Bridging digital divide: Efforts in India - CiteSeerX

Telematics and Informatics 22 (2005) 361–375 www.elsevier.com/locate/tele

Bridging digital divide: Efforts in India Siriginidi Subba Rao

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Information Technology Department, Central Leather Research Institute, Adyar, Chennai 600020, India Received 28 January 2005; accepted 28 January 2005

Abstract The fruits of Information Technology sector such as the Internet blue chips, online shopping and nanosecond email have failed to cure century-old malaises like illiteracy, poverty and unemployment in India. The paper presents few facts about digital divide based on global and the USA perspective, its definition and types as global, regional and national, and societal implications. It highlights India in the context of digital divide by discussing its infrastructural bottleneck that includes electricity, IT penetration, teledensity and Internet industry, and its enabling policies to transform India as a knowledge society. It discusses various technology options for connectivity, viz. terrestrial wireless, satellite, wireline, etc. and presents snap shots of select successful projects that made an impact in helping to bridge digital divide in India, viz. passenger reservation system, Akashganga, Akshaya e-centres, Bhoomi, etc. It concludes that creation of Information and Communication Technologies infrastructure and content are the core methodologies, and a national agenda on a C-8 thrust towards: connectivity provision, content creation, capacity augmentation, core technologies creation and exploitation, cost reduction, competence building, community participation and commitment to the deprived and disadvantaged would definitely help in bridging digital divide. 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Digital divide; India; Societal implications; Connectivity options and projects

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Tel./fax: +91 44 24911389. E-mail address: [email protected]

0736-5853/$ - see front matter 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2005.01.007

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S.S. Rao / Telematics and Informatics 22 (2005) 361–375

1. Introduction India worries about the rapid strides being made in Information Technology (IT) that is fueling to widen gap between the countryÕs privileged urban population and its under privileged rural populace, where as the rest of world is worried about the slowdown of economy in the United States of America (USA), e-commerce, portals and cyber money. Though, the windfall of venture capital fund supported to increase the number of Internet users, the trickle down effect, notwithstanding a few villages that now do their accounts on computers, has been non-existent. The fruits of IT sector yielded results only to most developed and computerized economies. On the other hand, the Internet blue chips, online shopping and nanosecond email have failed to cure century-old malaises, viz. illiteracy, poverty and unemployment in India. Also, in India, digital divide is not restricted to less developed states (Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Orissa) with traditionally weak infrastructure but also to new IT states (Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh). The objective of the paper is to present few facts about digital divide based on global and the USA perspective, its definition and types, societal implications including reasons in India and IndiaÕs efforts in bridging digital divide through governmental policies and implementation of several projects.

2. Facts about digital divide The Internet users account for only 6% of worldÕs population and out of that 85% of them are in developed countries where 90% of all Internet hosts are located. This is the essence of global digital divide that needs to be transformed into global digital opportunity. For the Internet to be a true mass medium, it will have to achieve harmony among all consumer segments. There are different dimensions to digital divide such as economic level of individuals, economic prosperity of nations, ethnicity, age (young/old), rural/urban, gender, geographic location, quantitative and qualitative aspects, dial-up and broadband access. The facts about digital divide based on global perspective reveals an estimated 429 million people are online globally (represents 6% of world population) and out of that, percentage wise, 41 in North America (USA and Canada), 27 in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 20 in Asia Pacific. Even among highly developed nations, there exists a vast difference in the availability of home Internet access. Sweden ranks the highest (61%) home Internet connections where as Spain has lowest (20%) homes connected. Also, 57% of those not online in the USA have no intention of going online; worldwide, this figure accounts to 33% (Benton Foundation, 2002). The facts about digital divide based on the USA perspective reveals, percentage wise, about 51 homes had computer, where-in 41.5 homes had Internet access; 86.3 households earning US $75,000 and above per year had Internet access compared to 12.7 households earning less than US $15,000 per year. Nearly 65% of college graduates had home Internet access and only 11.7% of households headed by persons with less than a high-school education had Internet access. The rural areas,


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though still lagging behind urban areas, had surpassed inner cities in the Internet availability and use, percentage wise: 42.3 in urban; 38.9 in rural; and 37.7 in central city. Of those who used the Internet outside the home, percentage wise, 62.7 did so at work, 18.9 at K-12 schools, 8.3 in other school settings, 9.6 at libraries, 0.5 at community centers and 13.8 used someone elseÕs computer. About 63% of homes with residents aged 18–49 used the Internet, compared to 37% of households with residents aged 50 or older. The women surpassed men in Internet access and use (51– 49%) (Benton Foundation, 2002).

3. Definition of digital divide The following are select definitions for digital divide: • The well-documented distance between the information rich and the information poor (http://www.dcn.davis.ca.us/go/steve/terms.html). • The gap between the technology haves and have-nots (http://www.youngaustralians.org/Resources/BYTE%20Audit%20Report/Glossary%20of%20Terms.htm). • The gap that exists between those who have and those who do not have access to technology (telephones, computers, Internet access) and related services (http:// www.contentbank.org/tools/glossary.asp). • The gap in opportunities experienced by those with limited accessibility to technology, especially the Internet. This includes accessibility limitations in social issues, cultural issues, disability issues, economic issues, learning issues, etc. (http://www2.state.id.us/itrmc/pubs&resources/acronyms.htm). From the above definitions, world can be divided into people who have and who do not have access to or capability to use modern artifacts, such as telephone, television, or the Internet; digital divide exists between those in cities and rural areas, educated and uneducated, economically well off and deprived classes; developed, developing and least developed countries. The other observations that further help in explaining digital divide are: differences based on race, gender, geography, economic status and physical ability; in access to information, the Internet and other information technologies; in skills, knowledge and ability to use information and other technologies. Further, the stress is on access, knowledge and content. Thus any endeavor to reduce digital divide should take care of these three aspects together. Further, digital divide can be categorized as: (i) Global digital divide: This is the first divide where-in the Internet users account for only 6% of world population and 85% of them are in the developed countries where 90% of the Internet hosts are located; (ii) Regional digital divide: Within Asia, 50% of South Korea is expected to be online by 2004, while Indonesia will be a mere 1%. India will be in between these two; and (iii) National digital divide: Within India, states such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are more digital than Bihar and Uttar

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Pradesh and population proportion wise also the disparity is much wider. Also, within a state, there is an urban–rural digital divide; within urban, there is educated–uneducated digital divide; amongst educated there is rich–poor digital divide.

4. Societal implications of digital divide The digital divide has severe implications on the society, if not addressed properly. The factors that have influence in addressing digital divide include: (i) Computer literacy: Those who can operate computers stand a better chance than those who cannot, though literate and otherwise competent, to get even a secretarial job let alone an administrative one. (ii) Use of electronic data interchange (EDI): An export company from a country that cannot use e-commerce over the Internet, may lose a large export order to another company from a different country that has collected more information through the Internet and submitted quotations through EDI. Singapore has announced that it will not trade with any company that cannot transact with it in paperless EDI mode over a computer network. If many other countries follow the suite, it results in a Global digital divide. As a consequence, exports may grind to a halt for a country just because its companies cannot transact in EDI over a network. (iii) Tech savvy operations: Those who know how to operate automated teller machine can draw money faster and those who cannot operate need to spend more time at manual counters. (iv) Use of information: The cruelest blow is inflicted because of urban–rural divide. It may be exploited by the unscrupulous because of information that urbanite may be privy to while others may not. (v) Working knowledge of English: Internet hosts more than 80% of the Web pages in English though only 54% of the Internet users are amongst English-speaking people. In India and other developing countries, the disparity is much wider, resulting in a language divide. Even within advanced countries, concerns are there about divides along racial and gender lines. In fact, digital divide is an amplifier of economic and social divides that exists universally. The only saving grace is in converting digital divide into digital dividend to mitigate the prevailing economic and social disparities.

5. Reasons for digital divide in India India has a population of over one billion, 70% living in villages. The adult literacy rate is about 58.8% and female literacy rate is about 47.3% as on 2002 (World Bank, 2003). There are 18 languages officially recognized, each having a different


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character set. Around 50 million people speak English. Despite a strong and fast growing IT industry, access to Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) remains very low, particularly in rural areas. For any revolution to take place, there are certain prerequisites needed. The digital revolution too requires an enabling environment that India has not put in place as yet. The main bottleneck is infrastructure. Access to technology is constrained by infrastructure parameters like electricity, IT penetration, teledensity and Internet industry. 5.1. Electricity The per capita electricity consumption in India remains around 363 kW, far below 4959 kW in Hong Kong (one of the regionÕs technology powerhouses), 5421 kW in Britain and 11,822 kW in the USA. 5.2. IT penetration The present indicators of IT penetration in Indian society are far from satisfactory. The personal computer (PC) penetration is 0.58% (Asia is at 3.24% and world average is at 7.96%) (ITU, 2003). The installed base of computers is 7 million and a new computer still cost more than Indian Rupees (INR) 20,000 plus basic additional software (MS Windows, MS Office and anti-virus) costing an additional INR 20,000. 5.3. Teledensity Despite ongoing deregulation of IndiaÕs telecommunications sector, its national teledensity is one of the lowest in the world, improving slowly from 0.06% (1990), 2.86 (2000), 3.58 (2001) and 5 (2003). The rural and urban teledensities were 0.93 and 10.16 (2001) and 1.49 and 15.16 (2003), respectively. IndiaÕs new telecom policy of 1999 seeks to increase telephone penetration to 7% (75 million telephone connections) by 2005 and to 15% (175 million connections) by 2010. It encourages development of telecoms in rural areas to increase teledensity from the current level of 1.49% (2003) to 4% by 2010 (India Telecom News, 2003a). According to Morgan Stanley, over the next 5 years 55% of countryÕs Internet subscriber additions will be from global system for mobile communications segment, 29% from code division multiple access based wireless in local loop (WLL) services (WLL-CDMA) and 16% from wireline segment. By 2007, India will have 19 million WLL subscribers, 47.5 million global system for mobile communications (GSM) subscribers and 51.1 million wireline subscribers (Chatterjee, 2003). 5.4. Internet industry The Internet arrived in India during 1995 for public use through Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited (VSNL), the then countryÕs international telecom carrier. The current Internet subscriber base is only 0.4%, in sharp contrast to Asian countries as Korea with 58, Malaysia with 11 and China with 2% (Telecom Regulatory Authority

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of India, 2004). The number of Internet service provider (ISP) licenses issued currently are 587, in that operational ones are 193; cities/towns covered are around 360 and cyber cafes/kiosks established are about 12,200. The Internet subscriber base grew very slowly from 0.01 million subscribers (1995) to 0.14 million (1998). The end of VSNLÕs monopoly in 1999 led to phenomenal surge in subscriber base growth from 0.28 million (1999) to 3 million (2001). However, from April 2001 onwards, growth rate started declining on all over India and reached 3.23 million (against a projected target of 4.5 million) in 2002 and 3.5 million in 2003. The declining was due to low PC penetration, high Internet access costs and steep PC prices, besides poor connectivity. According to International Data Centre, the total number of subscribers is expected to increase at a compounded annual growth rate of 27% and reach 8.2 million by 2006 (Ghosh, 2003). The Indian Government has been propelling towards ‘‘information age’’ and ‘‘convergence’’ by announcing enabling policies toward development and progress with an ultimate goal of ‘‘Internet for All’’. However, implementation of some of these policies have been beset with various operational, procedural, regulatory issues and supporting legal framework, which is inhibiting the reach and benefit of the Internet to masses in the country (Internet Service Providers Association of India, 2002; India Telecom News, 2003b).

6. Bridging digital divide World over, the view is that large-scale, national-level planning is needed to bridge digital divide and also to reap digital dividend. It is quite interesting to note that the time taken to reach 50 million people world over, by radio is 40 years, TV is 16 years, PC is 12 years, where as the Internet is only 5 years. The Internet acts like an integrator (due to its transcended national boundaries and influences cross border flow of education, health and trade services) and divider (due to its disparities in access). The digital divide becomes more important because the Internet is not only a communication medium, but also a market place. The Internet gives value to the customer, enhances profit for producer and eliminates middlemen. The Internet is continue to become more popular and at present turned into an economic activity. The five areas that need to be given priority for bridging digital divide and converting in to digital dividends are distance education, telemedicine, job matching, local development and market reach. 6.1. Indian Government policies Several positive measures are being taken in India to bridge digital divide. India during the last decade embarked on ICTs for development in a big way and sought to transform India into a Knowledge Society. It has commissioned IT Task Force (http://it-taskforce.nic.in/), IT Action Plan from Planning Commission (http:// www.planningcommission.nic.in/) and Ministry of Information Technology (MIT) (http://www.mit.gov.in/) as major policy initiatives towards this end. The MIT envisages IT providing a unique and new opportunity to improve the economic status of


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all sections of society. The vision also perceives IT addressing age-old problems in the fields of education, health, rural development, poverty alleviation, employment, etc., and being a major facilitator for information transparency, good governance, empowerment, participative management and grassroots democracy (Bajwa, 2003). In the rural telecom sector, the government envisages a totally connected rural India with at least one public telephone in each village, voice and data services to every citizen as a medium-term goal, a second public telephone in all villages over 2000 population, digital data transmission facility within 5 km of every village, enabling the village public telephones to function as public telephone and information centers by 2004, etc. These policy initiatives will help the growth of voice over Internet protocol (VOIP) services at an affordable cost. By 2005, 50% of PBX market will be IP based and by 2008, 90% of all telephony will be VOIP-based (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, 2004). 6.2. Technology options for connectivity In India, the telecom growth is taking place at a time when various technological developments are taking place in a direction that low cost telecom technologies in access devices, access network, switching network and transmission technologies are emerging. The new technologies offer potential for developing countries to leapfrog earlier generations of equipment to provide connectivity. Terrestrial wireless and satellite technologies offer many advantages in that they do not require installation of wireline networks. Satellite facilities can be deployed immediately, even in remote and isolated areas, rather than waiting for terrestrial networks to be extended from cities. The regulatory challenge today is that the regulatory system should be such that growth and deployment of all these technologies should receive a fillip. With around 700 million population living in rural areas having only 1.7% teledensity there is a big market for introduction of latest technologies. The technology options that can help to achieve access to ICTs in rural and developing countries include: (i) terrestrial wireless, (ii) satellite technologies, (iii) wireline technologies and (iv) other technologies. (i) Terrestrial wireless technologies: The use of wireless technologies is increasing significantly for local service applications in telecommunication networks for access and distribution in external plant and customer premise applications. The major advantages of wireless are communications to mobile subscribers; opportunity to reduce infrastructure costs in fixed systems, ability to rapidly deploy new systems, implementation of communications for sparsely populated areas and global users. The disadvantage with wireless technologies is their limited bandwidth. They can be used for email and discouraged for accessing the Web, at present. These technologies include: cellular, WLL, wireless payphones, multi-access radio, cordless, wireless access protocol (WAP), wireless fidelity (WiFi) and worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMax). • Cellular technology: In many countries cellular telephony is overtaking fixed-line services. It is originally designed for mobile services and at present

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deployed for personal communications using small portable handsets. The developing countries such as China, Colombia, Lebanon, Malaysia, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Venezuela, Thailand, etc., are using this as a primary service. However, the bandwidth available on current cellular systems is limited. WLL: A system that connects subscribers to public switched telephone network (PSTN) using wireless technology coupled with line interfaces and other circuitry to complete ‘‘last mile’’ between customer premise and exchange equipment. Thus, WLL systems extend local telephone services to rural customers without laying cables. The costs of WLL have declined, making it competitive with copper. Wireless allows faster rollout to customers than extending wire or cable. It also has a lower ratio of fixed to incremental costs than copper, making it easy to add more customers and serve transient populations. The WLL projects are being used in developing countries such as Bolivia, Czech Republic, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, etc. (ITU, 1998). Wireless payphone: A public telecommunications service feature that allows mobile station support of pay phone applications. It is useful to subscribers that originate or receive calls at a pay phone. The entrepreneurs in Bangladesh are offering payphone service using cell phones (http://www.grameenphone.com/village.htm). Multi-access radio: Time division multiple access radio systems are a means of providing wireless rural telephony. They typically have 30–60 trunks and accommodate 500–1000 subscribers. Their range can be extended using multiple repeaters. Alternatively there are wireless solutions that use radio signals to deliver broadband data over tens of kilometers. Local nodes or base stations transmit and receive data to the network and lines of site are required between nodes. These solutions have a high initial capital cost but low running costs compared with leased lines. Cordless: Short range cordless extensions (up to 300 m) can provide link from wireless outstations to subscriber premises; the digital enhanced/European cordless telecommunication (DECT) technology standard also allow base station to act as a wireless PBX and further reduce cost. The DECT has been accepted in more than 120 countries and used in South Africa to provide links to rural pay telephones and telecenters. The bandwidth available on DECT is very limited (http://dect.rtx.dk/). WAP: Enables transmission of Web pages and other data to cellular phones. It may be adapted for wireless services in developing countries so that Internet information can be transmitted to low bandwidth wireless systems. WiFi: A new form of wireless networking technology that has recently emerged and gaining popularity in developing countries for its low cost, speed to set up and flexibility. WiFi operates in an unregulated and unlicensed band of radio spectrum designated 802.11. The most common forms of WiFi are 802.11b (capable of up to 11 mbps) and 802.11g (capable of up to 54 mbps). Though WiFi was developed as a wireless local area network


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(LAN), with innovative thinking it can be adopted for long-distance outdoor usage as well. The Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur, India, deployed such a network in its neighborhood Kanpur–Lucknow corridor termed as Digital Gangetic Plains (http://www.iitk.ac.in/MLAsia/dgangetic.htm). About 2500 Indonesians are using WiFi connections as the best way to narrow digital divide (http://network.idrc.ca/ev.php?ID=26045 &ID2=DO_TOPIC). • WiMax: Represents the next evolution in broadband wireless technology. It is developed to solve problems of point-to-multipoint broadband (up to 25 km) outdoor wireless networks. The applications include last mile connectivity for homes, businesses and backhaul for wireless hot spots. It operates on 802.16 and would enable up to 5 billion people to be connected over time. (ii) Satellite technologies: These include very small aperture terminals (VSATs), Internet via satellite (DirecPC—now renamed as DIRECWAY and interactive access via VSAT), bandwidth on demand, global mobile personal communications systems (GMPCS), data broadcasting by satellite and store-and-forward messaging. • VSATs: These are small satellite earth stations operating with Geosynchronous satellites (GEOs). These can be used for interactive voice and data, broadcast reception and handle up to 56 kbps. In Brazil, banks in remote areas are connected with VSATs; in India, National Stock Exchange links stock brokers with rooftop VSATs. VSATs for television reception deliver broadcasting signals to viewers in many developing regions, particularly in Asia and Latin America. • Internet via satellite: Internet gateways can be accessed via GEOs. The MagicNet in Mongolia and several African ISPs access the Internet in the USA via PanAmSat; residents of Canadian Arctic use Anik satellite system and Alaskan villagers use the USA domestic satellites. However, these systems are not optimized for Internet use and quite expensive. Also, there is a half-second delay, though this is more of a problem for voice than data. The available improvements for using GEOs include: (i) DIRECWAY: Designed by Hughes Network Systems that uses a VSAT as a high-speed downlink from the ISP (up to 400 kbps), but provides upstream connectivity over existing telephone lines. This approach is designed for rural areas with a telephone service, but where bandwidth is very limited (http://www.direcpc.com/); and (ii) Interactive access via VSAT: Several companies VITA-Com (http://www.vitacom.com), Tachyon (http://www.tachyon.com) and Aloha Networks (http://www.alohanet.com) are developing protocols for fully interactive Internet access via satellite, to make more efficient use of bandwidth and thus lower transmission costs for users. • Bandwidth on demand: Future low Earth orbiting systems (LEOs) are being planned to provide bandwidth on demand. The constellations of LEOs such as McCawÕs Teledesic with 288 LEOs (http://www.spaceandtech.com/spacedata/constellations/teledesic_sum.shtml) and AlcatelÕs SkyBridge with 80

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LEOs (http://www.skybridgesatellite.com/), and new generations of GEOs such as Loral CyberStar (http://www.loral.com/inthenews/020222.html) and HughesÕ SPACEWAY (http://www.spaceway.com) are being designed to offer bandwidth on demand for Internet access, video conferencing and distance education. • GMPCS: Using LEOs, GMPCS (Iridium with 66 LEOs, Globalstar with 48 LEOs, ICO, etc.) provide voice and low-speed (typically 2400–9600 bps) data virtually anywhere, using handheld transceivers. However, the price per minute for these services is typically much higher than national terrestrial services, and the first generation of LEOs has very limited bandwidth. • Data broadcasting by satellite: GEOs designed for interactive voice and data can also be used for data broadcasting. The ChinaÕs Xinhua News Agency transmits broadcasting news feeds to subscribers equipped with VSATs. The WorldSpace GEOs system delivers digital audio directly to small radios via AfriStar, AsiaStar and future launch of AmeriStar, with a planned coverage of 5.2 billion potential listeners (http://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/dab/projects/worldspace/). The system can be used to transmit educational programmes in a variety of languages for individual reception or community redistribution. It can also be used for delivery of Internet content; participants identify Web sites they want to view on a regular basis and WorldSpace broadcasts the data for reception via an addressable modem attached to the radio. • Store-and-forward messaging: VITAsat (developed by volunteers in technical assistance) is capable of delivering sustainable, low-cost communications and information services to remote communities. The system uses simple, reliable, store-and-forward email messages relayed to the Internet via LEOs. Using compression technology and software that allows access to Web pages using email, VITAsat can make the Internet accessible virtually anywhere. VITAÕs current two satellite systems have capacity to serve about 2500 remote rural terminals that could be installed in schools, clinics, community centres and NGOs. VITA plans to include local skill, organizational capacity building and development of targeted information content and services designed specifically to meet the needs of small businesses, local NGOs, educators, health workers, other relief and development workers (http://www.vita.org/leo/vitasat-online.htm). (iii) Wireline technologies: Innovations in wireline technology facilitates to provide high speed Internet access over telephone lines, rather than upgrading the existing copper networks. These technologies may be used in urban areas where basic telephone service is available. These technologies include: integrated services digital network (ISDN), digital subscriber line (DSL or digital subscriber loop, xDSL), hybrid fiber/coax line (HFCL), power line communication (PLC) and cable based broadband. • ISDN: The regular twisted pair copper telephone lines can carry two 64 kbps channels plus one 16 kbps-signaling channel. One channel can be


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used for voice, another for fax or Internet access; or both channels can be combined for videoconferencing or high speed Internet access. Several ISDN lines can be combined to facilitate high quality video conferencing. • DSL: Provide data rates up to 1.544 mbps (T1) downstream over existing copper pair telephone lines for services as limited video on demand and high speed Internet access. DSL also referred to as last-mile technologies because they are used only for connections between end-users and telephone companies (less than 20,000 feet range), not between switching stations and are appropriate for urban settings where copper wire is already installed. • HFCL: Combines both optical fiber and coaxial cable, offers broadband services and facilitates two-way communication. The HFC network provides necessary bandwidth for home broadband applications (using spectrum from 5 MHz to 450 MHz for conventional downstream analog information) and digital broadcast services such as voice and video telephony, video-ondemand and interactive television (using spectrum from 450 MHz to 750 MHz). The HFCL projects are being used in developing countries such as Chile, China, India, Malaysia, South Korea, etc. (ITU, 1998). • PLC: Utilizes the existing utility power grid as medium for broadband data communications. It is like plugging a computer device into an existing power outlet would connect the user to the Internet by tapping into already established national and global power grid networks. Power grids typically transmit electricity in three levels of voltage: low, medium and high. PLC takes advantage of low and medium voltages in order to transmit data at Ethernet-like speeds. PLC has applications in expansive networking (metropolitan area networks or campus area networks) and smaller networking architectures (LANs and home networking). Germany, Singapore, Sweden, etc., are presently using this technology. • Cable based broadband: There are more than 300 million people worldwide subscribe to cable TV. With widespread Internet adoption, cable operators are using these massive networks to deliver high-speed Internet access for households and businesses. In addition to faster Web browsing and file downloads, cable Internet access is speeding adoption of next-generation services, including VOIP, file sharing, video, home networking and home automation. (iv) Other technologies: Other technological innovations such as digital compression, VOIP and community radio, can be made useful to improve access to communication networks in developing regions. • Digital compression: A technique that enables a given message (voice or television picture), to be converted from an analogue signal to a digitized code of data that occupies a smaller amount of transmission capacity than the original analogue signal that can effectively increase amount of usable spectrum currently allocated and expand the number of available channels. Compression algorithms can be used to ‘‘compress’’ digital voice signals, so that eight or more conversations can be carried on a single 64 kbps voice channel, thus reducing transmission costs. Compressed digital video can

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be used to transmit motion video over as few as two telephone lines (128 kbps), offering the possibility of low cost videoconferencing for distance education and training. • VOIP: Refers to communication services (voice, facsimile, and/or voice-messaging applications) that are transported via the Internet for the price of a local call, rather than PSTN. • Community radio: Refers to empowerment of a defined group of people both as participants and listeners, using radio as the vehicle of communication. Small FM community radio stations can be used to broadcast educational programmes for listening both in school and at home or news sources for communities. Some telecentre projects are combining computer facilities with community radio stations. Portable wind-up radio receivers are practical for school and community use. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is extending support to set up non-profit community radio initiatives across India and rest of South Asia.

7. Projects bridging digital divide The snap shots of select successful projects that made an impact in helping to bridge digital divide in India are discussed below: • Passenger reservation system (http://www.irctc.co.in/): The most successful example of ICTs projects in India that has benefited the common man in the form of computerization of passenger reservation system in Indian Railways. This was undertaken 20 years ago due to a visionary Railway Minister. • Akashganga (http://akashganga.co.in/): Akashganga means Ômilky wayÕ. It deploys appropriate IT to facilitate timely collection of milk and thereby generate higher profits for rural milk producers in Anand, West India. The basic milk collection transaction comprises: measuring weight of milk with electronic weighing scale; fat testing using Milko Tester; capture of unique member ID by PC software; and printing of a pay slip with all this data and amount to be paid (SKEPL, 2001). The Dairy Information Services Kiosk offers a multitude of animal husbandry related services, besides maintaining databases and Internet connectivity at Dairy Cooperative Society. Akashganga has been implemented at more than 600 locations, used 365 days a year and for more than 6 h in a day (Parghi, 2003). • Akshaya e-centres (http://www.akshaya.net/): These are being set up across Kerala State and provide ICT access to all sections of society even in highly remote areas. These offers opportunity to develop skills through functional IT literacy training with creation of relevant local contents designed to benefit all interest groups. This has helped to generate economic growth through creation of direct employment opportunities in Kerala. The locations of these centres are strategically planned and spatially distributed to cater for all people from different parts of State and form a powerful Internet network to guide and support e-governance initiatives, communication advancements, e-commerce and information dissemi-


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nation. A unique feature of this project is that it nurtures entrepreneur spirit by selecting those who are able to sustain initiatives and who are dedicated to impart e-literacy to community members (Sunderarajan, 2003). Bhoomi: As part of Government of IndiaÕs initiation, Bhoomi is a scheme for computerization of land records in various states with the assistance of National Informatics Centre (NIC). The most successful Bhoomi project of Karnataka state was initiated and started in 1991. The Department of Revenue in Karnataka has computerized 20 million records of land ownership of 6.7 million farmers. Previously, farmers had to seek out Village Accountant to get a copy of record of Rights, Tenancy and Crops (RTC), a document needed for many tasks such as obtaining bank loans. There were delays, harassment and bribes had to be paid. Today, for a fee of INR 15, a printed copy of RTC can be obtained online at computerized land record kiosks (Bhoomi centers) in 177 taluk offices. The software used in this system is called BHOOMI and designed by NIC. By proving that the entire system can be brought online based on IT, Karnataka has set an example to rest of the country how e-governance can be introduced at grassroots level (Department of Revenue, Karnataka State, 2004). Gyandoot (http://www.gyandoot.nic.in/): Gyandoot means Ômessenger of informationÕ. It is a community-owned intranet using WLL technology. It was set up in 5 blocks with 35 Internet Kiosks (IKs), each catering to 15–20 villages in tribal Dhar district of Madhya Pradesh State. It is a unique form of government to citizen e-commerce activity enabling over a half million rural tribal citizens. Provided marginalized tribal citizens with their first ever chance to access knowledge via a cost-effective, replicable, economically self-reliant and financially viable model; allowing knowledge economy to directly reach Ôhave-notsÕ and Ôknow-notsÕ; providing self-employment through entrepreneurship to local rural youth; providing partnership between government and citizen; and by using IKs eliminating middlemen and increasing transparency within local administrations (Pathak, 2004). Information village research: It helps prove that ICTs can change way of life in rural areas, especially for marginal farmers and those without assets in Pondicherry region of South India through a LAN set up over 10 villages using hybrid wired and wireless network. It empowered villagers through increased knowledge via village knowledge centres that is locale specific and relates to prices of agricultural inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesticides) and outputs (rice, vegetables), market (potential for export), entitlement (the multitude of schemes of central and state governments, banks), health care (availability of doctors and paramedics in nearby hospitals, womenÕs diseases), cattle diseases, transport (road conditions, cancellation of bus trips), weather (appropriate time for sowing, areas of abundant fish catch, wave heights in the sea), etc. Most information is collected and fed in by the local community and local volunteers operate the centres (MSSRF, 2004). TARAhaat: TARAhaat means Ôstar market placeÕ. It comprises a commercially viable model for bringing relevant information, products and services via the Internet to unserved rural market of India from that an estimated 50% of national

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income is derived. TARAhaat combines a mother portal, TARAhaat.com, supported by franchised networks of village cyber cafe´s and delivery systems to provide a full range of services to its clients. The subsidiary units include: TARAdhaba: provide the villager connectivity and access to a new world, TARA bazaar: provide access to products and services needed by rural households, farmers and industries, TARAvan: deliver goods ordered, TARAdak: connect rural families to the daughter married far off and to son posted on the front, TARAguru: a decentralized university will provide mentoring and consultancy to villagebased mini-enterprises, TARAscouts/TARAreporter: collect relevant information for the portal, TARAvendor: run the store that will cater to products available at TARAbazaar and TARAcard: enable villager to order goods and services on credit (TARAhaat.com, 2000). • Warana wired villages (http://www.mah.nic.in/warana/): In Warana project, among numerous other applications over a VSAT and radio frequency based computercommunication network (in the process of switching over to CorDECT technology), NIC developed a highly user-friendly information system in Marathi for marketing of agriculture produce with a number of online features for selling the produce of 70 villages to wholesale outlets in Pune and other cities, and towns in Maharashtra. Information is updated daily with the help of villagers themselves (Bobde et al., 2002). A similar effort is underway at Pravara Cooperative Movement comprising of about 200 villages in Loni Tehsil of Maharashtra that had collected nearly INR 2 crore to set up a Computer-Communication Network linking all villages to Shirdi and Loni towns. The success of these projects in Maharashtra has initiated a chain reaction of similar projects throughout the country (Seshagiri, 2001).

8. Conclusion The digital divide can never be contained in isolation but the effort has to be multi-dimensional and multi-pronged. ICTs are one of the enabling tools to bridge digital divide. Creation of ICT infrastructure and content are core methodologies and a thrust to technology growth in a planned manner will certainly lessen the gap. While digital divide is an issue of recent concern, technology divide has been as issue for much longer. There are two approaches to enable a wider population to benefit from technology and information revolutions; one is to enhance level of literacy (basic, functional technology and computer education amongst masses) and another is to design appropriate IT tools around the capabilities of users (such as Simputer (http://www.simputer.org/) that employs audio/visual input/output, without need to be literate; low cost telephony and data communication—VOIP and wireless communication like WiFi and CorDECT). A national agenda on a C-8 thrust towards: connectivity provision, content creation, capacity augmentation, core technologiesÕ creation and exploitation, cost reduction, competence building, community participation and commitment to deprived and disadvantaged would definitely help in bridging digital divide.


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