[kictanet] India and ICTs

Fri Oct 25 06:49:32 EAT 2013

Daktari

I couldn't agree with you more. Sometimes we dwell to much on the hardware (connectivity, mobile banking inclusiveness etc) and forget about the software ( ethics, utu, uungwana etc). 

The comparison between us and India is shockingly similar - and it's not a compliment. During my visit to Hyderabad in May I couldn't help but observe how similarly chaotic the two countries were right up to their own (or is it we who uprooted it from India?) Diamond Plaza. I was told that most Indian companies that bid for government jobs build in a 10% levy to grease the cogs of corruption. This is a way of life and people have become used to it. I was told that there were very few companies that don't play that game and they are beginning to reverse the wheels of corruption. There is a groundswell in India happening against this vice and it is being led by a few early movers in the private sector.

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-11-07/news/34970906_1_wef-anti-graft-fight-corruption

Safaricom in Kenya is showing the way with its sustainability report. What was interesting was that they even give figures of employees fired for unethical behavior. This is a move in the right direction.

Ethics (or lack thereof) is an area which we must pay as close attention to as we do to the 'in your face stuff' because if we don't do so we will continue to wallow in mediocrity.

Ali Hussein

+254 0770 906375 / 0713 601113

"Kujikwaa si kuanguka, bali ni kwenda mbele" (To stumble is not to fall but a sign of going forward) - Swahili Proverb

Sent from my iPad

> On Oct 25, 2013, at 6:19 AM, Zaipuna Yonah <zaipuna.yonah at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Dear Dr. Ndemo,
> 
> Thank you for this piece of report. 
> 
> I captured your last words:  "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?" 
> 
> This I believe, democracy has nothing to do with being righteous: a Key for Development (Proverbs 14:34)! Hence it is ALWAYS NOT SAFE TO BE FREE! That is the greatest a miss in our democracies! We cry for freedom, while actually we thirsty to be righteous! It is a spiritual hunger!
> 
> Keep up thinking! keep up discussing...
> 
> Regards
> 
> __________________________________
> Eng. Dr. Zaipuna O. Yonah, PhD
> Consulting Engineer in ICTs
> P. O. Box 32736
> Dar es Salaam
> Tanzania
> Tel: +255-784-786429
> Fax: +255--732-920133
> Email: engzaipuna at ieee.org
> ===============================
> It is About Engineering People's Lives! & 
> Advancing Technology for Humanity!
> ===============================
> 
> 
>> On Fri, Oct 25, 2013 at 4:01 AM, Bitange Ndemo <bitange at jambo.co.ke> wrote:
>> 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
>> 
>> 
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> The Kenya ICT Action Network (KICTANet) is a multi-stakeholder platform for people and institutions interested and involved in ICT policy and regulation. The network aims to act as a catalyst for reform in the ICT sector in support of the national aim of ICT enabled growth and development.
> 
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