Thursday, November 13, 2008
It is fashionable for populist politicians, intellectuals and journalists to ask what Information Technology and computers can do for the masses. The implied assumption is that IT and computers are only for the elite, and that they are irrelevant for the poor.
Ignoring this divisive assumption, we should nevertheless still consider the question of what the Internet in particular, and information and communication technologies (ICT) in general, can do for the general population. In a democracy like India, where elections involving all adults are held almost every year at every level from Parliament down to the village, the use of IT must be seen to benefit all, including the illiterate and under-educated. If that doesn’t happen, then pleas to increase investments in IT, to computerize all government and economic activity, and generally to “informatize” the society will fall on deaf ears.
That is why the BJP-led government set up a task force — “IT for the Masses” — whose recommendations are presumably being acted upon by India and its state governments.
Technology for the Masses:
Telephones to Kiosks
Years ago, socialists disparaged telephones as instruments that serve only the rich. Therefore money to extend the telecom network and provide telephones for all those who wanted them was not forthcoming. The view was luckily put to rest by installing public telephones on a very large scale. Now there are more than 500,000 phones in the cities and another 400,000 in the villages.
The Prime Minister’s Task Force, set up in 1998, recommended that all 900,000 STD/ISD public telephones be transformed into Internet kiosks by placing a multimedia PC in the telephone booth. Some could even be equipped with a video camera. Trained attendants could help anyone surf the Net, and those unable to afford telephones or PCs could be given e-mail addresses. People could send and receive faxes via the telephones in the Internet kiosks. Selected kiosks could even be given ISDN lines to facilitate videoconferencing from the booths.
Hundreds of public Internet kiosks have come up in Hyderabad and other Indian cities, and are beginning to show up in small towns also. When these kiosks arrive in small towns and villages what benefit will accrue to the users? What information and content will be available for farmers, merchants, development officials, schools, government agencies, etc. Similarly, what applications can be facilitated on the Internet?
Several software companies are developing applications relevant to farmers, for example. Presentations are in the regional languages and touch screen navigation is being deployed. In one extraordinarily successful deployment of IT in Warana Tehsil county in Maharashtra, progressive sugar-growing farmers in 70 villages — each with a few PCs — are connected in a WAN. The farmers use the PCs to keep and settle their accounts with the sugar factory, the cooperative bank, and the markets and to get up-to-date market information.
Some governments, including that of Andhra Pradesh, are extending the government’s Intranet — the State Wide Area Network or the SWAN — to the kiosks so the public can get information about government services, schemes and entitlements.
Asia’s largest software company, Tata Consultancy Services, has developed a computer-based multimedia “literacy program” for illiterates. Participants are taught to read the local language through multimedia lessons. Students take to the computer-based instruction more enthusiastically than to traditional methods involving alphabets and writing. The company has donated PCs and the software program to 100 villages in Andhra Pradesh.
Affordable Net Access
India’s Internet policy is one of the most liberal in the world. ISPs need not pay license fees or share revenue. There is no limit on the number or geographic scope of licenses. Service providers can have international Internet gateways by installing VSATs or by connecting to submarine cable capacity. They can deploy wireless or interconnect cities by laying optical fiber cables. Four hundred small and big companies have taken the licenses, and more than 100 have become operational. A score of competitive international Internet gateways have already come up, and users have multiplied five times in two years. Per hour Internet charges have dropped to one fifth of their past levels as a result of competition between the former monopoly ISP Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (VSNL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) and private companies.
Only high dial-up access fees make Internet service less affordable, and some have suggested drastically reducing those fees. BSNL, in an extraordinarily swift move, is extending the Internet to more than 400 district towns within two years. Dial-up access from any telephone in India to the nearest point of presence of BSNL’s Internet service is charged at local call rates, whatever the distance may be.
It has been suggested that dial-up access providers should share telephone revenues with Internet service providers so that the latter can bring down their charges further. Of course, this is standard practice in UK, and in some other European counties. An Indian enterprise has developed wireless equipment (corDECT) to link Internet users to the ISP providers’ switches and servers at a speed of 70 Kbps. This solution is cheaper than even the traditional telephone cable network, and can provide one telephone channel plus Internet access at 30 Kbps.
Government, IT And The Young
Indian policymakers realize that, without government meddling, information technology has really gripped the minds of the Indian people. Both young and old are excited about what information technology can do. Many parents would rather give a PC as a gift than a TV set. Children, even in rural areas, know about IT’s beneficial impact on educated urbanites. Most Indian children are very familiar with names like Bill Gates, N.R. Narayana Murthy, Azim H. Premji, and others. They now dream of becoming businessmen rather than public servants.
The essential prerequisite of a public affordable communication network is also being established throughout the country, thanks to the elimination of the telecommunications monopoly and the introduction of unlimited competition in every segment of telecom and the Internet. India has a large number of bank branches in villages. Now that monopolies have been broken in the insurance and banking industries and fierce competition is emerging, IT applications will be extended throughout the country. Without government interference in the electronics and IT industries, the traditional entrepreneurship of Indians is now being fully witnessed in the deployment and extension of Internet by companies all over the country.
We should soon be witnessing the explosive growth of the Internet and its widespread use by all Indians.
Dr. T. Hanuman Chowdary is information technology advisor to Andhra Pradesh and former chairman and managing director of Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
