TAD Consortium June 2000 Information Update 3
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CONTENTS
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NEWS/TRENDS
--- Book sales trends
--- Information Technology – Estonia
--- 'Magic box' a lifeline to
India's poor farmers
--- Four Huge Companies
Move Into Electronic Publishing
--- New Study Shows
Internet Helps Community Lives of Disabled
--- Latest Research
Findings On South African Internet Market
--- Johnnic to compete with Telkom
ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
--- University of Pretoria short course on
Internet-Based Distance Education Applications
--- The African Computing
& Telecommunications Summit
PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
--- Adilisha Project
--- Economic And Social Research
Foundation (ESRF)
--- World Computer Exchange
ONLINE RESOURCES
--- Online Resource:
21st Century Teachers Network
--- Philosophy Quotes
--- An
Introduction to Employment Law for Expanding Dot-com Companies
--- How To Set Up And Manage A
Resource Centre
--- Important educational pointers
--- Science: Earth Alert
ARTICLES
--- E-Governance
In India Now Depends On Integrity Of "Man Behind Machine"
--- Unsustainable Non Development by Noam Chomsky
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NEWS/TRENDS
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NEW YORK (AP) -- The rise of superstores in the 1990s has helped best-selling books at the expense of less commercial, more literary works, according to a study commissioned by the Authors Guild.
In 1986, best-selling hardcover titles accounted for about 7 percent of all hardcover sales, according to the 59-page report released Thursday. By 1996, that figure had nearly doubled, to 13 percent.
``The dramatic advent of superstores and online booksellers has made the book business more like the rest of consumer retailing: There is a smaller number of bigger winners than there used to be,'' said author Nicholas Lemann, chair of the guild's Midlist Study Group.
Superstores such as Borders and Barnes & Noble, which usually have much more space than independent sellers, are credited with offering a greater variety of ``midlist'' titles. They're also criticized for favoring high-profile books and large publishers.
``A close look at superstore sales patterns suggests that most titles they stock serve essentially as wallpaper,'' the study says. ``If there is a single reason why midlist book sales are lagging, it is the chains' merchandising policies.''
The report is at:
http://www.authorsguild.org/prmidlist.html
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Taken from The MEDIA BEAT - May 28, 2000 (compiled by The
Communication Initiative
http://www.comminit.com.)
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Information Technology – Estonia
The Earth Times - April 10, 2000
This tiny country of 1.4 million people has a burning
ambition: it wants to become the world's leader in information technology. Estonians feel
so strongly about this that they see access to the Internet as a basic human right. Access
is still far from equitable and about 20% of the Estonian population uses computers, a few
more than use mobile phones.
http://www.earthtimes.com/dec/businesstechnologyestoniatakesdec2_99.htm
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'Magic box' a lifeline to India's poor farmers
For hundreds of years, farmers in India's central tribal belt were locked in a battle against three seemingly invincible foes - drought, poverty and corrupt middlemen. Now, thanks to a new computer system, they are on their way to bypassing the third evil and are better equipped to combat the other two.
Earlier this year the government of central Madhya Pradesh state launched an experimental computer network in the remote farming district. The intranet system gives villagers access to everything from copies of land titles - a must for securing yearly bank loans - to rural water supply schemes. No bribes, no queues, just 10 rupees (about HK$1.70).
"It's a wonderful thing," said Kaluram Verma, a farmer from nearby Nawasa village. He was clutching a computerised blueprint of his farm that will allow him to secure a loan for a well on his parched land.
The pilot project covers 600 villages in Dhar district, one of dozens of dirt-poor tribal areas in Madhya Pradesh. It is part of a push by the state's reformist chief minister, Digvijay Singh, to find low-cost ways of overcoming the state's lack of infrastructure and improving conditions in rural areas.
The project has been so successful that the Federal Government announced last month that it was considering expanding it nationwide. The goal is to ensure that the information technology revolution sweeping urban India also reaps benefits for the rural masses, who still comprise 70 per cent of the country's one billion people.
The potential of the system is apparent in Dhar. Previously, farmers in Bagdi were hostage to an infamously corrupt system inspired by a government bureaucrat first employed during the British era. Chosen for his surveying skills than his scruples, he would often charge as much as 4,000 rupees - at least two month's earnings for farmers - for a copy of a land record. He could also revoke land ownership with the flick of his pen, say farmers.
"It's been that way for hundreds of years, but everyone was too afraid to complain" for fear that they would lose their land, says Verma, who owns a two-hectare farm 12 kilometres outside Bagdi. This town, where bottled water is an unheard of luxury and the roads are passable only by jeep or ox carts, is home to one of 21 intranet centres that service the surrounding areas.
The system is linked to a parent monitor at the district headquarters, allowing villagers to appeal to the local government quickly and cheaply. The Bagdi centre has forwarded dozens of complaints about broken hand pumps and absentee teachers, and requests for medical advice to urban hospitals. Most get replies within a week.
"When you think about it, it's damn cheap," says Suresh Verma, a grain merchant who uses the system to check produce rates at markets across India. He says it would cost him 100 rupees per call to survey the market centres. The same service costs five rupees on the intranet, which he and other villagers refer to as "the magic box". His enthusiasm was ironic, considering the system has reduced farmers' reliance on traders, who would quote them rates far below market prices and then pocket the difference. But Verma says he can still turn a large profit by being more discriminating in which markets he chooses to take his goods.
The financial benefits can be enormous. Last month, farmers who could afford it chose to truck their crops 650km to Bombay to take advantage of 40 per cent higher prices for garlic and wheat, the staple crops of the area. Others have the option to wait to take their produce to the local markets when prices are highest.
It's the kind of project United States President Bill Clinton had in mind during his March visit to India when he urged the Government to make sure its booming information technology industry benefited India's impoverished masses, not just the Western-educated elite.
"Millions of Indians are connected to the Internet, but millions more are not yet connected to fresh water," he told a group of 1,200 Indian entrepreneurs in the southern city of Bangalore, home to one of the country's largest information technology centres.
He was on a week-long tour of the Indian subcontinent, aimed largely at boosting ties between Indian software engineers and US-based IT companies, which are critically short of manpower. India has the largest untapped supply of programmers. Its domestic software industry is also thriving, and is expected to grow from US$6 billion (about HK$47 billion) a year to US$40 billion in the next eight years.
But Mr Clinton also sounded a note of caution, lest India's IT boom further widens the gap between the haves and have-nots. He pointed out that while India supplies 35 per cent of the world's software engineers, it also accounts for 25 per cent of the world's poor. "Our challenge," he said, "is to turn the newest discoveries into the best weapons humanity has ever had to fight poverty."
Chief Minister Singh, the man behind the intranet system in Madhya Pradesh, agrees. "Information technology should be for the people. It shouldn't be confined to the upper echelons of society." He has given reform-minded bureaucrats a free hand in trying out innovative projects in rural areas, such as training villagers to take charge of water distribution and encouraging women to stand for local elections.
"It might seem like a small step," Amit Aggarwal, the local bureaucrat spearheading the Internet project, said of the computer system. "But from here, there is no turning back."
Marion Lloyd (marionlloyd@usa.net) is the Post's correspondent in New Delhi.
[South China Morning Post]
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FOUR HUGE COMPANIES MOVE INTO ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
Three trade publishing giants and Microsoft are poised to move into the emerging electronic literary market. Time Warner Trade Publishing is expected to announce the creation of a separate online publishing venture called iPublish.com and iWrite, an unconventional hybrid that will solicit manuscripts from authors for review for electronic publication. Microsoft, along with Simon & Schuster and Random House, plan the giveaway of electronic versions of Michael Crichton's most recent book along with agreements to publish more than a dozen Star Trek titles in electronic form readable only on Microsoft's new reader software for hand-held and personal computers. The frantic pace of development indicates that the industry is quickly reaching a point in its use of technology that could reshape the market.
Doreen Carvajal
"4 Giants Set to Embrace Electronic Publishing"
The New York Times, May 23, 2000, C1
(http://www.nytimes.com)
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New Study Shows Internet Helps Community Lives of Disabled
WASHINGTON, May 18 /U.S. Newswire/ -- A Harris Poll online survey released at the U.S. Capitol today confirms that people with disabilities trail other Americans in their participation in the lives of their communities -- but finds the Internet is playing an increasingly important role in reducing this gap. The survey was conducted by Harris for the National Organization on Disability (N.O.D.) and sponsored by Aetna U.S. Healthcare.
"Online opportunities are expanding the horizons of people with disabilities," Harris Poll Chairman Humphrey Taylor told the hundreds of disability advocates, leaders of national organizations, and more than 20 members of Congress attending the event. "The Internet appears to be a powerful counterweight to social isolation." Forty-eight percent of people with disabilities say the Internet has significantly improved their quality of life, compared to 27 percent of those without disabilitities. Computer users with disabilities reported spending nearly twice as many hours online and using e-mail as others did.
Brewster Thackeray
National Organization on Disability
202-293-5960
www.nod.org
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Taken from Balancing Act News Update 11
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LATEST RESEARCH FINDINGS ON SOUTH AFRICAN INTERNET MARKET
The year 1999 saw more than half a million new users arriving on the internet in South Africa, to bring the total number of internet users in South Africa to 1.82 million. This was the key finding of the 4th South African Internet Services Industry Survey 2000, the latest version of the survey conducted annually by Media Africa.com since 1997.
The survey divides the internet access market into three categories:
--- dial-up users accessing the internet via modems;·
--- academic users gaining access at educational and research institutions; and
--- corporate users gaining access through company networks.
Dial-up users
One of the key findings of the research is that the total number of South Africans gaining access through dial-up modems via internet service providers at the end of 1999 was found to number at least 560 000. This figure, up from 366 000 at the end December 1998, amounts to 194 000 new users, representing growth of 53% in 1999 (growth in 1998 was 86%). However, dial-up growth for 2000 is expected to slow down further, with the internet dial-up user base growing at only 40% for the year to reach the 782 000 mark. This slowdown in growth is expected to continue at least until a second telecommunications operator is allowed to roll out a full service offering in competition to Telkom, possibly by 2003. Nevertheless, the growth in absolute numbers remains strong. By the end of 2003, it is projected, the total should have reached 1 560 000.
Corporate users
The number of South Africans gaining access to the internet through corporate networks - linked to the internet via high-speed digital leased lines - continues to grow as large corporates accept the internet as a crucial communications tool. However, growth in leased line connectivity is less rapid than in the past, indicating greater saturation of the market and slowdown of access to infrastructure. The survey showed that more than 4 900 (3 500 in 1998) digital leased lines have been installed for companies and corporations in South Africa - growth of 40% over the preceding 12 months.
Over the four years during which this survey has been conducted annually, the most appropriate estimate for leased line usage has settled at an average of 200 users per leased line. This approach has been taken since the second survey, and has received general acceptance from industry analysts as tallying with their own observations. Consequently, this survey uses the same formula. This brings the number of corporate users in South Africa to 980 000 (700 000 in 1998).
Once again, cautious implementation of connectivity among corporate white-collar workers, brought on especially by the virus threat, and delays by Telkom in making infrastructure available, indicates that growth in users (as distinct from leased line connections) during 2000 will not exceed 30%, pointing to a total by the end of 2000 of 1 274 000 corporate users. While a significant proportion of corporate users also have access at home, research indicates that an even higher number of home dial-up accounts represent more than one user in that household. Consequently, this "double-counting" of home and corporate users is more than evened out by the multiple usage of home accounts.
Academic users
The total number of internet users was boosted more strongly in 1999 than in any previous year by the growth in schools' connectivity. Previously, the academic portion of this survey focused entirely on the connectivity provided to academic institutions through the research and academic network, Uninet, which provides access to most research and tertiary educational institutions in southern Africa, as well as to more than 200 schools. However, as more and more schools go it alone, through privately funded connections via ISPs, it has become impossible to ignore them as a separate contributor to user numbers. For the first time, we include privately funded schools access as a separate total under the academic portion of this survey. The total student population Uninet serves - and therefore potentially has access to the internet - is more than 600 000.
While a majority of these still do not use their access, e-mail has become a vital research and communications tool for more students than ever before. Based on feedback from university network administrators, the probable minimum for students actually using this access is about 250 000. Privately funded schools connectivity probably accounts for a further 30 000, bringing the total academic user base to 280 000. It can be expected to grow to around 360 000 by the end of 2000.
Totals
Taken together, these three categories amount to 1 820 000 internet users in South Africa at the end of December 1999. The survey also found that internet access via telecentres and other such initiatives in townships and informal settlements only contributed to 3 000 registered users. Media Africa.com managing director, Arthur Goldstuck, commented that this lack of digital penetration into disadvantaged communities was a disappointment. Research indicates that it would be safe to forecast the number to grow to around 2.4 million by the end of 2000.
For full report: www.boot.co.za/news/may00/survey24.htm
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Taken from Screen Africa News Bulletin 30 May 2000
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Johnnic to compete with Telkom
JSE-listed telecommunications, media and entertainment group Johnnic intends to bid for South Africa's second public switched telephone network (PSTN) operator licence to compete with Telkom. Johnnic indirectly controls MTN through M-Cell, which holds a 77 percent majority stake in the cellular conglomerate. Telkom, on the other hand, is a 50 percent shareholder in MTN rival Vodacom.
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ANNOUNCEMENTS/REQUESTS
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The University of Pretoria will again be presenting a short course on Internet-Based Distance Education Applications on 26, 27 June 2000. This course covers the theoretical and practical aspects of Internet-driven distance education. It also includes demonstrations of actual applications in which the possibilities of the Internet are exploited, and the problems are addressed.
More information is available from
http://is.up.ac.za/winterschool/info.htm#10
The registration form is available at
http://is.up.ac.za/winterschool/form.htm
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ACT 2000
The African Computing & Telecommunications Summit
Sun City, South Africa
29 August - 1 September
"Making IT work for Africa"
DEVELOPING IT expertise to enable Africa to compete effectively in the international marketplace.
CONTRIBUTING towards Africa's drive for Internet connectivity, electronic commerce and web-based training.
FACILITATING commercial links between suppliers and users of information technology.
ENABLING the continent's computing and communications professionals to enhance their skills and knowledge of international trends and latest development.
Four easy ways to register:
1. Via the Web: www.aitecafrica.com
2. E-mail: ACT2000@aitecafrica.com
3. Fax: +44-(0)1480-831131 OR +27-11-789 5312
4. Post in the UK: ACT Registration, AITEC, 15 High St, Graveley, Cambridgeshire PE18 9PL, UK or post in South Africa: PO Box 398, Fontainebleau 2032, South Africa.
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PROFILED ORGANIZATIONS
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Taken from KABISSA NEWSLETTER
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http://www.kabissa.org/adilisha
Te project seeks to strengthen the campaigning and organisational cpacities of human rights organisations in Southern Africa using a mixture of regional workshops and computer- and Internet-based distance learning methods. Training courses will be developed on investigation of human rights violations; monitoring and reporting (criminal proceedings, elections etc); making representations to domestic, regional and international bodies; campaigning and advocacy; organisational management and leadership; financial management and fund-raising; and use of the internet for research and advocacy. Training modules will be developed in conjunction with national, regional and international experts and produced in electronic form for dissemination within the region.
Primary Contact: Firoze Manji (firoze@fahamu.org)
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Taken from KABISSA NEWSLETTER
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ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL RESEARCH FOUNDATION (ESRF)
BACKGROUND The Economic and Social Research Foundation (ESRF) was established in 1993 as an independent not-for-profit non-governmental research institute for capacity building in economic and social policy analysis. The Foundation started its operations in April 1994. OBJECTIVE The main objective of ESRF is to build and strengthen human and institutional capabilities in economic and social policy analysis and decision-making and to enhance the understanding of policy options within the Government, public sector, donor community and in the growing national non-governmental sector mainly, but not only in Tanzania.
Primary Contact: John Kajiba (jkajiba@esrf.or.tz)
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Taken from KABISSA NEWSLETTER
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http://www.worldcomputerexchange.org
We are a new U.S. non-profit organization focused on shipping donated working, Internet-accessible computers through government ministries or NGOs to schools in developing countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America and partnering them on-line with participating U.S. schools. In early 2001, we plan to send trained teams of technology-savvy high school and college students to visit students in developing countries to train them in use and maintenance of computers and the Internet. We are seeking to support small for-profits in developing countries interested in re-manufacturing computers. In the future, we also expect to find ways to help schools with connectivity issues.
Primary Contact: Timothy Anderson (WorldComputerExchange@mediaone.net)
Mailing Address: 936 Nantaset Avenue, Hull, Massachusetts, 02045 USA
Telephone Numbers: +1-781-925-3078
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ONLINE RESOURCES
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Taken from The NCRTEC Newsletter Issue 2.5
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Online Resource: 21st Century Teachers Network
The 21st Century Teachers Network is a learning
organization made up of teachers and educational professionals who help one another
overcome the obstacles that arise when technology is integrated into school
settings. Users can sign up on the Web site and have access to useful news,
research, and reports. The "Teacher to Teacher" area allows educators to
share ideas and ask questions of other teachers through online message boards. You
can view the 21st Century Teachers Network Web site at:
http://www.21ct.org/
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From: PhilosophyQuotes.com support@philosophyquotes.com
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"As for the idea of finite, there is no great difficulty. The obvious portions of extension that affect our senses, carry with them into the mind the idea of finite: and the ordinary periods of succession, whereby we measure time and duration, as hours, days, and years, are bounded lengths. The difficulty is, how we come by those boundless ideas of eternity and immensity; since the objects we converse with come so much short of any approach or proportion to that largeness."
"As, by the power we find in ourselves of repeating, as often as we will, any idea of space, we get the idea of immensity; so, by being able to repeat the idea of any length of duration we have in our minds, with all the endless addition of number, we come by the idea of eternity."
"Some mathematicians perhaps, of advanced speculations, may have other ways to introduce into their minds ideas of infinity. But this hinders not but that they themselves, as well as all other men, got the first ideas which they had of infinity from sensation and reflection, in the method we have here set down."
-John Locke (1632-1704), An Essay Concerning Human
Understanding (1690)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding is available online at Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0879759178/listuniverse
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An Introduction
to Employment Law for Expanding Dot-com Companies
http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/towns-2000-05-p1.html
As Internet companies grow, they must become aware of -- and comply with -- laws affecting employment discrimination. To help avoid the possibility of lawsuits from employees or the government, high-tech start-ups need to learn about laws dealing with race, religion, sex, national origin, age, disabilities, family issues, pay and more. This article provides a comprehensive overview of these laws in the United States.
Here's an excerpt:
"Unfortunately, many upstart or expanding high-tech companies are ill-prepared to defend against allegations of alleged employment discrimination. In fact, as many of these companies have grown from only one or two employees to hundreds in a short period of time, some are not even aware of what laws apply to them or the requirements under federal and state employment law. As small technology companies grow, they must comply with numerous employment laws relating to discrimination, medical leave and wages.
"Although some may believe that ignorance is bliss, that is clearly not true when it comes to employment law. In fact, the only way to insulate a company from liability is to fully understand the parameters of the law and take preventive steps to avoid liability."
To read the full article, go to
http://www.gigalaw.com/articles/towns-2000-05-p1.html
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Taken from KABISSA NEWSLETTER
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HOW TO SET UP AND MANAGE A RESOURCE CENTRE
http://www.healthlink.org.uk/rcman/rchome.html
The Resource Centre Manual contains practical information on all aspects of setting up and managing a resource centre, from planning, fundraising and finding a suitable location, to collecting and organising materials, developing information services, and monitoring and evaluating the work of the resource centre. It assumes that most readers will use manual systems for organising information, but also explains how computers can be used in resource centres, including e-mail, Internet and databases.
This manual is intended for trainers, those planning to set up a resource centre, and those already running a resource centre and wanting to evaluate or develop the services. The manual will be of use whatever the size of the resource centre - a resource centre can be any size, from a trunk of books or a few shelves, to a whole room. Some of the procedures described are more applicable to large resource centres containing several thousand materials, but much of the information also applies to smaller collections. The list of recommended reading in the Resources section includes publications that are relevant to different sizes of resource centre.
The information in this manual is drawn from the experience of Healthlink Worldwide and its partners in developing resource centres specialising in health and disability issues. Although it includes many references to the health sector, the same principles apply to resource centres specialising in another areas, such as education, environment or agriculture. It is hoped that this book will also be useful to those working in other sectors.
The content includes practical information, checklists, tips, examples and illustrations, which can be used for reference or training. Any pages may be photocopied to use as handouts, and the electronic versions can be adapted for other materials, provided it is for educational purposes and the source is acknowledged.
The Resource Centre Manual is available in full text on the Healthnet Worldwide web site, and as Rich Text Format (RTF) files for downloading. For those with e-mail access only, the RTF files can be requested via e-mail info@healthlink.org.uk Printed versions of the manual in a handy ringbinder for easy updating can be ordered at £9.50/£14.50 or US$ equivalent from publications@healthlink.org.uk
If you have any comments or suggestions for how to improve future editions, these would be very welcome: info@healthlink.org.uk
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Important educational pointers
International Virtual Education Network
(IVEN) for the enhancement of science and mathematics learning
http://www.KnowledgeEnterprise.org/Projects/IVEN/right.htm
Global Information Infrastructure
Commission (GIIC)
http://www.giic.org/mission.html
LITERACY ONLINE: a research and innovation
for a more literate world
http://www.literacyonline.org
The 21st Century Learning Initiative
http://www.21learn.org
The Academy for Educational Development
http://www.aed.org
Millennium EdTech Project
http://millennium.aed.org
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Taken from Education Planet Newsletter
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http://www.discovery.com/news/earthalert/earthalert.html
I remember once seeing a book called the Dynamic Earth but I never had a real sense of how dynamic the Earth actually was until I started seeing the weekly EarthWatch sections in the newspaper. This Earth Alert web site is essentially a daily version of EarthWatch but the information is conveyed at least ten times better than in the newspaper. The familiar map is still there with the cute icons marking different natural phenomena around the globe but now you can move your mouse over each icon to pop up a headline balloon. Just click to see the full news article. There is also a scrolling headline banner with breaking news - click for further information. To look back in time, check out the Earth Alert archives. Want more? Try out the links to the Sun Cam, Hurricane Cam, Planet Cam or Volcano Cam. With Planet Cam you can click on a section of the earth as seen from space to see a magnified view together with a location map. Want to make your own Hurricane? Try out the Hurricane simulator in Earth Games.
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ARTICLES
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E-GOVERNANCE IN INDIA NOW DEPENDS ON INTEGRITY OF "MAN BEHIND MACHINE"
by Frederick Noronha fred@vsnl.com
PONDICHERRY, May 25: In the quest for the tantilising promises of e-governances, the machines are now all in fine shape. But what about the man behind the system?
Skeptical computer professionals from across South Indian states, some of which have seen a speedy race towards excellence in IT, are sternly warning that the real quality of e-governance now depends on "the integrity of the man behind the machine".
Senior government officials point to a growing role of IT in the administration, to say that administrations will become more lean, trim... and even clean.
But computer specialists meeting here are only willing to adopt a wait-and-watch policy.
"Merely putting computers in a government office won't help. We need to win the confidence of people (who are going to man them). Because over time people ingrain ways of living, thinking and working," said Computer Society of India Bangalore chairman M.L.Ravi.
Ravi pointed out that the Bangalore Corporation has computerised its birth and death records. Yet due to intertia, instead of taking five to six minutes to issue a certificate, they were still taking five to six days, he said.
He added that it was up to the citizen to place higher expectations of his bureaucrat and politician, to claim his right to a better quality of services.
Pondicherry industries secretary G. Narendra Kumar, who is also secretary to the region's Lt. Governor, said the new economy provided governments a chance to provide better services to their citizens.
"Accessing information becomes easier, some services can get a qualitative boost. But the question of the state's role in allocation of resources becomes more complicated (under e-governance trends),"he said.
IT would not change much the state's role in regulating activity -- for business, and in the social and economic worlds -- the senior bureaucrat also suggested.
"Under the IT revolution we're trying to reduce the transaction cost of every transaction. The same can be done by governments. But there is also a lurking fear that government servants would be thrown out of jobs (leading to reluctance on their part)," said Narendra Kumar.
Managing director of the Coimbatore-based Consolidated Cybernetics, P R Rangaswami, argued that governments -- which could be viewed as businesses of sorts, in a way -- could also improve their efficiency vastly due to the IT revolution taking place.
"Transaction costs in e-business is coming down sharply. The same should hold true for governments," he argued.
Planning and budgeting of governments should get more accurate, and monitoring should be more precise compared to what it currently is, said Rangaswami.
National Informatics Centre technical director Dr V Siva Rama Krishnaiah said an IT strategy for governents is now as essential as a mouse is to a PC -- "it can't manoeuvre unless it clicks".
Krishnaiah, who heads the official national body looking after the IT needs of the government, cited examples of how Andhra Pradesh had computerised land records in sub-registrar's offices to lower corruption levels. He said the Delhi Corporation was now using software to collect property taxes more efficiently.
Federal ministers like Ram Jethmalani were having national-level video conferences with state-based Registrars of Companies, without requiring all of them to come to Delhi for meetings, he said.
Citizens could also track the progress of their cases in the Supreme Court, and all judgements from 1952 onwards were available now on a searchable CD (compact disk), he added.
There is a new software being worked on to help pensioners sort delays, and Tamil Nadu has begun putting out its public exam results on the web to avoid students getting inconvenienced by a teachers' strike, he said.
Narendra Kumar, who is also the industries secretary of Pondicherry, said that after this Union Territory declared its IT policy recently, ration cards had been fully computerised and land records had also been done so "to a large extent".
But some entrepreneurs complained of the long delays and elaborate paperwork it took to set up even a medical transcription unit here.
Citing an experiment by the M.S.Swaminathan Foundation in a Pondicherry village, Narendra Kumar said outdated computers received from abroad were giving villagers vital connectivity to information that mattered.
From helping them to locate doctors in towns, to finding out the right time to take their cane to sugar-mills and avoid waiting for long hours outside mill gates, this 'information dirt-track' was reaching their village market place.
Fishermen had also been able to hike their catches by upto 30% by making use of the latest boon of technology, and using satellite information to locate shoals of catch, said Narendra Kumar.
But questions lingered on in the minds of computer professionals on whether this really signals a drastic change in governance, or are just stray examples in a country where the government plays a crucial and often time-consuming role in everything from a ration-card (which offers supplies of foodgrains to the poor at cheaper rates), to vehicular documents, passports, university certificates or authenticated land records.
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By Noam Chomsky
At a recent talk Chomsky was asked "What are the motivations of the U.S. push for sustainable development in the developing world?" Here was his answer...
Its the first time I ever heard of that-does the U.S. have a push for sustainable development? As far as I know, the U.S. push is for unsustainable nondevelopment. The programs that are built into U.S policy, take a look at the World Trade Organization rules, like, say, TRIPs and TRIMs-Trade-Related Intellectual Property and Trade-Related Investment Measures are designed to impede development and impede growth. So the intellectual property rights are just protection of monopolistic pricing and control, guaranteeing that corporations, in fact, by now, megacorporations, have the right to charge monopolistic prices, guaranteeing, say, that pharmaceutical production drugs will be priced at a level at which most of the world can't afford them, even people here. For example, drugs in the U.S. are much more expensive than the same drugs as close as Canada, even more expensive than say, Europe, and for the third world this just dooms millions of people to death. Other countries can produce the drugs. And under earlier patent regimes, you had process patents. I don't even know if those are legitimate, but process patents meant that if some pharmaceutical company figured out a way to produce a drug, somebody smarter could figure out a better way to produce it because all that was patented was the process. So, if the Brazilian pharmaceutical industry figured out a way to make it cheaper and better, fine, they could do it. It wouldn't violate patents. The World Trade Organization regime insists instead on product patents, so you can't figure out a smarter process. Notice that impedes growth, and development and is intended to. It's intended to cut back innovation, growth, and development and to maintain extremely high profits. Well, the pharmaceutical corporations and others claim they need this so they can recoup the costs of research and development. But have a close look. A very substantial part of the research and development is paid for by the public anyway. In a narrow sense, it's on the order of 40-50%. But that' s an underestimate, because it doesn't count the basic biology and the basic science, which is all publicly funded. So if you get a realistic amount, it' s a very high percentage that's publicly paid anyway. Well, suppose that went to 100%. Then all the motivation for monopolistic pricing would be gone, and there'd be a huge welfare benefit to it. There's no justifiable economic motive for not doing this. There's some economic motive, profit, but it is an effort to impede growth and development. But what about Trade-Related Investment Measures? What do they do? TRIPS is straight protectionism for the benefit of the rich and powerful, through publicly subsidized corporations. TRIMs are a little more subtle. What they require is that a country cannot impose conditions on what an investor decides to do. Suppose General Motors, let's say, decides to carry out outsourcing, to have parts made in some other country with non-union cheap labor, and then send them back to General Motors. Well, the successful developing countries in Asia, one of the ways they developed is by blocking that sort of thing, by insisting that if there was foreign investment, it had to be done in a way that was productive for the receiving country. So there had to be technology transfer, or you had to invest in places they wanted you to invest in, or some proportion of the investment had to be for export of finished goods that made money. Lots of devices like that. That's part of the way in which the East Asian economic miracle took place. Incidentally, it's the way all the other developing countries developed too, including the United States, with technology transfer from England. Those approaches are blocked by Trade-Related Investment Measures. Superficially they sound like they are increasing free trade, but what they are in fact increasing is the capacity of huge corporations to carry out central managemnent of cross-border transactions, because that's what outsourcing and intrafirm transfers are-centrally managed. It's not trade in any meaningful sense. And they again undermine growth and development. In fact, if you look across the board, what's being instituted is a regime which will prevent the kind of development that has taken place in the countries that today are rich, industrial countries-not the best kind of development we can imagine, to be sure, but at least development of a sort. If you go back from England to the United States, to Germany, France, Japan, Korea-every one of these countries developed by radically violating the principles that are now being built into the World Trade Organization. These principles are methods of undermining growth and development and ensuring concentration of power. The issue of sustainable development doesn't even arise. That's another question altogether. Sustainable development means, for example, paying attention to what are called externalities, the things businesses don't look at. So take, say, trade. Trade is supposed to increase wealth. Maybe it does, maybe it doesn't, but you don't know what it does until you count in the costs of trade, including costs which are not counted, like, for example the cost of pollution. When something moves from here to there it's creating pollution. It's called an externality; you don't count it. There's resource depletion, like you deplete the resources of agricultural production. There' s military costs. For example, the price of oil is kept within a certain band, not too high, not too low, by a very substantial part of the Pentagon directed toward the Middle East oil producers, not because the United States likes desert training or something, but because that's where the oil is. You want to make sure it doesn't get too high, doesn't get too low, but stays where you want it. There hasn't been much investigation of this, but one investigation by a consultant for the U.S. energy department estimated that Pentagon expenses alone amount to maybe a 30% subsidy to the price of oil, something in that range. Well, you look across the board, there's lots of things like this. One of the costs of trade is that it drives people out of their livelihoods. When you export subsidized U.S. agricultural products to Mexico, it drives millions of peasants out of farming. That's a cost. In fact, it's a multiple cost, because those millions of people not only suffer, but they are driven into the cities where they lower wages, so other people suffer-including, incidentally, American workers, who now are competing with even lower paid wages. These are costs. If you take them into account, you get a totally different picture of economic interactions entirely. Incidentally, that's also true just of something like Gross Domestic Product. You take a look at the measures of Gross Domestic Product, and they 're highly ideological. For example, one of the ways to increase the Gross Domestic Product in the United States is to do what, in fact, it's doing, not repair roads. If you don't repair roads and you have a lot of potholes all over the place, that means when cars drive, they get smashed up. That means you've got to buy a new car. Or you have to go to mechanic and get him to fix it, and so on. All of that increases the Gross Domestic Product. You make people sicker by polluting the atmosphere. That increases the Gross Domestic Product because they have to go to the hospital and they have to pay doctors and they have to have drugs, and so on. In fact, what increases the Gross Domestic Product in societies as they are now organized is often not a measure of welfare in any meaningful sense. There have been efforts to construct other measures which do take account of these things and they give you very different stories. For example, the United States is one of the few industrial countries that does not publish regular "social indicators"-measures of social welfare, like child abuse, mortality, all kinds of things. Most countries do it. Every year they have a social indicator measure. The United States doesn't, so it's kind of hard to get a measure of the social health of the country. But there have been efforts to do it. There's one major project at Fordham University, a Jesuit university in New York. For years they've been trying to construct a social health measure for the United States. They just came out with the last volume a couple months ago. It's interesting stuff. According to their analyses of the kinds of measures of the sort I've mentioned, up until about 1975, that is, through the "golden age," as it's called, social health went up, more or less, with the economy. It kind of tracked the economy. As that got better, social health got better. From 1975 they've diverged. The economy has continued to grow, even though more slowly than before, but social health has declined. And it's continuing to decline. In fact, they conclude that the United States is in a recession, a serious recession, from the point of view of measures that matter. That's when you're beginning to look at questions like sustainable development, meaningful development. But that requires a completely different perspective on all of these issues of economy and consequences, etc., one that definitely should be undertaken. And those are the issues that arise when people are talking about sustainable development, but the U.S. certainly has no such program. It should, but it doesn't.
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