Misra,D.C.(2009) Re Visiting Digital Divides For Making Best Use Of Ict For Government Flagship Schemes 19.10.2009

Re-visiting Digital Divides for Making Best Use of ICT for

Government Flagship Schemesby

Dr D.C.Misra

1New Delhi, Monday, October 19, 2009 © Dr D.C.Misra 2009

Re-visiting Digital Divides for Making Best Use of ICT for Government

Flagship Schemes

byDr D.C.Misra, I.A.S.(Retd.)

Formerly Chairman, Task Force for ICT Policy for Delhi and Chief Knowledge Officer,

Government of Mauritius under the aegis of Commonwealth Secretariat, London, now

eGov Consultant, New DelhiNew Delhi, Monday, October 19, 2009

© Dr D.C.Misra 2009

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Re-visiting Digital Divides for Making Best Use of ICT for Government Flagship Schemes

byDr D.C.Misra, I.A.S.(Retd.)

eGov Consultant, New Delhi• Address: C-183 Madhuvan, Madhuvan Marg, New Delhi-110092• Tel: 2245 2431; Fax: 4244 5183; Cell: 9810891700 • Email: [email protected]• Blog: www.egov-india.blogspot.com• Twitter: DrDCMisra@Twitter

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New Delhi, Monday, October 19, 2009 © Dr D.C.Misra 2009

I. Digital DividesSeven Types of Digital Divides

(i) Global North-South Divide(ii) Global Linguistic and Cultural Divide (iii) Intra-national Rich-Poor Divide (iv) Information Technology (IT) Divide in Public Organisations (v) E-government Divide (vi) Democracy- E-democracy Divide (vii) Broadband Divide

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II Broadband Divide

• Definition of Broadband (≥ 256 kbps: TRAI Definition)• Broadband Policy 2004 notes that broadband

services will accelerate decentralised governance at Panchayat level.

• Definition of broadband re-iterated in 2008 but no time-table laid down when will it be available at panchayat level.

• Finland has made it a legal right to at least 1Mb of broadband connection from July 2010. (100 Mb from 2015?).

• Requirement of Bandwidth for Various Applications

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Table 1 Bandwidth Requirement for Various Applications

Application Min Bandwidth Required

Internet Surfing Up to 256 Kbps

E-mail 64 Kbps

Voice chatting 64 Kbps

Voice and Video chatting 256-512 Kbps

Video clips 256-512 Kbps

Tele-education 256-512 Kbps

Tele-medicine 256 Kbps

Video streaming 2 Mbps (approx.)

Video gaming 256-512 Kbps

High definition video 4-8 Mbps

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Broadband: A Luxury or a Necessity?

Broadband can provide a number of services:• Educational (interactive sessions), • Tele-medicine (for diagnosis and surgical guidance), • E-commerce (providing real-time market

information and transactions), • Public service delivery (inter-active)• Ideally suited to remote and rural areas.• Broadband is a necessity

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Broadband and Economic Development

• The real importance of broadband lies in stimulating economic development at the local level.

• A study conducted on behalf of U.S. Department of Commerce reported that Broadband added about 1-1.4% to growth rate, 1998-2002 in employment (jobs) and about 0.5-1.2% to growth rate, 1998-2002 to business establishments (proxy for number of firms) (NTA 2006).

• Broadband thus should not only be treated as a necessity but a national priority.

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Bridging the Broadband Divide

• President of India in her address to joint session of Parliament on June 4, 2009 had, among other things, said

• “The rural telecommunication target will be set at reaching 40% rural teledensity in the next five years and

• expanding broadband coverage to connect every panchayat to a broadband network in three years

• Thus panchayats will have broadband connectivity by 2012• Achievement so far?

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III Digital Inclusion

(a) giving people the basic ICT skills (b) closing the digital divide (c) giving people broadband internet access, (d) preventing exclusion from e-commerce and e-governance(e) preventing social exclusion from digitally connected

communities, (g) using any digital technology to tackle social exclusion, and (h) using any digital technology to tackle area-based

deprivation.(Source: Centre for Digital Inclusion)

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IV Universal Digital Access

• Universal Service (US): service at the individual or household level, e.g., typically a telephone in each home.

• Universal Access (UA): a publicly shared level of service, e.g., through public payphones or Internet telecentres.

• US and UA are inter-related.• Universal service and access (UAS)• Where do we stand?

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V India: State of Internet 2009(Source: Akamai 2009)

• • % Attack• Traffic

INDIA % AttackTraffic

Unique IPAddresses

Unique IPsPer

Capita

Average Speed(kbps)

3.9% 3,317, 873(424,808,918)

0.00(0.08)

895(1.7 Mbps)

% Above5 Mbps

High BB IPsPer Capita

% Above2Mbps

BB IPsPer Capita

% Below256 kbps

1.1%(19%)

<0.01(0.01)

5.0 %(53%)

<0.01(0.02)

27%(5.6%)

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VI Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)• The Universal Service Support Policy came into effect

from April 1, 2002. • The USOF was given statutory status under the Indian

Telegraph Act by its amendment in December 2003. • The fund is raised through a universal service levy of 5%

of the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) of telecom service providers (except pure value added service providers like Internet, voice mail, e-mail, etc).

• The fund can be supplemented by government grants and loans.

• (Source: http://www.dot.gov.in/uso/usoindex.htm).

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Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF)

• The progress under USOF has, however, been slow, uneven and unproductive.

• In March 2009, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recommended separation of USOF from the Department of Telecom (DoT) and

• setting up of a framework on the lines of National Highway Authority of India (NHAI) as

• USOF had not spurred investments in rural areas to the desired level.

• The availability of telephony is highly skewed in India. For example the rural teledensity was 16.61 as against the urban teledensity of 95.05 at the end of June 2009.

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VII Low-Cost Computers(i) Simputer (a) Encore Software since 2002 (originally priced Rs 10,000) (b) Amida Simputer ( Rs 12,000 to 22,000) (ii) OLPC XO (a) One laptop per child (OLPC)- originally priced $100 (b) Manufactured by Taiwan-based Quanta Computer (c) It has a programme- G1G1- give one, get one at $399(iii) Sakshat Laptop (a) A Rs 1,000 ($20 ) laptop in February 2009 under National Mission announced (b) Any computing device which helps students must be supported and not debunked

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VIII Community Access Points (CAPs)(a) Common Service Centres under National eGovernance Plan (NeGP)• Now re-named as Rajiv Gandhi Bharat Nirman Seva Kendras, 54,615

common service centres (CSCs) were rolled out and 54,733 CSCs were under implementation in 25 states by end of September 30, 2009.

• In all 109,348 CSCs are expected to be in operation by mid-June 2010 (Source: http://www.mit.gov.in/download/CSC301009.pdf).

• Being set up under public-private partnership (PPP) model, they are expected to provide both public and private services.

• A National level service agency (NLSA) co-ordinates the entire efforts. • This is a 4-year scheme costing Rs 5,742 crore (Government of India-Rs

856 crore, State Governments- Rs 793 crore and rest Rs 4,093 crore from the private sector.)

• Evaluation required.

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(b) Cybercafes(Source: IMRB - CII Report Broadband)

Year 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 E

Number of Cybercafes 18,000 33,400 48,750 74,000 105,350

Year 2006E 2007E 2008E 2009E 2010 E

Number of Cybercafes 126,420 151,704 182,045 218,454 262,145

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Cybercafe

• Cybercafe users have declined from 52% in 2003 to 39% in 2006 (IAMAI and IMRB International )

• Down to 34% (AC Nielsen)• Cybercafe user base has shrunk to become just 6% of all

Internet users (JuxtConsult 2009)• Are they relevant to poor/ flagship scheme like NREGA?• Cybercafe mostly serve the better-off groups (the young, the

highly educated and the higher income groups). (Haseloff 2005)

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IX Unique ID Project

• Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) established in January 2009

• Chairman appointed in June 2009 and Director General in July 2009

• Advisory Council under the chairmanship of Prime Minister set up on August 3, 2009

• A sum of Rs 100 crore has been provided to the authority during the financial year 2009-10.

• UIDAI proposes to issue numbers but what is wanted are multipurpose smart ID cards for the poor.

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X Whistleblowers

• The Law Commission of India submitted Whistleblowers Act, formally called The Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill, in December 2001(Mitta 2003).

• In 2004, Government of India authorized the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) as the ‘Designated Agency’ to receive written complaints for disclosure on any allegation of corruption or misuse of office and recommend appropriate action.

• This, however, is not considered good enough response.• Ideally, the Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers) Bill

should be considered and passed by the Parliament so that whistleblowers have full protection of law.


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Whistleblowers

• Whistleblowing should be available online.• The proposed bill should make full use information and

communication technology (ICT) for whistleblowing• A policy of zero tolerance can be supported by open

government• Citizens should be able to scrutinise public expenditure

online• Social networking should be encouraged for public servants

as well as citizensNew Delhi, Monday, October 19, 2009

© Dr D.C.Misra 2009

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XI ConclusionAgenda for Action

1. Develop national policies for narrowing different types of digital divides

2. Evaluate and strengthen Common Service Centres (CSCs) under India’s National eGovernance Plan (NeGP)

3. Treat Broadband as a national priority, revise Broadband Policy 2004 and lay down time-frame for making broadband available up to panchayat level by 2012

4. Develop national policies for digital inclusion

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Conclusion

5. Utilise Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for narrowing digital divides

6. Develop Sakshat laptop under National Mission on Education

7. Issue Multipurpose Citizen ID cards for the poor on priority8. Place Public Interest Disclosure (Protection of Informers)

Bill before the Parliament

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End of Presentation

Thank you-- Dr D.C.Misra


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Misra,D.C.(2009) Re Visiting Digital Divides For Making Best Use Of Ict For Government Flagship Schemes 19.10.2009

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