers, and suppliers togetherin one marketplace.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR)heralds an exponential pace of technologicalchange, building on the digital revolution tocombine technologies, spawn new ones, andtransform systems, industries, countries - evensociety itself.

For developing countries, advances incomputing power, connectivity, artificialintelligence, biotechnology and GIS, and newer,more capable technologies hold tremendouspromise. Inclusive agriculture, rural growth andstructural transformation from agriculture to high-productivity manufacturing and other economicsectors can be accelerated, as technologicalchange transforms individuals’ lives and enablesdeveloping countries to progress at speeds andon scales previously inconceivable.

India contains the largest number of poorpeople in the world: 270 million, according tothe World Bank. Employment growth is criticalin low-productivity agriculture, which accountsfor nearly three-quarters of the poor population.But automation threatens to create moreunemployment. Public policy must be directedtoward increasing the productivity of poorpeople rather than just offering handouts.

The Government of India is confrontingthese challenges. As more young men aremigrating from rural poverty to urban areas toseek employment, they are contributing to a rapidfeminisation of agriculture. Women, especiallydependent on agriculture, perform most of thebackbreaking labour. Their low productivity inagriculture, itself increasingly affected by climatechange, demands action by policymakers. Any

*Dept.Of Economics,S.B.P.G.College,Baragaon,Varanasi

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transformation of agriculture requires removingthe constraints on women; the discontent of ruralyouth could become the agitations of ruralwomen farmers, dissatisfied with lack of accessto land, irrigation, credit, inputs and markets.

Aware of these issues, in 2016 India’sPrime Minister Narendra Modi introduced a newnational policy to double farmers’ incomes by2022. It targeted poverty reduction, foodsecurity and climate change, which is hurtingagriculture with rising temperatures, increasinglyfrequent floods and droughts, and a greaterincidence of pests and diseases. The Ministryof Agriculture & Farmers Welfare launched anational scheme called Pradhan Mantri KrishiSinchai Yojana (PMKSY) with the aim ofirrigating every Indian farm and improving water-use efficiency.

Through its Digital India programme,Government of India is working to transform thecountry’s rural economy and create skilled jobsin rural areas. For the estimated 156 millionIndian rural households, most living in povertyaccording to India’s National Sample SurveyOrganization (NSSO), there is need forinvestment in transportation, power, and internetaccess to create more employment for womenand youth in rural areas.

The Ministry of Communication andInformation Technology, along with otherministries, is working to reform states’ servicedelivery, through GOI’s Goods and Services Tax(GST) system, to establish a uniform interfacefor taxpayers with a common IT infrastructure,shared between the central government and thestates. Digital India’s strategic cornerstones, theCommon Services Centres, are meant to

provide access points for delivery of variouselectronic services to villages, to promote digitaland financial inclusion, encourage ruralentrepreneurship, and build rural capacities andlivelihoods, offering a bottom-up approach tosocial change, particularly among India’s ruralcitizens. New technologies enable small farmersto shift from input-intensive to knowledge-intensive agriculture. Precision agriculture canimprove the timeliness of planting, secure thebest market prices through market informationand e-market reforms, provide fertiliser subsidiesvia direct bank transfers that eliminate or reducethe cost of financial intermediaries, and improveagricultural extension. Combined with improvedseed supply and land and water management,which can in turn increase double and triplecropping, farmers’ income can grow.

In April 2016, Modi launched eNAM(National Agriculture Market), an online platformfor farmers that integrates agricultural marketsonline, allowing farmers and traders alike to viewall Agriculture Produce Market Committee-related information and services, commodityarrivals and prices, and buy and sell trade offers,thus helping farmers bid for the best pricesacross markets. GOI also launched a cropinsurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri FasalBima Yojana (PMFBY) in 2016, which nowcovers 37 million farmers.

Additionally, Government of India isinvesting in mapping all of India’s aquifers, andusing technology to manage water demand.Quantifying the relationship between rainfall andgroundwater levels under alternative modes ofirrigation and farming should enable prioritisationof prospective water and irrigation investments.

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Greater investment in research,meanwhile, is needed to develop multi-resistantcrops. India has lagged behind its Asianneighbours in genomics, even resisting theapproval of genetically modified crops developedby its own scientists. Arguably, such crops donot involve multinational monopolies, can begrown by poor farmers, and offer increasedresistance to extreme climatic conditions.

Digitised land registration, mobile phonesand ‘Uberised’ tractor services all arecontributing to improved farm management.Digital India Land Records ModernisationProgramme (DILRMP) is updating millionsof land records, providing title guarantees andincreased security of land tenure to farmers whilestimulating land rentals by nonviable smallholdersand land consolidation.

To facilitate communications, Digital Indiais implementing plans to connect 2.5 millionGram Panchayat (local governments) with high-speed internet by 2018, with hundreds ofthousands already internet-enabled.Government of India has also mandated that allmobiles phones must support at least one of 22Indian languages, other than English and Hindi,beginning July 2017. With only 27percent ofvillages having banking services within 5kilometres, the government is licensing newbanks and using mobile phone paymenttechnology to an increasing extent. Mobilecoverage is high over 1 billion of India’spopulation of 1.4 billion are connected.

The Need for safety netsComplementing efforts to increase

agricultural productivity and employment is

India’s triple innovation system (TAM),consisting of Jan- Dhan (the Prime Minister’sinitiative to open universal bank accounts,depositing Rs1000 per household), Aadhaar (aunique 12-digit ID number for citizens) andmobile phones.

Between them, these factors haveprovided a platform for expansion of India’spublic safety nets. The Public Distribution System(PDS), the world’s largest safety net of its kind,distributes food grains and essential commoditiesvia a network of over 521,000 Fair Price Shops(FPSs). More recently, the Modi governmenthas focused on reforming PDS using newtechnologies. There is now far less pilferingthanks to the digitisation of 230 million Rationcards, 56percent of which are strengthened witha universal ID and Aadhaar. Several states havenow installed electronic point-of-sale devices atFPSs to track sales of food grains tocardholders on a real-time basis. A muchdebated policy shift - in-kind cash transfers inplace of food distribution - is also being facilitatedby digital technology.

Since 2014, liquid petroleum gas (LPG)subsidies to over 176 million consumers havetransferred over Rs.400 billion directly tobeneficiaries’ bank accounts. Through GOI’s‘LPG Give It up Campaign’, 12 millionconsumers voluntarily gave up their subsidies toprovide greater access to LPG for their moreunderprivileged neighbours. Nearly 6.3 millionnew LPG connections have been provided topoor families in 2015–16, with a target ofproviding 50 million LPG connections over threeyears.

Further, the Mahatma Gandhi National

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Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme,(MGNREGS), the largest in the world,guarantees up to 100 days of rural employmentfor those in need of employment at Rs100 day.Using DBTs to pay beneficiaries has reducedtransfer costs, waste and corruption - andsidestepping any possible misallocation of fundstransferred from central to state to district toPanchayat for distribution.

The limits of technologyDespite technology’s promise, there

remains a need for substantial increase in old-fashioned investments to catch up with thebacklog in physical infrastructure and educationto achieve a geographically more dispersed

development away from the 100 big cities.Around 25percent of Indian adults cannot reador write, and the gender divide must beaddressed with investment, particularly in ruralwomen’s education and training. Geographicalapplication of new technologies is still limited inrural areas; many farmers remain unaware ofthese advances. Insufficient connectivity in ruralareas along with a lack of basic computerknowledge and literacy hinder development.Substantial investment is needed in physicalinfrastructure, power, broadband, transportationand education, particularly in rural regions andamong the poorest populations in order to trulyreap the benefits of the Fourth IndustrialRevolution.

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ATTACKING RURAL POVERTY THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

*Dr. Manas Behera

Introduction

The Concept of Inclusive Developmenthas already occupied the centre stage ofdevelopment discourses today throughout theworld. So far as India is concerned the allpervasive poverty in its rural areas is the majorstumbling block in the way of achieving the goalof inclusive development. The fruits of growthcould not be distributed equitably and the majorimpediment was the hierarchical, unequal socio-economic structure in the rural areas. So therewas a need to have more equitable distributionof the fruits of growth. This means that therewas a need for inclusive development. Thedemocratic political system that emerged out ofthe constitution with its commitment to socio-economic political equality could not challengethe existing unequal power relations in the ruralIndia. To understand the dynamics of this processone has to understand the political economy ofthe rural areas. The discourses on ruraldevelopment need to be situated in the contextof the power structure, power relations adpower struggles in the rural areas. The multiple

forms of inequalities, social, economic andcultural that exists in rural societies actuallyobstruct democratization of the society andgovernance structures and stifle the voices ofthe marginalised. There is a link between theperformance of the institutions of decentraliseddemocracy and the level of discriminations in aparticular state or geographical area.Decentralisation encourages realignment ofpower in terms of class, gender, caste etc. andobviously invites resistances from the hegemonicgroups. Institutional arrangement and safeguardsmust be there to protect the democratic spacecreated for the marginalised. The use oftechnology for the rural development just reflectsthe socio-economic divide in the rural areas.Technology itself is neutral but its use, accessand possession is not. This paper argues thatuse of technology can bring radical changes inattacking poverty in rural areas and in advancingsubstantially towards the goal of inclusive ruraldevelopment. But more relevant is the question;who are the owners of this technology and whatwill be the level of access of the marginalized to

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*Department of Political Science, R.D.Women’s UniversityBhubaneswar-751022, Odisha

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the use of technology and the role of state indismantling the divide in the use and ownershipof the technology in rural areas for development.

Methodology

This paper is based on the case study of aBlock in Odisha on the questions of access andownership of the technology in both agriculturaland non-agricultural sectors and on the questionsof impact of technology on the lives of the ruralpeople, particularly the marginalized. Themarginal and middle farmers, agricultural labour,petty traders and unemployed youth were takenas samples and the sample size was 200. Thestudy was done in the Binjharpur Block of JajpurDistrict in Odisha. The respondents were askedquestions through a structured questionnaire andalso personal interviews were held to have aclear understanding of their engagements withtechnology in their day to day life and theirapproach towards technology.

Sample-

1-Middle and Big farmers-44%

2-Rural labour-30%

3-Petty Traders-12%

4-youth-14%

The respondents were asked whether theyuse technology, what kind of technology, whetherthey are owners of the technology or use it onrent, what kind of access they have to availabletechnologies etc. to assess the status oftechnology in the life and production process of

the rural poor. Again they were asked whatimpediments or deprivations they face whenthey don’t have access to technology or havelimited access to it. The technology was divedbroadly into two groups agricultural and nonagricultural. The sample is categorized on thebasis of landholdings, owners of shops, tradeself-employed, wage earner etc. Out of 200respondents 88 are middle and big farmers, 60are rural labour, 24 are petty traders, and 28are unemployed youth. The farmers have fiveacres of land or more. The secondary sourcesof data on the levels of development of the block,particularly the agricultural sector were used ininterpretation and analysis of the data of theprimary sources. The concept of technology wasused in an inclusive sense.

Findings

1- The findings are very interesting andchallenge the stereotypes on this issue.

2- The respondents were asked on theownership of agricultural technology liketractors, pump sets, harvesting machinesetc. and out of 200 only 39 are ownersand all of them belong to middle and bigfarmers.

3- All farmers (88) have mobile phones, all24 traders have mobiles, and only 11 ofthe 60 labourers and 20 of the 28 youthhave mobiles.

4- All the respondents have electricityconnection.

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5- 146 respondents have television sets intheir homes.

6- 96 respondents are aware of internet

7- 132 respondents have motorcycles whichincludes all 24 traders.

8- All the farmers use tractor in their paddyfields and 30 owners of tractors give theirtractors on rent to others.

10- There is no use of manual ploughing andsome agricultural labourers who are sharecroppers use tractors on rent.

11- There is concrete road connectivity to thevillages of all respondents and publictransport is available in 76% of the villagesof the respondents.

12- Pumpsets are in demand due to lack ofsufficient irrigation.

13- 78% of the farmers have cows, oxen assecondary source of income

14- All labourers have goats as secondarysource of income.

15- There is no cold storage available for theproducts in the entire block.

16- 72% of the farmers are engaged in singlecrop.

17- Traditional paddy seeds are mostly usedand they are preserved manually

18- Localised use of hybrid seeds are therebut limited to places with availability ofwater.

19- Transport of paddy from field to home ismostly through tractors and use of manuallabour is almost absent.

Interpretation and Analysis of Data, -Agriculture and Technology

Use of technology in agriculture is on therise and not inclusive. Those who wereeconomically elites have now access andownership of technology. The use of technologyin agriculture has adverse impacts on thelivelihoods of agricultural labour. The use oftractor has led to unemployment of the labour inthe paddy fields during times of ploughing theland. Again they are in demand in other phasesof cultivation when there is no use or less use ofmachinery in the process of cultivation. Theymigrate or become dependent on MGNREGAfor work or search for other works likeconstruction works or other household worksfor wage. They have to move to places otherthan their nearby villages which take away theirtime and money and energy. As these labourershave no knowledge of driving the tractornormally the drivers are from middle class andcaste. The jobs of agricultural labour are lostand shifted upwards as driving is technical innature. Thus while technology saves cost for thefarmers on the other hand it affects employmentof agricultural labour.

Petty Traders and Technology

Here petty traders mean mobileshopkeepers engaged in the marketing of

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stationery, clothes, utensils, vegetables, milkproducts. The concrete road connectivity has ahuge positive impact on them as it saves theirtime and makes them more productive as theyutilize their time to reach more customers in moreplaces. All most all of them use motorcycles.Mobile phones help them in remaining in touchwith the customers and assessing their needs anddemands. The milk products are not damagedbecause of the saving of time in transport. Theycould carry more items in bikes than in bicyclesearlier. But their access to technology is limitedand they would perform better in their businessif they would have more acces to technology.ifthey could have small cold storage boxes theycan carry vegetables, milk products and otherpershable items or to customers at distantvplaces and for longer time. There is nogovernmental support for them so far as use andownership of technology is concerned. If loansfrom cooperative banks on a reduced interestcan be made avilable to them then they can havethe required technology for their small business.But the data shows access to loans by publicsector banks or cooperative banks in the ruralareas is very limited for the marginalised . A largespace in this area is occupied by private moneylenders who charge exorbitant rates of interstand they are without any state control. Thus ifthere will be no state intervention inprovidingaccesss and ownership of technology then thesame divide and inequality will continue in thissector.

Marginalised and Technology

The data shows that so far as access andownership of technology for production,marketing etc. are concerned the marginalised,deporived sections in the rural areas likeagricultural labour, marginal and small farmers,women of these sections are victims ofinaccessability to technology, even the minimumlike tv or mobile. Both categories of socio-economic divisions in the rural areas like casteand class are overlapping.The poor as well asthe dalits and backwards are being alienated fromtechnology. The use of technology will lead totheir unemployment or partial employment. Theincreasing dominance of technolgy in agricultureand other areas of production in rural areas willincrease their unemployment. In the absence ofany viable alternatives they will be forced todeprivation. What is happening is that there is alarge scale migration of youth from thesessections to urban areas where they work in lowpaid jobs and in inhuman conditions. The failureand lapses of MGNREGA in this block hasmultiplied their problem. The use of machines inMGNREGA works again createsunemployment for them. Here the technology,instead of empowering the poor marginalisesthem.

Manual Scavenging and Technology

There is a lot of talk on swacchata todayand there is nothing wrong in that. But from thesurvey and from the interactions with the

Attacking Rural Poverty Through Technology

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respondents in this study an interesting pictureemerged. In the entire block most of the residentshave buildings or most are constructing buildingsfor residence.The latrines, toilets with modernfacilities are part of these pucca houses and theyneed to be cleaned. One major problem is thecleaning of sagety tanks of latrines and they haveto be cleaned manually as there is technologyavilable for this task. So there is the need of theservices of manual scavengers who are hired fromnearby municipality, Jajpur. Interestingly the riseof technology that is concrete buildings sustainedand strengthened manual scavening due to lackof technology. The manual scavengers are mostlyyoung people without alternative employmentand without technology. So the bigger questionis how the manual scavenging can be abolishedwhen there is incresing use of it due to technologyand also due to non-avilability of technology.There is nothing spiritual in it. It is caste basedand class based expolitation in a new patterndue to lack of technology and avinability oftechnology.

Conclusion

The entire study points to the fact that thereis no alternative to technolgy at this point of timeof history. But technology is not neutral. Thequestions of who is its owner, who is allowed touse it, how it is used, for whom is it used etc.are relevant to determine the benefits oftechnology. Technology can bring radicalchanges in the life of the rural people, particularlythe marginalised if it is inclusive. Ruraldefvelopment today is simply unthinkable withouttechnology. But technolgy in itself can not makeit inclusive. There is the need of state interventionto make technology serve the purpose ofachieving inclusive development. Theinequalitues shoud not sustain throughtechnology, rather the reverse should happen.Technology should become an effective tool todemolish the social, economic, culturalinequalities existing in rural society. Education,particularly skills based training can be a gamechanger. The marginalised should be the focus.Otherwise technology in the hands of a few willbe used to dominate the majority.

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The Contribution of Communication of Rural Development

*Dr. Shyam Sundar Mishra**Yadavendra Dubey

Although poverty, famine, and nutritionproblems are still the major problems in thewhole world, indifference towards the rural areagradually increases. Today, more than half of thepopulation in India lives in the rural areas. More-over, one of the determinant sectors in our coun-try is still the agricultural sector. Therefore, therural area is the field that most needs economic,social and cultural assistance. However, unfor-tunately, it is at the top of the list of the mostneglected areas. The communication studiescarried out in the rural areas contribute greatlyto the people in the rural areas to take morepart in the economic, social and political life, tothe problems in the rural areas to be brought tothe public agenda and to the provision of infor-mation exchange and cooperation betweenpeople and institutions in the rural areas. Infor-mation and Communication Technologies (ICTs)can be used to support communities in their ef-forts for social and economic developments.

ICT can play an important role in manyaspects of rural development. It can also helpto better govern various aspects of ruraldevelopment. The working definition (used bythe British Council) emphasizes that“Governance involves interaction between the

formal institutions and those in civil society.Governance refers to a process wherebyelements in society wield power, authority andinfluence and enact policies and decisionsconcerning public life and social upliftment.” Theconcept of good government impliesaccountability, transparency, participation,openness and the rule of law. According toWorld Bank, “good governance is epitomizedby predictable, open and enlightened policy-making, a bureaucracy imbued with professionalethos acting in furtherance of the public good,the rule of law, transparent processes, and astrong civil society participating in public affairs.Poor governance (on the other hand) ischaracterized by arbitrary policy making,unaccountable bureaucracies, unenforced orunjust legal systems, the abuse of executivepower, a civil society unengaged in public life,and widespread corruption.” ICT can strengthenthe role of each governance pillar in ruraldevelopment and poverty reduction. It canfacilitate speedy, transparent, accountable,efficient and effective interaction between thepublic, citizens, business and other agencies.This not only promotes better administration andbetter business environment, but also saves timeand money in transactions costs of governmentoperations.

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* Assistant Professor, Sudhakar Mahila P.G. College** Research Scholar, Dept. of Political Science, U.P. College

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The Role of ICT in RuralDevelopment: There are many examples aboutthe role of ICT in strengthening rural livelihoods,providing market information and loweringtransaction costs of poor farmers and traders.One of them is the Grameen Bank. GrameenBank, best known as a micro-credit institution,has also pioneered in ICT related activities withthe poor. As poor people are often unaware oftheir rights, entitlements and the availability ofvarious government schemes and extensionservices, ICT can also improve their access tothe information they need. Through info kiosksor with the help of mobile phones farmers canaccess information on market prices or onextension services. Timing is often crucial whenit comes to the sale of produce. Workers canalso get information on available jobs andminimum wages. In a tribal district in MadhyaPradesh, in India the most commonly usedservices related to various grievances, marketinformation and land records: The ‘Gyandoot’community network, aimed at creating a costeffective, replicable, economically self-reliantmodel for taking benefits of InformationTechnology to the rural population, is an intranetnetwork using Wireless in Local Loop (WLL)technology to set up in 5 blocks with 21 kiosks,each catering to about 15-20 villages in tribalDhar district in Madhya Pradesh. The successis largely due to targeting the information interestof the people: rates of agriculture produce, landrecord rights, computer training, castecertificates, online public grievance redressal,health services, e-mail, rural e-auction,matrimonial alliances, information on governmentprogrammes, information for children, online

employment exchange, availability of applicationsfor jobs, local weather report, e-news papersetc. Between January 2000 and June 200l,68500 villagers used various services. The mostcommonly used services were grievanceredressals (41%), market rates (25%), land-records (20%). Interestingly, one out every sixusers of the network was illiterate with noknowledge of reading or writing. It is adisappointment that only 13 % of users arewomen. (Samiullah and Rao 2002) The lack ofsystematic and transparent recording and publicdocumentation of government data needed bythe poor has a negative effect on developmentoutcomes. This is the case, for example, withland records. Without land records as collateral,they cannot apply for loans, and often theycannot get assistance from government povertyalleviation programs intended for small farmers.(Warschauer 2003). Often for the poor, gettingaccess to even the most common type ofgovernment information or documentation canbe a nightmare requiring multiple visits and bribesas well as wasting their time. ICT can be usedto address such malpractices and to speed upprocessing of documents: 4 In Andhra Pradesh,India, networked computers have been used inthe reform of processes to register deeds andstamp duties. Using traditional methods, this took13 cumbersome steps in a highly opaque processthat invited bureaucratic delay and corruption.It took from three to as many as 15 days—andthe process involved the registration of over 120million documents a year. Using a newnetworked system, the same task can beaccomplished in just over two hours, with farless opportunity for graft. Again in Andhra

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Pradesh, a program to computerize the issuanceof caste certificates, essential for obtaininggovernment service vacancies and access toeducational scholarships, managed to decreasethe time for certificate issuance from 20 to 30days to only 10 minutes. (World Bank 2001).

Public sector inefficiency, corruption, andwaste leave insufficient resources to supportpublic services and anti-poverty programs.Since effective and efficient delivery of basicservices by the public sector matters most tothe poor, weak governance hurts themdisproportionately. (ADB 2002)

ICT with the Rural Poor : An enablingregulatory and policy environment is alsorequired for the ICT sector, including coherentnational plans, that integrate ICT-baseddevelopment. They should help to build nationaland regional internet backbones and communityaccess points; adopt enabling policies fortelecommunications and electronic 6 commerce;encourage the creation and dissemination oflocally relevant content and applications that fitwith the cultural and social context, reflectingthe linguistic diversity; significantly expandeducation and training programs, both in generaland with regard to ICT in particular; and help tocreate a facilitative environment and access toICT for the civil society, private sector andgovernment. (Drake 2001). Care should betaken so that ICT programs are not justtechnology-driven but respond to the needs ofthe poor, when it comes to content, language,skills, design, and price. It is important toaddress the sectors and areas that are of direct

relevance to poverty reduction and where theuse of ICTs can make a difference. Localcommunities should be involved in the design ofuniversal access programs through consultations,surveys and demand studies. Hardware toocould be developed in close consultation withthe poor, and in line with the developing countryconditions, responding to various constraintssuch as lack of mains energy supply orinterrupted supply. Techniques such as voice mailtranslation of content and icon-based telephonescould be used. Such research and developmentalready exists in developing countries. India andIndonesia are developing their own customized,low-cost IT terminals and devices. (ITU, Ibid).iv In the long run, it is necessary to developfinancing frameworks that attract privateinvestment. In India private sector involvementhas brought down the mobile call rates. It is anindicator that the private sector – with the rightgoals and accompanying policies – can be afriend of the poor. It will be difficult to predictthe future, not only regarding the kind oftechnologies that will emerge, but also regardingthe reaction of the consumers: what they willadopt and for what purposes, and what theywill reject. Increasingly, the technology needsto be developed in close consultation with thepeople, including the poor.

Conclusion: It has been argued here thatICT can contribute to poverty reduction, if it istailored to the needs of the poor and if it is usedin the right way for right purposes andcomplemented with required reforms. Like alltechnologies, ICT offers tools and applicationsbut no solutions. The solutions to the problem

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of poverty are what they have always been:economic growth, enabling infrastructure, thecreation of livelihoods, social capital, educationand healthcare, and sufficiently democraticgovernment to ensure that economic benefits arenot cornered by the powerful elites. By providingcheap and 7 efficient tools for access to

information and exchange of ideas andknowledge, ICT can become an enabling toolfor wider socioeconomic development. Whenproperly used, it can greatly increase the abilityof the poor people to benefit from economicdevelopment and from development programsmeant to help them.1

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Role of Information and Communication Technologyin Rural Development

*Devendra Prasad Pandey

The rural development in India is one ofthe most important factors for growth of theIndian economy. The strategy of ruraldevelopment mainly focuses on povertyalleviation, better livelihood, provision of basicamenities and infrastructure development.

People in rural areas like to have freedelivery of information. Experience has shownthat if the information has direct relevance topeople and has a potential to result in commercialgains, people are willing to pay for such services.

One of the key components of improvingsocio-economic status of people in villages is toensure that their products find right kind ofmarkets and reach these markets in minimumtime without number of middle men involved init. The reach of information and communicationtechnology (ICT) in rural areas will provideunique opportunities to producers of ruralproducts, agriculture/agro-processing products,rural handicrafts etc. to have direct access tomarkets. Internet will enable advertising of ruralproducts produced even in the remotest villagesto global markets. The agriculture extensionworker can access latest information on farmtechnology and products, and disseminate thesame to villages.

The broad information inputs required by

farmers in the new scenario can be classified as(i) Awareness Databases (ii) Decision SupportSystems -_ information that facilitates foamierto make a proper SWOT analysis to takeappropriate decisions, (iii) systems that facilitateIndian farmers to forge appropriate alliances forcollective benefit, (iv) information on newopportunities (iv) monitoring systems forcorrective measures.

Watershed development through GISGovernment and NGOs are using GIS

and remote sensing technologies in watersheddevelopment in rural areas. Developmentthrough watershed approach is one of thedevelopmental options. Watershed managementis the study of the relevant characteristics of awatershed, aimed at the sustainable distributionof its resources and the process of creating andimplementing plans, programmes and projectsto sustain and enhance watershed functions thataffect the plant, animal and human communitieswithin a watershed boundary. Watershed is ahydrological unit bounded by natural ridges andallows the run off due to rainfall to drain in awell defined drainage pattern of streams flowingwithin the watersheds boundary. It aims atalleviating habitat and inhabitant impoverishmentthrough a holistic approach of conservation and

*M.A. Economics Students

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sustainable exploitation of natural responsibilityand harmonious co-existence manner. Awatershed is an area of land and water boundedby a drainage divide within which the surfacerunoff collects and flows out of the watershedthrough a single outlet into a lager river (or) lake.Land and water are the two most valuable andessential resources which forms the basis of allthe life and forms key resources in all economicactivities ranging from agriculture to industry.Watershed management is no longer theexclusive domain of soil and waterconservationists, it now needs equal contributionfrom social scientists, doctors and experts ofother disciplines also.

As an integral part of area developmentprogramme, land resources developmentprogrammes are taken upon micro watershedbasis as the shape of the watershed controls,the natural resources like water. Soil andproductivity of the land for successfulimplementation of agriculture, forest and othermicro level development in each hectare of awatershed the micro watershed and the villagebecomes the most adaptable unit. For regionalplanning and management the micro watershedsand villages are the most workable units. Usingsatellite data and GIS technology, maps of landuse/land cover, drainage, soil, etc. helps inmanaging natural and human resources.

e-chaupal’s rural marketing strategyITC’s e-chaupal strategy to tap rural markets isanother application of ICT in rural areas. Undere-chaupal, a farmer visits the centre with hisinterest to sell his commodity. He is advised byan expert through internet enabledcommunication system on current market rates

in different locations. Based on his choice, he isoffered to sell his commodity or store in godown. The e-Choupal model has beenspecifically designed to tackle the challengesposed by the unique features of Indianagriculture, characterised by fragmented farms,weak infrastructure and the involvement ofnumerous intermediaries, among others. ‘e-Choupal’ also unshackles the potential of Indianfarmer who has been trapped in a vicious cycleof low risk taking ability - low investment - lowproductivity - weak market orientation -lowvalue addition - low margin - low risk takingability. This made him and Indian agribusinesssector globally uncompetitive, despite rich &abundant natural resources. Such a market-ledbusiness model can enhance the competitivenessof Indian agriculture and trigger a virtuous cycleof higher productivity, higher incomes, enlargedcapacity for farmer risk management, largerinvestments and higher quality and productivity.

Further, a growth in rural incomes will alsounleash the latent demand for industrial goodsso necessary for the continued growth of theIndian economy. This will create another virtuouscycle propelling the economy into a highergrowth trajectory. Appreciating the imperativeof intermediaries in the Indian context, ‘e-Choupal’ leverages Information Technology tovirtually cluster all the value chain participants,delivering the same benefits as vertical integrationdoes in mature agricultural economies ‘e-Choupal’ makes use of the physical transmissioncapabilities of current intem1ediaries -aggregation, logistics, counter-party risk andbridge financing -while disinter mediating themfrom the chain of information flow and market

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signals.Real-time information and customized

knowledge provided by ‘e-Choupal’ enhancethe ability of fam1ers to take decisions and aligntheir farm output with market demand andsecure quality & productivity. The

Aggregation of the demand for farm inputsfrom individual farmers gives them access to highquality inputs from established and reputedmanufacturers at fair prices. As a directmarketing channel. Virtually linked to the ‘mandisystem for price discovery. ‘e-Choupal`eliminates wasteful intermediation and multiplehandling. Thereby it significantly reducestransaction costs.

Launched in June 2000, ‘e-Choupal’, hasbecome the largest initiative among all Internet-based interventions in rural India. ‘e-Choupal’services today reach out to over 4 millionfarmers growing a range of crops - soyabean,coffee, wheat, rice, pulses, shrimp - in over40,000 villages through 6500 kiosks across tenstates (Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Uttarakhand,Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh,Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Kerela and TamilNadu). The problems encountered while setting

up and managing these ‘e-Choupals’ areprimarily of infrastructural inadequacies,including power supply, telecom connectivity andbandwidth, apart from the challenge of impartingskills to the first time internet users in remoteand inaccessible areas of rural India.

Agriculture is one of the most importantsectors of nation, and could benefit tremendouslywith the applications of ICTs especially inbringing changes to socio-economic conditionsof poor in backward areas. Agricultureconstitutes a major livelihoods sector and mostof the rural poor depend on rain-fed agricultureand fragile forests for their livelihoods. Fannersin rural areas have to deal with failed crops andanimal illness frequently and due to limitedcommunication facilities, solutions to theirproblems remain out of reach (World Bank,2009). However, connectivity technologies havebeen the greatest achievement in ICT and haveunleashed new functionalities for the businesscommunity. There are certain problems forapplication of ICT in rural areas like poorconnectivity, low bandwidth, power supply butthese problems can be solved through politicalwill and corporate partnership.

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Role of Information and Communication Technology

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Rural development Programme & Information Technology

*Dr. Vandana Pandey**Dr. Prabha Shankar Pandey

India is the second populous country inthe world having more than one hundred crorepopulation and the majority of its population inIndia (about 73%) is living in rural areas. Theliving standard of this rural mass is very poor.Thus under such a situation, development of poorareas must receive greater attention in the variousschemes designed for the development of IndianEconomy.

The Government of India has started anumber of programmes to provide specificfacilities to rural areas for its rapid development.It is now recognised that development planningin India has to concentrate on changing scenarioof rural areas by generating of more employmentas it is the only effective way of povertyalleviation, reduction of inequality and meaningfulgrowth.

The process of economic developmentCarried out in a country has benefited mostlythe relatively developed areas and also therelatively better off people. Inspite of variousattempts the benefit has not been pouringtowards the backward areas and its backwardpeople. To face such a situation, designing ofspecial programme for attacking poverty directlybecame very much important. Thus for the

alleviation of rural poverty, poor people shouldbe endowed with productive assets or skills fortheir fruitful self employment by which they canearn greater incomes and thus cross the povertyline.

The basic objective of rural developmentprogramme is that to promote employment andrenovate the rural environment along with thetransfer of productive assets, so that they canearn sufficient income to cross the poverty line.

Accordingly, since the inception ofeconomic planning in India, the first planintroduced the community DevelopmentProgramme and on 2nd October 1952 the first55 Community Development Projects wereinaugurated where each project was having 3Development Blocks. With the passage of timemore and more such project were developedand at the end of the fifth plan about 5028 Blockswere developed to cover almost all villages ofthe country. The community developmentprogrammes had undertaken ambitious schemesfor allround development of rural areas whichincluded improvement to agricultural techniques,exploring supplementary sources of employment,extension to minor irrigation facilities,improvement to transportation facilities,

*Lecturer – Commerce**Lecturer – Economic Sri Agrasen Kanya A.P.G. College, Varanasi.

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provision for social services and developmentof co-operatives and Panchayats. Till the end offifth plan about Rs. 671 Crore were spent onthese community development projects.

In spite of all these attempts thecommunity development programme could notmake much headway as it failed to enthuse thevillages into the sprit of self-help, self-relianceand co-operative efforts. Thus the plannersbecome very much worried about the failure ofthis community development programme as itfailed to attract more and more rural peoplewithin its fold.

In the mean time lot of changes havetaken place. At the center, the ministry ofcommunity development and co-operation wasabolished and was replaced by a new Ministryof Rural Development for accelerating the paceof rural development of the country. Accordinglysince the sixth plan onwards, Various selfemployment Programmes and wageemployment Programmes were introduced. Inthe former category, the integrated RuralDevelopment Programme (IRDP) wasundertaken in 1980. Again in the later category.The Food for Work Programme (FWP) wasinitiated in 1977-78 for generating additionalgainful employment and to create durablecommunity assets by utilizing surplus foodgrainsaccumulated as buffer stocks in the economy.But this FWP has created a little impact on themarket wage rate, generation of employmentetc. Thus later on April 1, 1981, the NREPbecame regular programme in the economicplanning of the country since the Sixth Plan andvarious other employment programmes werealso introduced which include (TRYSEM)

Training for Rural Youth for Self employment,(DWCRA) Development of woment andChildren in Rural Area, (JRY) Jawhar RozgarYojana. In this connection Government of Indiahas started National Rural employmentprogramme. Rural Landless EmploymentGuarantee Programme, Jawahar Rozgar Yojana(JRY), National Social assistance Programme(NSAP), Rural Group Life Insurance Scheme(RGLIS), The Swarna Jayanti Shahari RozgarYojana (SJSRY), Swarna Jayanti GramSwarozgar Yojana (SGSY), Jawahar GramSamridhi Yojana (JGSY), Sampoorna GrameenRozgar Yojana, Pradhan Mantri GramodayaYojana (PMGY), Food for Work Programme,Annapurna National Rural EmploymentGuarantee Scheme.

National Rural Employment GuaranteeScheme

Employment Guarantee Act is not a newthough. The national Rural Employment Act2005 (nerein after reffered as NREGS), whichconfers legal right to employment on the ruralcitizen is a landmark in the history of independentIndia. It seeks “to provide for enhancement oflivelihood security of the households in ruralareas of the country by providing at least onehundred days of guaranteed employment inevery financial year to every household whoseadult members volunteer to do the unskilled workwith the schemes made under the Act”. Initiallystarting from 200 most backward district of thecountry, it will be extended to the whole countrywithin a period of five years.

National Rural Employment Act 2005is a prominent step of recent Government. It is

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a legal act, which is, provides employmentGuarantee to rural masses, shelter in casualcircumstances and meal for surviving life. Themain feature of this scheme is as under: -

(a) To register the employment seekers toGram Panchayat level with full particulars.And after getting registered & properenquiry of particulars submitted a job cardwith photograph is issued to registeredcandidate.

(b) Providing employment opportunities andunder this scheme target of providingemployment to registered persons areminimum 100 days together in a financialyear, and 1/3rd opportunities are availableto women. And no upper limit is fixed onthe number of days of employment.

(c) Minimum required person for starting anew work under this scheme is fixed 50applicants.

(d) At state level the minimum wage rate isleft to state govt. but at national level it fixedas minimum average wage rate at Rs. 60per man a day.

(e) Under this scheme no work can beallowed to be given to contractors & onlythe work shall be performed manually andnot by machines.

(f) This scheme is tried to be implemented byinstitutional mechanism through thefollowing sub-schemes:-

(i) Central Employment GuaranteeCouncil (CEGC) – At central level thisscheme will be constituted to deal with thematters of dissemination of information,

implementation, supervision, monitoringand grievance rederssal.

(ii) District project coordinator (DPC) – Atdistrict level implementation of NREGS willbe done by District project coordinator.And the main functions of this scheme willbe performed by District Panchayat thefunctions are :-

Consolidation of block plans for inclusionin the shelf of projects to be approved byZP,

According necessary sanctions andadministrative clearance.

Coordinate the programme officers.

Reviewing, monitoring & supervision ofPO’s

Conduction of periodic inspections of theworks in progress.

Redressal of grievances.

Preparing budget for the next year.

All the above functions will be performedby District Panchayat & it will getassistance for performing above functionsby District project coordinator.

(iii) State Employment Guarantee Scheme– At state level, State EmploymentGuarantee council (SEGC) will beconstituted, which will comprise ofmembers nominated by the stategovernments consisting of upto 5 non-officials nominated from the PRIs.

(iv) Programme officer at the block level– Programme officer at the block level

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under the overall direction, control andsupervision of the District projectcoordinator, will assist.

(g) Panchayati Raj institutions (PRIs) i.e.Gram Panchayat at village level, PanchayatSamiti at block level and Zila Parishad playa pivotal role in successful implementationof NREGS

Gram Panchayat – Gram Panchayat withthe helps of its people will prepare anoutshell of the projects & planning underNREGS and afterwards the programmeofficer scrutinize it and approve it. Theyare also responsible for execution &supervision of scheme and also GramPanchayat is responsible for registration foremployment seekers.

Intermediate Panchayat – At block levelthere is intermediate Panchayat which willapprove block level plans and provide afinal touch is provided for its execution Andafter the approval Panchayat Samitiforward it to Zila Parishad for supervision& monitoring the projects taken up at theGram Panchayat and block level.

District Panchayat – It is also known asZila Parishad and as it is mentioned inabove point that ZP supervise the shelfproject at block level and monitor theprefects at Gram Panchayat.

(h) Funding of NREGS is shared by bothcentral govt. & State govt. The Centralgovt. establishes NREGF i.e. NationalRural Employment Guarantee Fund atcentral level. And it meets the cost of-

100% wage expenditure of unskilledmanual work.

75% material cost and payments made andsemi-skilled works.

Part of administrative expenses.

State government establishes State ruralemployment guarantee fund & it bears costof -

(I) Unemployment allowance if any

(II) 25% of expenditure on material &payments made to the skilled & semiskilledworkers.

(III) Part of administrative expenses.

(i) Transparency & Accountability is must inNREGS. District project coordinator isresponsible for ensuring transparency &accountability under the scheme.

(j) Unemployment allowance is provided toentitled applicant, if the authorities fails toprovide job within 15 days of demand forjob, which is equal to 1/4th of the wagesfor the first 30 days & afterwards the rateis @ 50% of the wages.

(k) The works which should be taken up underthe scheme are water harvesting andconservation, irrigation work, renovationof traditional water bodies, landdevelopment draught proofing including aforestation, flood control measuresincluding drainage in waterlogged areas,etc.

(l) Social security provisions are provided tothose who are employed under the scheme

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like daily allowance equal to 50% wagesin case of hospitalization, free medicalfacilities along with accommodation, ex-gratia payment of Rs. 25000 in case ofdeath are permanent disability. Delay inpayments will invite penalty to be paid ascompensation.

(m) A provision is there of fine upto Rs. 1000in case of contravention of the provisionsof the act. If the govt. is prima facie satisfiedabout misutilisation of founds under thescheme, then it can order for stoppage ofproviding funds for the scheme.

A Rapid progress in implementation of NationalRural Employment Guarantee Act.

After the implementation of NREGA inevery State, there are too much problems thathas come in the way of this programme but resultof NREGA is evident of its rapid progress asthe total employment 89.43 Lakh was demandedunder it. These data are the symbol of itssuccessful implementation. NREGA had beenimplemented on 2nd February, 2006 in 27 States.The description of state-vis progress is as under-

The above table shows that NREGAapplied in 200 District of various states and allof the above data presented its progress alongwith success. With the help of above study wecan say that it is running successfully in recentlyat all levels of states.The above table show that in the first round ofNREA is selected 200 cities of Various state.All of the cities are backward from the point ofview of employment graph. We can say that onthe basis of comparative study of NREGA.

Progress is that in Bihar, Uttarpradesh,Jharkhand, Orissa and Madhyapradesh areselected 23, 22, 20, 19 and 18 district for itsfirst stage. Maximum Amount for employmentis issued by the Govt. for 2006-07 of Rs.109384.11 Lakhs and the state which took thisamount is Madhyapradesh. It is more than incomparison of Uttarpradesh. The issued Amountfor NREGA to Uttarpradesh was Rs. 33498.69Lakh. The minimum Amount of Rs. 272.85 Lakhis issued to Arunachal pradesh and the numberof selected city is only one. Bihar is the biggestbackward state regarding employment as 23cities are selected for NREGA in Bihar andissued amount for it is Rs. 40503.38 Lakh forgeneration of employment to rural masses.

If we want that the NREG Act achievehis target successfully, some steps or awarenessshould be taken by us and Government both-1. The government should launch an Intensive

awareness programme for diffusion of itsmotive among masses.

2. Government should use different types ofmedia for creating eagerness and changingthe mindset of the masses.

3. Government should take up some strictsteps for controlling red-tapisim,bureaucracy and corruption.

4. Government should appoint publicinformation officers at the central, stateand Local levels.

5. Government should use different types ofmedia i.e. Print media, Small media likefolk, street theatre doordarshan, radio andinternet, specifically for the purpose ofNREGS.

6. Government should prepare micro-planfor rural area.

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Technological Effect on The Development of Women(With Special Reference to Gender Imbalances)

*Prof. Savitaben Patel

lssues relating to the woman andtechnology gained importance when the issuesaffecting women’s lives became prominent in thedeveloped world. Technological developmentsthroughout the world were seen to have affectedwomen’s expectations. Opportunities andbehavior. The experience of the developingsocieties shows not only the economicmarginalisation of women (especially ruralwomen) as a result of development but also ashrinkage of their resource-base andopportunities of women’s well-being as persons.

A related issue is whether we should goon treating women as end products in ourdevelopment experience or should we treat themas agents of change.

ObjectivesThe present paper tries to highlight some

of the above issues by first developing ahistorical :onnection between technology and thestatus of women and thereatter elaborating uponthe mbalances arsing out of a misplaced emphasison certain aspects of technology, and then.pinpointing the factors responsible for theseimbalances.

Women and TechnologyIdeas conceding the relationship between

property, production and women’s status,

historically speaking, has been related todifferent types of social structures. Whilequestioning the: meting and gathering societies,some experts have pointed out that the smallbends of hunters: had simple but ingenioustechnologies consisting of bows. Arrows spears,needles. Skin- Loathing and leaf or woodshelters. Social life was more or less egalitarianand the division of incur was based on sex andage. The men were engaged in hunting and tithingthe women: gaged themselves in gathering of wildplants, fruits and nuts. The women also did mostof the joking, processing and storage of food.Household crafts such as basket making, leatherwork and designing clothes were mostly doneby women. lt has also been pointed out thatwomen : eyed an important role in the culturaldevelopment of these societies, through theiroverall section was more or less subordinate tothat of men. In this regard, social anthropologistsNice a distinction between two types of rolesone that of food procurers and the other that ofTed processors, In those societies where womenplay a vital role in food procurement theyrelatively high social status than those wherewomen merely process food.

ln the context ofagricultural societies, thehoeing is done by women while hunting. Fishing

*Sociology department,Smt. A.S. Chaudhary Mahila Arts & Home Science college, Mahesana, Gujarat.

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ni cattle grazing are undertaken by men. Sincewomen in these societies play a vital role in fiedprocurement” they drive only limited supportfrom their husbands but enjoy considerablefreedom and economic independence. With theincreased dependence onplough agriculture insubsequent epochs the status of women.however, shows a considerable decline.

Do the Women Get Proper Access toAppropriate Technology? To minimise the loadof unpleasant housework is another importantaspect of modern industrial technology. TheUnited Nations Conference on the Decade forWomen (1980) was the first to highlight thenecessity of reducing the daily burden of women.Chalking out the strategies for the developmentof women, the Sixth Five Year Plan (1980-85)document on Women and Development ignoresthe dimension of domestic work and emphasizesonly the threefold strategy of education,employment and health. It adopts the family asa unit of development only for the purpose ofreducing the burden of child-bearing throughhealth education and by limiting the size of thefamily. The economic emancipation of the familywas to be achieved by securing a fair share ofsalaried. self and wage employment opportunitiesfor women.

In the rural areas, research studies pointout that modern household technology isavailable to a very small proportion to the elitewomen. Knowledge and awareness ofhousehold technology among rural women isvery poor. The burden of house work andproductive work on elite women is much less ascompared to the lower socio-economic start ofthe village society because of the availability ofhired household help and their non-participation

in productive work. The provision of basictechnology such as accessible water points,electricity, bio-gas. Smokeless chulhas, (stoves)and solar cookers to the rural women can, onthe one hand.

Considerably reduce their burden ofhouse work and on the other, help them acquireknowledge and skills through a non-formalapproach. Some government and non-governmental agencies have been working in thisdirection but experience tells us that like all othergovernmental projects they fail to make animpact. Failure in the Development of a ScientificTemper Apart from the fact that our earlier planpriorities failed to look into the dimension ofintermediate technology affecting the status ofwomen, such as household technology (until theseventh five year plan), we have also failed inthe development of a scientific temper. In sucha social system, it is the peop1e’s capacities andachievements that matter rather than theirascribed status or origin. An important aspectof a scientific ethos is that knowledge must bemade available to all the people, men as well aswomen, and the society must identify the areaswhere scientific innovations can change the lifeof different people by making the best possibleuse of it.

Gender imbalancesOne of the first instances of gender

imbalance is the sex ratio. The 1981 censusfigures show that the overall sex ratio stands at933 females to 1000 males and the rural-urbandisparities are wider; 951 in rural as against 878in urban areas. In the 1991 census. The overallsex ratio has further declined to 929 females asagainst, 1000 males, but the rural-urbandisparities seem to be narrowing down to 941

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in rural as against 893 in urban areas. A notablefeature of our developmental process is that theoverall sex ratio has declined from 941 in 1961to 929 in 1991. The process of narrowinggender gap seems to have begun with the 1991census. The gap further widens while going upthe ladder of education from the level of primaryto secondary and higher education. The 1991census figures for employment show an increasein the work participation rates of women.Women’s share of employment is confirminglargely to agriculture and allied activities wheretheir role is that of paid or unpaid unskilledagricultural labour.

However. there is also a positive side tothe impact of science and technology. Variouslegislative measures which have tended totranslate the constitutional commitments havehelped in the improvement of the legal status ofwomen. On the quantitative side. The averageage at marriage for girls has risen to 18.3 yearsin 1981 as against 16.6 years in 1961. and Thelife expectancy has improved from 44.7 yearsin 1961 to 52.9 years in 1981 and 55.9 berween1981-1988.The sex ratio also marginallyincreased from 930 in 1971 to 933 in 1981. Anexplanation of gender imbalances. Therefore, hasto be sought within the socio-politicalframework. The continuing subordination ofwomen in our society is a manifestation of genderideology. Whereas science and technology havebeen increasingly used for raising the productivityof men, the productivity of women wasdismissed to a lower position because of theinterplay of various socio-cultural practices suchas differential socialization. Segregation andseclusion of women and also because of a tight

social control over traditional male bastions suchas the institution of patriarchy.

ConclusionThe above analysis helps us conclude that

the development of a sciatic temper such as theinculcation of modem occupational skills will helpwomen become independent and self-reliant andalso pave the way for the removal of povertyand ignorance in the country. However In thepropagation of the sciatic temper, a balance hasto be struck between the positive and negativeeffects of science and technology. An uncheckeduse of science and technology could bring forthfar more destruction than development as isevident from the indiscriminate adoption andpropagation of the technologies of the developedworld by the under developed world. The useof technology has to be in tune with the socio-cultural environment and its introduction has tobe evaluated on the criteria of availability,practicality and profitability. The marginalizationof women relates to the loss of control over theirwork. Time and health and also their inability tohandle new technology. The goal of science andtechnology, therefore, should not be theexploitation of human kind but the attainment ofsustainable development. A controlled orregulated use of science and technology mustbecome an integral part of all developmentalapproaches and all such checks and balanceshave to be harmonized at the global level.

Lastly it may be stated that a completeunderstanding of the process of productionwould entail a proper understanding of the wayin which they affect the lives of men and womenand the extent to which are controlled by eachsex. Thus, it calls for a complete restructuring of

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our planning process and a redennition of ourdevelopmental goals and means which show notonly a sensitivity to issues concerning womenand the poorer sections of the society but alsohow it involves them in our programmes fordevelopment.

References Census of India (1981). Series-I Paper

2 of l98l_ Rural Urban Distribution.Registrar General, New Delhi.

Census of India (1991), Series-l. Paper-2. Rural-Urban Distribution, RegistrarGeneral, New Delhi.

National Perspective Plan for Women(1988-2000 A.D.). Government ofIndia Ministry of Human ResourcesDevelopment.

Ram. S. (Dr.) (2004). “Women Socio -Economic Problem “commonwealthPublishing House, New Delhi.

*****

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Information Technology and India’s Economic Development

*Dr. Ashokbhai C. Tadavi

This paper discusses the possibilities for broad-based IT-led economic growth inIndia, including increasing value-added, using better telecom links to capture morebenefits domestically through offshore development for developed country firms,greater spillovers to the local economy, broadening the IT industry with productionof telecom access devices, improving the functioning of the economy through a moreextensive and denser communications network, and improving governance. We alsoexamine the policy environment, arguing that government policy is better focusedon removing labor market distortions and infrastructure constraints, rather thanproviding output or export subsidies to the software industry.Keywords: information technology, software, complementarities, telecommunicationsJEL Classification: M21, L63, O12, O3

This paper discusses the possibilities forbroad-based IT-led economic growth in India,including increasing value-added, using bettertelecom links to capture more benefitsdomestically through offshore development fordeveloped country firms, greater spillovers tothe local economy, broadening the IT industrywith production of telecom access devices,improving the functioning of the economy througha more extensive and denser communicationsnetwork, and improving governance. We alsoexamine the policy environment, arguing thatgovernment policy is better focused on removinglabor market distortions and infrastructureconstraints, rather than providing output orexport subsidies to the software industry.

Keywords: information technology, software,complementarities, telecommunications

1. IntroductionThe success of India’s software industry

on the global stage has captured the imaginationof Indians in a way that only cricket and hockeysuccesses could in the past. Indians (or peopleof Indian origin) have become leaders of, as wellas contributors to, the information technology(IT) revolution in the United States, reinforcingthe impression that India is world class in IT. Atthe same time, India remains an extremely poorcountry, with levels of human development forthe masses that put it in the same league as sub-Saharan Africa. From this perspective, India’s

*Dept. of SanskritSmt. Anandiben Shankarbhai Chaudhary Mahila Arts & Home Science College, Mehsana.

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IT success represents the emergence of anotherelite enclave, with increased inequality the result.

In this paper, we examine the question ofwhether IT can do more than fuel an enclave-based export boom. Can IT contribute to India’seconomic development in a broader, morefundamental way? What are the potentialmechanisms whereby this can occur? What isthe likelihood of IT accelerating India’s growth,and what are the potential roadblocks orbottlenecks where government policy can makea difference between success and failure? Thispaper assumes a basic familiarity with the generalstructure and performance of the Indianeconomy, and the economic reform process thathas been taking place through the last decadeor more. In Section 2, therefore, we begin ouranalysis directly by examining the performanceof India’s IT sector, discussing the role ofsoftware versus hardware, the growth patternof the software industry and software exports,the rapid emergence of IT-enabled services, andthe role of the domestic market.

Section 3 turns to a consideration of theresource needs of the IT sector, and possibleconstraints and bottlenecks. These include thesupply of IT-skilled labor to support futuregrowth, telecommunications and other aspectsof infrastructure, and possible financialconstraints. Section 4 uses a range of economicideas to map out the possibilities for broad-basedIT-led development, going beyond the IT sector.We draw on recent analyses of the process ofeconomic development that emphasize factorssuch as innovation, complementarities intechnologies and in demand, and pecuniaryexternalities. In terms of the mechanisms fordevelopment, we discuss examples such as

increasing value-added, using better telecomlinks to capture more benefits domesticallythrough offshore development for industrialcountry firms, greater spillovers to the localeconomy, broadening the IT industry withproduction of telecom access devices, improvingthe functioning of the economy through a moreextensive and denser communications network,and improving governance at all levels.

Section 5 examines the policyenvironment, which interacts with resourceavailability, in the light of broader developmentalpossibilities. Issues raised here include theprovision of education, labor market distortions,infrastructure development in areas such astelecommunications, and tax and subsidypolicies. Section 6 provides a summaryconclusion, with an assessment of possibilitiesand recommendations for policy.

2 Information Technology and India’sEconomic Development – Nirvikar Singh, UCSanta Cruz, July 2002

2. The IT SectorInformation technology essentially refers

to the digital processing, storage andcommunication of information of all kinds

1.

Therefore, IT can potentially be used in everysector of the economy.

2 The true impact of IT

on growth and productivity continues to be amatter of debate, even in the United States,which has been the leader and largest adopterof IT.

3 However, there is no doubt that the IT

sector has been a dynamic one in manydeveloped countries, and India has stood outas a developing country where IT, in the guiseof software exports, has grown dramatically,despite the country’s relatively low level ofincome and development. An example of IT’s

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broader impact comes from the case of so-called IT-enabled services, a broad categorycovering many different kinds of data processingand voice interactions that use some ITinfrastructure as inputs, but do not necessarilyinvolve the production of IT outputs. India’sfigures for the size of the IT sector typicallyinclude such services, and they will be discussedin this section. We begin with a review of theoverall industry size, then discuss softwareversus hardware, exports versus domestic sales,and, finally, IT-enabled services.

3. Resource ConsiderationsAs in any industry, the availability of

adequate supplies of inputs is critical for growth.Much of the caution about the prospects forIndia’s IT industry has been focused on potentialbottlenecks in the supply of skills, and the qualityof the infrastructure. We add financial constraintsto this combination, and discuss each of thesebriefly.

InfrastructureGovernment failure in the realm of

infrastructure provision has been a majorcharacteristic of Indian economic development.Of the various infrastructure constraints,probably that of electric power is the mostfundamental, and the most difficult one to tackle.We will not address it here, because the subjectis too large, and it is not central to our analysis,though electric power is clearly necessary foran IT industry.

24 Other infrastructure constraints,

such as water, roads and ports, have served asgreater bottlenecks for manufacturing. In fact,one of the reasons software exports were ableto take off in India was their lack of dependenceon these latter kinds of infrastructure. Thedevelopment of software parks by eager

governments has helped to relax physicalinfrastructure constraints where they did exist.However, a severe potential constraint is thepoor overall state of India’s telecominfrastructure. The benefits of well-functioningtelecommunications are much broader than justin IT, but the Internet and the associated ITboom have made India’s telecoms bottleneck agreater concern. At the same time, rapidtechnological change and the success of India’sIT industry are together leading to solutions.

The basic technological driving force fortelecoms is the IT revolution itself. The ability todigitally encode all kinds of information, whethervoice, data, or video, makes it possible to sendall this information over a single network withdigital capabilities. This combined network mayinclude copper wires, fiber-optic cables, andwireless transmission. This is the essence of“convergence”. The implication of convergenceis that telecoms are receiving more attention thanin the past. While India began to encourage thesetting up of Public Call Offices (PCOs)throughout the country in the 1980s, teledensityremains very low, between 2 and 4 per hundred(well below other developing countries such asChina). The quality of lines and exchanges ispoor, and most telecoms remained a governmentmonopoly until very recently, failing to followquickly on the path of liberalization begun in1991. It has been the rise of India’s softwareindustry that has focused attention on the benefitsand feasibility of dramatic change in the telecomssector.

Financial ConstraintsA striking feature of the Indian economy

pre-reform was its inefficient use of capital.Relatively high savings rates were associated with

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relatively low growth rates. Financial sectorreform in India has focused on making thecountry’s organized capital markets moreefficient. Simple institutional improvements suchas electronic trading and settlement, guidelinesfor corporate governance, and so on, have beenintroduced. However, the nature of the financialsystem overall still involves ‘financial repression’,with the banking sector and a large number ofother financial institutions being subject toparking of government and state enterprisedeficits and to directed lending.

29 These problems

mean that substantial inefficiencies remain in thefinancial system. This has negative implicationsfor industry overall

30, but particularly for a fast-

growing sector such as IT.Clearly, broader reform of the financial

sector is required. While such reform has, asnoted, been taking place in areas such as thefunctioning of Indian stock markets, corporategovernance, regulation of banking, and methodsof central government borrowing, the constraintsimposed by the web of government-controlledfinancial institutions and their ‘bad’ loans to thepublic sector are a severe hurdle to furtherreform. For IT start-ups, venture capital hasbeen extremely important, and this should bethe case for India also. While the initial lack of aventure capital industry in India may have beenpositive, in the sense that the policies to createone could be considered from scratch, effortsto do so have tangled with existing mazes offinancial regulations and legal restrictions,including tax and corporate law. An importantbeginning was made by a committee on venturecapital appointed by the Securities andExchange Board of India (SEBI), India’s chieffinancial regulator. The committee’s report was

adopted by SEBI in June 2000, but many of thechanges required are beyond SEBI’sjurisdiction.

31

4. IT and DevelopmentThe case for IT as an engine of growth

and development must mainly rest on standardeconomic criteria, such as comparativeadvantage, complementarities, and the dynamicsof the global economy. The IT sector can be animportant source of growth for India if thecountry has a comparative advantage inproviding certain kinds of IT-related productsand services, if the global demand for theseproducts and services is likely to grow rapidly,and if the growth of the sector has positivespillover benefits to the rest of the domesticeconomy. The first two of these conditions seemto be well established, though they merit somediscussion of future possibilities, particularly withrespect to the reasons for and the dynamics ofIndia’s comparative advantage in this sector.One of the most interesting issues, which we wishto emphasize here, is the third condition, ofspillover benefits. This is the area where the ITsector may be special, and not just anotherexport enclave. Furthermore, IT may have a roleto play in broader human development, beyondjust economic growth. This is a contentious issue,with sharply opposing views expressed. We willproceed in this section as follows. First, weoutline some theoretical ideas that are relevantfor thinking about the role of IT in growth, andwhich will inform our consideration of differentaspects of this role. Thus, we sequentiallyexamine issues of comparative advantage insoftware and services, the development of adomestic market, spillovers to the economy asa whole, and the potential impact on governance.

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5. IT and Growth TheoriesThe starting point for considering the role

of IT in development has to be theories ofgrowth that give endogenous innovation a centralrole. The ingredients of these models typicallyinclude differentiated capital inputs, monopolisticcompetition, production of new inputs throughR&D, and ultimately economy-wide increasingreturns that allow sustained growth to occur.Hence these models shift away from the exclusivefocus on capital accumulation that characterizedthe neoclassical growth model and the core ofIndian post-independence economic policy. Thework of Grossman and Helpman (1991) andRivera-Bat iz and Romer (1991a,b)incorporates international trade and the evolutionof comparative advantage into endogenousgrowth models. In these analyses, the economyis typically divided into manufacturing, R&D andtraditional sectors, so IT does not necessarily fitneatly into any one category. Design anddevelopment of software may havecharacteristics of R&D, while IT-enabledservices are more like manufacturing in their useof established techniques for production. Thegeneral message of these models, however, isthat externalities associated with monopolisticcompetition may give policy a role in influencingthe evolution of comparative advantage.

33

We can say a little more about the char-acteristics of GPTs in the context of IT in par-ticular. Pervasiveness seems to be potentially anatural property of IT. In the Indian context,doubts are centered on issues of cost and ac-cess. We have touched on those briefly earlierin the paper, and will return to them later in thissection. Table 4, however, illustrates the impor-tant positive trends that support pervasiveness.

6. ConclusionTo conclude, we will briefly consider

general microeconomic and macroeconomicpolicy issues, and implications for the IT sector.The central areas of India’s policy reforms havebeen replacing quantitative trade restrictions withtariffs, lowering effective levels of protection,removing an area of discretionary controls onprivate sector investment, and creation ofmodern financial markets. Standard examplesof where these reforms can be built upon, tofurther stimulate growth, include removal orrelaxation of obsolete “small-scale sector”reservations and size restrictions, privatizationof inefficient state-owned enterprises,rationalization of tax-subsidy policies and taxadministration, and relaxation of severe labormarket restrictions. This list can be characterizedby its emphasis on improving the efficiency ofthe mechanisms with which the governmentdirectly affects the private sector. The entireIndian economy, not just the IT sector, canpresumably benefit from such reforms, which willreduce distortions of private sector behavior.

57 Drishtee was able to avoid this problem

to some extent, with smaller-scale kiosks thatallowed poorer entrepreneurs to avail of targetedgovernment loan schemes.

24 Information Technology and India’sEconomic Development – Nirvikar Singh, UCSanta Cruz, July 2002

A second area where attention is requiredmay be characterized as enabling reforms. Theseinclude reforms of contract law and judicialinstitutions; financial sector regulatory institutions;telecom sector regulatory institutions;infrastructure such as electric power, roads andports; and systems of education and training in

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general. Again, the benefits of such reforms arepotentially quite general, and not restricted toany one sector of the economy.

A third area of policy is macroeconomicmanagement. While India’s record here is quitegood, it needs to make a transition in its policyinstitutions here as well, since removing detailedmicroeconomic controls requires changes in theregulatory modes of macroeconomicmanagement. Perhaps the area that has receivedthe most attention is policies toward internationalcapital flows and their implications for exchangerate management. Desai (2000) has suggestedthat large projected increases in software exportscould create a “Dutch disease” phenomenon,

58

in which a resulting exchange rate appreciationhurts other sectors, and revenues from exportsare wastefully spent. Several factors mitigate thisconcern: the likelihood that export revenuegrowth will slow down; the potential linkagesthat exist between software, the IT sector as awhole, and the broader economy (unlike naturalresource extraction enclaves); and a betterunderstanding of exchange rate management thanexisted 25 years ago, when the phenomenon firstwas identified and labeled. Thus, while exchangerate policy is certainly important in general, thegrowth of the IT sector will not necessarily raisespecial concerns.

An excellent explanation of Dutch disease

is by John McLaren, at www.columbia.edu/~jem18/teaching/ pepm/dutchdis.pdf. McLarenclarifies the source of concerns that areassociated with Dutch disease, includingexacerbation of prior distortions, and ofinequality.

59 Bangalore in Karnataka is well known

as a regional IT center in India, having developed

initially without much explicit governmentsupport. The governments of Andhra Pradesh(Eischen, 2000) and Tamil Nadu (Bajpai &Radjou, 1999, and Bajpai & Dokeniya, 1999)have led in attempts to establish IT-basedindustries with conscious government policies.Other state governments, such as Punjab (seewww.dqindia.com/mar1599/news.htm) arefollowing suit, with mixed success.

25 Information Technology and India’sEconomic Development – Nirvikar Singh, UCSanta Cruz, July 2002

an important complement to and enablerof local government reform in India (Rao andSingh, 2000).

Our goal in this paper has been to assessthe possible role of India’s IT industry as a driverof higher economic growth in India, withoutexacerbation of inequalities or creation ofinstability. Our conclusion is cautiously positive.While projections for software exports may beover optimistic, complementarities or spilloversin the domestic market, including increasedgovernment and business use of IT, are likely tobe strong. For this rosy scenario to play out,however, continued broad economic reforms willbe important, as well as reforms in the telecomsector that promote competition and innovationin providing last-mile access.

References Aggarwal, Balaka B. (2001), Faculty

scarcity at IITs threatens knowledgecapital, March 19, http://www.ciol.com/content/news/trends/10103902.asp.

Arora, Ashish and V. S. Arunachalam,Jai Asundi and Ronald Fernandes(2000), The globalization of software:

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the case of the Indian software industry.A report submitted to the SloanFoundation. Carnegie MellonUniversity, Pittsburgh PA. http://www.heinz .cmu.edu/project / india /publications.html.

Arora, Ashish, V. S. Arunachalam, JaiAsundi and Ronald Fernandes (2001a),The Indian Software Service Industry,Research Policy, 30, 1267-1287.

Arora, Ashish and Suma Athreye (2002),The Software Industry and India’sEconomic Development, InformationEconomics and Policy, 14, 253-273.

Arora, Ashish, Alfonso Gambardellaand Salvatore Torrisi (2001b), In thefootsteps of the Silicon Valley? Indianand Irish Software in the InternationalDivision of Labour, paper presented atthe conference, ‘Silicon Valley and itsImitators’, Stanford Institute forEconomic Policy Research, July 2000.

Bajpai, Nirupam and Navi Radjou(1999), Raising the GlobalCompetitiveness of Tamil Nadu’sInformation Technology Industry,Development Discussion Paper No.728, October, Harvard Institute forInternational Development.

Bajpai, Nirupam and AnupamaDokeniya (1999), InformationTechnology-Led Growth Policies: ACase Study of Tamil Nadu, DevelopmentDiscussion Paper No. 729, October,Harvard Institute for InternationalDevelopment.

Banerjee, Abhijit V. and Esther Duflo(2000) , Reputation Effects and the

Limits of Contracting: A Study of theIndian Software Industry, QuarterlyJournal of Economics, 115,3, 989-1017.

Basu, Kaushik (1997) , AnalyticalDevelopment Economics, Cambridge,MA: MIT Press.

26 Information Technology and India’sEconomic Development – NirvikarSingh, UC Santa Cruz, July 2002

Basu, S. and Weil, D.N. (1998),Appropriate Technology and Growth,Quarterly Journal of Economics, 113,4, 1025-1054.

Bhatnagar, Subhash and RobertSchware (2000), Information andCommunication Technology inDevelopment: Cases from India, NewDelhi: Sage Publications.

Bjorhus, Jennifer (2002), India’sInfosys Struggles throughTransformation, San Jose MercuryNews, February 11, 1E.

Bresnahan, Timothy and ManuelTrajtenberg (1995), General PurposeTechnologies: “Engines of Growth”,Journal of Econometrics, 65, 83-108.

Business Week (2001), India 3.0: Itssoftware outfits take on the world,February 26, 44-46.

Chuang, Y.C. (1998), Learning byDoing, the Technology Gap, andGrowth, International EconomicReview, 39, 3, 697-721.

Ciccone, Antonio and KiminoriMatsuyama (1996), Start-up Costs andPecuniary Externalities as Barriers toEconomic Development, Journal ofDevelopment Economics, 49, 33-59.

*****

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Inportance and Impact of Information Technologyand Rural Development in India

*Dr. Narender K. Patel

The global media started writing aboutIndia positively only in the past eight years, largelydue to the spectacular progress of the Indian ITindustry T2K came as a bolt form the blue anda blessing in disguise.

Terms like IT superpower and your job isBangalore and tom Friedman’s book “The worldis flat” that went on to become not a mere newYork times best-seller, but the best amount manybestsellers in year 2005 brought Indian into thecenter stage of global IT. The three softwareservices majors-Infests.

TCS and Wipro together-have annualrevenues of more than $ 10 billion dollars: eachof them employs nearly 100,000 employees bythe end of year 2008. The number of IT/ITESprofessionals employed in Bangalore is just shortof the combined employment of the entire stateof Karnataka. Though, the global recognition isnew to India.

IT has deep roots in India going all theway back to the discovery of zero! Even in therecent past a number of developments havetaken place mostly away from the media glare,some of them include-investment in education,nurturing excellence in key educationalinstitutions, emphasis on R & D, imaginative

policy planning and political will to support andsustain IT across all areas. They all helped IndianIT to grow to its current formidable position.

The role of the government can be seen invarious measures. Home Bhabha committeerealized the need for focus in electronic andcomputer on June 26, 1970, the DOC(Department of Electronics) came into being asa scientific ministry directly under the primeminister with proof MGK Menno as secretaryto the department and chairman of theElectronics commission.

The setting up of IITs and IIMs in 50sand 60s and the encouragement to the privatesector to start technical colleges (starting fromKarnataka) helped the growth of technicalmanpower. Public sector ECIL (ElectronicCorporation of India) manufactured 12 bit (TDC12) and 16-bit (TDC 16) computers in late 70sand early 80s. With IBM shutting downoperations in 1977, another public sectorcompany CMC was set up to “maintain”computers (CMC has 923 computerscomprising 60 models made by 34 manufacturesone time! Recognizing the importance ofsoftware exports, SEEPZ (Santa-CruzElectronics export processing Zone) was set up

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in Mumbai in 1973.The “Mini computer policy” of 1978"

opened up” computers manufacture to privatesector. Many state governments created sateelectronic corporations for example KEONICSin Karnataka KELTRON in kraal andUPTRON in Uttar Pradesh. The nationalinformatics center (NIC) was set up in 1977which played a major role in the later decadesto become “decisive support system for thegovernment” (both the central and stategovernments).

The “New computer policy” of November19, 1984 announced by Dr. N Seshagiri with in20 days of Rajiv Gandhi becoming the primeminister and the software policy of 1986 \kick-started the Indian IT story NICNET in 1982brought Interest to Government offices. ERNETin 1986 brought internet to educational andresearch institutes in INI.

Project IMPRESS (computerization ofRailways ticketing) stated in 1986 as a pilot inSecunderabad ushered in the first applicationtargeted at “aam admi” (common man). Therangarajan committee on bank computerizationin 1984 set in force a movement that started toshake up government departments to improvedelivery of customer service.

Special programs lime MCA (Master ofComputer Application) that was planned at IIT’sand launched in various universities in 80’s helpedthe growing Indian software industry immensely.Other initiatives in manpower developmentinclude the highly successful program fromNCST in Bombay (and later Bangalore) and theaccelerated manpower development onelectronic and computing through DOEACCand DRDO.

In the nineties academic-turned

entrepreneur professor Vijay Chandra and histeam designed imputer, which became the newYork times “Technologies of the year “in 2001,The recent “Primarily Algorithm” (2005) frommanindra agarwal and from the Indian researchcommunity. With the spectacular growth in IndianIT industry there was phenomenal growth inquantity of undergraduate computer science (andrelated programs); more than (200.000)undergraduate engineers in computing andrelated disciplines are coming out of Indianuniversities today, though there is considerableroom for improvement in quality.

Starting in late nineties, any of the regionalengineering colleges (REC) were upgraded tonational institutes of technology (NIT) with morefunding from the central government andautonomy. A string of IIT’s (Allahabad,Bangalore Galion and Hyderabad) startedfunctioning from late nineties.

In the current decade the contribution ITfrom IIT alumni contributing to the globalacademic/research community and IT industryis well-recognized today. The contribution ofIIT’s NITs and IITs is so important that one canstate that IT is a subset of IIT, NIT, & IIIT! Inturn it has helped in building the India brand andpromoted entrepreneurship throughorganizations like TIE (The Entrepreneurs Club);it has also helped in alumina contributions backinto IITs.

The industry-academia interaction hasincreased dramatically in the past seven years,thanks to the maturity of the Indian IT firms andthe arrival of the MNC firms such as AB, Google,HP, Honeywell, IBM, Intel, Michrosoft,Motorola, oracle, Philips, SAP, Siemens andYahoo (more particularly, their R & D units).

In the sixties TIFR group headed by

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professor R Marashimha (who passed away onSeptember 3, 2007) built the first generalpurpose computer TIFRAC way back in 1960.ECIL (Electronics Corporation of India Ltd) wasformed in 1967 to address the growing needsof electronics (including computers); ECILmanufactured TDC-12 and TDC-16 range ofcomputers in seventies.

In the seventies and eighties manypioneering companies were born in the privatesector; this includes DCM, HCL, ORG,NELCO, PCL Wiper and Zenith that builtminicomputers and later PCs. There wasperipherals manufactures too-Godrej (printers),L & T (printers), LIPI (printer), Wiper (printerterminals) TVS Instruments (Terminals). Muchbefore the word “outstanding” was in vogueTendon was making disk drives for IBM PCs inMumbai; later PCL was making mother boardsfor Dell ( These pioneering experiments of the80’s withered away in 90’s). Moser-Baer, theglobal leader in optical media emerging fromIndia is a recent positive development in themanufacturing front.

Many software companies took birth in80s like-Infosys, mestem patni, satyam, softek,Tata info tech and wiper. Another interestingtrend was the setting up of offshore developmentcenters (ODC) by multi-national corporations,starting with Texas instruments in 1986. Therewere other companies like cognizant and CBSI(now convinces that is part of CSC today) thathad practically all development work happeningin India, through they were headquarteredoutside India.

The 90’s saw spectacular success of theIndian software industry. The “opening up” ofeconomy in 1991 led to e-Companies likeInfosys aggressively growing to become a global

company with employee stock option, quarterlyresults on time every time, GAAP accountingand the global delivery model that is todaystudied in Harvard Business school.

Infosys has its IPO in 1993 and listed inNASDAQ (the first Indian company) in 1999.There were interesting products too-Installingfrom Wiper, compilers from softek, Tallyaccounting software from Tally systems andmarshal from Armco that had global customers;the core banking software products Flex cubefrom iFlex solutions has today become themarket leader in the global market.

The formation of NASCOM in 1988 (thatsprang into action from 1990) gave a fillip to thenascent software industry. Dewing Mehta duringhis short and eventful period as the president ofNASSCOM give the organization a formidableimage and clout. Koran karmic the currentpresident who took over in 2001 (after the tragicdeath of dewing Mehta), put it on a high pedestalwith solid events studies like NASSCOM-McKinsey study and an excellent support fromthe government ISPAI (ISP Association of India)started in 1994 to address the needs of ISP’s(Internet service providers). The recently formedISA (Indian Semiconductor Association) addressthe needs of the emerging semiconductorindustry.

Research output from Indian academicinstitutions R & D establishments in coming ofage. Globally relevant and significant output iscoming out of India based research wings ofglobal companies like HP. Microsoft andGoogle. TCS will be touching 100,000 size and$5 billion annual revenue soon. Wiper andInfosys are not far from this position. With IBMannouncing $6 billion investment over threeyears. Microsoft, Cisco and EMC announcing

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$ 2 billion investment, the Indian IT industry ingrabbing global headlines too. Azi premiji ofWipro, N R Narayana murthy of Infosys and SRamadorai of TCS are in the global list ofleaders. Indian companies are acquiring globalcompanies.

Refrences: Kapur, Devesh (2002), The Causes and

Consequences of India’s IT Boom, IndiaReview, 1, 1, 91-110.

Kapur, Devesh and Ravi Ramamurti(2001), India’s Emerging CompetitiveAdvantage in Services, Academy ofManagement Executive, 15, 2, 20-31.

Kaushik, P.D. and Nirvikar Singh(2002), Information Technology andBroad-Based Development: PreliminaryLessons from North India, UC SantaCruz Working Paper, in progress.

Khoo, Ernest (2002) The Simputer: AHandheld for the Masses?, CNETNews.com, January 11, http://n e w s . c o m . c o m / 2 1 0 0 - 1 0 4 0 -808321.html.

Kremer, Michael (1993), The O-RingTheory of Economic Development,Quarterly Journal of Economics, 108,3, 551-575.

Kumar, Nagesh (2000), New TechnologyBased Small Service Enterprises andEmployment: The Case of Software and

Related Services Industry in India,International Centre for DevelopmentResearch and Cooperation, New Delhi.

ØLipsey, Richard G., Cliff Becker, andKenneth Carlaw (1998), What RequiresExplanation?, Ch. 2 in Helpman (1998).

Matsuyama, Kiminori (1995)Complementarities and CumulativeProcesses in Monopolistic Competition,Journal of Economic Literature, 33, 2,701-710.

Milgrom, Paul, Yingyi Qian, and JohnRoberts (1991), Complementarities,Momentum, and the Evolution ofModern Manufacturing, AmericanEconomic Review, May, 81, 2, 84-88.

Miller, Robert R. (2001), Leapfrogging?India’s Information TechnologyIndustry and the Internet, IFCDiscussion Paper No. 42, May, TheWorld Bank, Washington, DC.

National Association of Software andService Companies (2002a): DomesticIT Market. New Delhi. http://w ww. n a s s c o m . o rg / i t _ i n d u s t r y /domestic_it_market.asp.

National Association of Software andService Companies (2002b): Domesticsoftware. New Delhi. http://w ww. n a s s c o m . o rg / i t _ i n d u s t r y /domestic_sw_services.asp.

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Information Technology and Rural Development in India

*Prof. Naginbhai D. Patel

How can information technology (IT) contribute to rural development? What are thechannels through which impacts can be realized, and what are the practical meansfor realizing potential benefits? This paper examines several ongoing projects thataim to provide IT-based services to rural populations in India. These projects aredistinguished by the goal of commercial sustainability, which supports scalability and,therefore, more widespread benefits. The analysis highlights the common buildingblocks required for successful implementation, and the relative strengths andweaknesses of different approaches.Keywords: India, information technology, Internet, rural development

1. IntroductionIt may seem paradoxical that modern

information technology (IT), associated in ourminds with developed country markets andcapital-intensive methods of production, has anyrelevance for a country where many millions stilllack basic needs. Nevertheless, there are manyefforts underway in India and other developingcountries to demonstrate the concrete benefitsof IT for rural populations, and to do so in amanner that makes economic sense.1

This paper outlines the conceptual andempirical case for the use of IT in India’s ruraldevelopment. Section 2, provides a broaddiscussion of the potential role of IT in broad-based economic development. Section 3examines the conceptual issues from theperspective of demand for, and supply of IT-based services to rural populations in a

developing country. Section 4 discusses thelessons of some of the efforts underway in India,including the work of Aksh, Drishtee, ITC, n-Logue and TARAhaat. Section 5 is a briefconclusion.

2. IT, Economics and Development2In abstract, there are two types of

potential economic gains from the use of IT. First,there are both static and dynamic efficiency gains.Static gains are one-time, and come from moreefficient use of scarce resources, allowing higherconsumption in the present. It is useful todistinguish two kinds of static efficiency gains.One kind pertains to increases in operatingefficiency, while the other comes from reducedtransaction costs. In both cases, the channel forgains is through more effective and lower costinformation storage, processing andcommunication. Dynamic gains come from higher

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growth, potentially raising the entire future streamof consumption.

The second type of potential benefit comesfrom reductions in economic inequality, to theextent that such reductions are an agreed-uponsocial goal, and therefore a social benefit. Thetwo types of gains may conflict, if growthrequires increased inequality, or they may bemutually reinforcing, where broad sharing of thebenefits of growth enhances the rate of growth.We can discuss the role of IT in achieving greatereconomic gains along both dimensions, withouthaving to commit to a particular position on therelationship between inequality and growth.However, a focus on using IT for ruraldevelopment is, at least on the surface,supportive of reduced inequality along withincreased efficiency and growth.

Of course, benefits that are measurableas increased market-based economic activity,and hence show up in national accounts statistics,are not the only component of development.Development can also include improvements inthe capabilities of the population, such aseducation, health and nutrition, independently ofany direct or indirect economic impact. Theability to participate in democratic decision-making also falls into this category. Broad-basedimprovements in capabilities can also havepositive impacts on long-run economic wellbeing, but this is not a necessary condition fordesiring such improvements. The role of IT ineffecting improvements along non-economicdimensions is also considered in this paper.

Turning to specific impacts, note that ITinvolves the electronic processing, storage andcommunication of information, where anything

that can be represented in digital form is includedin the term ‘information’. Thus news,entertainment, personal communications,educational material, blank and filled-out forms,announcements, schedules, and so on are allinformation. Software programs that processdata (searching, tabulating, and calculating, forexample) are also information in this sense,representing a particular kind of intermediategood. We can use standard economiccharacterizations to classify the different kindsof information. For example, entertainment,personal communications, and sometimes news,are final goods. Educational material, jobannouncements, or some kinds of news (weathernews for farmers, for example) are intermediategoods, typically used for improving income-earning opportunities.

Information goods typically have thecharacteristic that one person’s use does notreduce their availability for another person. Thus,a message or weather news can be viewed bymany people, simultaneously or sequentially.Depending on the content of the news ormessage, different people may place differentvaluations on the information. Only friends andrelatives may be interested in a personalmessage, all farmers in a district may beinterested in local weather news, and so on. Theability to share information among users canimpact the feasibility of providing it on acommercial basis. IT dramatically increasesshareability of information, and this affects theeconomics of private provision of informationgoods and services.

The government may provide informationgoods because they are shareable and non-

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excludable (pure public goods). The classicexample of a pure public good is nationaldefense, but such goods may also be local innature, such as public parks or law and order.Of course many local shareable goods can beprovided exclusively, in which case privateprovision is a feasible alternative, in a club-likearrangement. Here, government provision maybe justified more on equity grounds than on thebasis of failure of private provision. In somecases, government financing through taxes orstatutory user charges can be combined withoutsourcing of delivery to private providers toachieve both equity and efficiency goals.

Efficiency gains of IT can also come aboutthrough the enabling of new goods and services.In many cases, the new good is related tosomething available earlier, but is presented in aform that reduces costs and expands the size ofthe market. For example, recorded music is amass-consumption item, whereas only a smallminority of the population could afford or haveaccess to live performances by the highestquality musicians. Educational material is anotherexample where recording and duplication canreplace more expensive, skilled-labor-intensivealternatives for delivery. The possibilities forinteractivity with IT-based educational materialsillustrate the advantages of IT over oldertechnologies based only on recording andduplication. Interact ivity also impliespersonalization, in that an individual can selectthe precise content that he or she wishes to see.This feature also distinguishes IT-based contentfrom what was available through

In rural areas and smaller towns, however,the various demographic and socioeconomic

factors such as income levels, cultural attitudes,and geographic and social fragmentation maynot be present in configurations that would easilyenable the diffusion of commercial access tovarious IT-enabled services. Furthermore, themarket power of traditional rural intermediariesmay act as a barrier to partial innovations in howmatching of buyers and sellers is conducted.Finally, vernacular language requirements

and different demand patterns imply theneed for software that is tailored for fragmentedrural markets. In the next section, we examinethe technical and organizational issues inimplementing widespread rural IT use in India.

Rural IT: Issues and ConceptualFramework

We examine the potential for rural IT use,both from supply and demand perspectives. Onthe supply side, we examine the technical andorganizational issues that arise for delivering IT-based services to rural populations in India. Onthe demand side, we examine the potentialbenefits that IT can bring to these populations,if the implementation is successful. We begin withthe demand side, as a way of motivating thesupply side issues.

Electric power is more of a problem, andthis is true throughout India. Battery backupsare a very partial solution to the lack of reliablepower supplies, and solar technologies may bemore promising in the near future: they arealready in use in existing rural IT efforts. Thedifficulty is that having to rely on these alternativesand backups unnecessarily raises costs ofoperation. Of course this is true for all of India’seconomy. It is well recognized that the powersector is the major bottleneck, with capacity well

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short of demand, and the quality of transmissionand distribution remaining poor.

The third stage of the supply chain is themost straightforward, because of thestandardization of components of desktopcomputing and peripherals, rapid technologicalimprovements, falling costs of production, and,most recently, price reductions resulting fromchanges in tariffs on imported hardware. It isnow possible to fully equip a single-computerrural Internet kiosk for less than Rs. 50,000,including CD drive, printer, scanner, powerbackup, and web cam. Potentially, the highestcost component is the operating system, sinceWindows enjoys a virtual monopoly on thedesktop. However, Microsoft seems to haveconcessional pricing for socially orienteddeveloping country initiatives, and this helps toreduce costs. The operating system is stilltypically in English, but as long as simple drillscan take kiosk operators to local languageapplications and content, this is not a substantialusage barrier. One can conclude that this stageof the supply chain is easiest to implement, witha highly standardized, almost cookie-cutterapproach – although ongoing maintenance canbe a challenge. The major business decision iswhether to have more than one computer perkiosk, but experience suggests that one issufficient for almost all situations, at least in thebeginning.

The next stage of the supply chain, namelyapplications, presents more challenges. Therange of possible applications is vast. Many IT-based services require non-IT logistics orprocesses as complements. Availability of locallanguage software becomes more of a constraint.

There is much more variation across localities,not just regions. Delivery of services ordevelopment of content often stretch theresources and expertise of the primary provider,and require varied partnerships or othercontractual relationships. Deciding thesequencing, scope and sophistication of variousapplications can be a major challenge, sincemany of the services are being offered for thefirst time, or are being delivered in novel waysthat challenge existing institutional frameworksand relationships. Pricing for low incomemarkets, where market penetration is limited inany case, and where some services may beperceived as public goods that are traditionallyunpriced, presents another major challenge. Inthe case of financial services or governmentrecords or services, substantial governmentcooperation may be required, raising politicaland bureaucratic hurdles. In some ways, ofcourse, the essence of the success of the ruralIT-based-service business model depends onthe selection, quality and pricing of the servicesbeing offered. What is interesting is that asubstantial amount of learning has occurred inthis arena, in just a few years.

We have so far provided a general andabstract discussion of the various aspects ofsupply and demand of rural IT-based services.In the next section, this discussion is made moreconcrete and specific, through an assessment ofseveral initiatives in India.

4. Implementation: Cases, Impactsand Lessons

The discussion of several rural-ITinitiatives is based on field visits conducted overa two-year period, from December 2001 to

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December 2003, as well as discussions withvarious members of each organization.5 The goalis not to provide an exhaustive description oranalysis of any single organizational effort, butto use the conceptual framework of the previoussection to bring out common features as well asdifferences. Nevertheless, it is useful to describeeach initiative separately, rather than organizethe discussion according to value chaincomponents or demand-side factors, as thisprovides a better sense of each overall effort.

Refrences: Eischen, Kyle (2000), National

Legacies, Software TechnologyClusters and Institutional Innovation:The Dichotomy of RegionalDevelopment in Andhra Pradesh,

India, University of California,Department of Sociology.

Gordon, Robert J., Does the ‘NewEconomy’ Measure Up to the GreatInventions of the Past?, Journal ofEconomic Perspectives, Fall 2000,14(4), 49-74.

Grossman, Gene and ElhananHelpman (1991), Innovation andGrowth in the Global Economy,Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Hanna, Nagy (1994), ExploitingInformation Technology forDevelopment: A Case Study of India,World Bank Discussion Paper 246.

Heeks, Richard (1998), The UnevenProfile of India’s Software Exports,IDPM Working Paper No. 3, October,University of Manchester.

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Taking Informatin Technology to The Heart of India

*Prof. Ramanbhai K. Solanki

‘Today we truly live in a global village, but it is a village with elite information ‘haves’and many information ‘have-nots.’ With the new technologies available to us we havean opportunity to change this.’ The following article is a student paper.

INTRODUCTIONWe always welcome an occasion to

discuss how our lives may change due totechnological development. It is evident that ruralIndia is contributing two-thirds of the totalnation’s population; thus, this heart of Indiarequires heavy enforcement of prolific strategies,which could uplift the scenario of the nation as awhole. IT has become the chief determinant ofthe progress of nations, communities &individuals. It is considered crucial that theimprovements in our society benefit all citizens.No single group should be ignored or favoured.The only way is “to make it better for all”.

It may seem paradoxical that moderninformation technology (IT) has associated inour minds that developed country markets andcapital-intensive methods of production have anyrelevance for a country where many millions stilllack basic needs. Nevertheless, there are manyefforts underway in India and other developingcountries to demonstrate the concrete benefitsof IT for rural populations and to do so in amanner that makes economic sense. This paper

is very much confined only to rural development.Section 1 provides conceptual issues/factorsdriving for IT transition in rural development.Section 2 offers a broad discussion of themethodologies implemented by governmentaland non-governmental policies. The endingsection goes through some solutions for thesemethodologies for a better successfulimplementation of IT in rural development.

IMPACT OF TECHNOLOGYPromotes regional coordination of the

Internet.Establishes pilot projects.Uses communication for developmental

approach.Assist stakeholders in advocating for

Internet service provision and telecommunicationinfrastructure.

FACTORS DRIVING ITTRANSITION IN RURAL

IT in rural approach is concerned first &foremost to people. It seeks to gain an accurateand realistic understanding of people’s strengthsand how they develop into positive livelihood

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outcomes. It is important to note that IT cangenerate multiple benefits in sectors so as to:

Provide better usage of naturalresources

Agriculture is the main vehicle, which needsa rural policy to be delivered. IT increasesshareability of information typically used forimproving income-earning opportunities (e.g.,weather news for farmers, to enhancesustainable growth in farming).

Enhance economical statusFor both government and private

provision, one of IT’s main direct benefits is inincreasing efficiency by economizing on resourceuse in the operation of firms as well as in markettransactions. There is a need for better matchingof buyers &sellers, creation of new markets.

Education & EmploymentNot only is education important, computer

education too is critical considering the role thattechnology plays in our lives, and is likely to playin the coming years. Moreover the youth withadequate computer knowledge could beemployed in jobs like data entry and otherrelated areas, providing the prospect of usingtechnology.

FUTURE TRENDSIT can be better applied to enhance the

rural development, improve the standards ofliving as a whole, with concerns for commitmentin health, education, and governance.

IT in Rural Health CareThe future of IT in rural health network

can be viewed in terms of phases ofcommunication enhancement. In the first phase,we should expect to see even more use of emailas a principal means of communication. In thesecond phase, enhanced communication is

interacting with the public through electronicmedia. One possibility was to provideinformation to the public in their area, as aresource to find resources such as e-health andby using a website to do that. A third phase ofenhanced communication is using IT toadminister health services. Three networksdiscussed using IT for clinical purposes. One isclinical application, which gets beyond patientinformation, especially around drug regimens andthings like that. A second use in telehealthincluded focused on the transmission of data andimaging between practitioners. The third is adesire to set up telehealth with a large regionalhospital for the purposes of accessing physiciansin the emergency room to help with interpretationof X-rays.

IT in GovernanceThe villages are part of the real-time

governance supply-chain. A supply chain is onlyas good as its weakest link. Today, isolatedvillages are the equivalent of unconnected smalland medium enterprises in supply chains. TheTeleInfoCentre and Village InfoGrid bring thevillages into the governance network, enablinga two-way near real-time flow of information.They form the endpoints, the spokes, and thefront office, if you will. They need to becomplemented with the automation of the back-office — the heart of the government, which liesin the state capitals and district headquarters.What governments need is a four-step actionplan to move towards the vision of architectingintelligent, real-time information flowarchitecture: · Messaging and Internet Accessfor all employees: Every government employeeshould have an email ID and access to InstantMessaging. Each of the government locations

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should be networked. · Computing for all: Everygovernment employee needs to have a computeron their desk. The same ideas that are applicablefor a TeleInfoCentre (low-cost computers,server-centric computing, open-sourcesoftware, and support for English and locallanguages) can be used to build out thecomputing infrastructure. · Collaboration andKnowledge Management: The next step is tomake people individually more productive andmake teams work together more efficiently. Thiscan be done via the use of workflow softwareand tools to aid decision-making. · BusinessProcess Automation: The essence of governanceis about interacting with citizens and businesses(akin to customer relationship management). Thefocus needs to be on the core businessprocesses, creating an event-driven architecturewith the focus being not on routine informationmanagement but on handling exceptions.

IT in Education:Education plays a paramount role in the

process of economic development. Besidesbeing instrumental in development, it is also anend in itself because it helps people lead betterlives. For broad-based sustainable economicdevelopment, primary education is critical.Neglect of primary education is endemic indeveloping nations. Primary education is a publicgood. To briefly review the broad scope of theproblem of primary education, literacy is only60% in rural India. For rural areas are maleliteracy is 71% and female is 47%. About 36%of all 7-14 year old children are illiterate. Thatis, the total population in rural areas that needsprimary education is 150 million. (Courtesy:Census of India 2001.) To provide primary

education, India requires seven million teachersif one were to have a 1:50 teacher to studentratio. Not only, that number is formidable, theproblem is compounded by the fact that theseteachers are mainly required in the rural areaswhere the current number of qualified teachersis extremely low. Not only is educationimportant, computer education too is critical.While no computer can replace a good teacher,it is not always possible to get good teachers inschools in developing nations, especially in theinteriors. This is where computer-enablededucation can complement the teacher in theclassroom. Besides, a “digital library” and theInternet can help enhance and widen the learningprocess. A school is an ideal location for aTeleInfoCentre (TIC) because it is already seenas a bastion of knowledge. The TIC can belocated at every primary and secondary school.During school hours, the computers are used tocomplement the teacher in providing IT and IT-enabled education to the students. After schoolhours, the center can provide communityservices, some of which can be priced. Thisapproach has multiple benefits: · Computers willattract students to schools. As has been said:“You bring computers into schools so that youbring children to schools.” · During school hours,the multiple computers in the TIC becomeeducational terminals for the children,complementing the teacher · After school-hours,the computers could be used for variouscommunity services, provide literacy for thevillage residents, creating employmentopportunities, thus providing means foradditional revenue serving the needs of the villageas a whole· By making computers available in

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schools at the point of delivery of education,TICs thus play a critical role in the facilitation ofprimary and secondary education. In addition,the same platform can be used for delivery ofadult and vocational education. The RuralInfrastructure and Services Commons (RISC)center, which would be within a distance of 10-15 kilometers of the TICs, would function as alocal support center. The RISC is where teachertraining can be conducted on a regular basis,given the current state of the infrastructure invillages.

EDUSATNearly 3 decades after it carried out the

world’s first effort to reach instructionalprogrammes to far-flung villages using direct TVbroadcasting over satellite, the ISRO (Indianspace research organization) has sent aloftEDUSAT. ISRO also initiated projects fordistance education and training, the launch ofEDUSAT could lead to revolution in theeducation sector. Students in rural areas standto benefit the most; it will be very beneficialconsidering the shortage of teachers especiallyin frontier areas of technology along withprimary education.

CONCLUSIONAdopting a proactive strategy, and acting

to bring the Internet to rural and agriculturalcommunities in developing countries will helpenable rural people to face the unprecedentedchallenges brought on by the changing globaleconomy, political changes, environmentaldegradation .To deal with these challenges, andto make critical decisions, people at all levels ofsociety, must be able to access criticalinformation and communicate. All the

organizations discussed in the paper facecommon issues of implementation, but differ inscale, connectivity technologies, servicesoffered, revenue models and organizationalstructures. In the long run, bringing richinformation to the population of rural India,whether in the form of education, market prices,market opportunities, and more, can only havepositive impacts on the material well being ofrural masses. The time to act to support Internetknowledge and communication systems indeveloping countries is now. Today we truly livein a global village, but it is a village with eliteinformation “haves” and many information “have-nots.” With the new technologies available to uswe have an opportunity to change this.

REFERENCES

Bhatnagar, Subhash and RobertSchware (2000), Information andCommunication Technology inDevelopment: Cases from India, NewDelhi: Sage Publications.

www.emergic.org / / TECHTALK:Transforming Rural India

Sen, Amartya K. (1999), Developmentas Freedom, Oxford, Oxford UniversityPress.

SGKI (2000) , Subject Group onKnowledge-based Industries, PrimeMinister ’s Council on Trade andIndustry. Recommendations of the TaskForce on Knowledge-based Industries.Prime Minister’s Office, New Delhi.http://www.nic.in/pmcouncils/reports/knowl/

Singh, Nirvikar (2002), InformationTechnology as an Engine of Broad-

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Based Growth in India, in The Futureof India and Indian Business, ed. P.Banerjee and F.-J. Richter, London:Macmillan.

Singh, Nirvikar and T.N. Srinivasan(2002), Indian Federalism, EconomicReform and Globalization, paper for

comparative federalism project,CREDPR, Stanford.

Tschang, Ted (2001) , The BasicCharacteristics of Skills andOrganizational Capabilit ies in theIndian Software Industry, WorkingPaper No.13, ADSB Institute, Tokyo.

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The Role of Informatin and CommunicationTechnology in Rural Market

*Prof. Jyotiben M. Chaudhary

This paper attempts to draw attention towards the significance and role ofInformation and Communication Technology (ICT) in rural market. The present articlehighlights some of the basic issues, challenges and benefits of ICT in rural marketwith special reference to Bihar. The paper examines how the rural consumer and therural market will be benefited by the use of ICT. The development of ICT is broadreaching and has soaring visibility. In spite of this, rural consumers have not beenable to get advantage to the extent that urban areas have.ICT has remarkablepossibility to increase the flow of information thereby empowering rural consumers.Assessing theinformation needs of the rural consumers is an essential factor in the milieu of ICTfor rural market. To make ICT work for the growth of rural market it needs reasonable,market-driven infrastructure and dedicated efforts at all levels to help deprived andmarginalized consumers use the whole range of ICT according to their requirementand demand. The benefits of ICT inrural market should be calculated not only fromthe economic and financial point of view, but also in terms of the actual benefits itprovides to the rural consumers.

Keywords: Applications, Connectivity, Education, Information, RuralConsumer

INTRODUCTIONInformation and Communication

Technology (ICT) is defined as any computingand telecommunications hardware, applicationssoftware and services in the relevant policy area,specifically telephone, internet or other computer– mediated tools or services. In easy terms ICT

is defined as technologies that facilitatecommunication, processing and transmission ofinformation in the electronic format. The progressof any market mainly depends on the access toinformation. The Information andCommunication Technologies (ICTs) greatlyfacilitate the flow of information and knowledge

*Dept. of SanskritSmt. Anandiben Shankarbhai Chaudhary Mahila Arts & Home Science College,Mehsana.

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by presenting the rural consumers extraordinaryopportunities to attain their own entitlements.Institutional advocates of ICTs for developmentsuch as the World Bank, suggest that effortlesslyavailable and affluent supplies of informationencourage knowledge creation that can stimulateempowerment for the rural consumers..ICT’sare the delivery medium for such informationsupplier. There is a comprehensible relationshipbetween ICTs and the rural consumerempowerment. Despite ICT’s massive potential,the current global information explosion has hadsurprisingly little impact on developmentactivities and access to practical information forthe rural market, rural population and frontlinedevelopment workers in less developed states.Bihar is one such state rolling within the viciouscircle of scarcity and hindrance. Bihar has nowstarted the process of moving from a chieflyagrarian economy to an industrial and serviceeconomy. The population of Bihar remainsprimarily rural where poverty is well-known. Inrecent years the rural consumer of the state hasbeen empowered considerably to demand atransformed expression of the strategies that theycould employ to trim down poverty and getbetter comfort. The contribution of agriculturein the economy of Bihar is very high and withthe use of ICT it can straightforwardly contributein commercialization and increasing value addedservices within the sector which ultimately tendsto empower the rural market. Access toinformation is of essential for any developmentprocess. The flow of information from and tothe rural consumers is a critical prerequisite forthe development of the rural market in Bihar.The current development of ICT is contributing

in the flow of information and knowledge,beyond the boundary of social and economicstatus. Earlier farmers living in the rural areas ofBihar had no access to market information andthey were always dispossessed by the localmiddlemen who use to manipulate the prices ofagricultural products. However the recentgrowth of telecommunication service bridged theinformation gap at a limited scale as the farmersnow collect market information from differentadjacent areas and get better price of his crops.Bihar is experiencing a very successful model ofconnecting with the rural consumer throughmobile phone service. The early connectivity hadso far been established for communication andnow the need is to expand services towardsdissemination of relevant market basedinformation and thus in turn lead to growth inthe business. The ICT revolution is extensive andhas high visibility. Despite this, rural consumershave not been able to get benefited to the extenttheir urban counterparts have.

However it has reached certain segmentof rural areas. Its use in those segments hasadded to the phenomenal development in thevarious domains such as rural markets, creationof employment, growth of small business,improving health care amenities, providing fasttransaction and information to the rural farmersand the rural businessmen who have beenbenefited from it. In Bihar, ICT has begun tomake its presence felt in various sectors of therural areas. It is believed that if rural masses areconnected and empowered with information andcommunication technology, the rural economywould progress with a superior pace.

Significance of ICT in the Rural

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MarketIn Bihar, more than eighty percent of the

population lives in villages and they are mostlydependent on the agriculture and agrarian basedhandicrafts for survival. They do not have accessto relevant information because the ITinfrastructure has not spread into the villages. Arural consumer need diverse kinds of informationsuch as government rules, regulations, policiesand subsidies, daily news, updated information’son pesticides, crops selection, prices ofcommodities, health and economy etc. With ICTthe rural consumer would be able to get rapidaccess to information about different things suchas health, education, business, employment etc.Some of the importance of ICT for ruralconsumers of Bihar across varied areas is asfollows:

Market informationThe use of ICT increases access to

market information resulting in lower transactioncosts for rural consumers and businessmen.ICTcan play a vital role in making informationavailable to the farming community at areasonable price. In Bihar, around eightthousand Primary Agriculture CooperativeSocieties (PACS) at Panchayat level, fivehundred thirty Vyapar Mandal Sahyog Samiti(VMSS) at block level and the apex level BiharState Cooperative Union (BISCOMAUN) aresupporting the marketing needs of agriculture andallied sectors; twenty District CentralCooperative Banks (DCCBs) and apex levelState Cooperative Bank (SCB) with widenetwork of branches (SCB and DCCBs) arecatering to the needs of short term creditrequirement of the members. Together they offer

immense opportunities for effectively meeting thedual objectives of pre/post- harvest marketingmanagement and credit requirements in the state.At present the cooperative sector hasadvantages of the huge network, largemembership base and capable managementstructure. An e-Kisan Bhawan has beenestablished in various blocks that functions assingle window delivery system for promotion ofagriculture technologies and inputs. Thrust isgiven for strengthening of the existing networks.Farmer Advisory Committees at the state/district/block/Panchayat level, effective Kisan CallCenters and Kisan Pathsala has been set up.With the help of ICT the rural consumers alsoget information about the going rates in themarket, the prevailing minimum support pricefor his produce and the places where he can getthe better return for the same. Thus it bridgesthe gap between the urban and the rural marketby developing urban analog markets which actas vital linkage between the urban and the ruralpopulation.

Empowering the rural consumersICT can be used as an effective tool for

rural consumer empowerment. The ruralconsumer acting solely will be unable to obtainthe information they require once they haveaccess to the internet. The knowledge obtainedis sufficient to begin the process of identifyingand mobilizing proper information resources. Itcan be used to create the demand that willgenerate the detailed information requirementsnecessary for the construction of usefulinformation system.ICT will help them to makeinformed selection with regard to their owndevelopment and thus the rural consumer would

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be able to influence decisions that are taken byothers but which have an effect on their future.E -Procurement has been introduced in Biharfor rural sanitation projects. To effectively utilizethe Mahatma Gandhi National RuralEmployment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS)biometric Smart Card based attendance systemknown as e-Shakti has been introduced for allNREGS beneficiaries. It helps to control the fakemuster roll preparation at NREGS site and italso ensures the full payment to laborers as perwork completion. The correct and timely wagepayments is made automatically by e-Shaktiapplication and directly credited into thebeneficiary bank account. T ohelp NREGS beneficiaries and officials adedicated call center has been established. Allhas been made possible due to ICT.

Beneficial for the farmersOne of the benefits of ICT lies in providing

timely and accurate information. Now the ruralconsumer can get information about the weather,including monsoon and threat of floods and othernatural calamities. It reduces the farmer’sdependence on uncontrollable natural factors andalso allows them to plan their crops accordingly.It acts as a warning signal and helps the farmersto avoid risks.

Challenges in Implementing ICT forRural Market

ICT has remarkable potential to make theinformation available at the right time therebyempowering the rural consumer. It is consideredas the lifeline of economic and socialdevelopment of the rural consumers. Howeverthere are many impediments in implementing

ICT in the rural areas of Bihar. Some of

these challenges are lack of proper records andmonitoring system, economies of scale, lack ofbasic social amenities and land and propertyrights. As there are many villages in Bihar wherethe population is as minimum as five hundred, insuch a case all villages cannot be covered as itis practically not feasible to implement ICT aseconomies of scale does not allow thedevelopment progress as there areconstraints forimplementing ICT. Some of the challenges inimplementing ICT in rural development are asfollows:

Due to lack of awareness aboutinformation technology and illiteracy it can be ahindrance in implementing ICT in rural areas.Inadequate, inconsistent and unpredictablepower supply in the rural areas poses a seriousthreat to efficiency of ICT. Non accessibility ofsecure, robust and economical broadbandconnectivity in rural market continues to hamperthe growth of ICT. Poor people anddisadvantaged group like women may haverestraint in the use of ICT for their specificpurpose.

Developing ICT for RuralConsumers-Planning and Implementation

Assessing the information needs are veryessential elements in the context of ICT for ruralconsumers. The marketers and softwaredevelopers should keep in mind wide range ofresources and applications of ICT that are ofpotential use to the consumers. Actually it is theinformation that has direct impact on thedemands of the rural market so it is of paramountimportance that any applications should bedeveloped only after an accurate assessment ofthe needs and wants of the rural consumers. The

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organisations have to use rapid and participatoryrural appraisals and other survey instruments toensure timely and accurate information about therural market. These tools could be used in thecontext of ICT initiatives. Once the informationneeds of the consumers are assessed, marketingplan and software applications should bedeveloped with continuous involvement andfeedback from rural consumers. For effectiveutilization of information about the ruralconsumers, the information has to be dividedinto different information networks and organizedaccordingly.

The working group of the ministry of ITrecommended computer education at the blocklevel by establishing computer educationamenities in rural areas. This is a segment whereinvestment is required incessantly in order toimprove the educational standards of the ruralconsumer. The development of the economicstatus of the rural consumer is a critical issue inBihar today. Initiatives for rural consumers needto be approached with a measure of carefulness.The challenge is to help build the capacity ofmarket intermediaries or assist in theestablishment and promotion of consumerinformation centers .To achieve sustainabilitymarketing strategy must deal with the real needsof the rural consumers. The rural youth has tobe given a major place in the whole plan .Trainingthe youth to broaden the concept of ICTsuccessfully is very essential. It should be mademandatory for the sarpanch to be computerliterate. Software packages in local languagesneed to be developed to have a wider usage ofICT by rural consumers. Incentive should beprovided to encourage the rural consumer to

adopt the program. The Panchayat can proposethe names of few persons to get training ininformation technology. There is also a genderdimension to the information needed. Forinstance, quite often women require specifichealth related information.

CONCLUSIONThe rapid expansion of Information and

communication technology will significantlyimprove the living standards of the ruralconsumers. The need to carry out research onimplementation of ICT in the rural market is ofutmost importance. The application of ICT invarious sectors of rural market such aseducation, health, agriculture, farming and ruraleconomic development will definitely acceleratethe rural growth. Despite the fact that ICT hassignificantly entered into all aspects of our lives,impact of ICT in rural areas is very limited. Theanswer therefore lies in effective transfer of fundsfrom the urban areas to the rural areas to initiatethe development in the rural areas. At the sametime the attitude of rural consumers also needsto be changed as they think that developmentalwork is the task of government only. Howeverthey cannot be blamed solely as sometimes theyare exploited in the name of development. It canbe observed that at the village level, where thepanchayats are given money for various projectsand they get the work done by villagers by payingthem meager amount.

They are thus exploited because ofilliteracy and general ignorance. Hence the sloganof consumer involvement works only when sometangible benefits are seen by villagers. Marketdevelopment plan and appropriate informationplan for community level project before defining

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the technology plan is necessary. The informationrequirements that have to be distilled from theconsumer interviews encompass the opening ofa significant provision. The knowledge obtainedis sufficient to begin the process of marketingstrategy development by identifying andmobilizing appropriate information sources. Wecan infer from our experience which suggeststhat a close and continuing association betweeninformation providers and consumers is essentialfor effective information delivery.

In a state like Bihar, where the ruralmarket is a major concern for the overalldevelopment of the state, utilization ofinformation and communication technologybegins with access to the internet. Access to theinternet can be improved by increasing thenumber of computers and internet hosts.Connectivity is another factor linked withbandwidth availability. Large amounts ofbandwidth are necessary at the doorsteps of therural consumer. Different strategies should bedeveloped for the growth of rural market usingICT services .These strategies can be promotionof test marketing, support for internet serviceproviders in rural areas and improvement of thedelivery mechanism for which institutionalsupport and initiation is required. Thedevelopment of various networks providesinformation to the rural consumer in educationaldevelopment, rural economic development andrural health development which in turn willaccelerate rural growth. Localized contentdevelopment is another mechanism suggestedfor rural consumers. In the context of Bihar, thisdevelopment is to be initiated for all script based

language. Information has to be provided in thelocal language. It is apparent that the informationflows that transferred information to the farmersby way of the formal, government ownedsystem, are being replaced by pluralisticinformation flows between the rural consumersand the facilitators of the product and services.These information flows can be improvedthrough the use of ICT as different consumershave different kinds of information needs andcommunication issues and varying access toICT. New outlook is needed to understand andmanage these pluralistic information flows andeffectively use ICT. It does not make sense toachieve a developed status without a major andcontinuous augmentation of all villages.ICT canbe used to help rural market a lot in terms oflifestyle, agro inputs, electricity, health servicesand physical infrastructure. It can be a turningpoint in acquiring a super economic power.

REFERENCES1. Agrawal , Binod (2006) c.

Communication Technologies and RuralDevelopment in India : Promises andPerformances. Indian Media StudiesJournal. Volume 1.july-dec.

2. Bist , Singh Rajinder.(2007). ICTenabled Development and DigitalDivide:- An Indian Perspective.shodhganga. in f l ibnet .ac. in/dxml /handle/1944/1455

3. Building digital bridges; approachesand best practices”; report produced byITU internet reports series, November2005.

4. Community radio- Wikipedia .www.communityradio.in

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5. Department of telecommunication,TheGovernment of India , New Delhi.

6. Ekanath Khatiwada: (2007),ICT forrural community development.IcfaiUniversity Press.

7. Gyandoot: The purveyor of knowledge. http://gyandoot.nic.in

8. http://rwd.bih.nic.in/9. ICT in Agriculture . www.e-krishinaip.in10. M S Swaminathan”mission (2007):

Every village a Knowledge Centre

Movement Policy Recommendations”.11. M P Thapliyal,DK Joshi,”Information

Technology:Changing Face of RuralIndia”CSI Communication,July 2003,pp9-10.

12. N R Ananthanarayanan and S KSrivastava(2005),Role of InformationTechnology in rural developmenttowards e-governance.

13. P Vijaya Kumar,N Appa rao and LPratap Reddy(2007)”Developing ITnetworks in rural India”. IcfaiUniversity Press.

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Smart Villages Through Informatin TechnologyNeed of Emerging India

*Dr. Savitaben Ratubhai Chaudhari

Human society is developing with rapid momentum and achieved various suc-cesses for making its livelihood better. The civilization is witness for variouschanges related to it’s the development through different catalysts like industrialdevelopment, green revaluation, science and technology, etc. The present era isaugmented on Information and Communication Technology. This technology hasproved its potential in various sectors of development in urban and rural land-scapes. Urban areas are seems to more inclined to accept and adopt Informationand Communication Technology due to advantages of literacy and better infra-structure as compared to rural areas. Due to such suitable situations of urbanlandscapes good amount of success of this technology is visible in the form ofsmart cities and better livelihood of residing human beings. But the problems,consequences and opportunities in urban areas are different for effective utiliza-tion of Information and Communication Technology for sustainable developmentof rural masses. The present research article discusses about rural development indeveloping world for the up-liftment of livelihood of the rural masses and to takea ‘look ahead’ at scientific developments and technologies that might be influen-tial over the next 10 -20 years. The driving motivation behind the concept on“Smart Village” is that the technology should acts as a catalyst for development,enabling education and local business opportunities, improving health and wel-fare, enhancing democratic engagement and overall enhancement of rural villagedwellers. The “Smart Village”concept aims to realize its goal through providing policymakers with insightful,bottom–up nalyses of the challenges of village development.

Keywords: Information Technology, Rural, Smart Village, Sustainable Development

INTRODUCTIONWhen “India lives in its villages” said

Mahatma Gandhi, a great freedom fighter andisionary leader of India. A rural area is a

geographic area that is located outside cities andtowns, while rural areas are also known as‘village’ in India.

In these villages, agriculture is the chief

*Dept. of Gujarati, T.M. Shah Mahila Art College, Idar.

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source of livelihood along with fishing, cottageindustries, pottery, etc. According to theErstwhile Planning Commission of India, asettlement with a maximum population of 15,000is considered as “Village”. Much of India’s ruralpopulation lives in nucleated villages, which mostcommonly have a settlement form described asshapeless agglomerate. India being a ruraldominated country, the smartness concept is noteven thought about the rural areas. All areaswhich are not categorized as urban area areconsidered as rural area.

Number of rural units or villages in Indiahave increased from 6, 38,588 [1] to 6, 40,867[2]. According to 2011 census, rural area haspopulation of 68.84%, whereas urban area haspopulation of 31.16% only. It is growing factthat the rural population is suffering moreconsequences for livelihood as compared tourban areas. The difficulties of livelihood maybe forcing rural population to migrate to theurban areas. The government has alreadyrecognized this issue and has put serious effortsthrough various schemes for enhancing livelihoodof rural masses. Presently, rural developmentmainly focuses on poverty alleviation, betterlivelihood opportunities, provision of basicamenities and infrastructure facilities throughinnovative programmes of self employment. Thepopulation residing in the rural area also needsthe same quality of life as enjoyed by peopleliving in sub urban and urban areas.

Making a city “smart” is emerging as astrategy to mitigate the problems generated bythe urban population growth and rapidurbanization

Globally, the concept of ‘Smart City’ is a

significant initiative that seeks to improve thequality of life of urban citizens. Smart Citiesacross the country has the potential to be agame-changer in the country’s urban landscapeand the lives of ordinary citizens. The smart cityinitiative is having good potential for urbandevelopment and India has also recognized thispotential and is at the edge to start implementingthis concept. This will facilitate better living forabout 30% of the population, who live in urbanarea. But, more than half population will not bebenefited from smart city development.Conditions in rural area are very different ascompared to urban, so the same model of smartcity cannot be implemented for the villages. Theefforts of rural development may not work onthe same principle as of smart city.

Hence, utilization of InformationTechnology, which has proved its potential forthe development, may be used for ruraldevelopment through a concept of “SmartVillage”. The Smart Village concept will be basedon the local conditions, infrastructure, availableresources in rural area and local demand as wellas potential of export of good to urban areas.

NEED FOR SMART VILLAGESThe village communities are little repub-

lics, having nearly everything that they wantwithin themselves, and almost independent ofany foreign relations [5]. In the development pro-cess, there will be many changes in the demandand supply of various needs, as rural populationwill pass through the process of change. Atpresent, one of the major challenges in India isgrowing population and rapid urbanization. Thisurban growth to certain extent is unavoidable,as the economic pursuits and aspirations of the

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population do change and evolve. This needs tobe reversed and suitably managed through abalance between rural and urban quality of life.The concept of “Smart Village” will address themultiple challenges faced for sustainable devel-opment of rural India. A “Smart Village” willprovide long-term social, economic, and envi-ronmental welfare activity for village communitywhich will enable and empower enhanced par-ticipation in local governance processes, pro-mote entrepreneurship and build more resilientcommunities. At the same time, a “Smart Vil-lage” will ensure proper sanitation facility, goodeducation, better infrastructure, clean drinkingwater, health facilities, environment protection,resource use efficiency, waste management, re-newable energy etc.

There is an urgent need for designing anddeveloping “Smart Village”, which areindependent in providing the services andemployment and yet well connected to the restof the world. Based on various programsundertaken taken by Central and stategovernments along with further technologicalinitiatives, the Smart Village can achieveSMART infrastructure, SMART servicedelivery, SMART technology and innovation,SMART institutions along with optimalmobilization and utilization of available resources,leading to faster and more inclusive growth. A‘Smart Village’ will encompass a sustainable andinclusive development of all sections of the villagecommunity, so as they enjoy a high standard ofliving.

TOWARDS DEVELOPMENT OFSMART VILLAGES

It is clear that the situations and challengesin developing urban and rural area are different

due to the constraints and opportunities. Manyresearchers believe that the existing technologiesdeveloped for the smart city may be useful forthe smart village concept. Researchers [6]reported that the Smart village system can bedeveloped on the lines of smart city model. Thecomponents taken in to consideration will varyfrom region to region for villages, based on theavailable resources and opportunities. Followingare some generalized guidelines for thedevelopment of Smart Villages1. Economic Component: This component

will include local administration andeconomic factors. It will cover governancemodels, bandwidth, mobility, cloudcomputing, entrepreneurship etc.

2. Environmental Component : Thiscomponent will address the issues relatedto resources and infrastructures availableat local level. It may covers cleanertechnologies, public and alternativetransportation, green spaces, smartgrowth, climate change etc.

3. Social Component: This component mayaddress issues related to community life,participatory democracy, socialinnovation, proximity services etc.CONCLUSIONSmart Villages are the need of the hour as

development is needed for both rural and urbanareas for better livelihood and Informationtechnology will offer effective solution. There aresuccessful technologies available, which havebeen implemented in urban areas. There istremendous pressure on urban landscapes dueto migration of rural people for livelihood. SmartVillages will not only reduce this migration butalso irrigate the population flow from urban to

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rural area. ICT/ IT and GIS are the unbreakablepillars to support the whole process of villagedevelopment. Smart village concept will havepotential to uplift the grass-root level of thecountry, hence adding feather in the overalldevelopment of India.

Failure to utilize Information Technologytools for rural development is because of lackof strategy, unfocused planning and above allmonitoring and execution of the activities. Allthese activities need to be addressed based onthe varying rural situations. A specially designedsuitable framework for rural areas on the groundsof Science, Technology, Engineering, Regulationsand Management will play important role to buildnext generation smart villages. Each village is aunique example and having diverse set ofproblems and situations. It may be difficult toimplement the same model of villagedevelopment for all the villages. To address thiscomplex problem, Public Private Partnership(PPP) may play key role for developing smartvillages. Benefits of the smart village efforts areforeseen to be tremendous.

Smart village concept is having highreplication potential in other countries ofdeveloping world. The concept of smart villagemay also be extended to small towns and alsotownships surrounding the big Cities.

REFERENCES Census 2000, Govt. of India

Publication Census 2011, Govt. of India

Publication Asian Development Bank (2008).

Managing Asian Cities: Sustainableand inclusive urban solutions, AsianDevelopment Bank Report, AsianDevelopment Bank, 2008, PublicationStock No. 050608, ISBN 978-971-561-698-0. Available: http://www.adb.org/Documents/ Studies/Managing-Asian-Cities/mac-report.pdf

Chourabi, N. Taewoo,S. Walker,J. R.Gil-Garcia, S. Mellouli, K. Nahon, T.A.Pardo, H. J. Scholl (2012).

Understanding Smart Cities: AnIntegrative Framework. SystemScience (HICSS), 2012 45th HawaiiInternationalConference, 4-7 Jan.2012. Available: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/ articleDetails.jsp?arnumber = 6149291&abstractAccess = no&user Type =inst

M. N. Srinivas and A. M. Shah (1960).The Myth of Self-Sufficiency of theIndian Village. The Economic Weekly,1375- 1378. Available: http://www.epw.in/system/files/pdf/1960_12/37/ the_myth_of_selfsufficiency_of_the_indian _village.pdf

S. Daniel, M. A. Doran (2013).geoSmartCity : GeomaticsContribution to the Smart City, In: The14th ACM Annual InternationalConference on Digital GovernmentResearch, Pp. 65-71.

R. Heeks, (2002). Information Systemsand Developing Countries: Failure,Success, and Local Improvisations.TheInformation Society, 18 (2) pp 101-112.

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Broadband connectivity key to rural development

*Dr. Keshavbhai Bhanabhai Chaudhari

Both Solar energy and connectivity willbe the powerhouses to jumpstart the rural socio-economic development to the next level. Whilethe Solar energy will be the vehicle to deliver a“basic need” (of electricity) for the ruralpopulation, the broadband connectivity will bekey “enabler” for the socio-economicdevelopment in rural areas.

The availability of a robust and reliablebroadband connectivity is most critical for thesuccessful implementation of some of the keysocial sector schemes and programmes in ruralareas by the Central and State governments one-governance, education, health, employmentand financial inclusion.

The benefits of the broadband connectivityto the rural population are immense with theconvergence of voice, data and video. We willhave the children studying in e-classes with stateof the art audio-visual content and able guidanceof better quality instructors from centralisedlocations (district/ state headquarters), assistedby local teachers and guides who will also learnin the process. The required information will beavailable at the click of the button, where todaygetting a birth certificate may take days,sometimes weeks. The better G2C(Government to Citizens) and C2B (Citizen to

Business) interactions will enable better servicesand socio-economic opportunities for the ruralpeople. Internet connectivity is imperative forthe various financial reach initiatives – whetherpara-banking or micro-financing or the Jan DhanYojana.

As the time and cost are two criticalelements for the implementation, the keyquestion is how we can rollout the broadbandconnectivity to the rural areas in the quickestand most cost-effective manner. The governmentis highly dependent on the speedyimplementation of broadband connectivity forthe success of its ‘marquee’ Digital Indiaprogramme. Slow progress in laying out thebroadband connectivity will derail many of theseprogrammes – so, the (implementation) time isof critical essence here. Similarly, with the currentcost estimates for the rural broadband projectto be around Rs. 30,000 crores, cost-effectiveness of the implementation will be veryimportant for a developing economy like us –with a spate of government projects waiting inthe pipeline for financial go-ahead.

The time and cost of the project will beprimarily dependent on the technology chosenfor providing the broadband connectivity.Among the various options, or technology,

*Dept. of Sociology, H.P. Arts & Commerce College, Talod

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available to us – namely, Digital Subscriber Lines(DSL), Cable modem, Optical fibre cable(OFC) and wireless – the broadbandconnectivity is being currently implementedthrough the Optical fibre network, including thelast-mile connectivity. When the decision on thetechnology was taken 5-6 years back, opticalfibre technology was certainly the best solution– however, since then, wireless technology hasmade remarkable progress, particularly on thedata communications front which is the crux ofbroadband connectivity.

Secondly, rolling out a fibre based networkwill always be a slow process, primarily drivenby the logistical and civil work challengesinvolved. Basically, laying out an optical fibrenetwork involves five stages – approval (rightof way), digging, ducting, cable laying andcovering the trenches made. Each of these stagespose their own challenges, starting with gettingthe right of way clearances which involvesmultiple government bodies, and so, it is highlybureaucratic and slow-moving. The physicalwork thereafter in the digging-to-filling processinvolves both physical labour as well as heavymachinery work – mobiling these resourcesrequires careful planning and efficient utilisation.A delay in any stage has ripple effect onsubsequent stages, sometimes derailing thedownstream plans considerably, leading to timeand cost overruns. The project has alreadystarted to witness the impact with severalrevisions of costs and time schedules.

Starting from the initial cost of around12,000 crores, the project budget has alreadybeen revised to Rs. 28,000 crores a month back.The time estimates have also been extended with

hardly much progress made on the project sinceits launch around 5 years back, and themilestones being shifted perennially with theproject with the final delivery timeline (covering100% rural population) extended to 2017.

The biggest worry is these revisions maynot be the last ones, and we may face furtherdelay and cost overruns as the projectprogresses. This will not only slow down theprogress of the Digital India movement, but maylead to higher effective costs across the varioussocial programmes. In absence of connectivityacross a wide chunk of population, significantresources and focus would be diverted to buildtwo public access platforms simultaneously – acost-effective and efficient online platforms forthe connected population and an offline platformfor the unconnected – to ensure that the impactof the programmes to reach all segments oftarget population. Besides, due to duality ofprocesses, there will be duplicity of efforts inmanaging people-facing processes, datamanagement and record keeping, as well asproviding envisaged services.

So, as mentioned earlier, let us take a stepback and review the judiciousness of employinga fibre based network for rural connectivity.While the connect ivity to the districtheadquarters may still be through fibre basednetwork, the connectivity thereon to the block-level – and to panchayats – can be throughwireless connectivity. Of the estimated 6 lakhroute km of fibre network required to be laidout for this project, roughly 20-25% would befor connectivity upto district headquarters, withthe balance needed to provide connectivity fromdistrict HQs to the village panchayats. Taking

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off the load of the “district-to-village” leg fromthe fibre network rollout will dramatically speedup the progress of the project, particularly dueto easier right of way along highways and roadsconnecting the district headquarters.

The wireless broadband connectivity tothe rural countryside could be built on the public-private partnership (PPP) model with the state-owned BSNL and private telcos sharing thegeographies. As multiple-operator competitivescenario will not be viable in a rural areas, area-wise allocation (for example, district-wise) canbe done to telecom companies to build andoperate the 4G rural wireless networks in theirrespective geographies. A model similar toUSOF model (Universal Service ObligationFund) can be used by government to allocateareas or geographies.

To fully utilise the rural connectivity andthe Digital India programmes, well-equippedinfrastructure should be built at each of theconnecting nodes at the panchayats. Currentadministrative and citizen services facilities in thevillages is completely inadequate on all fronts –civil structures, trained manpower, equipmentsand IT systems, electricity supply, etc. Whilerolling out the connectivity, the concernedministries and administrative bodies need tocome together to simultaneously design, plan andbuild the service delivery infrastructure at therespective locations. A basic, no-frill building canbe constructed at each of the nodes withrequired equipment and systems powered bySolar and renewable energy (supplemented withgrid supply where available). This facility canbe used for various services – education, e-governance, banking, e-trading or commerce,

etc. – on a time-sharing basis across the workinghours. This could also provide another sizeableproject for the MNREGA programme.

In fact, we would see many innovativeservices and applications emerge once the digitalconnectivity is available. For example, we canhave facilities for video calls by people livingabroad or in distant urban areas to call theirrelatives living in rural areas – the callers canafford to bear the expenses of both calling &receiving ends (through a net-based paymentfacility). Similarly, another facility could becorporates operating in the rural areas to usethe data connectivity for more regular andsmoother information and report sharing withtheir headquarters – zonal, regional or national.Basically, with the connectivity and theinfrastructure in place, new services will emergeto reinforce the current socio-economicallydriven business model for the Digital Indiaproject, further enhancing the viability of thisinitiative and the incumbent programmes.Besides, this will also create sizeable white-collared employment opportunities for the ruralworking population, simultaneously reducing therural exodus to urban areas.

References: Das, Shyamanuja (2001), The Indian

Challenge: Will They…Or Won’t They?,March 7, http://voicendata.com/content/top_stories/101030703.asp.

Dataquest (2001), SW INDUSTRY:Working around the Slowdown, Febru-ary 14, http://dqweek.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle.asp?artid=21244.

David, Paul A., Understanding DigitalTechnology’s Evolution and the Path of

Broadband connectivity key to rural development

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Measured Productivity Growth: Presentand Future in the Mirror of the Past, inErik Brynjolfsson and Brian Kahin,eds., Understanding the DigitalEconomy, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,2000, 49-98.

DQ Week (2001), Medical Transcrip-tion: Not in the Pink of Health, Febru-ary 2, http://www.ciol.com/content/search/showarticle.asp?artid=21128.

Desai, Ashok V (2000), The Peril And

The Promise: Broader implications of theIndian presence in information technolo-gies, Working Paper, August, CREDPR,Stanford University.

Dey Atanu (2000), New Telecom Policy1999: A Critical Evaluation, paper presentedat Conference on TelecommunicationsReform in India, Asia/Pacific ResearchCenter, Stanford University, November 9& 10.

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Role of Information Technology in Developmentof Rural India

*Jyotsana Rawal

Information is power and power isinformation. Without information there can beno growth. Now information is penetrating intorural India as well, because without its presencethere, we cannot think about development ofthe entire country. In terms of rural-urbanpopulation, around 90.2% of Himachal Pradeshpopulation resides in rural area. This issignificantly higher than the national average of72.2%.”At all India level only about 0.4 per centof rural households had access to Internet athome as compared to about 6 per cent of urbanhouseholds,” said the National Sample SurveyOrganization (NSSO) report on expenditure in2009-10. Reflecting the digital divide in India,the study said just 3.5 households per 1,000families, had access to Internet services at homein rural areas in the year. The Internet AndMobile Association of India (IAMAI) andIMRB International have provided an insightfulresearch about the internet in rural India.

The report showed that the total numberof active internet users in rural area is projectedto rise by a whopping 98%, from 12.1 million inDecember 2010 to 24 million by December2011. An improved internet awareness in ruralareas was credited to the fast growthexperienced. Government initiative was alsoconducted to facilitate internet networks and

‘common service centers’ (or cyber cafes) bothof which increased in 2010 However, in urbanareas, Internet connectivity was much better in2009-10 as 59.5 families out of every 1000households had the facility at home. InformationTechnology play a Important role in RuralDevelopment of Himachal . Informationtechnology’s main role in rural development isto provide people with information of any kindthey require because information is necessaryfor development. for example information andcommunication technology can help farmers inrural areas to know about new means andtechniques of farming that leads in moreproduction and 5 thus more income, informationand communication technology can help peopleconsult doctors in urban areas thus reducinghealth issues, information and communicationtechnology can help educate child by usingdistant learning methodology and many more.

The Department of InformationTechnology (DoIT) has been created in January,2004 to ensure the process of furthering thedevelopment of IT in the State. The Departmentwould strive for Encouraging investments in theIT sector industries in the State. Facilitating theestablishment of IT institutes and improving thequality of IT education in the State. Using ITtools to ensure a SMART (Simple, Moral,

*Dept. of Sanskrit, Arts College, Vadanagar

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Accountable, Responsive and Transparent)Government… It is a case study of theHimachal, The Society for IT and eGovernance(SITEG) (set up by the Department of IT,Government of Himachal Pradesh) has been setup with an objective to promote usage of IT tobenefit the society and citizens of the state. It isthrough this society that the government ofHimachal Pradesh intends to extend its e-governance services to the common man in thetrue sense. HPSITEG is a part of the largerspectrum of the e- Governance project initiatedby the Government of India. Himachal PradeshSociety for Promotion of IT and E-Governance(SITEG) is formed in the matter of Act XXI of1860 for the registration for Literacy, Scientificand Charitable Societies and in the matter offormation of a Society for the promotion of ITand eGovernance based act ivit ies byDepartment of Information Technology,Government of Himachal Pradesh. 6 Fig.2: Roleof IT in Development of Rural Himachal 7 Impactof IT In Rural People Life The present study isan attempt to know how information technologyis playing a significant role in the developmentof the rural society. We are living in IT world. Ifwe see developed nations then we come toknow that we are lagging so behind. Making allthe Government Departments IT enabled is thedemand of today. Every citizen wantstransparency and fast and timely services fromGovernment Departments.

This can be achieved only by using internetand other IT based services like different ITtools and customised software. Government hasto make access of each facility as simple aspossible. More and more information should beavailable on websites of Government

Departments. In Himachal Pradesh , There aremany IT and e- Governance Related Projectslike SUGAM Lokmitra, SMS Gateway,AGRISNET for Himachal Pradesh,Telemedicine Project, HMIS, HRTC OnlineTicket Booking etc It provides different kind ofservices to the rural masses to improve theirquality of life.

Information and communicationtechnologies (ICTs) which include radio andtelevision, as well as newer digital technologiessuch as computers and the Internet have beentouted as potentially powerful enabling tools foreducational change and reform. The ITcompanies may start this trend of providingquality IT education in the senior schools. Thescope for IT companies looks promising as theeducation sector is a massive one and cansupport a lot of such initiatives. Also,implementing the procedures and building up theinfrastructure can help the students to be betterprepared for a promising career. India is onecountry where skilled labor, especially in the ITsector, is globally recognized as topnotch andcompetitive. The English speaking ITprofessionals in India are preferred in the SouthAsia. Considering such an asset, the studentsthat are soon going to start their professionallives. IT companies can further help their owngrowth and sustenance by investing in this sector.School education is a cyclic process and its spanis ever continuing By striking a good balancewith the school institutions, the companies cando much better and for a long time. 10 Internetand the World Wide Web utilization open upthe modern world of information, facts andcommunication with respect to students. Studentscan easily gain access to libraries from any city

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of the world at any time any day or night. Theinternet possesses a much more pervasive impactthan any other electronic media and is also thepresent day engine most typically associated withprogress; simple fact is that it is the new modelof thinking that will present an innovativeapproach to online education.

Refrences 29 Information Technology and India’s

Economic Development – NirvikarSingh, UC Santa Cruz, July 2002

Pohjola, Matti (1998), InformationTechnology and Economic Develop-ment: An Introduction to the ResearchIssues, WIDER Working Paper No. 153,November, United Nations University.

Prahalad, C. K. and Stuart L. Hart(2002), The Fortune at the Bottom of the

P y r a m i d , h t t p : / / w w w. s t r a t e g y -business.com/media/pdf/02106.pdf.

PROBE committee (1999), Public Reporton Basic Education in India, Centre forDevelopment Economics, New Delhi:Oxford University Press.

Rao, M. Govinda, and Nirvikar Singh(2000), How to Think about Local Gov-ernment Reform in India: Incentives andInstitutions, Paper presented at Interna-tional Conference on Second Genera-tion Reforms in India, Madras Schoolof Economics, Chennai.

Ray, Debraj (1998), Development Eco-nomics, Princeton: Princeton UniversityPress.

List of Website 1. Google.com 2. Wikipedia3. Himachal Govt. Website 4. DIT 5. NIC6. Himachal Rural Development Website7. Google Image 8. Facebook 9. Yahoo

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India Shining Needs Sustainable Rural Development

*Dr. Govind Bhai M. Chaudhari

India’s economy is growing presently atthe rate of 10% per annum. This means that wewill double up all the inputs in 7 years. Thus by2011 we will double the consumption ofpetroleum products, electricity, food and othercommodities to keep this growth rate. Last yearwe imported about Rs. 85,000 crores worth ofpetroleum products and India will also requireabout 140,000 MW of installed electricitycapacity by 2010 at an estimated outlay of Rs.5.5 trillion (Rs. 5.5 X 1012). Thus financial outlayneeded for the energy sector alone is staggeringand to maintain “India shining” it is necessarythat we produce as much as possible, energyand liquid fuels internally. There are about 60%of rural households, which do not have electricity,and without the basic amenities in rural India theprogress of the country will be hampered. Asustainable energy development program cancreate an all round development. One of thepossible ways to do it is the increased use ofland based renewable energy resource likebiomass. This will help the rural developmentand create tremendous wealth in these areas.With rural India shining, India will automaticallyshine!

There are three ways in which energyproduction from land based renewables can be

effected:Production of electricity from biomass and

agricultural residues.Liquid fuel production from biomass

which can be grown in arid regions and onwastelands and saline soils. Besides producingliquid fuels this will also help in landreclamation.Creation of synergy betweencorporate sector, national government labs andinstitutions and NGOs so that energytechnologies can be developed and disseminatedin rural areas.

A study done by Nimbkar AgriculturalResearch Institute (NARI) in Maharashtrashowed that existing agricultural residues canproduce all the electricity demands for a Taluka.The study done for Phaltan taluka in WesternMaharashtra showed that these residues couldproduce about 10-15 MW of power frombiomass based power plants. Besides it was alsoshown that with a capital input of Rs. 300 crorein power production technologies, each Talukacould produces wealth of Rs. 200-250 crores/year besides giving employment to 30,000people year round. With about 3340 talukas inIndia, there is a possibility of creating about Rs.7,00,000 crores/year of wealth and employmentfor about 100 million people/year. Theimplications of this strategy for the rural

*Associate Prof.Smt. Anandiben Shankarbhai Chaudhary Mahila Arts & Home Science College,Mehsana.

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development are staggering and can create aquantum jump in the quality of life for ruralpopulation. With availability of assured electricitysupply the growth in rural industrialization canbe exponential. With the new Electricity Act of2003 and Prime Minister’s Rural ElectricitySupply Technology (REST) Mission thisstrategy can become a reality and it is quitepossible that in coming years the whole face ofrural India can change. Availability of assuredelectricity for lighting will make rural India shine!

India is following the world trend ofincreasing reliance on liquid fuels. Last year 75%of all liquid fuels consumed was imported. By2010 this figure might jump to 85-90%.Increasing reliance on imported fuel willcompromise our security and thus there is a needto develop an indigenous liquid fuel productionpolicy based on renewables. The liquid fuelpolicy should therefore be centered on theproduction of ethanol and biodiesels. Presentlyethanol production in the country is mostlymolasses based. However with expanded useof ethanol both for transportation and as cookingand lighting fuel, there is a need for its productionto have a broader biomass base. Thus the useof alternative feedstock like sweet sorghum,sugarbeet, cassava, etc. can help in its increasedproduction. Besides these crops require lesswater than sugarcane and some of them can begrown on saline soils. Thus a national technologymission on alternative crops for alcoholproduction should be setup by the Governmentof India (GOI). It is estimated that ethanolproduction itself can bring in about Rs. 40,000-50,000 crores wealth to rural India.

Similarly the technology mission for new

crops for producing biodiesel also needs to beset up. Some of the crops like Jatropha and treeborne non-edible oilseeds like Neem andKaranja can be grown on waste and degradedlands. This will also help the country in landreclamation. With very little processing requiredfor biodiesel, the farmers can get substantialremunerations by growing them.

However for the technology missions tosucceed, it is necessary that very intensive R &D is carried out in agriculture, materials andrenewable energy technologies. Government ofIndia should substantially increase the level of R& D funding in renewable energy and agriculturalcrops for liquid fuel production. Research doneat NARI has shown that the emerging areas ofnanotechnology and biotechnology can play avital role in creating novel renewable energytechnologies. Thus new materials for storingbiogas in small cylinders, increasing the efficiencyof photovoltaic solar cells, producing newthermoelectric materials which can efficientlyconvert heat directly into electricity are beingresearched and developed via nanotechnologyall over the world. Similarly biotechnology canbe used for increasing the efficiency of cropsfor liquid fuel and biomass production. It canalso help develop organisms, which can increasethe efficiency of ethanol fermentation and biogasproduction from their respective biomass.

For the fruits of extensive R & D to reachthe rural areas it is necessary that a strong synergyis developed between Corporate sector,National government R&D establishments andNon governmental organizations (NGOs). Boththe corporate sector and national labs can worktogether to research, produce and commercialize

India Shining needs Sustainable Rural Development

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renewable energy technologies, which can bedisseminated through NGOs in rural areas.Finally the development of rural India should beTaluka based for it provides the critical massfor rural development.

Refrences:¨ Telecom Regulatory Authority of India

(2000), Consultation Paper on IssuesRelating to Universal Service

Obligations. TRAI, New Delhi, July 3.¨ 30 Information Technology and India’s

Economic Development – NirvikarSingh, UC Santa Cruz, July 2002 31

¨ Verma, M. S. (2000), TRAI’s Objectivesand Policy Focus in a ChangingEnvironment, Paper presented at theConference on TelecommunicationsReform in India, Asia/Pacific ResearchCenter, Stanford University, November9 & 10.

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Application of ICT in Rural Development :Opportunities and Challenges

*Dr. Daxa JoshiWe see the letters ICT, everywhere. ICT stands for Information and CommunicationTechnology. The concepts, methods and applications involved in ICT are constantlyevolving in our daily lives. The Rural development in India is one of the mostimportant factors for growth of the Indian economy. The present strategy of ruraldevelopment mainly focuses on poverty alleviation, better livelihood, provision ofbasic amenities and infrastructure facilities. Even after so many years afterindependence India have not been able to move to the stage of “developed nation”,the nation is still developing. Public administration, governed by bureaucraticstructures built on rationale principles, that dominated the twentieth century, hasfailed to respond to the changing requirements of the present times. Application ofICT is a paradigm shift to the traditional approaches that the government has beenusing past so many decades. With the use of ICT, government renders services andinformation to the public using electronic means.With the rising awareness amongst the citizens and their better experiences withthe private sector– the demand for better services on the part of governmentdepartments became more pronounced. The infusion of Information andCommunication Technology (ICT) is playing a prominent role in strengthening sucha demand.Combining ICT in Rural Development can not only speed up the developmentprocess but it can also fill the gaps between the educationally and technologicallybackward and forward sections of the society.Several e-governance projects have attempted to improve the reach, enhance thebase, minimize the processing costs, increasing transparency and reduce the cycletimes. Introduction of simputers, e-chaupal are some of the initiatives by thegovernment that has up to an extent been able to bring the rural population incontact with the information technology. The opportunities of ICT application inrural development are immense at the same time the government will also be facingsome challenges also.This article majorly focuses on the scope of ICT in Rural Development, theopportunities and the challenges that can come along.

Key words: RD Schemes, SITE experiment,CoLR, Illiteracy

*Prof. T.M. Shah Mahila Art College, Idar.

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IntroductionIndia is a country of villages and about

50% of the villages have very poor socio-economic conditions. Since the dawn ofindependence constant efforts have been madeto emancipate the living standard of rural masses.The five-year plans of the central governmentalso largely aim at Rural Development. TheMinistry of Rural Development in India is theapex body for formulating policies, regulationsand acts pertaining to the development of therural sector. Agriculture, handicrafts, fisheries,poultry, and diary are the primary contributorsto the rural business and economy.

Rural Development which is concernedwith economic growth and social justice,improvement in the living standard of the ruralpeople by providing adequate and quality socialservices and minimum basic needs becomesessential. The present strategy of ruraldevelopment mainly focuses on povertyalleviation, better livelihood opportunities,provision of basic amenities and infrastructurefacilities through innovative programmes of wageand self-employment. ICT is the new tool forrural development. Informat ion andCommunication Technology, if used properly canbe of great advantage for the development atgrass root levels. At the same time challengeremains with the administration to capture theminds of the rural masses, mostly illiterate, tomake them adapt the new technology which iscompletely alien to them. There are various Ruraldevelopment schemes run by the governmentof India and also organizations are present tolook after the implementations of theseprogrammes.

Rural Development Schemes in IndiaPradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana

(PMGSY): This is a scheme launched and fullysponsored by the Central Government of India.The main objective of the scheme is to connectall the habitations with more than 500 individualsresiding there, in the rural areas by the means ofweatherproof paved roads.

Swarnjayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana(SGSY): This was implemented as a totalpackage with all the characteristics of selfemployment such as proper training,development of infrastructure, planning ofactivities, financial aid, credit from banks,organizing self help groups, and subsidies.

Sampoorna Gramin Rozgar Yojana(SGRY): This scheme aims at increasing the foodprotection by the means of wage employmentin the rural areas which are affected by thecalamities after the appraisal of the stategovernment and the appraisal is accepted by theMinistry of Agriculture.

Indira Awaas Yojana (Rural Housing):This scheme puts emphasis on providing housingbenefits all over the rural areas in the country.

Rural Development in India-Organizations

Department of Rural Development inIndia: This department provides services suchas training and research facilities, humanresource development, functional assistance tothe DRDA, oversees the execution of projectsand schemes.

Haryana State Cooperative Apex BankLimited: The main purpose of the Haryana StateCooperative Apex Bank Limited is to financiallyassist the artisans in the rural areas, farmers and

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agrarian unskilled labor, small and big ruralentrepreneurs of Haryana.

National Bank for Agriculture andRural Development: The main purpose of theNational Bank for Agriculture and RuralDevelopment is to provide credit for thedevelopment of handicrafts, agriculture, smallscaled industries, village industries, rural crafts,cottage industries, and other related economicoperations in the rural sector.

Sindhanur Urban Souharda Co-operative Bank: The main purpose of theSindhanur Urban Souharda Co-operative Bankis to provide financial support to the rural sector.

Rural Business Hubs (RBH): RBH wasset up with the purpose of developing agriculture.The Rural Business Hubs Core Groups helps inthe smooth functioning of the Rural BusinessHubs.

Council for Advancement of People’sAction and Rural Technology (CAPART): Themain purpose of this organization is to promoteand organize the joint venture, which is emergingbetween the Government of India and thevoluntary organizations pertaining to thedevelopment of the rural sector.

Scope of ICT in Rural DevelopmentRecent developments in Information and

Communication Technology (ICT) haveintroduced a plethora of opportunities fordevelopment in every conceivable area. ICT asan enabler has broken all bounds of cost,distance and time. The fusion of computing andcommunications, especially through the internethas reduced the world indeed into global villagecreating new actors and new environments.

One of the major components and driving

force of rural development is communication.Conventionally, communication includeselectronic media, human communication & nowinformation technology (IT). All forms ofcommunications have dominated thedevelopment scene in which its persuasive rolehas been most dominant within the democraticpolitical frame work of the country. Persuasivecommunication for rural development has beengiven highest priority for bringing about desirablesocial and behavioral change among the mostvulnerable rural poor and women. Initially, theapproach lacked gender sensitivity and empathyof the communicators and development agentswho came from urban elite homes. Added tothese constraints is political will that stillinfluences the pace and progress of ruraldevelopment. Technological changes furthercompounded the direction of rural developmentas information and communication technology(ICT) has been thought by communication anddevelopment workers as a panacea for otherills that obstructs the development process. Ithas lead to indiscriminate applications and useof ICT in every aspect of informationdissemination, management & governance ofdevelopment. While there are few shiningexamples of achievements of ICT indevelopment, there are a large number of failuresand unauthenticated claims.

The closing decade of twentieth centurywas the opening of historic information andcommunication technology interventions fordevelopment. This period has witnessedenormous and unprecedented changes in everyaspect of communications technologies policies,infrastructure development and services. The

Application of ICT in Rural Development....

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ICT boom in India has already started changingthe lives of Indian masses. The role of ICT inRural Development must be viewed in thischanging scenario.

ICT and e-Governance for RuralDevelopment

Several states have initiated the creationof State Wide Area Networks (SWAN) tofacilitate electronic access of the state and districtadministration services to the citizens in villages.The Information and CommunicationTechnologies (ICT) are being increasingly usedby the governments to deliver its services at thelocations convenient to the citizens. The ruralICT applications attempt to offer the servicesof central agencies (like district administration,cooperative union, and state and centralgovernment departments) to the citizens at theirvillage door steps. These applications utilize theICT in offering improved and affordableconnectivity and processing solutions.

Computerization of land records havebeen a great success in application of ICT inrural development. Land records are greatimportance to contemporary socio economicimperatives and their revision and updation arenecessary for capturing the changes in rural socialdynamics. Land records are an important partof rural development. The govt. of India startedthe centrally sponsored scheme ofComputerization of Land Records (CoLR) in1988-89 with main objectives of:

Creating database of basic recordsFacilitating the issues of copies of

recordsReducing work load by elimination of

drudgery of paper work

Minimizing the possibilities manipulationof land records, and

Creating a land management informationsystem

The farmers were largely benefited CoLR.The farmers can get all necessary records whenthey need it, these records are free from humanarbitrations, the updating becomes easy, freefrom harassment and the farmers had directaccess to information regarding their property.

Challenges of application of ICT inRural Development

ICTs alone can’t bring about ruraldevelopment. Education is one of the basicproblem for application of ICT as 40% of India’spopulation is illiterate. All modern economieshave demonstrated in the past that education isthe first step to building the capacity whichpeople can then use. If the Indian economygrows at 5-6 per cent per annum as it has beengrowing over last 2-3 years, then over 10-15years the size of the Indian economy would havedoubled. Even with this level of growth it cannotby any means bridge disparities and eradicatepoverty. Therefore introducing ICTs alone willnot meet the development challenge. For ICTsto succeed in India, education for all must bethe first priority.

Major power-cuts and ‘brown-outs’affecting the country-side ranging from 5 to 12hours every day. Even though uninterruptedpower supply systems are used; yet they proveinsufficient to cope up with the powerbreakdowns

Serious band-width issues andconnectivity problems. Even though technologyis available to upgrade the band-width; not

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enough resources have been budgeted by theGovernment to change this scenario. Howeveronce a few projects for the upgradation of theband-width on the anvil get commissioned, thereshould be a significant improvement in theconnectivity

Financing difficulties encountered by thelocal grass root level institutions as well as bythe state governments. Drastic steps are neededto inject funds for the development of the ICTsin the rural areas; increasingly by theparticipation of the private sector

Acute shortage of project leaders andguides who could ensure implementation of theICTs at the grass root levels. Unfortunately mostprofessionals want to work in the urban areaswhere there are ample opportunities availableto them for growth as well as prosperity. In theabsence of these ‘techno-catalytic’ resources;development of ICTs in the rural areas willalways be very slow.

Conclusion :Information and Communication

Technology has great relevance in today’s world.If implemented properly ICT can surely bridgethe gap between economically and technologybackward and forward classes. With the IT

boom in India technology is easily accessible tothe government machineries with relevantlycheaper and convenient manner. Proper trainingand implementation of ICT programmes in simpleway and language which is easily understandableby the rural people can surely bring aboutrevolution in rural development.

Refrences: Planning Commission report Bihar

(2012). Sharma and Rao:Bridging the digital

divide:Information kiosks in RuralIndia-Challenges and Opportunities”,ht tp: / /www.bhoovikas.org/BVF/Conference _pdfvolume2 _ theme7.pdf

Sukhvinder Kaur Multani(2007):ICTand rural development in India ,IcfaiUniversity Press.

Sustainable access in Rural India . http://www.tenet.res.in/rural/sari html

Sharma, Chetan: ICT initiatives inIndia. www.datamationindia.com / gk_ictinitiatives.php

Vasudeva Rao,B S.Evaluation Studies2004, The AssociatedPublishers,Ambala Cantt, (Ed.Vol).

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Application of ICT in Rural Development....

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