 | Issue: | Asia-Pacific I 2006 |
| Article no.: | 3 | |
| Topic: | ICT: the tool for development | |
| Author: | Rakesh Singh | |
| Title: | Director Department of IT and Biotechnology | |
| Organisation: | Government of Karnataka | |
| PDF size: | 76KB |
About author
Rakesh Singhi is a Secretary of the Chief Minister of Karnataka and the Director of the Department of IT and Biotechnology of the Government of Karnataka, India. Mr Singhi began as a Lecturer in Psychology at Allahabad University, but has spent most of his career in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). His posts in the IAS include: Assistant Commissioner and Sub-divisional Magistrate, Bijapur; Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchayat, Tumkur District; Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate, Hassan District; Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate, Bijapur District; Deputy Commissioner and District Magistrate, Uttara Kannada District, Karwar and as the Private Secretary to the Deputy Chairman, RajyaSabha, New Delhi. Rakesh Singhi graduated from St John’s College, Agra University, and earned his MA Psychology from Agra University-First Class First and his LLB from Allahabad University-First Class First.
Article abstract
India is working exploit ICT to benefits to its people. Its Mission 2007 will connect 240,000 villages by Internet and establish 100,000 village knowledge centres (VKCs). India’s Software Technology Parks have created a uniquely enabling environment and driven India’s insertion into the Information Society. ICT has been an effective instrument in tackling socio-economic problems in India. e-Governance combats corruption and inefficiency in the affairs of its government and telemedicine offers a way to alleviate India’s health care woes.
Full Article
The recently held World Summit of Information Society (WSIS) at Tunisia drew enormous attention world over. The much hyped point of contention between the US and the rest of the world as to who should own the Internet (ICANN) turned out to be nothing but a damp squib. Rather, the summit itself had an interesting title: Connect the World by 2015. The summit deliberated upon the most important issue that is confronting the society today: how to bridge the digital divide between the haves and have-nots? Nevertheless, it is increasingly felt that ICT can play a major role in transforming these poor countries and bring the “under privileged” within the ambit of development. India, considered to be the biggest success story in the knowledge revolution, is leaving no stones unturned in its pursuit carrying ICT to the rural masses by exploiting ICT to the maximum. Taking the lead, India has embarked on a historic undertaking to bring the benefits of ICT to its own backyard: its villages. The Tunis summit has acclaimed and acknowledged India’s initiative named Mission 2007 to connect 240,000 village panchayats by Internet. Also part of this mission is the proposal to set up 100,000 village knowledge centres (VKCs), each centre covering a population of around 2000 to disseminate information pertaining to agriculture, weather, market information, a group of VKCs will be supported by a block level village resource centre. Though the numbers seem mind boggling, the groundwork for implementing the above task began in 2003. While it is obvious that such a gigantic task would be virtually impossible for the government to implement on its own, it has embarked upon an alliance that brings together a host of institutions: public, private, NGOs, International bodies, etc., to realise the vision before the deadline of 15th August, 2007. It is such public-private partnerships that are crucial in making such efforts successful. The impact of ICT on economies is so profound that the world today would come to a grinding halt if such communication networks ceased to exist. Needless to say, to reap these benefits an infrastructure has to be put in place. With much foresight, and recognising the role ICT would play in the Information Technology wave, India developed the much needed ICT infrastructure at an appropriate time. This helped fuel the growth of the IT industry, which is now acclaimed world over. It is the Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) that have catered to the growing needs of the software and services sectors’ ICT with state-of-the-art communication networks that are comparable to those of any developed nation in the world. It was in 1991 that the first STPI of the country was set up in Bangalore. Today, it is the largest service provider with the best telecom connectivity and bandwidth available in the country. Technology revolution The opening of the telecom sector to the private sector in the early 1990s and creation of a suitable telecom infrastructure has led to India’s Information Technology revolution. Leading the IT revolution of India, is Karnataka, the southern state of India; Bangalore, its capital, has created a niche for itself in the global IT world and earned the sobriquet of “IT Capital of India”. During the last decade, Karnataka has seen rapid development of knowledge-based industries. This development is primarily centred on Bangalore. No wonder, Karnataka is often called the Silicon State of India and Bangalore the IT capital of India. Bangalore has been the most favoured city for foreign direct investment in IT. Last year, Bangalore attracted two new 100 per cent foreign equity IT companies to move there every working day. The number of IT firms in Bangalore has multiplied exponentially, from a mere 13 companies in 1992 generating exports worth US$2 million, to more than 1580 IT companies today generating export revenues of US$6.27 billion and accounting for over one third of the country’s software exports. The industry has registered an impressive growth rate of over 25 per cent in software exports during the last year. Over 40 per cent of these exports were in the high-end tech areas of chip design, systems software and communication software. The firms are highly quality conscious, which has made Bangalore home to the highest number of SEI CMM Level 5 firms in the world. This is a result of the Millennium IT Policy, the first comprehensive policy in the country developed by the industry, for the industry itself. Investments in IT Bangalore is the ideal location for the investments in IT sector that ranges from software services, outsourcing software development, customer interaction services to product development in extremely high-end technologies like WAP, VoIP, Bluetooth, 2NS, pSOS, CRM, etc. All these developments are attributed to the vibrant pool of talented technical professionals, rich cluster of IT companies, network of premier academic and research institutions, industry friendly policies, proactive government, salubrious climate, competitive labour costs etc. These factors have created a uniquely enabling environment and have attracted significant investments in the IT sector in Bangalore. The availability of trained technical manpower with neutral English speaking capabilities has made this city into the most favoured destination for Business Process Outsourcing (BPO). This segment has recorded a growth of over 66 per cent in the last year generating export revenues of over US$805 million. The city offers state-of-the-art IT parks that have a full range of facilities, round the clock electricity, water, security, telecom connectivity, etc, comparable to the developed part of the world. It also offers the highest bandwidth in the country. The state’s free right of way policy has attracted a number of private telecom players in providing telecom connectivity, including last mile access. The State has one of the country’s largest optical fibre networks, 50,193.00km spread across the state. In addition to Bangalore, a number of cities in the State such as Hubli, Mangalore, Manipal, Mysore Belgaum, etc., are developing as promising secondary IT hubs in the state. All these have been possible by creating a clear road map for the development envisaged in the IT Policy formulated by the industry leaders. The policy aims at promoting the IT services export industry including permitting duty-free imports of a spate of key IT products; allowing 100 per cent foreign equity, deferring corporate income tax until 2010, dedicated data communication links, single-window government clearance and providing single-point customs bonding and export certification. This was complemented by support to incubators, human resource training and the funding for venture capital. Thus, Karnataka is leveraging IT to attain a position of leadership and excellence in the Information Age and to transform itself into a Knowledge Society. Another area where ICT is making considerable impact is e-governance. It is an effective tool to combat the widespread corruption and inefficiency in government institutions. e-Governance brings much-needed transparency, efficiency and accountability to the day-to-day affairs of the government. Today, governance is all about effective delivery of public services. Any government that fails to deliver effectively is bound to become unpopular, given the level of awareness among the people in this information age. The software-factory of the world has its success stories in e-governance too. Karnataka was one of the states to have recognised the importance of ICT and its use in bringing about significant changes in day-to-day administration. Technology to the common man The Millennium IT Policy, IT for the Common Man, envisaged several e-governance projects to bring IT to the common man and deliver a Government that is more proactive and responsive to its citizens. Bhoomi is an e-governance project that enables farmers to get a copy of a Record of Rights or land record instantly for the nominal sum of Rs.15 (less than US$0.30). The project has been lauded by the international community. Similarly, Nondani, an e-governance project pertaining to the Land Registration Department, enables quick registration of documents as well as availability of registered documents at the click of the button. Khajane, an e-governance project pertaining to the Treasury Department, networks the 225 treasuries in the State. The system also tracks the payments made on a real time basis, for more effective monitoring of budgetary expenditure. The objective of the Government of Karnataka is to implement e-governance in every department. The government is a large and complex institution and IT implementation in government requires careful planning and formulation of strategies for effective implementation. e-Governance initiatives should focus upon simplifying procedures, rationalising process and, if necessary, restructuring the institution. The State Level Technical Advisory Panel and Departmental Level Technical Advisory Panels (TAP) were created to implement e-governance in the state. The Directorate of IT assists the State Level TAP to issue guidelines for the promotion of computerisation in various departments of the government. A panel of expert advisers have been promoting computerisation in various departments and have also been advising the government on e-governance matters. Further, ICT has also proved to be an effective instrument in tackling socio-economic problems in a big way; this is an opportunity-in-waiting to be exploited by countries like India. Though the experiments in this regard have proved astoundingly successful, the nation has yet to implement them on the scale needed to bring conspicuous change. Healthcare Telemedicine is another significant experiment in the ICT application. Given the sheer size of the population and the inability to churn out doctors to match the health care demand, Telemedicine seems the only solution for India’s health care woes. Thanks to the efforts taken by institutions such as ISRO, C-DAC, Hospitals, etc., India’s health care industry is set to witness a revolution. The telemedicine live link between Chamarajnagar, the coastal town of Karwar in Karnataka and the state’s capital, Bangalore, established by ISRO was well received by the visitors at the World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis. Similarly, India’s EDUSAT programme aims to provide distance education via satellite and communication networks. These efforts save enormous money for the government; they also help reach out to the masses and their after-effects multiply their impact. Nobel Laureate Prof Amartya Sen has said: “abiding concern for primary education and primary health provisions for economically disadvantaged people as also the concerns of well-meaning development economists will be addressed only if the authorities zero in on the proper use of Information Technology for furthering development objectives. A few success stories, repeated ad nauseam alone will not be the answer to the country’s need if the beneficiaries of the IT industry do not take an enlightened interest to replicate the success they harvested abroad to sow seeds of growth at home.” The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) pertinently cautions that “if ICT developments are limited to closed technology parks or zones and are not combined with other policies in the area of education and training, the gains will not diffuse throughout the economy. Hence more attention needs to be paid to linking these strategies to the domestic industry and other related policies.” Thus, every effort made to integrate the different areas of administration so that ICT forms the bridge between the administration and the common man. Thus, despite the shortcomings and dangers that technology presents, ICT provides a solution to many of the woes that confront us today. Whereas there is increasing isolation among some parts of society, other parts are increasingly integrated into the global village network. The more the gap widens, the more detrimental it will be to humankind. It is high time that other governments realise the tremendous potential of using ICT the way India and Karnataka have done. ICT’s value should not be measured in terms of trade benefit alone, but also in terms of what it can bring to the lives of each one of us.
