Financial Inclusion

Rural India must take advantage of ‘knowledge-intensive’ techniques for its sustainable development and sustainable consumption

Using Digital Inclusion

Madaswamy Moni

The Road for the nation’s development goes through its villages. India has undertaken measures, such as globalisation, liberalisation and decentralisation at the grassroots level, to achieve a vibrant economy, growth and development. Contemporary globalisation has encouraged the movement of people, capital, knowledge and ideas. New links, networks and partnerships have been formed between developed and developing regions, remote and favoured regions, urban and rural areas. These challenges and opportunities pose the following questions:-

  1 - How can we understand these changes at grassroots level?
  2 - What challenges do they present to theory, policy and practice?
  3   -What are the opportunities for new thinking and action?
  4 -What impacts do they have on poverty and inequality, and on related issues such as the environment, rural and urban livelihoods, corporate social responsibility, conflict and security, and HIV/AIDS?
  5 - Are grassroots level people competent enough to sustain these changes? Can they see opportunities (global markets for their products) in these challenges?
  6 -What are the measures to be taken to make them aware and competent?
  7 - Will traditional, tacit as well explicit knowledge, well proven practices and technologies get lost in this socio-economical churning?
  8 - How to record and achieve the amalgamation of these knowledge and technologies with new technologies?

form plus a package of support services such as credit, marketing, pricing, and rural infrastructure (water, roads, bridges, hospitals and schools). The agricultural extension system is expected to be “an agricultural knowledge and information system, using geomatics technology”. This system for rural empowerment and improved livelihoods is the need of the hour. ICTs’ diffusion and infusion have many potential applications spanning the breadth of the agricultural industry, at all scales of the organisation from the farmers, to cooperatives and professional bodies, from farm machinery vendors, fertiliser and chemical companies, insurance, regulators, and commodities, to agronomists, consultants, and farm advisors.

Agriculture has to transcend from the present high material inputs to optimum levels through appropriate use of ICTs and strategies for efficient resource use. Main barriers witnessed for ICT adoption in the agriculture segment are: power availability, ICT infrastructure, ICT illiteracy, relevant content, and standardisation, integration of services, advisory services and localisation. In view of this, many ICT projects are lagging progress at the grassroots level.

Emergence of ICTs on the national agenda and the announcement of ICT policies by various state governments recognise the “convergence of core technologies and e-governance” as the tool for sustainable development and globalisation of economy. The internet, which allows intangible information and ideas to be traded and exchanged instantly, across any distance, is the most recognisable symbol of today’s global, knowledge-driven economy. The agricultural market information system must be thought of in both the context of the user's cognitive capacity and also in terms of the means, format, and language of the presentation of the knowledge objects. Rural areas are still not taking benefit of ICT usage in market information services and its dissemination.

The domestic farming sector, therefore, needs competent technical manpower in the area of agricultural extension to meet the changing needs of the stakeholders (i.e. farmers). The objective of providing technically skilled manpower is to modernise agriculture. The agricultural research system (which consists of agricultural colleges, ICAR institutes, central and state agricultural universities, krishi vigyan kendras and zonal research stations), agricultural management and administrative system of the State Governments, NABARD, public/ private/ cooperative sector banks delivery systems, etc., must have an “integrated approach” for information delivery to farmers.

Various reports corroborate that the current state of various government departments, in terms of usage of ICT, is not “holistic” so as to achieve a profound impact on ROI [in terms of people, process and knowledge].

The Jharkhand example

The Task Force on digital inclusion in Jharkhand suggested “mainstreaming ICT in the areas of: research, development, education, extension and training” of the agricultural sector for achieving sustainability. The task force was suggested to look into all aspects of strengthening of ICT towards agricultural development, including “reaching the unreached” through establishment of better communication facilities, establishment of village knowledge centres (VKCs), common services centres (CSCs), e-choupals, strengthening communication network at district and block levels, etc. In its report, the task force suggested short-term, medium-term, and long-term measures for “digital Inclusion for fostering rural prosperity and grassroots development”.
The Task Force suggested “development of a Digital Network for Farmers (DNF)” which would facilitate an integrated approach of 'internet technology" and "sustainable agricultural, rural and backward area development" with its farm and non-farm linkages and recommended the following measures to be given appropriate consideration.
The long-term measures suggested included development of agricultural informatics and communication; development of digital network for farmers; mainstreaming of ICT for collaborative research models for sustainable improvement at the grassroots level; and development of appropriate manpower at the grassroots level
The medium-term measures suggested included strengthening the agricultural marketing information system using ICT; dissemination of market information services through ICTs; and capacity building for agricultural marketing and support services through human resources development.
The short-term measures recommended by the task force included development of agricultural commodity-wise portal; development of intranet solutions; strengthening / promoting of agricultural information system of the central sector scheme; undertaking proof-of-concept projects in pilot districts; establishment of agri centres in agricultural colleges, Birsa Agricultural University, and ICAR institutes located in the state; rural empowerment and development through e-Learning; networking of stakeholders: establishment of model centres; and synergisation of agricultural science and computer science.

NIC initiatives for more inclusive growth

The 11th Plan of National Informatics Centre (NIC) gives special thrust for ICT based systems development and services in the areas as identified as “major challenges” and also aligns with the National e-Governance Programme (NeGP). In order to realise this goal, and also with its vast experience of “informatics-led developmental services in government” during the last 30 years, NIC has introduced the following Schemes in its XI Plan:-

• GRID (Grassroots Level Informatics Development) Programme

•   Smart Village Project

•   Smart Island Project

These schemes are envisaged to provide the benefits of ICT directly to the communities at the grassroots level for promoting need based services related to lifecycle needs of rural population with institutional linkages and capacity building among rural communities.

Libraries without Boundaries
During the last 22 years, I have been visiting many districts in the country, with respect to implementation of our flagship project “DISNIC Programme”, which has been facing hurdles both from within as well as outside NIC and mainstreaming ICT in agricultural sector for ushering in rural prosperity.

During these visits, I interacted with many universities and colleges, especially colleges in rural areas, and found that the students have been facing difficulties in terms of non-availability of faculties (due to non-filling of vacant posts) and the non-availability of enough budgets for their libraries. Many of these colleges were not having “computer lab” with Internet connectivity for the students to get connected to the rest of the world. Colleges in the urban areas are enjoying the benefits of this IT revolution. This prompted me to include the following as one of the suggested action plans:

Rural Empowerment and development through e-Learning (READ): Community ICT centres and digital libraries (READ Centres) having broadband connectivity in about 12,000 rural colleges, which produce about 9 million students in the age group of 21-23 years, annually.

READ centres should be set up in every college to facilitate and empower “rural students”. It is better to get networking of these 12,000 colleges under the SWAN component of NeGP.

Rural Connectivity is the lifeline of Indian economy. India is a land of diversity with different types of terrain, various agro-climatic conditions, different levels of socio-economic conditions, and varied levels of regional development. At the beginning of the new millennium, 260 million people in the country did not have incomes to access a consumption basket, which defines the poverty line.

Sustainable livelihood is a multi-faceted concept. Rural India thus desires to take advantage of “knowledge-intensive” techniques for its sustainable development and sustainable consumption. Grassroots level information access (contents) and grassroots level access to information (networking) are the two essential components for grassroots level development strategies through ICT. Community information and communication centres (CICC), as a concept and model, aim to “boost efficiency and enhance market” integration through Internet/ Intranet technologies for sustainable remote/regional development at grassroots level.

CICC networks in India empower disadvantaged community for effective information and communication, in view of the stated pronouncement of “India to become a knowledge society”, and also facilitate “social inclusion” of marginalised rural poor to access knowledge and information.

There are about 56,000 public libraries (which include 51,000 at the village level), 400,000 school libraries, 11,000 university/college libraries, 13,000 R&D libraries, 28 state libraries, and 526 district libraries in India. Only 8.4 per cent of the villages have access to public libraries in India. Rural public libraries are a part of this revolution and can serve as the backbone for “literacy mission and poverty alleviation”. There are empirical evidences to support that rural digital libraries will sustain CICCs. A networked library environment plays an important role in rural revitalisation, as libraries have emerged as a sunrise industry due to globalisation and liberalisation at regional level, and decentralisation trends at the grassroots level.

Rural India requires an “e-granthalaya” on a mission mode for facilitating sustainable livelihoods: poverty alleviation, livelihood opportunities and gainful employment. The ‘e-Granthalaya’ acts as ‘wheels of transformation’ of the rural people through information facilitator vehicle - NICNET.

WWW: An information space without boundaries

The World Wide Web provides unprecedented access to globally distributed content. The extent and uniform accessibility of the web has proven beneficial for research, education, commerce, entertainment, and numerous other uses. Ironically, the fact that the web is an information space without boundaries has also proven its biggest flaw. Key aspects of libraries, such as selectivity of content, customisation of tools and services relative to collection and patron characteristics, and management of content and services are noticeably absent.
I suggest that to achieve, “semantic technologies and networking to enable e-learning and global knowledge access”, digital library science is the need of the hour. This will usher in a profound return on investment (ROI) for the e-governance programme in any country.

Madaswamy Moni is Deputy Director General, National Informatics Centre,
Department of Information Technology