India’s contribution to the internet related technology boom has been well documented. People of Indian heritage ran more than 750 technology companies in Silicon Valley (before the ongoing Nasdaq bust.) Over 30% of Microsoft programmers are from India. India’s software revenues are predicted to grow from under $6 Billion in 2000 to nearly $90 Billion by 2010. Mr. Azim Premji, founder of Wipro has said, “Information technology has transformed (India’s) international image from being a land of elephants and snake charmers to a land of competent engineers.” But will this technology revolution help solve our problems of poverty, underdevelopment, corruption, and illiteracy? Will it bring a digital dividend or will it further divide the rich & poor, and the urban & rural populations?

President Bill Clinton reminded us during his trip to Cyberabad (Hyderabad): “Millions of Indians are connected to the Internet. But millions more aren’t yet connected to fresh water. Our challenge is to turn the newest discoveries into the best weapons humanity has ever had to fight against poverty.” But, Sonia Gandhi warned, “It was wrong to think that the knowledge economy would on its own lift people out of poverty. How can women in rural India be empowered by the internet when the female literacy rate in some Indian districts is less than five percent, and that women have to walk 10 km to get water or firewood?” India has only 22 telephone lines per 1,000 people and only 3 PC’s per 1,000 people.

I believe that India should fully leverage this technology prowess and apply it to poor and rural India. We should have a combination of Government initiatives, corporate philanthropy and personal/non-profit organizational initiatives to help us get there. There are some shining examples to prove that technology can make a difference.

In C. Naidu’s Andhra Pradesh, fibre-optic cable connects regional government offices with computers in all its districts. The plan is to connect all villages, even those without roads, hospitals or schools. Internet will be used to register land transactions, make driving licenses and file complaints against government officials. This exposure to previously inaccessible knowledge will begin to stymie endemic petty corruption. In the state of Karnataka, where Bangalore is situated, 17 million land records will be put on Internet for easy, corruption-free transfers. Information on agricultural prices, pension plans, criminal laws, and trading for silk will also be put on line. Fishermen in Kerala are now guided by an Indian Space Research Organization project through satellites. Mobile phones and computers are used to bid and locate the highest prices for selling fish.

Then, there is the revolutionary work initiated by Mr. Pradeep Lokhande who is the brain behind Rural Relations. Lokhande worries that the rapid strides in information technology will widen the gap between India’s privileged urban population and rural populace. So, he has planned ‘Project Computer Literacy.’ Its objective is simple, “Introduce at least one computer to each village” of Maharashtra. He is targeting secondary school students in village schools. He wants companies to donate their old computers to village schools. Case in point is the village school of Mandardev in Satara, where he has placed an old Intel 286 CPU chip. Many of the students walk miles and miles to get to the school, and the PC is a great incentive for them now. They get to use the PC everyday, and routinely talk about CPU’s, keyboards and monitors. He is now trying to get NRI’s to ship old computers to him & has approached the government to ease the regulations to facilitate the NRI’s shipments. Hopefully, Lokhande’s program will really take off.

Delhi government is sponsoring the setting up of 30 internet kiosks in partnership with National Institute of Information Technology. The children from the shanty dwellers barely take a few minutes to cross the great digital divide in one of these kiosks. The children soon created their own terms. The cursor became the teer, or arrow, or sui, needle, the symbol for closing the page became kaata, or cross, and to minimize they click the minus! An expert panel has recommended the Indian government to set up one million kiosks in the next five years, and introduce information technology courses in 60,000 schools, to continue the computer revolution in India.

The last example I would like to share with you is that of TARAhaat.com, which is trying to reproduce, on-line, the colorful haat, or market that takes place regularly in most Indian villages. Being digital, TARAhaat can share information about goods, services and prices across a whole region, and the benefits are realized on a multiplier basis. Villagers will be able to access the portal at a village kiosk. It will provide information on vital matters such as land records, health clinics, jobs, seeds, machinery, bicycles, etc. This will also help farmers find buyers for crops and handicrafts at good prices, and without making trips to the towns and cities. This pilot is being tested in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, and will slowly expand to the rest of India.

So, we have some encouraging examples on how we can use this modern technology to leapfrog the development of our motherland. I would urge the readers to assist these and many other programs. Next time you are getting rid of your old PC, think how much value you can add if you can channel it to one of the villages in India. As soon as our Ashram in Lonavala begins to progress, after the road construction is completed, we will initiate some programs to facilitate this in the neighboring villages.