Has ICT4D Lost its Luster? In the Aftermath of "India Shining"



Last month's parliamentary elections in India prompted a series of news stories and editorials questioning the validity of information technology (IT) as a development strategy. Rural villagers, largely unaffected by economic reforms highlighting information technology, reacted by voting the reformers out of office. In his May 20 editorial, The New York Times' Thomas Freidman opines, "…the key to spreading the benefits of globalization across a big society is not about more Internet." The Internet, it seems they are concluding, is not the promised land of development after all.

Does the defeat of Indian IT proponents, like Andhra Pradesh's Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, signal the end of ICT-for-development (ICT4D)? Despite certain media reports clinging to this as a proof-of-no-concept, success stories elsewhere continue to point to the fact that information and communications technologies can and will play a critical role in the economic and social development of less developed countries. India's elections, however, teach us a valuable lesson about the nature of ICT4D: it is not about the "what" of technology, it's about the "how" of the application. In order to achieve sustainable--and, it seems, politically secure--development, it must take place "from the bottom up."

Uneven Technology Development
The case of Andhra Pradesh and Mr. Naidu serve to illustrate this lesson. During his nine years as Chief Minister, Mr. Naidu transformed Andhra Pradesh's capital, Hyderabad, into a center for technology services firms, the majority of which are based overseas in the United States and Europe. The local economy flourished as a result, and thousands of educated, skilled Indians are now employed by Indian firms engaged in outsourced work from Western countries. Domestic Indian firms have succeeded in Hyderabad as well, and many computer programmers and software developers now live and work in the rapidly modernizing metropolis, enjoying a standard of living high enough to entice some U.S.-educated Indian IT students to return to India, bucking a decades-old trend of "brain drain."

All of Andhra Pradesh does not look like Hyderabad, however. Mirroring the situation in the rest of India, 70% of the state's citizens are farmers who live in villages scattered throughout the vast countryside. The IT revolution in Hyderabad is a far cry from the conditions in villages, where the difference between a good and bad year can hinge on a week's worth of rainfall or a few rupees' difference in the price of a primary crop.

When Mr. Naidu proclaimed India to be "shining," the farmers in his state simply didn't buy it. In voting him out of office, they demanded change. Some observers have interpreted that to mean less technology, and more governance. The real solution, however, lies in innovative combinations of both.

Successful Tech for the Poor
Technology can unlock the potential of poor farmers by making agricultural production more efficient. The Digital Dividends Project Clearinghouse includes several hundred examples of successful ICT-enabled development projects. One example currently attracting international attention is ITC, an Indian agricultural processor. ITC has initiated the e-Choupal effort that places computers with Internet access in rural farming villages; the e-Choupals serve as both a social gathering place for exchange of information ("choupal" means gathering place in Hindi) and an e-commerce hub. Through its network of e-choupals, ITC has grown its business while enabling farmers to receive a fair price for their produce.


In Uganda and Kenya, farmers use short message system (SMS) technology to receive updates from Foodnet and Safaricom on commodity prices. Armed with up-to-date information, they can now negotiate fair prices for their produce with traders and middlemen who have exploited them for generations. Bangladesh's Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha, a non-profit organization, uses boats that are outfitted with computers, printers, and an Internet connection to deliver agricultural education modules to isolated farmers that are unreachable by roads.

Perhaps Andhra Pradesh's new government could take a page from the book of its neighboring state, Maharashtra. There, the government-funded Kisaan Call Center fields inquiries from rural farmers, who get advice from operators speaking their own language and whose directive is to treat every farmer as a customer, emphasizing respect.

Not More Internet, More Services
In all of these cases, information technology is driving innovative solutions to poor farmers' problems. "More Internet" is not what plagues these farmers; in fact, Internet technology is helping them climb out of poverty by connecting them with information, educational opportunities, and financial resources. "Connectivity for the sake of connectivity accomplishes very little," says Dr. Allen Hammond, Director of the Digital Dividends program. "Connectivity that links marginalized citizens with needed services, however, can play a major role in economic development."

The bottom line is that technology has a major role to play in development at the bottom of the economic pyramid (BOP). Political commentators correctly note that Mr. Naidu and his colleagues were voted out of office primarily by dissatisfied rural voters, the majority of whom are farmers. If Indian policymakers had spent as much time investing in information technology in rural areas as they did in urban ones, in ways that addressed basic problems such as agriculture, education, healthcare, and job training, the election results may have been significantly different.

The problem is not, as Mr. Freidman contends, that there is too much Internet being used in Indian economic development efforts. Rather, the problem is that the Internet is not being used to help the majority of the population, and those who can benefit the most from technology: the rural poor.