Information Society Watch

2005, Rahul De, Indian Institute of Management- Bangalore

With the widespread deployment of e-government systems in developing countries, and also their high failure rates, it is important to understand the complex processes that underlie successful implementations of large-scale information systems. This paper develops a framework for stakeholder groups and uses this to analyse conflict and resistance in four case examples of implemented e-government systems in India.

August 2007, id4

This is a write-up of the Indian Telecentre Forum of the eIndia 2007 conference, in which government officials, local and global industry leaders, researchers and others met to discuss the present and future state of telecentre movement in India and around the world. The forum had a particular focus on the Government of India's Common Service Centres (CSCs) scheme and other initiatives in India.

2006, Balaji Parthasarathy & Janaki Srinivasan

Innovations in Information and Communications Technologies (ICTs) are being increasingly deployed in a range of sectors, from government to medicine, to foster social change, especially in less affluent regions. Even as there emerges an inter-disciplinary field of ICT for Development (ICTD), there are many conceptual issues that need clarification. One such is methodological, or the question of how to evaluate and assess the impact of ICTs on developmental outcomes. This paper will argue that there are at least three aspects to assessing ICTD projects: ICTs, development, and the question of ICTD for whom.

2007, Savita Bailur, MIT Press Journal

Involving stakeholders is often seen as a means to more successful information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) projects. Hence, it can be appropriate to research ICT4D projects by taking both the perspective of stakeholder theory and using the tools of stakeholder analysis. This paper uses the example of telecenter projects to illustrate the application of a stakeholder perspective, selecting the specific case of the Gyandoot telecenters in Madhya Pradesh, India.

Abdul Jaleel Tharayil & Rajeev K R

In a developing country like India, advances in ICTs have brought a lot of opportunities and perhaps a whole lot of challenges as well. One of the main challenges is the frightening gap between the information have-s and information have-nots -what is known as the digital divide. The paper highlights the concept of digital divide in general and the Indian scenario in particular and suggests measures to reduce this divide especially the role that can be played by rural libraries towards this end.

Policy Implications of the Digital Opportunity Index Analysis for India: Capabilities of Measurement and Importance of Extending DOI to a Regional Level

2006, Payal Malik

This policy paper argues for the development of regional Digital Opportunity Indices to guide and evaluate ICT policy in diverse regions in India. The Digital Opportunity Index (DOI) "is a composite index that measures ICT diffusion using diverse set of indicators that reflect a profile of a forward-looking Information Society."

November 9, 2006, Athar Osama, Scidev.net

The author contends that serious problems of development must first be confronted before the potential of ICT for development can be fulfilled. Despite the many examples of 'successful' projects, mainly in India, the myths of ICT in development abound.

Anikar M. Haseloff

It is often argued that cybercafes could help bridge the digital divide, as they provide Internet access to people who cannot afford to have Internet connections at their homes or who need help in order to make use of ICTs. The following study seeks to test this assumption, and also explore the problems and potential of cyber-cafes.

2004, Frontline

In this Interview with Frontline, Dr Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of India’s Green Revolution, talks about the evolution of ICTs and their growing importance in the knowledge creation process in the context of Mission 2007, of which he is the chairman.