Charting out a roadmap for ICTs4D in India

Aditya Dev Sood

Few doubt that infotech can play a significant role in development for India’s teeming populace. But there’s a need to learn from experiments elsewhere and not repeat the mistakes of the past. FREDERICK NORONHA met up with Aditya Dev Sood, who has studied a wide range of ICT projects for development that have been implemented across India, to find out whether we are on the right development path

YOU NO DOUBT agree that IT could play an important role in helping India’s millions even those who can’t afford two square meals a day. But to embark on this journey of hope, you first need to know what is being done elsewhere, what can be done and what doesn’t really work.

That’s the job of Aditya Dev Sood, a young research scholar from North India, studying at Chicago University, and working out of Bangalore.

One of the closest watchers of the ICTs4D (or information and communications technologies for development) scenario in India, Sood has studied a wide range of projects across India, placing him in a particularly interesting position.

“It has been two years now,” says he. “I began by looking for ways to understand the software export industry in relation to local culture, for there appeared to be a wide gulf. It was during this time that I came across the M S Swaminathan project (in Pondicherry) and discovered a whole range of ICT initiatives for the local market, all of which were very innovative and courageous.”

MSSRF (M S Swaminathan Research Foundation), has set up village knowledge centres across the country. One centre based in a fishing village, for instance, has successfully downloaded weather information from a de-commissioned US spy satellite, which was interpreted for local use and broadcast over loudspeakers.

Enormous potential
Sood says that what inspires him is “the enormous potential of this sector, the necessity of experimentation, social research and creativity, as well as its certain future growth.”

Without building unnecessary hype, Aditya Dev Sood points to the rich potential of such efforts. “In the long term, social investment in rural ICTs (information and communications technologies) could prove to be one of the most effective means of driving change,” believes this author of ‘Guide to ICTs for Development’.

Sood points to the potential of these technologies to ensure equal access to underprivileged groups. They could also have a strong economic impact, by “creating new kinds of work and financial transactions,” he argues. In addition, politically too, such technologies could improve the “quality, speed and sensitivity of the State apparatus to the needs of local citizen-consumers.”

Over past months, he’s kept busy. For, there often is a wide gap between paper-based claims and the reality at ground level. Sood stresses the need to actually take a look at the projects being undertaken in different parts of India, to separate chaff from grain, hype from hope.

Says he, “I’ve personally visited several rural connectivity projects, depending on how they are defined. An average visit can run from one to three days. I’ve also met with a number of connectivity, hardware, and software companies, which are creating new products and applications for the mass-market sector.”

Of course, some are more impressive than others.

“I’m still a great fan of the Gyandoot project in Dhar, Madhya Pradesh. This project has been successful in promoting interaction between villagers and the government. I also feel that the new N-Logue installations (for affordable rural connectivity) in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, and Andhra Pradesh will be paradigm-shaping in nature.”

Success unsustained
But this field is fast-moving in nature. Yesterday’s success stories become today’s forgotten failures.

Sood agrees. For instance, the MSSRF (Swaminathan Project in Pondicherry) was state-of-the-art in 1997-98. But, he says, it has failed either to grow, or to experiment at the same rate as other initiatives.

Warana was another major experiment, and also an expensive one, “that promised much more than it delivered.” Tarahaat has shut operations in Bundelkhand, because connectivity there was predicated on Vsats that required extremely expensive licenses. “In all these cases, the full potential of rural connectivity has not been realised,” says Sood, conceding that all that glitters is not necessarily gold.

(Warana Villages Project, set up around the Warana Co-operatives some 72 villages in Kolhapur and Sangli and funded by the Prime Minister’s Office has an “astonishingly dense network of fibre-optic cables, Vsats, PCs, modems and servers,” says Sood. Tarahaat.com is an “extremely ambitious project” to provide online and e-enabled services to a large number of rural communities in North India.)

Still, notwithstanding the setbacks, the potential is huge.

Would he say that ICT4D is being taken seriously enough in India, or elsewhere in the globe? How has this scenario changed in the past 2-3 critical years?

“I’d say that the idea has far more acceptance today than two years ago. Many more entrepreneurs are entering the sector, which also means that some chicanery and artifice can be expected as the sector grows bigger.”

That’s true. Internationally, ITC4D is turning into a new ‘mantra’. Considerable sums are being poured into it, prompting fears that this could be counter-productive and attract the wrong type of interest.

“I think we should expect a bubble, that could peak in early 2004. Every single international development organisation has latched on to this format. On the one hand it’s a good thing, because connectivity will now increase and so will experimentation and innovation. But there will also be many failed projects and failed concepts. And, at least in the short term, there will be dissatisfaction and disaffection with the whole idea in response to some of these failures,” says Sood, offering a distanced and blunt perspective.

Favourites list
Sood has some favourites in terms of the projects he sees most potential in. For instance, on the software front we have Anusaraka (machine language translation), Mithi and Chennai Kavigal (both Indian-language software). In the hardware domain there is HP Labs 4 in 1, iStation (e-mail solutions without a PC) and the Simputer. In terms of connectivity he places his bets this is an uncertain field, you never know which would click on N-Logue and WorldSpace (the satellite radio receiver solution).

On a broader scale, Sood has much hope in the role IT can play to make India a better place. If only we know how to play our cards right.

It could, he notes, lead to improved governance through citizen response systems such as in Gyandoot. It also holds out the promise of improved healthcare through telediagnostics, an example of which can be seen in Aravind Eye Hospital in Madurai. It could even lead to improved agricultural planning and outreach through e-mail and browsing systems as in Nellikuppam.

But isn’t rating a project a rather difficult job?
Sood, who has a Sociology background, says his Centre for Knowledge Societies (CKS) looks at the project’s economic model, the technology platforms, the proponents’ involvement with the local community and their awareness of local needs.

Besides, what is also important is the project proponents’ outreach and marketing skills. And whether they have any kind of social research and impact evaluation system in place, which can provide internal system feedback. “We try to give some inputs into the kinds of services that they could provide by using locally available resources,” says Sood.

Guide to ICTs
CKS, Sood’s think tank on this subject, operating out of Bangalore, is itself an interesting experiment. It is working towards the second-edition of its ‘Guide to ICTs for Development’.

This offers for discussion a number issues pertaining to ICTs for Development in the first part, and then lists 55 projects under various headings in the second part. Some research links and a bibliography are also included. This is perhaps the best one-stop information centre of innovation on IT in India meant to benefit the man in the fields and slums.

In its earlier avatar, this publication was seen as a social investor’s guide as a resource for funding agencies trying to understand the sector. “But then we realised that it had great value within the sector as well, for software teams need to get in touch with hardware suppliers, and both need to know where the new rural installations are going to be,” says Sood.

However, things are changing rapidly in this field. Sood admits that the first edition was already out of date when it was published in April 2001.

Yet it continued to serve as an excellent resource for someone entering the sector for the first time. “I’m sure we’ll face the same problems with the second edition, which is why we’re going to be hosting a database of ICTs for development online, which will be routinely updated,” argues Sood.

Says Sood, who graduated in architecture and completed his post-graduation in sociology, “My work currently lies in between sociology and design. I’m doing it by looking at the impact IT is having on society.”

Surprise results
Sood is pleasantly surprised with the results of his work. “Originally, my interest was far more academic. But then one got opportunities to study how technology develops, and how it actually transforms human relations,” he adds. “This new technology is throwing up myriad ways of doing things. People find the Net liberating,” he notes.

Last year, Sood was one of a team that put together an interesting meet called ‘The Development Laboratory Workshop’ that highlighted how IT is being used for developmental purposes in various innovative experiments.

It was organised by four Bangalore-based NGOs, including Sood’s CKS. What was interesting was that many of the field workers from these NGOs, who earlier thought of IT as something very expensive and irrelevant to the needs of the common man, were eagerly talking and demonstrating how ICTs can make a difference to the lives of the millions.

Aditya Dev Sood can be contacted via e-mail at ads@cks-b.org. Frederick Noronha is at fred@bytesforall.org.

Top Projects Software:

• Anusaraka
• Mithi
• Chennai Kavigal

Hardware:

• HP labs 4 in 1
• iStation
• Simputer

Connectivity:

• N-Logue
• WorldSpace