Information technology in developing countries

Was listening to a lecture by Prof Dattesh Parulekar on information and communication technology in the developing countries. The professor brought out the pros and cons of ICT in Asia and Africa with specific examples.


Approximately 70-80% of cobalt needed to manufacture mobile phones comes from Africa mainly Ethiopia and as such the spread of cell phones in Africa has been awe inspiring! However the Africans are not doing so well with regards to internet connectivity where again taking the example of Ethiopia, he showed that about 90% of the internet connections in the country were concentrated the capital of Ethiopia, Aids Ababa. The rate of spread of cell phones in the developing countries rose from 2% in 1991 to a whooping 41% in 2006! The internet usage in the developing world rose from 0.2% in 1991 to 41% in2006.


Talking about information and technology and political problems in developing countries, we can see how in countries like India, electronic voting machines have made elections a breeze. The time required for counting has been reduced drastically. Employing virtual classrooms for the spread of education in the country can be a boon for the educational sector.


With regard to the access to technology, India despite its haphazard growth is on par with the OECD countries. Absence of government regulations and moderate rates of taxation have immensely contributed to the growth of information and communication technology in India.


In Ethiopia for example, 40% terrif on the ICT equipments make it too costly for the general populace. The government attitude towards ICT has shown signs of change with the establishment of the Ethiopian ICT development authority and some changes in the management of two major telecom corporations in the country. Whereas in Egypt, the innovative steps taken by the Ministry of Communication and Information have brought a steep rise in the internet users from 9 users per thousand citizens in 2001 to 55 users per thousand citizens in 2004


However the developing countries have not been able to employ the ICT to its best because of the concentration of development in urban centers and lack of funds to finance the development projects. The people in some cases are too poor to afford tech gadgets and in some cases even when they do have access, they lack the technical know-how to benefit from ICT. While the growth of access to ICT is steady in Asia, Africa has to take special efforts to ensure its progress. There are initiatives like New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) which recognizes the importance of ICT as a key area for promoting development. It focuses on development of ICT infrastructure and dissemination of ICT skills across the African population, by implementing an e-schools programme in primary and secondary schools.


Ref: Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology

POST note March 2006

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Letter to dad

Dear dad, Yes, you work hard to give me the relative prosperity we have today compared to your times, yes, my life seems more comfortable in material terms, but I also face issues. Please, try to understand. Yes, you are right when you say, that today’s generation cares more about practical life than emotions and relations.   Yes you are right when you say today’s generation is confused. We are confused because we witness the differences that exist between the values you taught us and the ways the world operates. We are confused because we live in times markets and sociopolitical situations are fast changing. We value our culture with the same zeal and passion that you do but we do not hesitate to make pragmatic decisions and welcome that change if it benefits us.  Yes, I am always on phone or the Internet, Yes, I know its not always good. but dad, its the need of the hour.   The Internet has opened the doors to infinite knowledge. It h...
Read more

The battle over 300

Today I sit before my p.c. hammering my brain for ideas. My blog has led me into the jaws of wolves that disguise themselves under the sweet name of ‘fans’. Their demand for more writings on the blog is about to turn me into a seasoned writer! However, when I opened this blog, I had no idea that it would be such a great success. The credit of my success goes to a person hereafter referred to as ‘One Certain Official ( OCO ) to whom I also dedicate this article revealing the secret of my success. As the title suggests, it was the famous battle fought over the post ‘300’ that carved out my literary empire. The warring parties - ‘one certain official’ from ‘one certain department’ of Goa University, pitted against ‘the protector of innocent, defender of the weak, man of ladies, patron of studies, the one and the only, the great, Jay Joshi . OCO took great trouble to shape my career as a writer and to demonstrate that freedom of expression can be challenged and crushed in a departmen...
Read more

B2.1 The unfair game

I started learning German out of curiosity but it is becoming a hectic exercise as I advance throughthe levels. Teaching style of the Germans does not match my learning style. Six hours a day, six days a week, one just takes in new words, grammar and culture. While class work focuses more on group work, I tend to be more of a pause-think-observe-learn person. I am simply overloaded by the content and my classmates rush ahead with work while I am still busy thinking about how can one get more creative with the given assignments. One only finds time on weekends to focus and 'digest' the language, working in peace and solitude. However, the very teaching and assessment mechanism of the Germans works in my favor. They believe that language is learned best in a group as it gives you lots of opportunity to talk. It gives me lots of opportunity to observe. Secondly, while classes focus on group work, exams are held in a different class than usual. Oral exams are hel...
Read more