What development means to me

I am extremely appreciative of the Digital Vision Program by Reuters and Stanford University. As a young researcher, advocate and believer in the potential of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in changing the socio-economic landscape of communities, I am also grossly aware of the lack of participation and collaboration across stakeholders of ICTs-supported programs and projects the world over.

The application of ICTs for development is as complex as any other industry and requires carefully thought of objectives and a mission just like any other project. As most applications of ICTs for development are rural to semi-rural centric, it is vital that governments and private institutions start viewing these new and emerging markets as profitable avenues where the empowerment of peoples living in such areas would translate into economic progression of the country as a whole.

'The last mile of connectivity', a familiar term used in ICTs for development, which commonly refers to ending the urban-rural digital divide, needs to be turned on its head to mean the first line of connectivity. When countries like India claim 'growth' rates of 8%-8.5%, how do such rates take into consideration the development of India's rural areas which comprise 70% of the country?

Yes, India is shinning ( a campaign strap line used recently by a major political party), but where is the shine emerging from? From a handful of over-saturated cities, the tech havens; a reflection of the rest of the country?

Not by the longest stretch of imagination. When a group of kiosk operators called Community Information Centre (CIC) operators, in India's much neglected North East region, have to write to their local constituency to bring to its notice that their government salaries for running the much acclaimed CICs have not been paid for the past three months, that is what casts a shadow over the shine. And if one had to take into consideration similar cases of neglect and disinterest across the country, I wonder whether the shine would be overcast altogether.

Initiatives like the Digital Vision Program are a much needed exercise in popularizing the concepts, tools and methods of integrating ICTs into the fabric of society for the greater good.

-Nomita Das

http://i-quench.org/edevelopment/
http://i-quench.org/edevelopment/index.php/networking-for-ict-professionals/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ICTs_edevelopment_India/