As the owner of a small ICT business in India, I am very concerned with helping find ways to use ICTs to alleviate poverty in my country. The question that is often asked is whether ICT will be a panacea for developing countries and whether it will help reduce poverty and underdevelopment in India's rural areas? I'd like to offer some views on that topic, and describe some of the activities communities here in India are undertaking, using ICT.

ICTs are increasingly considered to include a converging spectrum of technologies that consist primarily of telecommunications, computing and broadcasting. The Internet is the latest in the range of ICTs available. The collapsing boundaries between these different kinds of communication technologies have made it possible no only to collect information that went once largely unrecorded, but also to make it relatively easy to store, analyze and retrieve in various ways.

The role of ICTs in poverty alleviation needs to be examined in the context of extreme deprivation and poverty in which a majority of people live, not only in India but in the entire developing world. The World Bank in its annual report on 'Global Economic Prospects' has highlighted that the population of the poor living on less than one dollar per day has increased from 474.4 million in 1987 to 552 million in the year 2000. Needless to say a dollar a day is a measure of extreme poverty. It may be worthwhile to note that the increase in the poverty in the developing world is happening in the backdrop of increasing global economic competition, fundamental transformation in the nature of the national economies as well as that of global economy itself, and falling agricultural and industrial returns coupled with downside agricultural, industrial and services work environments.

This fundamental economic transformation has had the greatest impact on the poor. In the name of globalization and free trade, developing countries are being increasingly pushed to a noncompetitive situation. The World Bank in its above cited annual report ridiculed the double standards of industrialized countries, which keep exports of developing countries down by charging tariffs as high as 550 per cent for the developing countries.

The Bank points out that the QUAD countries (the US, the European Union, Japan and Canada) trade among themselves at tariffs ranging from 4.3 per cent in Japan to 8.3 per cent in Canada; and only 1.2 per cent of tariff lines are subject to NTB (non-tariff barriers); however most of the NTBs are found in the agriculture, textiles and clothing where developing countries have a comparative advantage. Products with high tariffs in QUAD countries include major agricultural staple food products, such as meat, sugar, milk, dairy products and chocolate, for which tariff rates frequently exceed 100 per cent; tobacco and some alcoholic beverages; fruits and vegetables and textiles, clothing and footwear. In the US, only 311 of 500 tariff lines are above 15 per cent. Yet 15 per cent of exports from the least developed countries to the US face these tariffs. There might be considerable potential for the least developed countries to increase their exports if US tariffs were reduced. For example, almost $26 billion of exports from developing countries in 1999 to the world were products that would have faced tariffs above 50 per cent in the QUAD countries. Only about $5 million of the $26 billion was actually exported to the QUAD countries. On the other hand, the QUAD countries imported about $50 billion of the same goods, most of it from industrialized countries.

The knowledge economy does not offer permanent jobs nor permanent specialization because related skills need to be constantly upgraded and improved to be able to compete. Yet increasingly ICTs could help bring the poor closer to opportunities for economic growth, even though merely 0.25 per cent of Indians are net enabled.

The problem lies with the nature of the policies to promote ICT development and use. The Indian Government's IT task force and the National Working Group on "Taking IT to the Masses" have focused on how the profitability of the Indian IT Industry can be increased-something that hardly needs any significant focus considering India exported software and services to 95 countries around the world during 1999-2000 amounting to over US$8 billion. But they have yet to visualize how ICTs can fulfill the needs of the rural poor, nor have they examined creative ways in which the communication technologies, perhaps sequenced with some of the old ones, can help accelerate poverty eradication. Nor are the policy-makers seriously examining ways to generate employment in the IT industry, which could be done by integrating ICTs into local level development planning and work.

Despite these lacunae at the policy level, there have been some heartening developments at the local level, as well as few success stories, which should be noted :

The Gunawad success story : Nobody in Kal Singh's village of Gunawad in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh could afford to buy his Jersey cow. He took the problem to the local net kiosk where a net-enabled software called Gram Haat (Village Market) he advertised his cow. The entrant connected 32 villages and after some e-haggling, he got a buyer from the village Dilwara for Rs.3,000 ($75) The Gram Haat is one of the applications of Gyandoot, a rural e-governance project that is panchayat-funded (funded at the level of the village) but privately managed through kiosks in Madhya Pradesh.

The Ujjas innovation : The National Foundation of India, a nonprofit foundation in India initially offered the village women from the Western state of Gujarat's underdeveloped region called Kutch (same area that has been devastated by the recent earthquake) to bring out their own newsletter called Ujjas (which means the 'LIGHT') with the help of Kutch Mahila Vikas Sangathan, a district level NGO. The newsletter was very successful amongst the women to help fight social exploitation as well as issues such as dowry, female infanticide, drunkenness amongst the men folk, enabled them to trade and do business amongst themselves as well as share knowledge amongst themselves. The success of Ujjas attracted other funding agencies including the Ministry of Rural Development to support a 105-episode community radio programme also called the UJJAS that is broadcast by the All India Radio Bhuj station. The programme allows the women to voice their concerns, learn from each other and interact with the rest of the world. The impact of Ujjas in one of the remotest corners of India is a testimony to the fundamental belief that the innovative use of communication technologies can be a powerful tool in the hands of the poor, particularly women and the children.

The impact of e-governance in Punjab and Madhya Pradesh: When brothers Kartar Singh and Naib Singh from Fatehgarh Sahib in Punjab, one of the richest and most developed states from Northern India, decided to apply for a loan of Rs. 50,000 (approx. US$1200) to buy new farm equipment, they knew it would take at least a week of legwork to get a mortgage deed registered. Amazingly, the revenue official at the district HQ told them to deposit Rs. 10 (approx. US 25 cents) and instantly gave them a copy of the record of the rights. It then took less than 10 minutes for the District Revenue office to verify the brother's ownership, put the fraud-proof computer generated photographs of them and the two witnesses on the revenue stamp paper and hand over the signed deed. Old style governance would have typically taken the Singh brothers a few days of pleading and bribing to get the record of rights out of the District Revenue Office. If a property had to be registered the owner could forget about the documents once he handed them over to the registration office. For example, in India's one of the most underdeveloped states Bihar, the backlog of property registration goes back to as much as 30 years; however it is nonexistent in Fatehgarh.

In Mafipura, a tiny village of 39 families in Dhar district of the central Indian state Madhya Pradesh, e-governance covers very basic needs. A broken hand pump meant the village lost its only source of water and with the block development officer (BDO is the official appointed by the state government responsible for a cluster of villages) absent as usual, there was no one to complaint to. Tentative residents went to the village cyberdhaba (Internet kiosk) to e-mail their complaint to the collector at the district HQ. Two days later an engineer turned up, e-mail printed in hand!!

Mafipura is part of an Internet called Gyandoot, a rural development project that won the State Government Madhya Pradesh an award last year. The Internet is administered through 32 kiosks and it has nullified the role of the lower rungs of the bureaucracy. The District Health Centers are now proposed to be linked to the district hospital something which will hopefully make an impact in the lives of the villagers.

One story making rounds in Dhar district is of Mohan Patidar, a 40-year old soyabean farmer from Tirla in Dhar, who sold his last crop at the district mandi directly for Rs.700/-Rs.600/-per quintal (US$16-$15 for 100 kgs.) After checking the rates in different markets on the Internet at his village cyber kiosk; paying less than 4.5 cents for the service. However, earlier things were extremely difficult for him; as he would have spent Rs. 10/-(35 cents) on bus fare and endure a 30-minute backbreaking journey to Dhar just to find out the crop prices in the wholesale market. Then the middleman who picked up his crop would pay at least Rs. 50 (US$ 1.20) less per quintal. Now Patedar wants to rent a truck and ferry his crop to Baroda mandi (market), more than 300 km. away, because he has accessed the highest price-a cool Rs. 900/-(US$21) per quintal-from his village kiosk.

Incidentally, Dhar project in Madhya Pradesh; which is possibly the best digital empowerment project in India currently; was awarded the prestigious Stockholm Challenge Award. In the same district 18 "headstart" schools impart computer education in dirt-poor villages where more than 70 per cent people are illiterate and 74 per cent people live below the poverty line. Needless to say the children are very excited about the interactive learning and many walk barefoot up to 15 km. for their share of interactive learning. People are paying for their children's interactive learning gradually - an affordable 40 cents every month.

ICT's role in the elimination of corruption: Wherever the zealous converts to e-governance have made determined efforts towards e-governance they have been successful. The Western State of Gujarat implemented the computerized checkpost project at the 10 octroi (an entry tax every trucker is supposed to pay to the Government depending on the material it is ferrying) posts on Gujarat borders. The moment a truck enters Gujarat, its weight gets recorded on a computer and the vehicle, number plate are video-graphed. The audiovisual information is instantly accessible at the central control room in the state's capital Ahmedabad. No longer it is possible for local officials to cut their own deals and record a lower weight against a bribe. While octroi receipts have quadrupled over the past year, the downside has been that the number of trucks entering Gujarat has reduced by 25 per cent.

However the project helped reduce the corruption to zero-level; as well as enhanced the revenue earnings from US$13.95 MILLION in 1998-99 to US$58.13 MILLION in the year 2000. This is not bad considering a project that required under US$4.10 million to implement.

ICT for identifying water-resources: In India's drought-prone state Rajasthan, an innovative software called "Jal Chitra" (The Water Picture) is being used by the villagers to identify water-resources in the desert.

Craftswomen use ICT to sell handicrafts : Another success story exists in the Northern state Uttar Pradesh's Jhansi where women have been relying extensively on the internet to generate business inquiries from interested customers based worldwide in their handicrafts. They are able to use the Net to negotiate a fair pricing for their products without an intermediary; and also get repeat business from the buyers. Earlier these craftswomen were exploited by the middlemen who used to retain bulk of the sale proceeds from the crafts; giving the women a small share. Now they have started using the Internet for sourcing a new variety of crafts that they are unable to make and in which their buyers are interested. There has been an improvement in their living standards and lifestyle for the last over two years now.

Another success story of women's involvement in ICTs exists in Pondicherry's Embalam village in East Coast India where 50 per cent of volunteers are women.

ICT empowering blind boy: When the authorities in Dhar District of Madhya Pradesh announced a contest for any school-going boy or girl who managed to woo 10 villagers to a cyber kiosk and get them interested in the Internet; would be entitled to appear for a general knowledge exam that would fetch the topper a Rs. 1,000 (US$ 23.25) a month-scholarship for the next five year; an 18-year old blind student Arpit Jain did not waste a minute. He coaxed 11 villagers to cyber kiosks and took the test in Braille with 175 kids. He topped scoring 72 out of 75 marks and is now learning computers on a very fast track.

I'd like to thank other GKD members for their interesting and helpful messages, and hope others will find this useful.