CONTRIBUTION OF ICT IN RURAL SECTOR
CONTRIBUTION OF ICT IN RURAL SECTOR:
Various initiatives in the recent past portrayed the significant role that the I.C.T plays in the realm of rural development. Several projects have reduced the costs, and it also has increased transparency. A large number of rural e-Governance applications, developed as pilot projects were aimed at offering easy access to citizen services and improved processing of government to citizen transactions. This paper presents a brief review of the innovative projects in Information and communication technologies for rural development and how far it has contributed. The other aim is to ponder over the achievements and the failures of ICT in the sustainable development march. The analysis also indicates communication related initiatives and projects for development before media liberalization and post media liberalization.: Rural Development, Information and Communication Technologies, e-Governance, kiosk, Online Transaction Processi ICTs are those technologies that can be used to interlink information technology devices such as personal computers with communication technologies such as telephones and their telecommunication networks. The PC and laptop with e-mail and Internet provides the best example. Michiels and Van Crowder (2001) have defined ICTs „as a range of electronic technologies which when converged in new configurations are flexible, adaptable, enabling and capable of transforming organisations and redefining social relations‟. The range of technologies is increasing all the time and „there is a convergence between the new technologies and conventional media‟ (Michaels and Van Crowder, 2001:8). This rapid and ongoing convergence 2 that devices such as digital cameras, digital video cameras and players, personal digital assistants, slide projectors and mobile telephones are also compatible with more traditional media such as radio (digital, satellite),television (cable, digital, satellite). Thus most devices can
Various initiatives in the recent past portrayed the significant role that the I.C.T plays in the realm of rural development. Several projects have reduced the costs, and it also has increased transparency. A large number of rural e-Governance applications, developed as pilot projects were aimed at offering easy access to citizen services and improved processing of government to citizen transactions. This paper presents a brief review of the innovative projects in Information and communication technologies for rural development and how far it has contributed. The other aim is to ponder over the achievements and the failures of ICT in the sustainable development march. The analysis also indicates communication related initiatives and projects for development before media liberalization and post media liberalization.: Rural Development, Information and Communication Technologies, e-Governance, kiosk, Online Transaction Processi ICTs are those technologies that can be used to interlink information technology devices such as personal computers with communication technologies such as telephones and their telecommunication networks. The PC and laptop with e-mail and Internet provides the best example. Michiels and Van Crowder (2001) have defined ICTs „as a range of electronic technologies which when converged in new configurations are flexible, adaptable, enabling and capable of transforming organisations and redefining social relations‟. The range of technologies is increasing all the time and „there is a convergence between the new technologies and conventional media‟ (Michaels and Van Crowder, 2001:8). This rapid and ongoing convergence 2 that devices such as digital cameras, digital video cameras and players, personal digital assistants, slide projectors and mobile telephones are also compatible with more traditional media such as radio (digital, satellite),television (cable, digital, satellite). Thus most devices can