ficci ictinnovations-smsone

Copyright @ 2009 FICCI & Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved

The information contained herein has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. FICCI &

Erehwon disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information

and shall have no liability for erros, ommission or inadequacies in the information contained herein or

for interpretations thereof.

Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) FICCI since 1927 has been rallying point for free enterprise in India. It has empowered Indian

businesses in the changing times, to shore up their competitiveness and enhance their global reach.

With a nationwide membership of 500 chambers of business associations, FICCI stands for quality,

competitiveness, and transparency, accountability and business-government-civil society partnership

to spread ethics-based business practices and to enhance the quality of life of the common people.

Contact:

FICCI Science & Technology / Innovation Secretariat Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry

Federation House, Tansen Marg, New Delhi-110001

Tel. : 91-11-23736306 (D), 91-11-23738760-70 (Ext. 212 / 477)

Fax: 91-11-23765333, 23320714, 23721504

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.indiarnd.com

Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt Ltd

Based in Bangalore, Erehwon has 16 years of cutting edge experience in being able to instill

innovation and shift orbits in the most legacy driven and unresponsive environments across the

industry spectrum, countries and cultures Companies recognize Erehwon's unique approach to

innovation across the world. We are Innovation specialists, with experience in all kinds of innovation

- product, process, business model and services. We inspire and enable organizations to move from

current operating orbits they are stuck in. We have brought to the world a pioneering approach –

‘Orbit-shifting innovation’TM

Contact :

Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt. Ltd. # 1894, 8th Cross, 4th Main, HAL 3rd Stage,

Bangalore- 560 075. India

Ph: +91 80 40535000, Fax +91 80 41153230

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.erehwonconsulting.com

Copyright @ 2009 FICCI & Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved P a g e | 1

TTaabbllee ooff CCoonntteennttss

IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn .............................................................................................................................................. 3

SSeeccttiioonn 11::LLeeaarrnniinnggss ffoorr aacccceelleerraattiinngg iinnnnoovvaattiioonn........................................................... 4

1. From CSR to ‘Inclusive Growth’ as the Corporate Business model for India ............................................. 4

2. Creating direct interfaces to the common man that dis-intermediate, empower, include and speed up

value generation and consumption ........................................................................................................... 5

3. ICT companies must proactively expand the size of the ‘local pie’ ........................................................... 6

4. Fundamentally challenging traditional ‘growth math’ by way of paradigm shifts and deploying

innovative business models ....................................................................................................................... 6

5. Picking out Lighthouse successes from India and internationally, and rapidly replicating across the

country ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

6. Create Multiplier effect by unleashing entrepreneurial energy................................................................ 8

SSeeccttiioonn 22::IICCTT IInnnnoovvaattiioonn:: TThhee CCuurrrreenntt SSttaattee aanndd NNeeeeddss ............................................ 9

1. Governance ................................................................................................................................................ 9

Need for Compliance ................................................................................................................................. 9

Need for efficiency & speed .................................................................................................................... 10

Need for Citizen Involvement .................................................................................................................. 10

2. Health ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

Capacity ................................................................................................................................................... 11

Access ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

Affordability ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Quality of Patient Care ............................................................................................................................ 11

Information Management ....................................................................................................................... 12

Hospital Business Management .............................................................................................................. 12

3. Education ................................................................................................................................................. 13

Affordability ............................................................................................................................................. 13

Quality of Education ................................................................................................................................ 14

Skill and Outcome orientation ................................................................................................................. 14

4. Agriculture ............................................................................................................................................... 14

Productivity ............................................................................................................................................. 14

Market Access & Supply chain ................................................................................................................ 15

Supplementing incomes from agriculture ............................................................................................... 15

5. Media ....................................................................................................................................................... 15

Making Content Relevant & Customized ................................................................................................ 15

Citizen Journalism .................................................................................................................................... 16

Connected-ness in communities ............................................................................................................. 16

SSeeccttiioonn 33:: IICCTT IInnnnoovvaattiioonn:: CCuurrrreenntt IInniittiiaattiivveess aanndd FFuuttuurree DDiirreeccttiioonnss ...... 17

1. Governance .............................................................................................................................................. 18

Current Initiatives .................................................................................................................................... 18


Future Directions ..................................................................................................................................... 19

2. Health ...................................................................................................................................................... 22



3. Education ................................................................................................................................................. 25



4. Agriculture ............................................................................................................................................... 28



5. Media ....................................................................................................................................................... 30



SSeeccttiioonn 44:: LLiigghhttHHoouussee CCaassee ssttuuddiieess ........................................................................................ 31

1. Governance .............................................................................................................................................. 31

MCA21: Corporate Affairs Made Easy ..................................................................................................... 31

Gujarat: Perfecting through Innovation .................................................................................................. 32

2. Health ...................................................................................................................................................... 34

CellScope: A Mobile Lab in the Making ................................................................................................... 34

ATNF: Pioneering Telemedicine in India.................................................................................................. 35

3. Education ................................................................................................................................................. 36

EnAble India: Empowering the disabled.................................................................................................. 36

Educomp Solutions Ltd. ........................................................................................................................... 38

4. Agriculture ............................................................................................................................................... 39

LifeLines Agriculture: Reaching Out to the Indian Farmer ...................................................................... 39

Dhan Kharidi OnLine: A Government Initiative for the People of Chhattisgarh ..................................... 41

5. Media ....................................................................................................................................................... 42

SMSOne: Building Micro-Communities through Mobile Networking ..................................................... 42

CGNet: Media Intervention with a Twist ................................................................................................. 43

BBiibblliiooggrraapphhyy ................................................................................................................................. 46


IInnttrroodduuccttiioonn

Since independence, India’s focus on science and technology has enabled the nation to succeed in pockets:

aerospace technology, manufacturing and industrial technology. And of late, the IT and biotechnology

revolution has leapfrogged India onto the global stage.

However, the greatest challenge is in including just over a billion people in a shared journey of progress. ICT

is the critical enabler that will convert this journey into a reality rather than let it remain a distant vision.

Therefore, for any person interested in ICT and it’s role in India’s development, this background report

becomes a useful guide. It creates a landscape for ICT in India by throwing light on the following questions:

• What are the possible opportunities for ICT to leapfrog India’s development?

• What is the state of ICT in India today?

• What are the current innovations and future directions in India?

• What are some of the success stories that point to how ICT works in India?

The report focuses on 5 key areas where ICT can contribute to India’s development: governance, health,

agriculture, education and media. It attempts to paint a picture of the current state: both gaps and

innovations, along with future directions, in each of these areas. It also shares area specific success stories

and a consolidation of learning for accelerated innovation in ICT in India.

The first section of the report puts forward the learning: what can be done to accelerate ICT innovation in

India. For anyone interested in knowing what could be possibilities and opportunities, this is the section to

read.

The next section highlights the current state and need gaps in each of the five areas. It is useful for those

who want to plug into the big picture, and understand the ICT state of the nation.

The third section highlights the current innovations and future directions. It helped shaped the learning in

section one. However, a crystal gazer can use this section to trigger his thinking for further opportunities.

The last section contains lighthouse stories: ten caselets that illuminate successes in shaping each area.

There are two caselets per area.

Each section reads independent, and therefore a reader is free to choose the section of greatest interest to

him.

We hope the report creates value for you, and look forward to your feedback at [email protected] /

[email protected]

FICCI - Erehwon Team


SSeeccttiioonn 11:: LLeeaarrnniinnggss

ffoorr aacccceelleerraattiinngg

iinnnnoovvaattiioonn

As a result of our study ICT in India, we believe there are six key ways in

which ICT innovation can be accelerated:

1. Inclusive: shifting to inclusive growth philosophy

2. Direct: building direct-interface mechanisms with end-consumers

3. Expand: expanding the domestic market

4. Innovate: innovative business models and offerings that challenge long-held assumptions

5. Replicate: replicating pockets of success throughout the country

6. Multiply: multiply innovation by unleashing entrepreneurial energy

1. From CSR to ‘Inclusive Growth’ as the Corporate Business model for India

While the past decade has seen CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) becoming de rigueur for the

corporate sector, in the main the CSR movement, in letter and spirit, has been cosmetic and driven by

‘image considerations’ rather than a genuine intent of fundamentally changing things. Thus, we have so

far seen large publicly listed firms setting aside a certain share of profits each year for a gamut of

welfare programs and asking their employees to pitch in with some pro bono work.

If we want to have any hope of eradicating poverty in even the next twenty years and joining the

league of developed nations, the business ethos of Corporate India needs to shift from Anglo-Saxon

capitalism to the ‘Inclusive Growth’ model. Essentially, this model is not so much profit-driven, than it is

value-driven. It is not narrowly focused on the ‘quantity’ of topline and bottom-line numbers, it looks

equally at the ‘quality’ of this growth – whether it has been achieved in a manner that, in the words of

the 11th Plan document, “yields broad-based benefits and ensures equality of opportunity for all”.

Inclusive growth does not stop at ‘what’ growth has been achieved; it also equally focuses on ‘how’

growth has been achieved.

After the recent global economic meltdown, the Anglo-Saxon model of capitalism has been subjected

to intense debate. There is growing recognition, especially on behalf of emerging economies, that the

P a g e | 5 Copyright @ 2009 FICCI & Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved

‘leave everything to market forces’, the inequality and the environmental exploitation engendered by

this model may not be the ideal growth model. What is needed, instead, is an inclusive growth model

that espouses widespread collaboration between governments and private enterprise, business models

that combine ‘global thinking’ with ‘local relevance’, models that proactively creates growth

opportunities for the underserved sections of society, models that are environmentally regenerative.

Prominent global champions of this thinking include Anita Roddick (The Body Shop), Indra Nooyi

(Pepsi), Bill & Melinda Gates (The Gates Foundation), C K Prahalad, Starbucks, General Electric, Philips,

to name a few from a growing tribe. Indra Nooyi, who was in the country end of 2008 as the

Chairperson US India Business Council (USIBC) also advocated inclusive growth in India.

On the domestic front, companies like ITC (eChoupal); Amul; Tata Teleservices (mEducation, PCO/ION,

FISHING initiatives); HUL (Shakti); Pepsi Foods, etc are examples of inclusive growth thinking starting to

happen.

A key enabler for translating this thinking into action is ICT. We need to broaden, deepen and fasten

this thinking and embrace ICT to maximize the impact on the ground.

2. Creating direct interfaces to the common man that dis-intermediate, empower, include and speed up value generation and consumption

In India, across sectors, value delivery chains are riddled with hierarchies, intermediaries,

administrative loops, information asymmetries, vested monopolies, and highly ineffective feedback and

consumer protection mechanisms.

As the variety of examples and developments referenced in this paper show, building a network of

interfaces that empower the common man to participate in the economy as a ‘market maker’ rather

than a mute ‘market taker’, is an extremely powerful way of leapfrogging the economy.

Such interfaces tend to leverage technology heavily, from Internet to mobile phones to satellite

imagery to call centers to sensors to smart cards to voice recognition. These interfaces, when

interwoven into inclusive business models, are proving highly effective in accelerating speed of

introduction of new goods and services; achieving scale much quicker; customizing offerings to

customer needs; lowering costs of delivering value to customer thereby reducing the price paid by the

customer; and reducing waste and redundancy in transactions.

The cumulative benefits of the above are so huge that if the Government and the Corporate sector

build such interfaces with a missionary zeal, India can achieve a quality of life for her citizens in the next

15-20 years that is unimaginable today.


3. ICT companies must proactively expand the size of the ‘local pie’

Indian ICT sector, while deserving full accolades for putting India on the

global technology map, has generally been blasé about the ‘domestic

scene’. The local market has, until quite recently, been neglected under

the garb of “market is not ready”, “market is too shallow”, “market does

not have purchasing power” or “we will focus when domestic market

has grown sufficiently”. In fact, corporations outside have tended to look

at India as their ‘next growth engine’ than Indian corporations. Indian

ICT companies have come up with one path-breaking innovation after

another; however the benefits have mostly been directed by consumers

outside India.

ICT companies must not wait till the Indian market matures to the point when they can start earning

the kind of revenues and profits they generate overseas. They must fundamentally rethink in three

directions:

A. Aggressively collaborate with other ICT companies, non ICT companies, Government and other

institutions (NGOs, Charitable Foundations, Industry Associations, etc) to create new capabilities,

synergies and reach. Examples like Lifelines agriculture and Tata Teleservices m-education are

notable in this regard.

B. Focus energies on solving the most pressing problems facing India today, resulting in an ‘orbit-

shifting’ impact.

C. Deploy their global learning and local knowledge to come up with innovative offerings and business

models that are suited to Indian consumer’s needs, context and purchasing power.

4. Fundamentally challenging traditional ‘growth math’ by

way of paradigm shifts and deploying innovative business

models

We often read in Planning documents and Industry presentations forecasts that outline huge capital

requirements of India – be it in infrastructure or health or education etc. It is also made clear how

government does not have the financial capacity to meet these needs and private and FDI investment

is required in large measure. However, this ‘math’ is usually based on established ‘rules of thumb’ and

national and international references from the past. Can this math be challenged? Are there

fundamental assumptions that if challenged can lead to vastly improved input: output ratio? Are there

blind spots that need to be uncovered? Are there paradigm ‘lock-ins’ that need to be broken? Are there

business models just waiting to be discovered the moment the ‘traditional’ thinking is challenged?

For example, traditional logic of ‘curative’ care says that India needs at least 750,000 extra beds to

meet the demand for inpatient treatment by 2012- opportunity in tertiary healthcare facilities. In the

personnel side, India needs at least 1 million more qualified nurses and 500,000 more doctors by 2012

It is time that India’s

much-acclaimed

‘brain’ accelerates its

working to repair as

well as vitalize the

‘body’ in which it

resides.


as compared to existing number. To raise this infrastructure, total additional investment to the tune of

US$ 25-30 billion is needed by 2012. Government and international agencies will only be able to gear

up US$ 7 billion and the rest of investment has to come from private sector. Can we challenge this? Can

we realize a scenario where majority people do not become patients and do not need all those hospital

beds? Instead of needing 500,000 more doctors, can we have fewer but better qualified doctors, and

their capacity multiplied through ICT innovation? Instead of $25-30 billion, can we achieve better

outcomes with only $10 billion?

Examples like the Aravind Eye Hospitals, who account for 5% of the ophthalmic surgeries performed

nationwide with less than 1% of the country's ophthalmic manpower, and running a profitable business

while performing 75% of surgeries free of cost, shows that this ‘orbit shifting math’ is eminently

possible.

5. Picking out Lighthouse successes from India and internationally, and rapidly replicating across the country

Our research shows that there are more than a few examples of exemplary ICT innovation happening

across domains. Much of it is localized to a community (say medical) or a state or city. Left to its own,

these organizations will follow their own growth curve, constrained by expansion bandwidth. For every

10 such initiatives happening in India, there may be 50 happening in other developing and developed

countries. Again, it may be years before the respective innovators decide to bring these innovations to

India. The question is – does the country want to wait till they are ready to expand? Instead, can we set

into a motion a structured mechanism of constantly tracking, evaluating, choosing and replicating these

‘lighthouse’ initiatives?

For instance, Gujarat is recognized today as the best e-governed state in India, followed closely by

Chattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. How can we get other states to follow suit? One solution could be to

make state budget approvals conditional on on-ground progress in eGovernance. Second could be to

aggressively adopt the PPP model in as many areas of government functioning as possible.

The PPP model can similarly be applied to replication. One can imagine a scenario with a network of

National ‘Innovation Replication Labs’ across domains that will scour the world for emerging

technologies and technology-led implementations, and will draw funds from a Central pool (budgeted

on the lines of JNRUM, NREGA) to rapidly proliferate these across India by leveraging partnerships with

for-profit and non-profit entities.


6. Create Multiplier effect by unleashing entrepreneurial energy

The Indian ICT sector (including Telecom) employs in the region of 1.25 million people directly. A

significant proportion harbour ambition of becoming an entrepreneur and launching their own

technology start-up. However, the limited amount of VC activity, misplaced risk perception, lack of

advisory, technical and infrastructural support is a dampener. As a result, the number of new ICT

businesses being launched is far below potential.

In summary, here are six key ways in which ICT innovation can be accelerated, as described

above:

1. Inclusive: shifting to inclusive growth philosophy

2. Direct: building direct-interface mechanisms with end-consumers

3. Expand: expanding the domestic market

4. Innovate: innovative business models and offerings that challenge long-held assumptions

5. Replicate: replicating pockets of success throughout the country

6. Multiply: multiply innovation by unleashing entrepreneurial energy

ICT companies need to come up with platforms and mechanisms that help unleash this pent-up

entrepreneurial energy. This can be done by institutionalizing in-house VC, incubators and

supporting processes and policies. They also need to recognize that even at the cost of losing some

employees to entrepreneurship, in the long run, the net impact is of increasing the sophistication,

size and capability in the market and that would benefit everyone.


SSeeccttiioonn 22::IICCTT

IInnnnoovvaattiioonn:: TThhee

CCuurrrreenntt SSttaattee aanndd

NNeeeeddss • What is the current state of ICT in India today, in Governance, Health, Education, Agriculture

and Media?

• What are the key problems and challenges?

• Where, if we apply ICT innovation, will the greatest needs be met?

This section attempts to paint the current state in India today.

1. Governance

Need for Compliance There is no disputing the fact that while India has an adequate legal system on paper, adherence and

compliance to laws remains by and large poor. Deep-rooted and systemic corruption is the root cause for

this lack of compliance. A 2005 ‘India Corruption Study’ found that Indians pay bribes worth Rs 21,068

crores annually, equivalent to Rs. 200 bribe paid by every Indian citizen! In 1988, N.Vittal, the

transformative chief of Telecom Commission and then the Central Vigilance Commission had remarked

,”Corruption is a low risk, high profit business in India…I want to increase the risk.” He went on to say “The

vicious cycle of corruption can be broken by public transparency; I want people to be empowered to fight

corruption”. While Vittal made an unmistakable impact at the time, the blight of corruption as well as the

validity of Vittal’s advice, live on.

On the worldwide Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2008, prepared by independent international agency

Transparency International, India has been ranked a lowly 74, two steps down since 2007, among 180

countries. The latest data released by the Swiss Banking Association reveals shocking data: as of 2006,

Indian nationals held the largest quantity of illegally stashed money in Swiss banks. The amount was $1.45

trillion, equivalent to 1.8 times India’s entire GDP in 2006! It is also much higher when compared to Russia

($450 billion), UK ($390 billion), Ukraine ($450 billion) and China ($96 billion)!

In a report titled ‘Doing Business in 2007’ the World Bank placed India at 134th in the ‘Ease of Doing

Business’ category, 88th in ‘Starting a Business’ and 155th in ‘Dealing with Licenses’. It takes 35 days to

incorporate a company in India, compared with less than a week in the US.

In our view, for compliance to be ensured, three key areas need to be acted upon:

1. Accountability and Answerability of each Governing body to relevant stakeholders, including citizens


2. Empowering people to capture and report government inaction and corruption easily and swiftly

3. Enabling Information collection, storage and retrieval to be thorough, tamper-proof and easily

accessible

Need for efficiency & speed

The Governance machinery in India is riddled with red-tape, bureaucratic sloth, apathy towards public

welfare and outdated delivery infrastructure. Combined with bureaucratic processes that do not

discourage corruption, the result more often than not is sub-optimal Policy formulation, delivery of Public

Services and implementation of Public Works. Resulting delays continue to cause budget overshoots,

wastage of public resources and immense public hardship.

As many an industry and government has shown from around the world, intelligent and system-wide

deployment of ICT has enabled efficiency to leapfrog. Indeed, the success of the Indian offshoring industry

is proof of this.

Need for Citizen Involvement

India’s six decades of development have shown the inadequacies of a centralized and bureaucratized

system of Governance. There is growing realization that citizen involvement and influence on governance

at a local level is abysmally low. Unless this happens, Governance will be out of sync with the needs of the

citizenry.

Again, a growing number of reference points from around the world show the importance of ICT in

enabling this involvement and making Government truly ‘inclusive’.

Traditional solutions for addressing compliance, efficiency and citizen inclusion have ranged from reform of

the political and bureaucratic machinery, encouraging widespread political participation, reducing the role

of the government, decentralization of decision making, raising salaries of government employees,

strengthening oversight, etc.

While this paper does not dispute the need and importance of the above, the ICT innovation challenges

are around the following:

• How to minimize manual discretion, which leaves scope for corruption and wilful delay, in delivering

public services?

• How to enable a citizen to capture irrefutable evidence on an act of corruption from a government

official, so that swift action can be taken?

• How to devise an implementation framework so that government run programs are implemented

without corruption, delay and ad-hoc mid-way policy changes?

• How to integrate, automate and manage labyrinthine government regulations and procedures so that

citizens and businesses can go about their business without hassle and delay?

• How to empower and make it fast and easy for citizens and communities to canvass public opinion on

government actions and reach it to the responsible government agencies?


2. Health

Capacity

Availability of medical care, whether measured in terms of doctors per 1000 population or hospital beds

per 1000 population, is both inadequate and non-uniform. As per a report by the Planning Commission, for

every 10,000 Indians there is only 1 doctor. India is short by around six lakh doctors, 10 lakh nurses and two

lakh dental surgeons. The Indian government spends only 0.9% of the annual GDP on healthcare (WHO

recommends 5%), and only a miniscule fraction of that reaches remote rural areas.

Access

Large sections of our population remain cut-off from medical care facilities. In India, nearly 75% of the

population lives in rural villages, while more than 75% of doctors are based in cities. Even more, more than

80% of rural Indian patients have to travel an average of 8 km to access basic medical treatment, and the

rest have to travel even farther.

Affordability

Cost of medical care: Even when medical care is physically accessible, the cost remains prohibitive to large

sections of our population.

Insurance coverage: Worldwide, healthcare insurance has played an integral role in making healthcare

access universal to a society’s citizens. In India, notwithstanding the rapid progress of Indian insurance

industry last few years, penetration of healthcare insurance is extremely low. Only about 0.5% of Indians

have health insurance, as compared to 75% in the US. Health insurance in India as of 2008 covers only

around five per cent of the total spending in the healthcare sector. This should at least increase to 20 per

cent, says Mr J. Harinarayan, Chairman, Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India.

According to a recent KPMG report titled- “Health Insurance Inc.: The Road Ahead”, high reliance on out-of-

pocket spending on healthcare in India, estimated at around 85% as compared to 60% in China, poses

serious health policy challenges related to financial risk protection in future years.

ICT innovation can go a long way in breaking through the cost boundaries of the traditional brick and

mortar, face-to-face model of healthcare administration. It can also enable accelerated penetration of

insurance.

Quality of Patient Care

Skilled manpower availability: There is wide disparity in the quality of healthcare, this is seen between

Metros and Non-Metros; Urban and Rural; Private and Government. While the disparity arises from a

combination of facilities, equipment, manpower and financial strength, it is the quality of trained

manpower – doctors, clinicians, nurses – that has the largest influence on patient outcomes.

Accuracy in Diagnosis and Treatment: Mis-diagnosis can lead to wrong medication, prolonged recovery,

and in many cases severe damage to patient health and life. Indian healthcare system suffers from supply

running far short of demand, inadequate regulation and supervision of educational institutions as well as


that of private practice. Moreover, accelerated pace of advances in medical science means it is increasingly

tougher for a medical professional to keep upto date with the state-of-the-art. Lastly, today’s patients –

largely due to the Internet – are far more aware and demanding when they approach a doctor.

Information Management

Citizen Health Record: Currently, there is no formal system of maintaining a repository of a citizen’s health

and medical history over her lifetime. Many people cannot remember their important health parameters

like blood group or previous ailment and medication history. This leads to repeated re-testing every time,

delay in diagnosis and sometimes inaccurate diagnosis. In emergency situations, lack of such information in

hands of the doctor can mean the difference between life and death. Healthcare systems around the world

have realized the immense benefits of having a single, integrated, digitized Citizen Health Record, mostly

maintained as a smart card. India has also seen the benefits of a ‘digital information wallet’ after

introduction of the PAN card for its citizens.

Integrated, patient-centred ecosystem: Indian healthcare system currently works as a collection of

disparate entities – hospitals, nursing homes, diagnostic labs, emergency services, pharmacies, insurance

providers, technology providers – that interact with each other primarily on a bilateral, transactional and

self-serving basis. In these interactions, the interest of the patient, who is the raison-d-etre for the entire

ecosystem, is often overlooked or compromised. It also results in a system that delivers widely varying

healthcare in terms of quantity, quality and cost.

Hospital Business Management

Business Process Efficiency: Conventional business logic suggests that efficiency can be generated through

automation albeit at the expense of employment. In India, the healthcare system faces a twin challenge:

delivery healthcare with ever-increasing efficiency while also being employment generative. Probably the

answer lies in deploying automation in areas that will deliver a substantial and sustained jump in efficiency

levels, while redeploying and re-skilling human resources in areas where the ‘human touch’ adds

indispensable value.

Asset Management: Hospitals have assets – medical equipment, information records, drugs, instruments –

that need to be maintained and kept in peak operational readiness. Currently, asset management in Indian

hospitals by and large remains ad-hoc, manual and highly inefficient. This not only leads to subvention of

already scarce capacity due to non-operational equipment but also inferior patient outcomes.

Technologies like ERP, BPM, Smart Card, RFID etc have revolutionized resource planning and asset

management across industries, including healthcare. Indian Healthcare needs to capitalize on these.

Outsourcing: India’s success in technology-driven outsourcing needs no elaboration. Healthcare delivery

has many aspects that can potentially benefit from outsourcing, including facility management, asset

maintenance, finance and accounts, procurement, appointment scheduling, lab testing, etc.


Considering the above, the ICT innovation challenge in the area of Health is around the following:

• How to take affordable healthcare to the masses, rather than the masses having to travel long

distances to reach a healthcare centre?

• How to multiply the throughput of our healthcare professionals (doctors and nurses) and of our

hospitals so they can service many times the number of people than their current one-to-one capacity

would permit?

• How to ensure timely detection of disease/injury and timely treatment so that the scourge of

permanent disability and high incidence of untimely death can be brought to developed country

levels?

• How to engineer a wholesale shift towards preventive healthcare rather than curative?

• How to drastically improve patient care and outcomes by automating certain aspects of healthcare at

a low cost?

• How to build a networked and synergistic ecosystem of healthcare entities whose focal point is the

patient or the citizen?

3. Education

Capacity

Availability of education, whether measured in terms of teachers per 1000 population or admission seats

per 1000 population, is both inadequate and non-uniform. Research has shown that effective teacher

student ratio should be between 1: 25 to 1:35. The current average ratio in India is 1:42. The high teacher

student ratio has a negative impact on the quality of education in India.1 Even with these statistics, the sad

reality is over 45% of teachers do not even attend school, which creates a further skew in capacity.

Access

Large sections of our population remain cut-off from education facilities. India is a multilingual country with

18 formal languages. These 18 languages use 10 different scripts and include hundreds of different

characters. It is virtually impossible to arrange Indian languages characters over regular keyboards (too

many characters). As a consequence, Indian language keyboards are not available. According to a market

research conducted by Frost & Sullivan, less than 10% of Indians can read or write English; therefore the

vast majority is prevented from using computers for the purpose of educating themselves.

Affordability

Cost of education: Even when education is physically accessible, the cost remains unaffordable to large

sections of our population. The affordability question needs also to be considered from an ‘opportunity

cost’ perspective – for a majority of low income households, especially in slums and rural areas, children

are often pulled out of school so that they can work and contribute to the meagre household income.

1 From MapsofIndia.com’s India Business Directory


Quality of Education

The education system in India – whether public or private – lacks adequate mechanisms to ensure uniform

or even a minimum threshold of quality. These manifest in admission procedures that lack objectivity,

teachers who are not up-to-date, curriculum that is outdated and too theoretical, and grading system that

is excessively exam-focused.

Skill and Outcome orientation

According to the recent Knowledge Readiness Survey for India by Hewitt Associates, on the World Bank

Knowledge Economy Index (KEI) – which measure Knowledge readiness of a country according to economic

performance, basic education and skills, knowledge and innovation ecosystem, and enabling infrastructure

and governance- India is ranked a lowly 100, way behind Brazil (54), Russia (61) and China (77). The

worrying aspect is that while Brazil and China have improved rapidly since 2005, India is virtually stagnant.

“India can no longer afford to bask in the glory of her IIMs, IITs and BPOs”, says Hewitt Associates business

leader Rakesh Malik. It is time we stop looking at people development as a ‘social obligation’ and consider

it as an ‘economic necessity’. People development effort is meaningful only when it leads to employability.

We therefore need to focus on skill development, rather then just degree attainment. India’s employability

ratio, as estimated by Hewitt, stands at an abysmally low 15-20%.

Considering the above, the ICT innovation challenge in the area of Education is around the following:

• How to break through the capacity and cost limitations of the traditional brick and mortar, face-to-

face model of education, in order to take affordable education to every citizen of India?

• How to ensure 100% and continued participation of every child in the education system, irrespective of

social context and financial capacity?

• How to make teaching and instruction relevant, interesting and engaging to students across regions,

languages and socio-economic backgrounds?

• How to decisively shift education outcomes from mere literacy and degree attainment to skill

development and vocational capability?

• How to enable the adult labour pool to continually upgrade their skills, in order to improve

employability and productivity?

4. Agriculture

Productivity

India’s farm productivity drastically lags behind that of even other developing countries. According to FAO

data, average annual growth rates in the productivity of staple cereals (rice, wheat, pulses) are the lowest

in India in comparison with all SAARC nations. Between 1991-93 and 2005-07, this productivity was the

highest in Bhutan at 5.12% and lowest in India at 1.6%.

Poor farm productivity is a combination of small land holdings, lack of good quality inputs like seeds, and

severe lack of knowledge about good practices.


Market Access & Supply chain

Matching supply and demand: EChoupal has shown conclusively that when the farmer is able to engage in

price discovery and take informed decisions accordingly, his income goes up. Notwithstanding the need for

internal food security, the Indian farmer as well as consumer suffers due to artificial controls on export and

import of agri-commodities.

Waste elimination: It is said that a considerable percentage of India’s grain harvest never reaches the

consumer, because it simply rots in godowns. In addition, there are often instances when certain agri-

commodities maybe in short supply in some parts of the country while being in excess supply in others.

Supplementing incomes from agriculture

Due to small land holdings, poor productivity, lack of value-addition and imperfect market access, agri-

incomes have failed to keep pace with other industries. As a result, majority of 70% of Indian households

involved in agriculture still have subsistence earnings and face a slow, uncertain path to prosperity. Also,

due to poor prospects, the countryside is hollowing out while urban commercial centres are becoming

overcrowded.

At the same time, success of micro-finance, mobile phones, rural BPO and eChoupal clearly establishes a

strong case for creating a virtuous cycle of promoting alternative rural enterprise and employment,

growing incomes which then lead to growing savings and consumption.

Considering the above, the ICT innovation challenge in the area of Agriculture is around the following:

• How to reach information on the best farming practices to each and every farmer in a speedy, easily

usable and affordable manner?

• How to enable a speedy, transparent and efficient matching of supply and demand so that each

farmer gets the best possible price for his crop?

• How to build an efficient, nation-wide supply chain that allows agri-produce to reach the market with

minimum wastage, pilferage and spoilage?

• How to diversify and add value to rural communities so that the exodus from rural to urban areas can

be significantly reduced?

5. Media

Making Content Relevant & Customized

Average per capita media consumption remains quite low in India. This is due to a combination of illiteracy,

lack of affordability, lack of access and lack of enough relevant content. Low media consumption leads to

low general knowledge levels and lack of awareness about developments in society.

ICT can greatly assist in developing content, delivery platforms and business models that can address the

above issues.


Citizen Journalism

True democracy would mean citizens being able to express opinions and having a say in decisions

concerning their environment. Traditional media has fulfilled this function only partly.

ICT can greatly assist in achieving a cherished ideal of a participative democracy.

Connected-ness in communities

Media is supposed to play a key role as the ‘glue’ that holds the fabric of society or a community together,

by way of building information conduits, interaction and discussion platforms, as well as transactional

platforms. In this respect, traditional mass media suffer from limitations of reach, interactivity and speed.

Considering the above, the ICT innovation challenge in the area of Media is around the following:

• How to create access to media for every Indian citizen, irrespective of social, lingual, financial and

literacy barriers?

• How to create and deliver relevant content and services to each citizen that will bring improvement

in her life and create connectedness with her community and country?

• How to practice true democracy by allowing each citizen to express her needs and grievances?


SSeeccttiioonn 33:: IICCTT

IInnnnoovvaattiioonn:: CCuurrrreenntt

IInniittiiaattiivveess aanndd

FFuuttuurree DDiirreeccttiioonnss

• What are the current innovations and possible future

directions?

• What tipping points if created will add value to large masses of people?

• What are the high impact deployment areas in governanace, health, education, agriculture

and Media?

These key questions are the focus of this section.

While popular public perception may be that the benefits of ICT innovation have mostly accrued to

Western economies – either by way of domestic innovation or by way of outsourcing – and have largely

eluded the Indian economy, our research clearly shows that the last two years have seen a fair amount of

sowing of seeds of ICT innovation across the Indian socio-economic landscape. Indeed, the next two years

may well constitute that ‘tipping point’ post which ICT-enabled business models will rapidly become

mainstream across business domains. When that happens, in terms of harnessing ICT, the Indian society

would ‘get it’, as Malcolm Gladwell the author of ‘The Tipping Point’ might put it.

Below we highlight some noteworthy, potentially high-impact deployment initiatives of ICT across five

domain areas. We have focused on initiatives that have been rolled out in the last 2-3 years; some have

been fully rolled out while others are being deployed. Some are national in scope while others are more

localized. Either way, they constitute what we call ‘lighthouses’. Lighthouses are the early success stories

that we can learn from, as they shape the future of the industry. The intent is to highlight more the

spectrum of deployment, rather than being comprehensive in coverage.

We also point to some future direction or opportunity areas for ICT innovation in each domain. These

future directions have been synthesized and selected after comprehensive research on latest published

opinion from domain experts as well as policy makers. At the same time, only those future directions have

been presented here that have a large impact potential in the wider Indian developmental context.


1. Governance

Current Initiatives

Common Service Centers

On September 21, 2006, under the NeGP ( National e Governance Plan ), the government rolled out a plan

to set-up about 100,000 ICT-based Kiosks known as Common Service Centers (CSCs) across 600,000 villages

across the country (ratio of 1:6) at an outlay of Rs. 5,742 crores. Of this, the GoI’s outlay would be Rs 856

crores, the state governments’ share is approximately Rs 793 crores, the balance Rs 4,093 crores expected

to come from the private sector. These will deliver various services ranging from agriculture, education,

health, finance, banking, etc. The various IT and non-IT services that will be offered include Government to

Citizens (G2C), Business to Consumer (B2C), and Business to Business (B2B). However, the primary focus

will be on G2C services like birth and death certificates, land registration, utility bill payments (electricity,

telephone, mobile etc), form downloads, license, permits, and subsidies. In the times to come most of the

G2C services would be IT-based, such as property tax and legislation, railway tickets booked through smart

cards, etc. The B2C services are mostly IT-centric like market linkages for agricultural commodities, mobile

services, banking and financial services, commercial services (matrimonial, astrology, etc.), education

services, online shopping, trading, and telemedicine. Healthcare is another sector that seeks to benefit

immensely from the CSCs. With the use of telemedicine, doctors can monitor their patients’ health through

CSCs. This will also allow them to take preventive measures, precautions, and diagnose at the right time.

The business model is such that 70% of the revenue would be coming from B2Cs and 30% from G2Cs.

Nearly 14,398 CSCs were operational by October 2008 in 10 states, including Haryana, Gujarat, Madhya

Pradesh, Tripura, Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, and Assam. Currently, the CSC

roll out is in progress in 20 other states. The target is to roll out all the 100,000 CSCs by end of 2009.

The project is a unique example of PPP, since the investment for the project is made by the private investor

known as a ‘Service Center Agency (SCA)’ and the ‘e-Gram Vishwagram Society’.

Program Monitoring and Compliance

Andhra Pradesh Government's rural employment guarantee scheme (NREGA) has successfully automated

the program implementation and monitoring using an end-to-end IT solution developed by TCS. A web-

based data centre aids in the monitoring and review of the scheme on a continuous basis. The solution has

brought transparency to the scheme, reduced frauds significantly and improved efficiency in processes. The

portal www.nrega.ap.gov.in won the bronze in the 'Best Government Website' category at the National e-

Governance Awards 2007-08 instituted by the Government of India.

Corporate information filing and dissemination

The pioneer MCA-21 project undertaken by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, is a multi-faceted program

whose key objective is to help the user conduct business by way of a paperless, secure, digital

environment. Approval of name, company registration, change of company name, issue of certified

documents, filings, inspection of public documents—all procedures that used to take several days, are now

being processed speedily. By the end of 2007, 26.97 lakh documents had been electronically filed; nearly


3.20 lakh company records had been viewed online and 20 registry locations established. The Ministry

claims that the website receives 1.7 million hits a day (read caselet in Section 4).

A recent IIM-A study conducted under the aegis of the National e-governance Plan found the MCA21

programme to have been a benchmark effort, prompting the Ministry to upgrade the project into a Next

Gen MCA21. This initiative won 'Gold' for 'Excellence in Government Process Re-engineering' at the

National e-Governance Awards 2007-08 instituted by the Government of India.

RTI

The Right to Information Act was passed by parliament in 2005 for promoting transparency and

accountability in the system. In theory, it gives the citizens back a little bit of the power that the

government has taken away over the last 60 years. In 2007, about 10 lakh applications were filed to seek

information using RTI. There is one area where the RTI Act has so far been used with great precision—if

any legitimate work was pending in any government department and government officials were not doing

it, either because they expected a bribe or simple bureaucratic lethargy. There are now regular forums,

seminars and blogs that seek to inform and train citizens to use RTI to increase the government

accountability.

Police Function

Technology is starting to penetrate into the Police force of the country. Delhi Police in 2008 launched a

novel scheme where citizens could report any government official demanding bribes, to a SMS hotline

number, using their mobile phones. The process is instant, cheap, easy and circumvents the hugely

deterring process of walking into a police station and registering a complaint. Besides this initiative, sleuths

of Delhi government's Anti-Corruption Branch have stung as many as 13 police personnel using voice and

video recordings over the last six months. From setting up traps, secretly making voice recordings to

capturing video footage with hidden cameras, all this has become a regular feature in investigations at the

Anti-Corruption Branch. In fact, the Branch has even approached Delhi government for purchase of

essential equipment for sting operations so that the process can be organized more thoroughly. Speaking

to Times City, Additional Commissioner of Police (ACB), N Dilip Kumar revealed that the sting operations

had improved investigation results tremendously.

E-Filing IT Returns

From 2008 onwards, every adult citizen needs to file returns using online ITR (Income Tax Return) forms. All

corporate deductors since FY 2003-04 and all government deductors since FY 2004-05, have been filing

Income tax returns for deduction of tax at source (TDS) as well as tax collected at source (TCS), only in

electronic form.

Future Directions

According to the recent WEF ‘Global Information Technology’ Report, India ranks 44 out of 122 countries

analyzed, we are behind countries like Barbados, Latvia, Tunisia, Thailand and the Slovak Republic. Indeed,

there is tremendous potential for e-governance to benefit citizens exponentially and maximize gains. Some

potential opportunities:


Citizen Identity

The multi-purpose National Identity Card (MNIC) project was announced way back in 2002. The pilot

project of providing such cards was over in March 2008 with distribution of about 12 lakh cards, mainly in

border states. Unfortunately, the project has not yet been extended to cover the entire economy. Recently,

the Chief Justic of India K.G.Balakrishnan was quoted as saying, “It has to be done. Every Indian should have

such a card on the basis of which admission to schools, colleges or employment could be given. It should be

the identity of every individual who’s a citizen of this country.” Clearly, there are multiple advantages of

such a card, not least in eliminating the huge problem of illegal immigrants into the country. It is a solution

that finds wide application in police work, welfare scheme administration, electoral roll preparation, census

activities, commercial transactions, etc.

Police Function

Online filing of cases could help in doing away with the hassle that a complainant goes through while

physically going to a police station and dealing with the police personnel there. It will also ensure that cases

are indeed filed and scope for bribery can be eliminated.

Police officers arrest a significant number of people who are wanted in other jurisdictions. Mobile data

solutions can enable officers to run automated queries directly from their police vehicles on persons and

vehicles of interest against state and national databases. Information sharing solutions can provide law

enforcement officers with the ability to act swiftly, creating greater efficiencies and minimizing booking

mistakes.

Technology for RTI

Although the RTI is being used heavily by activists and NGOs, there is an opportunity to make it far more

effective and useful for the common citizen if some existing problems are resolved. In practice, the RTI is a

great tool that isn’t within easy reach of everyone. The reason for that is what public choice theorists call

‘rational ignorance’—the costs of chasing down such information, in terms of time spent, are generally

greater than the benefit to any one person. Also, with the RTI so far, information remains dispersed.

Individuals and NGOs get information on subjects that interest them, but by and large it remains

inaccessible to the common man. Whenever there is a huge backlog of cases at a particular place, the

information commissioners travel to those places for a few days and hold hearings. Activists complain that

in many states, the phone lines are often jammed. Many times, the person framing the questions of the

applicant is himself not much aware about the RTI Act and thereby fails to trap the corrupt bureaucrats. It

is also seen in some cases that the questions are not framed according to the desire of the applicant. This

results in wrong interpretation of the information furnished by the applicant.

Several opportunity areas exist. For example, if there was a central database, perhaps using a wiki

interface, where anyone who got public information using RTI could upload that information. This would

mean avoidance of effort duplication and fast access to information. Just browsing through such a resource

should provide much insight about how the government works and its existence may act as a deterrent to

corruption. Second, any solutions that make it easier for the common citizen to file RTI applications,

perhaps by simply filling an online form or even using one’s mobile phone. Third, as a taxpayer, each citizen

should ideally have easy and one-stop access to all information about how his tax money is being spent.

Fourth, to clear the growing backlog of appeals and complaints, suggestions like audio conferencing and

video conferencing have been mooted and partially implemented.


e-procurement

Central Vigilance Commissioner, Pratyush Sinha said in 2007 that the introduction of technology in the

forms of e-procurement and e-payment in all government organizations and PSUs (Public Sector

Undertakings) becomes extremely critical and essential to combat corruption in public procurement. At

present, both, the Government organizations and PSUs make an annual procurement of over Rs. One lakh

crores, he noted.

Wi-Max Networks

WiMAX technology has the potential to bridge India's digital divide, offering broadband services in dense

urban and suburban areas, rural broadband connectivity to enable high speed wireless applications and

services, and enterprise broadband access across the country. As of August 2008, there were more than

305 deployments of WiMAX networks in more than 118 counties. In 2008, the government took a concrete

step forward by auctioning spectrum such that it provides for consumers with much needed broadband

connectivity across the diverse economic and social needs of the entire population. The WiMAX Forum®

projects that more than 27.5 million Indians will be WiMAX users by 2012, around 20% of the world total.

Network roll-outs are expected by end of 2009.

Enterprise and Public security applications

Secured networks are essential to the mission of public-sector organizations, from federal defense and

civilian agencies to state and local governments. These organizations face security threats to their

infrastructure, both from internal and external sources. Most organizations are so focused on protecting

their critical network infrastructure from the myriad of intrusion, virus, spam, and other externally

originated risks that they miss the warning signs of internal exposures. Threats which may originate from

within internal networks include: Confidential customer data being stolen or transmitted outside of the

trusted internal network; Inappropriate communications, content, or activities being transmitted from,

within, or conducted within or from behind the enterprise firewalls; Theft or loss of extremely sensitive

information such as budgets, project plans etc; Surreptitious monitoring of privileged internal electronic

communications.

In addition to network security, Access Control and Identity Management is an area of focus and growing

technology investment. Biometric and smart-card based technologies are especially coming to the

forefront, both to ensure secure and authorized access to government facilities, but also in public

applications like National ID cards, Drivers Licenses, etc. Many city and state governments are looking to

advanced security technologies to issue new Drivers licenses that incorporate multiple identity processes to

reduce fraud and ensure that each driver has one identity record and one driver’s license.

Collaborative and Joined-Up Government

"Joined-Up Working" refers to collaborative working across government departmental boundaries to

tackle shared issues. Achieving joined-up government is important, because rolling out modernization

agenda requires that policies, issues and programs are addressed which cut across departmental

boundaries, such as tackling social exclusion, fostering small businesses or protecting the environment.

Joined up services can be enabled by significant developments in Internet technology, making it far easier

to integrate existing networks with web technology. Content management systems and search technology

has come of age and, as a result, it is now far easier to link websites and deliver content to multiple

websites, in real-time. Combined with the ability to build-in sophisticated registration systems and


geographical databases, it is also now far easier for users to retrieve information more relevant to their

individual requirements. The scope for joined-up services is huge. Collaborative projects can involve many

councils, local authorities, government departments or delivery partners. They can provide a single

reference point for a whole host of topics including healthcare, highways, education and learning, benefits

and housing. They can be targeted at specific groups or demographic areas and can offer economies of

scale and greater accessibility to the people they serve.

2. Health

Current Initiatives

Common Service Centers

The 100,000 common Service Centers being setup under the NeGP will also deliver the following healthcare

related services, information and advice to the citizens: Vaccination Schedule; Maternity Care; Family

Planning; Medicines; Ambulance Services and Transportation; Hospital / Primary Health Centers

information; Blood Bank; Life Saving Drugs; Doctor’s Database; Appointment with Doctors; E-Diagnostics;

and Materials Management System (Medicines).

Telemedicine

ISRO's Telemedicine initiative has been pioneering and broad-based in terms of providing Telemedicine

Connectivity between remote/rural hospital and Super Speciality Hospital for Teleconsultation, Treatment

and Training; Connectivity for Continuing Medical Education (CME) between Medical Colleges & Post

Graduate Medical Institutions/Hospitals; Connectivity for Mobile Telemedicine units for rural health camps;

and Connectivity for Disaster Management Support and Relief. As of mid 2007, ISRO's Telemedicine

Network consists of 221 Hospitals - 181 Remote/Rural/District Hospitals/Health Centers connected to 40

Super Speciality Hospitals located in the major cities. One of the key factors to success of Telemedicine in

India is going to be the reliability of telecommunication link. In this context, it is of considerable significance

the commitment made by ISRO Chairman to provide free bandwidth for the purpose of Telemedicine and

Tele-education. ISRO has been deploying satellite based telemedicine nodes in collaboration with state

governments. So far it has deployed around 250 nodes across the country.

Apollo Hospitals, through its Apollo Telemedicine Network Foundation (ATNF), has been amongst the

Telemedicine pioneers from the private sector. It has set up over 45 Telemedicine Centres across different

locations in the country and abroad (read caselet in Section 4). Other providers who run Telemedicine

networks include the Narayana Hrudayalaya Foundation and Aravind Eye Foundation.

Indian company Telebiomedical is developing technology for monitoring ECG, blood pressure values, blood

glucose level, pulse oximeter, weight and other vital signs over the phone. Their Heartline ECG monitoring

product series is a full range of devices for remote diagnostic and emergency service applications.

Another initiative worth watching is from Piramal Healthcare, who have started a rural healthcare pilot in

Rajasthan. The idea is based around specially trained nurses that are locally stationed in villages and

communicate back to doctors at a central hospital via SMS.


Patient Health Record

The Health Information Exchange, run by eHealth-Care Foundation (eHCF) a New Delhi based Not for Profit

Organization, is an Health IT interoperability initiative that facilitates the secure bidirectional electronic

exchange of patient medical information between two facilities. 'eHealth-Care' project’s emphasis is on

building the National Health History Database for each and every citizen of India. It is a web based patient

care system that tracks a patient's health record from the time of their joining the network and for as long

as the patients manage to provide authenticated health data. It offers them an opportunity to maintain

their health record and authorize their physicians to access it as needed. There is also an application for the

physicians to manage their medical practice. That includes keeping all their patient data on the web,

capability to manage their accounts and billing.

Future Directions

Telemedicine

While there are over 20,000 PHC’s providing primary care services in the rural areas, and about 500 district

hospitals, Telemedicine has reached to only about 1% of these centers and more than 50% of them are in

the urban centers only. If we were to look at a five- year horizon for Telemedicine in India, efforts would be

considered successful only if we have Telemedicine reaching out to at least all district and Taluk level

hospitals throughout the country. The majority of semi-urban and rural areas do not have appropriate wire

line network for data connectivity. Setting up a wired communication network across the country would

not be feasible, as it would require huge Capex and a considerable amount of time. The most feasible way

to provide broadband access would be through wireless technologies like GSM and WiMax.

Telemedicine-driven shift to ‘preventive’ healthcare

Currently the major scope areas of telemedicine are teleconsultation, telediagonosis and teletreatment,

and the focus is on making medical treatment available to people in remote settings. This is just one way

telemedicine can be used, because it holds great promise within mainstream health care. The big challenge

is to reach the patients and even healthy consumers to deliver preventive care. In the long term, it may be

less about providing long-distance care to people who are unwell, and more about monitoring people using

wearable or implanted sensors in an effort to spot diseases at an early stage. Countless trials are under way

to assess technology that can monitor people who have been diagnosed with heart conditions, or diseases

like diabetes, from the comfort of their own homes. Rather than having their devices periodically checked

at a clinic, some pacemaker patients can now have their implants inspected via mobile phone. That way,

they need only visit the clinic when it is absolutely necessary. “It’s moving from telemedicine to telehealth

and teleprevention,” says Dr Grundy of IBM. It could also improve the efficiency of health-care systems, he

says. The shift from telemedicine to telehealth reflects a broader shift from diagnosis and treatment to

“wellness”. If sensors can monitor people without a threat to their privacy or comfort, doctors may able to

spot diseases before the patient notices any symptoms. Taken to its technological conclusion, this would

involve using wireless sensors and implants to screen entire populations for early signs of disease as they

go about their daily lives. New tools and applications for reaching this level could catapult the entire

healthcare landscape of India.

A globally noted reference point in telemedicine is IBM’s Tristan project. This small huddle of volcanic

islands, with a population of just 269, sits in the middle of the South Atlantic, 1,750 miles from South Africa


and 2,088 miles from South America. The islanders have access to some of the most advanced medical

facilities in the world, thanks to Project Tristan, an elaborate experiment in telemedicine. A satellite-

internet connection to a 24-hour emergency medical centre in America enables an American specialist to

send digitised X-rays, ECGs and lung-function tests to experts. He can consult specialists over a video link

when he needs to. The system even enables cardiologists to test and reprogram pacemakers or implanted

defibrillators from the other side of the globe. Most of the technology this requires is readily available, and

it was surprisingly simple to set up, says Paul Grundy, a health-care expert at IBM. The biggest difficulty, he

says, was to install the satellite-internet link.

University of California’s CellScope is an excellent indication of how healthcare diagnostics will increasingly

turn mobile. The CellScope is a cheap attachment that turns the digital camera on many of today's mobile

handsets into a microscope, which can be used for testing blood samples to diagnose endemic diseases like

malaria (read caselet in Section 4).

Wireless and Mobility Solutions to improve patient care

Currently, most hospital staff like doctors and nurses carry out bedside charting on a paper chart. Often,

reading someone else’s writing can be difficult; perhaps the information gets misinterpreted or just mis-

keyed. Many times, handwritten entries have to wait until the end of a shift or are passed off to someone

else to enter. Hospitals have an opportunity to implement wireless infrastructures that allow clinicians to

perform tasks like real-time on wireless handheld devices.

Another promising area is wireless voice. With an 802.11-enabled badge hanging around their neck,

healthcare workers can talk with co-workers hands-free, enabling a surgeon in the operating room to call

an emergency page to cardiology and receive a response in real time.

Wireless telemetry, or monitoring, can make the difference between having patients physically tied to

certain rooms in hospitals versus gaining the freedom to move them or let them move themselves around

the hospital - this not only improves patient well-being but allows mani-fold increase in effective capacity.

With much more reliable and powerful in-building wireless connectivity, portable heart monitors and other

measurement equipment can allow greater flexibility as to where staff can locate patients who need such

devices and in allowing those patients to move about with greater freedom. Expanded wireless coverage

can also make it possible for patients and their families to stay better in touch using mobile phones, an

important capability in light of the fact that people are often moved between different rooms as their care

evolves.

Health Insurance Penetration

There is growing appreciation by Insurance companies of the need to innovate on business models as well

as use ICT to increase health insurance coverage. An interesting example is that of MNYL ‘Max Vijay’

scheme, an insurance product designed specifically for under-served segment of the society. It is an

Insurance Savings Box which addresses the twin needs of protection and long-term wealth creation. Aimed

at making insurance available in every nook and corner of the country, Max Vijay would also be sold in

neighbourhood stores, microfinance institutions and NGOs, among others. For Max Vijay, IBM would use

wireless hand-held devices, which enable data transfer through GPRS to the back-end system and facilitate

on-the-spot issuance of insurance policies. IBM will also provide service to various functions of Max Vijay,

including insurance policy system administration, policy setup, new business processing and customer care.


3. Education

Current Initiatives

Satellite based education

In 2004, ISRO launched EDUSAT, the world's first dedicated educational satellite at that time. EDUSAT's

dedicated function will substantially improve the service provided. It will use the virtual classroom concept

to offer education to children in remote villages, quality higher education to students in areas without

access to good technical institutes, adult literacy programmes and training modules for teachers. The

infrastructure of EDUSAT is being utilized by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) for

curriculum-based education, teachers’ training, professional educational courses and for conducting

teleconferencing sessions for software content generation. National Council for Educational Research and

Training (NCERT) also conducts inter-active orientation/training programmes of teachers and teachers’

educators. As of mid-2007, 14 states and union territories were using the satellite. All educational

institutions having Satellite Interactive Terminals (SITs) or Receive Only Terminals (ROTs) can now receive

educational programs from EDUSAT.

Classroom teaching aids

A number of ICT providers have developed solutions that allow classroom teaching to become more

effective, enriching and engaging. For example, MEdRC EduTech is a digital healthcare education initiative,

aligning with the national requirement of 700,000 qualified doctors & 10, 00,000 nurses. It has built an

innovative repository of multimedia rich learning objects with lectures delivered by eminent medical

teachers across the nation, which would enable flexible and easy retrieval, customisation, reconfiguration,

sharing of existing learning and teaching resources from different sources (universities), adoptable to a

wide range of delivery methods Another example - Developed by Edurite Technology, DigitAlly is designed

to assist the teaching community in adding multimedia objects to their teaching slides, thus empowering

students with multimedia rich learning objects creating a classroom experience.

e-Learning and Virtual Learning: eLearning comprises both Computer-based Training (CBT)

CBT which refers to the use of computers in both instruction and management of both teaching and

learning, and Web-Based Training (WBT). Due to limited PC and Internet penetration in households, so far

eLearning has been adopted more by the corporate sector and in a limited way by individuals. The scope

has included online tutorials, mock competitive tests, vocational education in a variety of domains, and

career enriching courses.

Some providers are also providing Live Virtual Classroom connectivity, for example, Gurukul online

Solutions, which provides this connectivity to over 175 cities across India.

Building Multi-lingual capability into Learning

A good reference point is the EducompTM MagiKeys solution, a unique software application that allows

millions of Government school students to surf the web, email, chat and write documents in their mother

tongue. It supports 11 Indian languages, namely Hindi, Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam,

Punjabi, Urdu, Telugu, Bengali and Konkani. It provides a user-friendly, Indian language, Online Word

Processor, with virtual keyboard. The dynamic virtual keyboard provides the first comprehensive Indian


languages data entry tool. What is also remarkable is the way a technology developed outside - MagiKeys

has been developed by Israel based software company FTK Technologies Ltd – has been customized and

introduced to create wide impact in the Indian context by Educomp, supported by Intel.

Employability for physically disadvantaged

The employment rate of the disabled in India has been extremely poor. According to statistics provided by

the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP) only 1 lakh out of the of 7

crore disabled in the country (7% of the total population of 1 billion people are estimated to be disabled)

have been employed in 'regular' jobs over the last 45 years (since the first special employment exchange

was set up by the Government of India in 1959). This, even after the Disability Act was passed in 1995

mandating a 3 % reservation for the disabled in Government jobs. A stellar example has been set by Enable

India, whose aim is to empower every person with disability to live a life of dignity and economic

independence. Started by two software engineers, the organization has built a dedicated technology centre

which enables the employment, education and rehabilitation of persons with disability with the help of

assistive technology and aids, and to research, produce, and/or initiate new development in the area of

assistive technology and devices for the disabled (see caselet in Section 4). .

Future Directions

e-Learning and Virtual Learning

In most developed countries, online education has been established as a viable and highly value-adding

platform for education. India has suffered, not on account of dearth of technological expertise but due to

lack of scale, primarily due to poor penetration of Broadband. However, with the recent encouraging

growth in broadband connections, the online platform is emerging as a highly scalable, flexible and cost-

effective one. University of Phoenix, the world’s largest online university that will have by 2010 around

500,000 students on its rolls, is a good role model for Indian education providers to emulate. Online

education has the potential not only to help the student, but also the teachers. India, on the one hand,

suffers an acute shortage of qualified teachers and on the other hand, has millions of qualified women and

retired people who could contribute in a big way to overcome this shortage by contributing skills via the

online platform. Tutorvista, a pioneering Indian company that deploys the same model but for remotely

teaching students in the West, is an excellent example that can do with widespread replication in India.

Computer-assisted learning

In October 2007, Reliance Communication announced a collaboration with One Laptop Per Child (OLPC)

Foundation. OLPC’s vision is to create educational opportunities for the world's poorest children by

providing each child with a rugged, low-cost, low-power, connected laptop with content and software

designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowered learning. R-Com would now be providing Internet

connectivity, network and logistics to the OLPC’s India initiative. They are now inviting state governments,

NGOs, corporates and media to join this collaborative project. Riding on R-Com’s network, children across

25,000 towns and 6,00,000 Indian villages would have networked by March 2008.

Digital books or eBooks is a revolution waiting to happen for many years but it is now that real progress is

being seen around the world. Nearer home, In SriLanka, the DAISY Lanka Foundation (DLF) has set a good

example by coming up with special Digital Talking Books (DTBs) to overcome the acute dearth of reading-


matter for the print-disabled community of Sri Lanka. The aim is to achieve inclusion and integration of

people with print disabilities in to mainstream society.

M-Learning

India could really cut short its gaping deficit in basic education by fully leveraging the potential of learning

through the mobile platform. Today, around 300 million Indians own a mobile phone, projected to reach

nearly 500 million by 2011. The mobile platform enjoys unrivalled reach, affordability, versatility and

suitability to the Indian context, with its large size, poor infrastructure and low spending power. An

excellent example of the Indian corporate initiative is the Tata Teleservices m-education service, launched

in beginning of 2008 (see caselet in Section 4).

Improving employability

If there is one thing that can contribute the most to improving Indian economy’s ICOR (incremental capital

output ratio), i.e. the units of economic output generated per additional unit of capital, it is improving the

employability of our human resources. In this direction, the ICT-led virtual training offerings from the likes

of Tata Interactive, 24x7 learning, NIIT and Aptech, are highly encouraging. However, it is when such

players start collaborating with National institutions like the ITI and National platforms like the NREGA

(National Rural Employment Guarantee) that the leap in employability will be truly felt.

IP or wireless Networking of campuses

An increasing number of higher education institutions, especially in the western hemisphere, are deploying

all-IP networks, to gain a powerful, flexible foundation for a wealth of new capabilities, including: a single,

converged infrastructure that can support voice, data and video; Usage of feature-rich IP or SIP phones;

Enabling faculty and staff to access messages at any time, from anywhere, over a wide array of devices;

New presence capabilities that can eliminate time-consuming phone tag; Speech-driven menus that allow

callers to reach the proper department and to access directories or other standard information; access to

emergency services. Similarly, many multi-campus institutions are choosing to network their multiple sites

using wireless technology. Not only does it provide secure wireless connectivity across the campuses,

wireless networks also allow for access by visiting faculty and international staff and students. This gives

students the flexibility they need to access the network anywhere, anytime, assuming they have the proper

credentials, and gives the University peace of mind against rogue access. In addition, they provide easier

network access by resident students that live away from the computer labs or libraries on campus. These

new networks will help schools gain the capacity for future developments in e-learning, learning platforms

and educational ICT systems across the county, such as the potential for voice over IP (VoIP) and video

conferencing.

Classroom teaching aids

There are many interesting possibilities of using technology in the classroom, to deliver a more enjoyable,

engaging and effective learning experience. These include:

• Equipping each classroom with a ceiling mounted projected and interactive screen. This can be used to

show movies or television programming piped in through a fiber-optic cable network. It can also be

used to display screens from the World Wide Web. A teacher, for example, could show the class how to

conduct a Google search while doing research for a class project.

• Equipping each classroom with desktops with broadband connectivity


• Students who miss a day of class no longer need to beg their peers for their notes. New technology is

allowing for lectures to be digitally recorded, stored in an archive and made retrievable to students

who are given access.

• “Point and click” digital video access to provide teachers with educational multimedia resources

4. Agriculture

Current Initiatives

Timely access and deployment of information

An excellent example has been set by Lifelines Agriculture, a service that uses a combination of internet

and telephony to help far-flung farming communities connect with experts to look for solutions and thus

boost their ability to earn better incomes (read caselet in Section 4).

Transparency and efficiency in Grain Procurement & Distribution

An excellent example has been set by Dhan Kharidi OnLine, a Chhattisgarh Government initiative that

comprises over 1,500 computerised procurement centres across 18 districts to purchase paddy. This has

resulted in saving money for the government, fair and transparent prices to farmers, easy inventory

management, and elimination of wastage and fraud. In addition, a database-driven Unified Ration Card

scheme for 3.4 million people in the state has resulted in automated grain allocation to each PDS family

and a mechanism to report and detect fraud (read caselet in Section 4).

Dis-intermediated Agri-commodities Trading

The pioneer has clearly been ITC’s eChoupal initiative, currently reaching 6,000 villages. It has

demonstrated how an ICT-driven infrastructure can lead to eliminating information asymmetries, fair and

transparent buying and selling of goods and services.

Future Directions

Use of sensor technology

Sensor technology holds exciting potential for improving farm productivity and heralding the next ‘Green

Revolution’. Sensors placed in the fields can monitor, measure and relay conditions like temperature,

humidity, light, water levels, etc, which then enables the farmer to take swift corrective or remedial action

as needed. This information also helps in taking optimal harvesting decisions, crop forecasts, and sowing

decisions.

Trials are underway in many western countries, and if successful, could result in applications where crops

may soon provide information to farmers about when they need water and how much should be delivered.

A trial is underway at University of Colorado at Boulder, that deploys a tiny sensor that can be clipped to

plant leaves charting their thickness, a key measure of water deficiency and accompanying stress. Data


from the leaves could be sent wirelessly over the Internet to computers linked to irrigation equipment,

ensuring timely watering, cutting down on excessive water and energy use and potentially saving farmers

in Colorado millions of dollars per year.

Remote Sensing and GPS assisted farming

Remotely sensed images taken from satellites and aircraft provide a means to assess field conditions

without physically touching them from a point of view high above the field. Coupled with global positioning

system (GPS) technology and geographic information systems (GIS), remote sensing offers potential for

improving farm management practices.

Remotely sensed images can be used to identify nutrient deficiencies, diseases, water deficiency or surplus,

weed infestations, insect damage, hail damage, wind damage, herbicide damage, and plant populations.

Information from remote sensing can be used as base maps in variable rate applications of fertilizers and

pesticides. Information from remotely sensed images allows farmers to treat only affected areas of a field.

Problems within a field may be identified remotely before they can be visually identified. Ranchers use

remote sensing to identify prime grazing areas, overgrazed areas or areas of weed infestations. Lending

institutions use remote sensing data to evaluate the relative values of land by comparing archived images

with those of surrounding fields. For monitoring land degradation process, remote sensing and GIS are

considered the most effective tools.

RFID for animal ID and tracing farm produce

The use of RFID is especially useful for the identification of the animals. After the spate of animal and

poultry epidemics in recent years like the Foot and Mouth Disease and Bird Flu, governments around the

world have had to adopt sweeping vigilance measures. This will allow for rapid tracing of animals and

poultry during an outbreak situation. Information gathered in the system can also be used in marketing and

animal management, among other applications. Traceability is vital to India’s disease response abilities. If

you can’t locate (diseased) animals, what assurance can you give to other states, or to your trading

partners that you can quickly locate and eradicate the diseases you find.

International trade in live animals has also undergone changes in recent past. All live animals being shipped

internationally must be microchipped; this is an international rule and regulation.

RFID usage is beginning to happen in India. For example, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing

Federation is using RFID to tag buffaloes. RFID scanning equipment can be used to enter or scan an animal's

ID tag and instantly view the animal's previous performance, and to know how each animal is doing.


5. Media

Current Initiatives

Citizen Journalism

Blogs are widely credited with bringing about a fundamental change in the way journalism is shifting

towards a democratic and participative pursuit by ordinary citizens. This is leading to true expression of

public opinion. In India, while Blogs are mostly an urban literate phenomenon, other Citizen/Community

Journalism platforms are beginning to take root. CGnet – a platform for the people of Chhattisgarh, is an

excellent example. It is an effort to start a dialogue between tribal and other people with the help of ICT. It

is, in effect, an ''E Gram Panchayat of the people of Chhattisgarh'', where people raise their developmental

issues with the help of ICT and discuss debate and act on it. Development cannot happen until each strata

of the country is brought into its fold, and CGNet is working towards that end (read caselet in Section 4).

Platforms that are locally relevant

Media consumption in India is still quite low due to limited local relevance of most national media – be it

TV, newspapers or radio. ICT is now enabling both a fragmentation of media as well as rapid proliferation

into locally focused content that targets a niche audience. The example of SMSOne, which is dedicated to

building Micro-Communities through Community Journalism and Mobile Networking, is a powerful

demonstration of the potential of ICT-enabled media to combine community-building and employment

generation in one innovative business model (read caselet in Section 4).

Future Directions

Enabling multi-channel access to content (Digital convergence)

Programming and platform providers now need to reach users through different display devices, from

television and computer screens to mobile phones. These displays each have their own distinct

characteristics and user requirements. Each delivery network has its own technical considerations. Creating

an integrated proposition that works well across all of them is a particular challenge.

Building Multi-lingual capability into Media

Majority of worldwide published media, whether it is in print, audio, TV format, is in English language. Since

less than 10% of India can understand English, building multi-lingual capabilities into media publishing and

access can open up a world of information, knowledge and insight to 90% of Indians. Such solutions may

take the form of media generation in regional languages in the first place; translation (text-to-text, text-to-

voice, voice-to-text) post-publishing; or translation at the point of readership.

P a g e | 31 Copyright @ 2009 Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved

SSeeccttiioonn 44:: LLiigghhttHHoouussee

CCaassee ssttuuddiieess

We present below 10 short case-studies – two per area – of what ICT

innovation is delivering or promises to deliver in the Indian context.

The purpose is to create some reference points in the minds of the

reader and create a map of possibilities.

1. Governance

MCA21: Corporate Affairs Made Easy

Red tape Tussle

‘In India, the state holds an absolute monopoly over most of the delivery of basic services. This means that

for most of the citizens, there is no exit option available to move from an unresponsive and unreliable

provider.’ These lines are from an old issue of Dataquest, the IT magazine. They sum up in a nutshell

everything that is wrong with governance in the country.

In a report titled ‘Doing Business in 2007’ the World Bank placed India at 134th in the ‘Ease of Doing

Business’ category, 88th in ‘Starting a Business’ and 155th in ‘Dealing with Licenses’. It takes 35 days to

incorporate a company in India, compared with less than a week in the US.

For years now the dreaded Red Tape has dominated the public’s dealings with the government. More so

when it comes to corporate affairs. The National e-Governance Plan or NeGP was constituted in 2006 to

use ICT to make life easier for the common man. So it is that the MCA21 came into being.

Boon for Companies

MCA21 is a flagship e-governance programme of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Implemented in

collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services, the portal became operative in 2006. It was meant to herald

a new era of public-private partnership by bringing speed, efficiency and transparency to a range of

services. Most of all, the public would no longer need to make the rounds of the Registrar of Company

offices.

MCA21 is a multi-faceted programme whose key objective is to help the user conduct business. Those who

register into the 24X7 portal are given a Director Identification Number (DIN); around 7 lakh have been

issued so far. The DIN is a kind of tracking device that includes important personal particulars of the

applicant (a role-check function has been incorporated to authenticate the submitted documents) and is

Copyright @ 2009 Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt Ltd. All rights reserved P a g e | 32

therefore a powerful deterrent to fraud. A service request can be tracked with a Service Request Number

(SRN). In addition, forms can be submitted with the aid of a Digital Signature Certificate (DSC). All of these

features are unique MCA21. And of course there are facilities for making payments through credit cards,

Internet banking or even DDs.

Capacity building through information sharing is another goal of the programme. The stakeholders are

corporate entities, the public, professionals, banks and financial institutions and the government.

Taking MCA21 to the Next Level

By the end of 2007, 26.97 lakh documents had been electronically filed; nearly 3.20 lakh companiy records

had been viewed online and 20 registry locations established.

The Ministry claims that the website receives 1.7 million hits a day. Approval of name, company

registration, change of company name, issue of certified documents, filings, inspection of public

documents—all procedures that used to take several days, are now being processed speedily.

A recent IIM-A study conducted under the aegis of the National e-governance Plan found the MCA21

programme to have been a benchmark effort, prompting the Ministry to upgrade the project into a Next

Gen MCA21.

Ministry of Corporate Affairs Secretary Anurag Goel believes the new MCA21 should be given the teeth to

‘make it possible to take up effective regulation and enforcement through at all stages, including

inspections, investigations and prosecutions,’ particularly relevant in light of the recent Satyam fiasco.

By all accounts, the new avatar, when it is ready, will be fitted with features that are absent in the current

version in order to enable taking the programme to another level, rather than merely upgrade already

existing features.

Gujarat: Perfecting through Innovation

E-nabling Better Communication through E-governance

There is no doubt that ICT has revolutionised the way we live and work. Not only have e-mail, the Internet

and cell phones become part of our day to day life, but they have made possible innovations in

innumerable spheres of activity. Perhaps one of the most significant advances has been in the space of

governance. By enabling the government to establish instant contact with the people, e-governance has

brought the administrators dramatically closer to the public.

The advantages of e-governance have been enumerated time and again—procedures are transparent,

paperwork reduced, both the government and people save time and money, planning and monitoring are

made easy etc.

A recent study undertaken by the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, reveals that not only has e-

governance significantly reduced the number of trips one would normally have to make to a government

office to get something done, but instances of corruption are down by 29%. In many cases waiting time has


gone down by up to 40%. The study examined 36 projects from 12 states and included citizen reactions.

But Prof. Subhash Bhatnagar of IIM-A also added that e-governance has not had much of an impact in

departments where ‘collusive bribery’ was present. The fact that there is room for manipulation despite

computerisation of records shows that we still have a long way to go to improve citizen-government

interaction.

Leading by Example

Perhaps the Government of Gujarat can show the way. The state government website proudly informs you

the Gujarat has the largest optical fibre wide area network in Asia, covering 50,000 kms. But it is not

infrastructure alone that has led to Gujarat being the leading state when it has come to e-governance

innovations. The ability to put available technology to the best possible use through sustained originality is

what has proved to be the winning formula.

All 141 municipalities of the state have been computerised. There are Citizen Facilitation Centres in major

locations. The concept of one-day governance via computerised civic centres has been taken up and

implemented at district, taluk and municipal level. At the village level, all 14, 000 gram panchayats are now

e-grams that have computers and internet connectivity.

It is not surprising, therefore, that the state has long been at the cutting edge of innovation in the e-

governance space. As far back as 2002, a UN world development report lauded Gujarat’s motor vehicle

department for its technologically advanced computerised inter-state check post system that brought

down corruption to negligible levels. Not only were other states exhorted to replicate this model but a San

Fransisco-based foundation thought the scheme was fool-proof enough to be tried out in other third world

countries as well.

E-procurement: Business as Usual

One of Gujarat’s latest initiatives has been in the area of e-procurement. The scheme is not a new one—

Andhra Pradesh has had a very successful model prior to this, and several other states have followed suit in

its wake—but what is commendable is the speed with which it has tasted success in Gujarat.

E-procurement was introduced in Gujarat in January 2007. It is now mandatory for every government

tender over the value of Rs 10 lakh to be floated only through this online bidding system. By August 2008

the service was attracting almost 500 tenders a month—the value of the tenders touching a whopping

15,000 crores. The process is completely transparent and the number of registered bidders is growing by

the day. The facility has been a hit with firms engaged in civil engineering, auctioning and outsourcing. 118

government departments are active participants; e-procurement has also been used extensively by the

Sardar Sarovar Narmada Nigam Limited (SSNNL) and the Gujarat Narmada Valley Fertilisers Company.

Taxation system

In 2008 the Gujarat government won the NASSCOM award for ‘Best IT adoption through e-governance’ for

a computerized VAT collection system that allows e-filing of returns, e-payment, e-registration and e-

refund.

SWAGAT: Welcome to the Real World


An exciting new initiative called SWAGAT Online (State-Wide Attention on Public Grievance by Application

of Technology) allows the citizens to directly address the Chief Minister. On an appointed date every

month, people air their grievances through an online procedure and receive responses within three to four

hours. At 3 pm the Chief Minister holds a video conference in which all districts participate and

complainants get to interact with officials from concerned departments. All important officials of the

government including district collectors, police officials and project development officers are present at

this meet. Solutions are arrived at on the spot so that no applicant leaves disappointed. Records of every

single case are maintained in the SWAGAT database.

The Commonwealth Telecom Organization and University of Manchester have hailed SWAGAT as an

excellent model of e-transparency.

Gujarat won the Government of India award for the best e-governed state in 2007.

Congratulations

2. Health

CellScope: A Mobile Lab in the Making

Mobile phones seem to be every inventor’s favourite gadget for modification. With models offering new

features unveiled almost every other month, one wonders why medicine and health related applications

have been largely ignored by the industry.

Remote consulting for diagnosis and treatment is not new to the medical world and modern telemedicine

is almost three decades old. Yet, the use of mobile phone handsets as an important and integral tool in its

practise has yet to come of age.

Developments in the last couple of years are now set to change that, and one is particular holds much

promise for India. According to a report in the Economist in May 2008, a group of researchers at the

University of California, Berkeley, has developed a cheap attachment to turn the digital camera on many of

today's mobile handsets into a microscope.

A Closer Look at Cells

The Berkeley team’s work with developing a basic and low-cost design for the attachment, which is called

CellScope, makes it possible for the add-on device to be mass-produced and sold for less than 5,000

rupees. Its potential can be gauged by the fact that Microsoft and Nokia are already showing tremendous

interest. The device can show individual white and red blood cells, which means that with the correct stain

it can be used to identify the parasite that causes malaria. Moreover, by transmitting an image over the

wireless network, CellScope could greatly help with the diagnosis and monitoring of many illnesses.

The diagnosis of malaria, which is endemic in India, was the first test the researchers validated because it

demands a high-quality image. Eventually, CellScope could well become an indispensable aid to the

clinician to enable more complex diagnoses. Someone with a small amount of training would be able to


take and stain blood samples and then capture and transmit images to an expert who could identify the

disease-causing organism, or the ailment, or even the progress of a particular course of treatment.

Experts also believe that the new feature can make a difference to farmers in remote locations by helping

them send detailed pictures of sick crops.

The images would also help create digital records, making it easier to monitor community-wide health

interventions.

Boon for Healthcare

The CellScope project is still at a nascent stage and it might take a while before it becomes accessible to the

user. However, it promises to take healthcare to a new level. In the Indian context, about 600 million

people live in the rural hinterland with a vast majority of this populace having little or no access to

comprehensive primary healthcare, forget secondary or tertiary care. Also, the reluctance of the medical

fraternity to travel and work in smaller towns and villages has been well documented, with both economic

and academic factors being the main deterrents. And even when doctors are available or the villager is able

to reach a doctor in a neighbouring town, there are often no laboratory facilities for diagnostic tests. In a

profession where time is of the essence, what better than to have a lab at ones fingertips.

ATNF: Pioneering Telemedicine in India

Healthcare: A Sector in Crisis

A leap of faith is what many rural folk make when they decide to consult a practitioner of modern

medicine. But even if they are willing to make that leap of faith, unfortunately for a majority of our

nation’s more than 700 million village dwellers, a doctor is not at hand to seek treatment from.

This lack of medical care and basic health facilities is taking a painful and costly toll in the form of at least a

million lives, mostly of women and children, being lost every year. And despite the periodic efforts of the

central and state governments to try and mandate rural stints for the nation’s doctors, India continues to

have a woeful doctor-patient ratio of 1:25,000 for the vast majority of its 1.2 billion people.

Travel to the nearest town for treatment takes a huge chunk off a villager’s earnings; then there is the

money spent on treatment and medicine. To top it all, absence from job means that daily wages are lost.

And often, despite all this effort, effective treatment is not given on time, bringing to a sorry end the saga

of what was already a losing proposition to begin with.

It is this huge void in our nation’s healthcare needs that telemedicine seeks to address. The concept of

remote consulting is not about getting the patient to the doctor or vice versa, it is more to do with

exploiting the nation’s exploding teledensity in the most positive way, so that the village dweller has virtual

access to quality medical care no matter how distant his settlement.

Here is a look at some of the most impact-creating contributions to telemedicine made by Apollo Hospitals,

one of the largest private players in the healthcare business.


Small Beginnings

Dr. Prathap Reddy’s Apollo Hospitals Group pioneered India’s telemedicine initiative, Apollo Telemedicine

Networking Foundation (ATNF), in 1999. It initially focussed on a small rural population of about 50,000

people living in a cluster of 24 settlements around Aragonda village in Andhra Pradesh. The residents of this

rural area are now able to consult doctors based at Apollo’s tertiary care hospital in Chennai, helping

ensure prompt and appropriate treatment for a host of conditions and all this without disturbing the

tenuous socio-economic threads of their largely agrarian lives. The range of services also includes

preventive healthcare and health insurance

The programme works through ISDN and VSAT, for which ATNF entered into a partnership with ISRO. The

success of the initiative prompted the foundation to extend the facility to 5 other states and 20 districts.

Doctors on Call

In 2007, ATNF partnered with Ericsson in the ground-breaking Gram Jyoti project in rural Tamil Nadu.

Doctors at the Chennai center used 3G wireless technology to get in touch with patients. This was the first

time mobile telephony was used to enable long-distance diagnosis and treatment. Patients were examined

in an Apollo hospital ambulance and Pulse rate, BP, ECG and temperature were transmitted from the

vehicle using wireless technology. High-end digital web cams were used to send pictures.

The success of this experiment has prompted the foundation to sign an MoU with Ericsson for expanding

the telemedicine initiative in other parts of the country using broadband-enabled mobile networks.

Prathap C. Reddy, Chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group, summed it up thus: ‘With the availability of wireless

technology, mobile health will be integrated into the healthcare delivery system. The new mantra could

well be ‘healthcare for anyone, anywhere, anytime.’

Where There is a Will

ATNF currently has 92 operational peripheral centers, 7 of which are abroad. These hubs are spread far and

wide and distances span several thousand kilometers, from Andhra Pradesh, Mizoram, and the Andaman

and Nicobar Islands, to Lagos in Nigeria. More than 20,000 tele-consultations have been carried out from

Chennai alone.

The Apollo effort seems almost insignificant considering the enormity of crisis in the healthcare sector. But

it has also shown that perseverance, dedication and original thinking are all it takes to make a difference.

3. Education

EnAble India: Empowering the disabled.

Unemployment adding to woes of disabled

Physical and mental disability in most cases, makes an individual not only financially dependent on his

family, but also takes away any chance of leading a dignified life of self-respect. In India alone, around 7%

of the population is estimated to be disabled. The fact that only 1 lakh people in India have found

employment over that last 45 years is shocking when the Disability Act mandates a compulsory 3%


reservation for disabled people in Government organizations. What is more disheartening is that, of those

who have found employment, most individuals are doing manual or unskilled jobs. This in turn provides

little income or dignity to the individual.

The reason for the disparity lies in the huge gap between the technical skills available in the disabled,

employable workforce and the related job requirements in organizations. Added to that is the concern

about whether such people would be able to actually contribute to the organizational goals and adjust with

the work environment there.

Taking ICT to Visually, Auditorily and Mentally Challenged

EnAble India works with the aim to empower disabled people and make them economically self dependent.

Through their Employer Outreach Program (EOP), EnAble India has successfully placed over 500 disabled

youth in skill intensive jobs over the last 3 years of operations alone.

The EOP approach is an employer centric methodology to first identify areas where the disabled people will

be able to contribute in organizations and then ensuring that only people equipped with the required skill

sets approach for a job. This not only decreases chances of rejection but also encourages employers to

leverage the benefit of workforce diversity.

EnAble India’s work strategy is aimed at catering to the interests of three parties: Firstly it aims to

empower physically and mentally challenged people by providing supplemental education and counselling.

This includes extensive training on computer based skills e.g. using special MS Office Training for Visually

Impaired.

An organization started by two software engineers, the use of technology has helped in true empowerment

of challenged people. One of their most successful initiatives has been SAFA, Screen Access for All. SAFA is

a low-cost screen reader software based on windows, which transforms text on screen into synthetic

speech. The advantage of this technology is in its financial accessibility (all international software available

being very expensive) and the fact that it is multi-lingual, enabling translation to 10 major Indian languages.

The second target party are organizations. EnAble India not only identifies potential job opportunities in

private organizations but also helps them create a barrier-free workplace for the disabled. This includes

educating employers about providing training material for blind with Braille; sign language interpreter for

hearing impaired during training or ramps for physically disabled. The employer is also told about the

screen reader software JAWS which makes employability of visually impaired people possible.

In turn organizations get to build a truly diverse work force which in most cases also serves as a motivating

factor for other employees.

Thirdly, EnAble India provides consultancy and training support to NGO’s where required. EnAble India has

also collaborated with DAISY consortium to develop modules of digital audio books to enable learning for

the visually impaired people.


A Dignified and Self-dependent life

Working with organizations like Shell Retail, IBM India, Café Coffee day, ITC Hotels, Mphasis and Magus

Customer Dialog, EnAble India has successfully helped disabled people get white collar jobs here. The work

profiles include Programmers, Customer Service Representatives, Voice and Accent Trainers, HR

executives; Radio Journalist, Finance Analysts, Graphic designers etc.

Moving from low paying manual government jobs, about 35% of EnAble India’s candidates earn more than

Rs.7,000 per month and about 50% earn between Rs. 3,000 and Rs. 7,000 per month.

In many cases, the disabled people were the sole bread-winners in their families, and by effectively using

ICT, EnAble India has ensured their access to a promising and dignified future.

Educomp Solutions Ltd.

Making Virtual Education a reality

In an increasingly knowledge-hungry and virtually-connected society, the need for being tech savvy cannot

be ignored. Today when Google has become synonymous with encyclopaedia it is increasingly important to

infuse ICT into the education regime of students from the beginning.

While financially well-off students in major cities can take benefit of facilities provided in private schools,

students in government schools remain largely unexposed to the potential of computers.

Enter Educomp. Set up in 1994, the Educomp Group has used ICT to build a whole range of products aimed

at aiding teachers to effectively increase their productivity. By using digital media, thousands of lessons

have been transformed into 2D and 3 D modules, which enable them to explain complex concepts with

greater ease. These visual aids also make learning a more interactive and fun experience for students as

well.

By building India’s largest content library, Educomp has made vast amounts of digital instruction material

available, based on pre-specified standards laid down by different state governments. A dedicated R & D

wing ensures that research in technology continues to deliver higher impact products to further Educomp’s

goal of making education accessible for all.

Removing the language barrier

India has 18 formal languages, written in 10 different scripts, each containing hundreds of characters.

According to a market research conducted by Frost & Sullivan, less than 10% of Indians can read or write

English. This makes usage of computers a challenge for students in government schools who are more

confident and comfortable with their local languages.

The solution to this has been provided by MagiKeys, a product developed by an Israel based company and

introduced in India by Educomp. An online word processor with a virtual keyboard, MagiKeys has been

developed to support 11 Indian languages. Eliminating the need for proficiency in English, with this


software, students can now use computers for surfing the web, chatting and writing documents in their

vernacular languages.

Replacing school bags with computers

Today when children as young as ten are exposed to computers in developed economies, India is still far

behind in terms of usage of computer in schools.

What will prove to be a major breakthrough in the way education is imparted at schools is the O3 Learning

system launched by Educomp. A collaborative effort with Intel, this program will replace heavy school bags

with Intel Classmate Personal computers which are pre-loaded with specific applications aiming at

educating students.

Already prototyped in 8 schools, Educomp plans to introduce this learning methodology in 50- 75 schools

all over India, over the next 1 year.

Already, through its unique site called Mathguru, Educomp provides step-by-step solutions to over 10,000

math problems, in the form of a virtual notebook and an audio clip explaining the solution simultaneously.

By combining video and audio formats, this virtual teacher is available 24X7 for students to be used on

need basis.

Taking technology to the masses

Educomp has already reached more than 9900 Government schools benefiting three million students by

partnering with thirteen State Governments including Government of Assam, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh,

Delhi, Jharkhand, Rajasthan etc. in various projects.

With over 10 unique products, Educomp provides ICT solutions in education for students, parents,

teachers, schools and governments at large. Definitely a pioneer in a developing economy like India, the

organization serves a unique role in furthering the goal of effectively using technology in the education

space.

4. Agriculture

LifeLines Agriculture: Reaching Out to the Indian Farmer

A Sector in Turmoil

When we sit down to eat, how many of us spare a thought for the faraway farmer who’s toiled to put the

food on our table. How comfortable is his existence? Well, he certainly has enough on his plate. Not only is

he illiterate and ill-informed, he is poor and forced to compete in markets where profits are falling all the

time because of intense competition. Then there are problems of indebtedness, lack of financing options,

technological backwardness, degradation of natural resources, rising cost of inputs, transportation issues,

and an uncertain power situation compounded by climate change. Is it any wonder that farmer suicides

have regularly made it to the headlines of national newspapers in the last few years.


Agriculture is the main means of livelihood for 60% of India’s population and it accounts for a fifth of India’s

GDP. Subsidies have grown but as though to balance that out there has been negligible public investment

in the segment. All these factors combined have pushed our largest economic sector to the brink, to the

extent where growth has dived to a lowly 2% (in states like Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa to less

than 1%). There is little doubt that Agriculture is in crisis.

If ever the Indian farmer has needed a lifeline, it is now. In November 2006 OneWorld Internatonal

Foundation, in partnership with British Telecom and CISCO, set up a novel initiative for information services

delivery to reach out to the beleaguered Indian agriculturist. The venture is called LifeLines.

Communications for Community Solutions

The rationale behind instituting this one of a kind inclusive service was to use technology to make a

difference to people’s lives in developing economies, and help far-flung farming communities connect with

experts to look for solutions and thus boost their ability to earn better incomes.

LifeLines uses a combination of internet and telephony to reach its clients and addresses them in the local

language.

This is how LifeLines Agriculture—Soochana se Samadhaan—works. The farmer calls a designated number

through his landline or cell phone. The call reaches an interactive voice response (IVR) and the user states

his query with the help of the voice menu. This is saved as a voice clip for a Knowledge Worker to attend to.

The latter accesses queries through the internet and looks up LifeLines’ FAQ database for the right answer.

If the solution is not found in the database the query is forwarded to an expert. The answer thus retrieved

is stored in the audio database to be played back to the farmer when he calls back in twenty-four hours.

The farmer can also send pictures of sick crops or cattle through the information centre closest to his

village.

LifeLines collaborates with Society of Agri-Business Professionals (ISAP), TARAHaat, Datamation

Foundation and WorldVision India, who implement the service on the ground through a network of field

volunteers. They work as the point of contact for using the LifeLines service and assist rural users in

registering their queries.

Among the features covered by the service are information on integrated pest management (IPM), inputs,

funding schemes, loans, subsidies, banking, insurance, markets and the latest in agriculture news.

One Format, Multiple Applications

LifeLines Agriculture reaches 2066 villages in 25 districts and covers Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh,

Himachal Pradesh and Haryana.

Over 100,000 farmers have made use of the service till date. Queries number more than 450 per day and

the FAQ database has an impressive list of over 130,000 questions and answers.

Soochana se Samadhaan is simply conceived, besides being a versatile application. It can be easily adapted

to suit the requirements of other challenged sectors like health, registration and employment. In fact,


another key sector, education, has already been added on since the inception of the service. LifeLines has

now extended its reach to 14,000 teachers in 5262 schools in West Bengal and Orissa.

Dhan Kharidi OnLine: A Government Initiative for the People of Chhattisgarh

Food Scarcity in a Land of Plenty

India is a food surplus nation that even exports rice and wheat. Yet ironically, it ranks in the bottom quartile

of 88 nations listed in a global hunger index. Even economically weaker neighbours like Pakistan and Nepal

fare better in feeding their people, according to this index.

And the challenge of feeding the nation’s poor has persisted and grown in the six decades since

independence. Despite thousands of crores of rupees being spent annually on food subsidies and the

presence of an extensive nationwide public distribution system, ensuring the availability of food grains to

poor households remains a fundamental problem. According to the planning commission, production

problems in less endowed regions have led to a dangerous situation of a huge pile-up of grain inside the

Food Corporation of India’s godowns, and widespread incidence of hunger outside.

A remarkable new initiative by the government of Chhattisgarh, one of India’s newest and relatively

impoverished states, to set up an open system to ensure a smooth passage from procurement to

distribution, has transformed the PDS network in the state.

A Fair Deal

In November 2007 the Chhattisgarh government established 1,526 computerised procurement centres—

Dhan Kharidi-OnLine—across 18 districts to purchase paddy.

There were several reasons for undertaking the enterprise.

• Paying the farmer a fair price

• Checking leakages and diversions

• Greater inventory control and better mill management; and most of all

• Direct interaction with farmers to ensure transparency

Not only did improved efficiency save money for the government but all the stakeholders were convinced

of the fairness of the procedure. Prices were fixed for the three-month drive and farmers also stood to earn

bonuses. Payments were made on the spot and with 3.5 million hectares under paddy cultivation, this

endeavour was considered the most significant of its kind ever for the sheer size of operations. One million

farmers participated and earned 15 billion rupees over the three months.

Step two was to replicate this restructuring experience in areas like transport of grain, inventory control,

registration of mills and mill permits, delivery of milled rice, billing and payment to mills, and

maintenance of accounts. All of these are now available on the web.

Since it is now possible to reconcile stocks instantly, there are hardly any instances of wastage or fraud.


While the programme is the brainchild of the state government, associates include the state marketing

federation, civil supplies corporation, Food Corporation of India and the Central Cooperative Bank.

Results for All to See

Dhan Kharidi-OnLine is an ingenuous yet straightforward programme that can be taken up by other states

with minor modifications. An important component of the programme has been the launching of the

unified ration card system under which names of the 3.4 million ration card holders in the state have now

been entered into a database. It is now possible to calculate and allot to each individual his share of PDS

foodgrain and other commodities. Additionally, the state government has provided a toll free number

through which it is possible to lodge a complaint if a citizen or farmer suspects fraud.

By making the common man an important stakeholder in the entire process of cleaning up a system that

had suffered decades of neglect the Chhattisgarh government showed political will and determination. It

might not be an exaggeration to say that it has truly proved itself a government of the people, by the

people and for the people.

5. Media

SMSOne: Building Micro-Communities through Mobile Networking

India Shining. And Jobless.

India’s economy is expected to expand almost 7% this year in spite of the global recession. It continues to

be the fastest growing major economy after China. And yet, the rate of unemployment too has kept pace

with the growth if not exceeded it.

There has been an alarming rise in the rate of unemployment in India, up from 7.3 per cent in 1999-2000 to

8.35 percent in 2004-05, as per the Labour and Employment Minister Oscar Fernandes. Given the extent of

economic turmoil in the past year and the number of job cuts across industries ranging from textiles to

manufacturing, the number of unemployed is bound to have swelled further.

It is in this backdrop of a visible rise in prosperity coupled with growing numbers of jobless youth that the

challenge of providing college and high-school dropouts with gainful economic opportunities assumes

significant social relevance.

No one knows this better than Ravindra Laxman Ghate, 12th pass, II year diploma failed Founder-Director of

SMSOne, a socio-entrepreneurial project that offers white -collar employment to unemployed youth in

Maharshatra and neighbouring states.

Big Things Come in Small Packages

Ghate was a jobless youth who used to wander the streets aimlessly before he hit upon the idea that

everybody’s favourite gadget—the ubiquitous mobile—could be used to set off a social revolution while


creating job opportunities for unemployed youth like him. A government report that there are expected to

be around 50 crore mobile users by 2010 spurred him to create an ‘integrated, interconnected, interactive

local community’. The mobile phone thus morphed into a new media for news dissemination.

Message for the Community

SMSOne was set up in Pune four years ago. The idea is simple. Under the scheme, an unemployed youth

builds an SMS community of about 1,000 cell phone users in his area and provides them with news and

updates through an SMS newsletter. The service is free of cost for the user and revenue is generated

through advertising. Only one message per week is permitted.

Roughly three categories of messages were identified for sending:

• Plan A: government messages; socially relevant messages; local event alerts; water and power

shutdown alerts; traffic and roadwork alerts; health camp alerts; weather alerts; medical emergency

alerts etc.

• Plan B: announcements from local shops and banks on sales, schemes etc; hotel discounts; car and bike

service centres; real estate brokers etc.

• Plan C: Birthday wishes to local leaders; propaganda messages from candidates during elections—

spanning Panchayat level to Lok Sabha elections, as also local bank and cooperative society elections.

The generator of the service makes Rs 6000-10,000 per month and during important events like elections,

might actually see a ten-fold leap in his earnings.

Bringing the World Closer

The beauty of the SMSOne model is that it is entirely self-sustainable and depends solely on the networking

ability of the local service provider. The concept is equally relevant to urban and rural areas and has an

enormous potential to revolutionize news dissemination and with the mobile industry set to grow further,

the potential for expansion is huge. For those under the umbrella of this unique service, the media has

become relevant in a way it never was before. It certainly seems that this citizen-centric formula may be

the way forward for the entire industry.

As of now, SMSOne covers 25 districts, has 275 mini-communities and a membership of over 2,70,000.

With over 20 crore mobile users waiting to be tapped, the scheme has the ability to provide self-

employment to almost two-and-a-half-lakh youth. And in the bargain, forge a greater sense of community.

CGNet: Media Intervention with a Twist

Making News

For many of us, small, locality-based newspapers grab our attention the way national news carriers never

do. The more immediate and relevant the news, the greater the sense of involvement a reader feels. This is

why the importance of community media initiatives cannot be stressed enough. In remote areas, it is often

the only way for people to stay connected and feel like they are part of the democratic process. Not only

do such endeavours provide occasion for direct social communication but they also lead, in the long run, to


producing positive behavioural changes in the community by instilling a sense of ownership and

responsibility among the users.

There are great advantages in using ICT to communicate to the masses in remote destinations. Even in

areas where populations tend to be scattered, and literacy and income levels low, contact can still be

established with the use of Internet. What makes it economically viable is the fact that a single internet

parlour is accessible to many hundreds of people. In the past, there have been broadcast and telecast

interventions that have successfully reached out to their rural audience. And now, CGNet, a Chhattisgarh-

based media initiative, in partnership with OneWorld South Asia, has re-conceptualised the whole process

of news gathering and delivery by making the audience the protagonist. No longer does a villager in the

state merely watch, listen to or read the news. He actually writes it himself.

Making History

CGNet, a citizen journalist forum started by Shubhranshu Choudhary, works with rural communities in

Chhattisgarh to secure people participation in development. This has been done by creating an e-

PanchayatGhar—the CGNet website. Hindi is the chosen language of the portal since it is the most widely

spoken in the state. And indeed, this is one of the most remarkable features of the CGNet experiment. Until

now ICT-enabled innovations of this kind have largely been English language based, and therefore, to some

extent, elitist

Almost 80% of Chhattisgarh’s 20.8 million people live in rural areas; there is also a sizeable tribal

population. Not only do they have very little access to conventional media but there is little they can relate

to in the news that is published/broadcast/telecast through this media. However, the state has a strong

tradition of gram sabhas that typically meet at panchayat ghars to exchange news and views about

happenings in the immediate neighbourhood. This was the premise for starting a citizen oriented website

where the stakeholders run the show all the way.

Contributors to the website are ordinary members of the community, and they could be based anywhere in

the world. They write about topics related with tribal life, culture, farming, Dalit issues, the Naxal

movement, education, gender issues, health, mining, employment, etc. There is also a very active and lively

discussion forum.

There are no political leanings and everybody gets to express their point of view freely. Content

management is the responsibility of sub-groups that have been appointed for the purpose and managers

often have to work with obsolete operating systems simply because it’s all that happens to be available.

Making Progress

CGNet already has over 400 members and the numbers are set to grow. By involving the people it

addresses, the website has created opportunities for literate tribal youth who have been learning how to

use computers and the Internet. Within a short span of time CGNet has become relevant and popular, even

with outsiders who are looking to update themselves on the affairs of the state. The government too is

paying close attention, and there have been instances when action has been taken on the basis of news

stories and reports published in the website.

There are plans to make the portal even more interactive. Rural Communicators or community news

gatherers will soon be introduced to collect news in audio or text format so that more and more opinions

are heard and the illiterate are not left out in the cold. Since there are very few Internet parlours in rural


areas CGNet hopes to start Internet clubs in schools to popularise the website. Interactive community radio

is also on the agenda.

The CGNet experiment provides valuable learning for those wishing to start up similar ventures.


BBiibblliiooggrraapphhyy

1. Maps of India.com’s India Business Directory

2. Annual Status of Education Report 2005 – rural

3. India – ICI Development scenario – S K Hajela, follow up to WSIS and ICT 4D UNESCAP/ICSTD

experts’ group meeting, Bangkok, 30 November – 1, December 2006.

4. Press/Web articles: The Economist, Times of India, Economic Times, The Indian Express,

Livemint.com, The Hindu BusinessLine.com, ExpressIndia.com

5. Company websites

Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt LtdBased in Bangalore, Erehwon has 16 years of cutting edge experience in being able to instill

innovation and shift orbits in the most legacy driven and unresponsive environments across

the industry spectrum, countries and cultures Companies recognize Erehwon's unique

approach to innovation across the world. We are Innovation specialists, with experience in

all kinds of innovation - product, process, business model and services. We inspire and

enable organizations to move from current operating orbits they are stuck in. We have

brought to the world a pioneering approach

# 1894, 8th Cross, 4th Main, HAL 3rd Stage,

Bangalore- 560 075. India

Ph: +91 80 40535000, Fax +91 80 41153230

Email:

Website:

'Orbit-shifting innovation'

Contact :

Erehwon Innovation Consulting Pvt. Ltd.

TM

[email protected]

www.erehwonconsulting.com

ficci ictinnovations-smsone

Documents