[kictanet] India and ICTs

[Bitange Ndemo]

Listers,
I am attending India’s Economic Times e-Governance Forum where several
experts have gathered to chart the way forward for India’s Information
Technology diffusion within government.  Attending also are ministers from
the 29 states of India.  The Minister for ICT Mr. Ponnala Lakshmaiah,
opened the conference challenging the experts to use ICT as a tool to
eliminate poverty by enhancing inclusivity and equity within India.

In his speech, the minister said, one in four IT experts globally is
Indian yet India is ranked 124th in the diffusion of technology. 
Virtually every top university in the World has at least one Indian
professor in IT.  MIT alone has several Indian professors heading projects
in IT yet here at home we are still struggling to provide services to the
people.  To change this he says, this year, India will connect 250,000
villages with fibre optics.
The Minister further said that technology has had a huge impact with
respect to disaster management.  He says, the state of Ander Pradesh for
example has seen reduction in deaths out of the cyclones.  In 1977 for
example, he said, we lost 10,000 lives to the cyclone, in 1990 technology
helped to lower the deaths to 1,500 and last year we only lost 30 he said.
 Loosing 30 is still not good when we have technologies that help protect
the lives of citizens, he said.  We must have high powered computing to
deal with environmental disasters.

Through public private partnerships with google, Ander Pradesh is mapping
every village and tagging every house to ensure every citizen receives the
services they are entitled to.  From such connectivity, service delivery
to citizens will be made easier.  He finished his speech by stating:  ICT
is a leveler – where every young woman or man will have an opportunity to
succeed otherwise we shall have a violent revolution if the gap between
the rich and poor keeps on widening.

Indeed ICTs will create new opportunities as the senior advisor, Planning
Commission BN Satpathy says.  Digitalization of government records
globally created six million jobs and $196 billion in new revenue.  It is
therefore important that India position ICT as key to economic growth. 
There must be a paradigm shift from classical economic thinking where the
focus was on resources to modern ways where technology and knowledge is
key.  This is the only way we can reduce inequalities between rich and
poor and disparities between different states in India.  This is how we
can build an inclusive country he says.  He emphasized that experts must
look into developing applications in education and health to enable
improved social services to the poor.

The World Bank country Director, India Mr. Onno Ruhl concurs with Minister
Lakshmaiah and Satpathy and moves to give examples from other parts of the
World.  Norway has made Broadband a human right issue by providing free
internet to every home.  Chile has made it possible for tax payers to pay
online.  Several other countries are taking services to the people.  He
gives Kenya as a model on mobile payments that has changed the lives of
many people and created financial inclusivity within a short period.

A panel discussion by nine senior government officials ranging from
immigration, supreme court of India, health, education, ICT and some
private sector from Wipro, National Innovation Council as well as World
Health Organization reveal the elephant in the house – silo mentality or
protection of turfs - that lead to corruption.  They were clear as to what
needs to be done and how but there must be political will to move this
forward. Public Private Partnerships have helped create the efficiencies
they enjoy thus far.  Just like in Kenya each department does what they
want without making reference to the other.  Multiple infrastructure such
as data centers that should be shared is duplicated making seamless
integration difficult.  For example, the passport department has biometric
data but you find the electoral commission will also collect its own data.

Rajiv Gauba, Additional Secretary, e-Governance emphasizes shared
infrastructure and creation of integrated services to reduce cost but at
the same time he is aware that ministries are not ready for this.  He
feels that the National Government must mandate this in order to optimally
utilize the meager resources.  He feels the Government must build a common
gateway for all government services.  He wants a mandate to eliminate
parallel government systems and putting most of the services on the cloud
to eliminate multiple data centers.

At lunch break I meet Pradeem Kumar, he has been to Kenya and tells me
that everything that has been said here cannot be done in India.  You guys
are lucky that you can learn from us and implement things immediately. 
Here we have very powerful and corrupt state governments.  This all talk
that resources will move from the center to the goal is nonsense if
kickers in the field are wearing shoes with nails such that the ball will
never get to the goal.  It is always deflated before we can score.  Indeed
all presentations that followed by the private sector did not mince any
words.  Corruption starts from the specification such that you will never
win.
Professor Anil, a governance expert argued that India will never
effectively deal with corruption until they set up schools of governance. 
Why is that the entire of India with thousands of higher learning there is
not one of them teaching governance? We must go to the Kennedy School to
learn governance? He posed.  In his view, there is sufficient political
will but the wheels of government are stuck somewhere.  India has the best
brains any country can have but they cannot put their finger on that
thing.

We have a lot to learn from India since we share a similar history having
been colonized by the British.  In my presentation I made what I thought
was a joke.  This is what I said.  The British ruled almost the entire
world without a single computer.  Their secret I am told is that they used
bureaucracy and when they left, we perfected it to the extent we now have
analysis by paralysis.  One of the state representatives repeated my words
and said this is it.  This is our problem.  We spend too much time doing
analysis.  I was stunned.  I gathered myself to say that we do the same in
Kenya.

In my thinking, indiscipline is causing both India and Kenya a great deal
of the future.  Like many developed countries, we need to establish a boot
camp for the youth after high school.  Every class from high school
through University must have an ethical component.  Last but not least we
must do an impact assessment on democracy and ask ourselves questions such
as: Is too much democracy bad for development?

To be continued.



University of Nairobi
Business School, Lower Kabete Campus