Yamanoor Srihari
2004-04-02 05:08:05 UTC
The article is intriguing. However, some assumptions are wrong. One of them is the cost factor. What the person obviously misses is ICT will be tools that will be provided to the NGOs, Primary Health Care workers and others, and they will use them to increase the efficiency of their operations.
We are working on a huge project involving palmtops and cell phones for vaccination programs in Andhra Pradesh. The previous version, worked on, without our intervention failed. However, there is an IAS officer here on a Reuters scholarship who is collaborating with Stanford, and IIIT Hyderabad and we are writing up a sound business plan.
Implementation of such projects need a lot of government goodwill. Such goodwill is available in abundance in Andhra Pradesh. We were indeed surprised to find that all the 7 crore people in Andhra Pradesh have social security numbers !!! which the government plans to integrate into all their documents. The entire state is wired with fiber optics...
All these things are available in AP and there are not enough projects that use these resources optimally. That is where things are wrong. We don't need nay sayers for India. We need people with creative ideas. Then India will "shine" (these days it is really poor to write anything about India, without the shining cliche!).
Whats more important is that internet and computers can be made cost effective. Without going into details, I invite you to look at Simputer and the work done by Nilgiri Networks in Tamil Nadu. Of course, MIT Media Lab's ego - blown attitude (the lab is sort of independent from MIT) which of course became news in the past, pulled down their project - very similar to what we are trying to implement in AP. Imagine MIT Media Lab and IIT Bombay, what a horrible ego clash among two organizations that became famous without ever actually doing anyone any good...so thats the kind of people and attitude we don't want.
People are thinking about India and ICT quite a lot...I hope the author's question is only rhetoric and not effacing other people's intelligence....
Srihari
Jai Sivanantham <mail2mayil-/***@public.gmane.org> wrote:
Note: forwarded message attached.
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From: "Sreedhar"
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:28:28 -0000
Subject: [ROSHNIasu] Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits by Atanu Dey
Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits
In late February, immediately upon my return from my brief trip to
California, I went to attend what is called the Baramati Conference
in Baramati. Baramati is a small town in Sharad Pawar's
constituency. {One of these days I will put up some pictures of the
VIIT campus where the conference took place.} The conference was
on "Information Kiosks and Sustainability". I sat through the
presentations. After a while it gets mighty boring to hear about ICT-
this and ICT-that and all the wonderful things that computers and
the internet are going to do for development of poor people. My mind
wanders when I get bored. So I sat there wondering what motivates
these people who wish to push computers and internet as the solution
to all problems. Why?
The banners all over the place proclaimed proudly the sponsors of
the conference. Intel, Microsoft, HP, and a bunch of others. The
makers of hammers promoting the notion that every problem is a nail
and the best thing one can do is to stock up on hammers. Never mind
that what you may really need is a bottle-opener and that a hammer
on a bottle will result in a mess that you will have to pay to clean
up.
When bored I also become cynical. Selling hardware is hard in a
world that can barely afford decent square meals. Roping in NGOs to
push hardware seems like an excellent marketing strategy and so
these conferences get funded. Almost every presentation in these
sort of meetings is about PCs and internet. There is practically
zero mention of radio and TV. Radio and TV make more sense in a lot
of contexts for developing countries. Telephones, radio, and TV
(TRTV, henceforth) are orders of magnitude cheaper, easy to use, and
in many aspects more robust than PCs. So what explains the neglect
of TRTVs?
Two factors explain the neglect of TRTVs as a solution to the
information and communications needs of the poor. First, the TVTR
industry is fragmented compared to the industry for computers. The
computer industry is a virtual monopoly of the Intel-Microsoft
behemoths. Monopolists have market power and therefore they capture
all the profits (or, rents) that are generated by increased demand
for their products. Compared to the computer industry, the TRTV
market is more competitive. No single entity there controls any
significant part of the market, and therefore economic profits are
non-existent. Consequently, no entity has an incentive to push TRTVs
as a solution for the information and communications needs of the
poor.
The second factor for the neglect of TRTV is that TRTVs deliver
services that have public goods characteristics and have major
positive externalities that cannot be captured by the firms in the
market. The market therefore underprovides the amount of TRTV as
would be predicted by economic theory.
The classical response to the second factor is of course to
subsidize TRTVs so that the socially optimal quantity is delivered
and consumed. The first factor can only be confronted by regulation.
Courts have been routinely trying to break Microsoft's monopoly in
the US an Europe. Perhaps one of these days with a little bit of
luck, the stranglehold will be broken.
India has to adopt the most cost-effective means of delivering
information and education. Computers and the internet are an
expensive solution that most of India cannot afford. The money
available for subsidizing the information and communications
solutions can be more efficiently used in the TVTR sector than the
computer/internet sector. Is anyone paying attention?
La vie..
http://www.stanford.edu/~yamanoor
http://yamanoor.tblog.com
---------------------------------
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Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway - Enter today
We are working on a huge project involving palmtops and cell phones for vaccination programs in Andhra Pradesh. The previous version, worked on, without our intervention failed. However, there is an IAS officer here on a Reuters scholarship who is collaborating with Stanford, and IIIT Hyderabad and we are writing up a sound business plan.
Implementation of such projects need a lot of government goodwill. Such goodwill is available in abundance in Andhra Pradesh. We were indeed surprised to find that all the 7 crore people in Andhra Pradesh have social security numbers !!! which the government plans to integrate into all their documents. The entire state is wired with fiber optics...
All these things are available in AP and there are not enough projects that use these resources optimally. That is where things are wrong. We don't need nay sayers for India. We need people with creative ideas. Then India will "shine" (these days it is really poor to write anything about India, without the shining cliche!).
Whats more important is that internet and computers can be made cost effective. Without going into details, I invite you to look at Simputer and the work done by Nilgiri Networks in Tamil Nadu. Of course, MIT Media Lab's ego - blown attitude (the lab is sort of independent from MIT) which of course became news in the past, pulled down their project - very similar to what we are trying to implement in AP. Imagine MIT Media Lab and IIT Bombay, what a horrible ego clash among two organizations that became famous without ever actually doing anyone any good...so thats the kind of people and attitude we don't want.
People are thinking about India and ICT quite a lot...I hope the author's question is only rhetoric and not effacing other people's intelligence....
Srihari
Jai Sivanantham <mail2mayil-/***@public.gmane.org> wrote:
Note: forwarded message attached.
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.
http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html
Yahoo! Groups SponsorADVERTISEMENT
---------------------------------
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To visit your group on the web, go to:
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ATTACHMENT part 2 message/rfc822
To: ROSHNIasu-***@public.gmane.orgFrom: "Sreedhar"
Date: Tue, 30 Mar 2004 22:28:28 -0000
Subject: [ROSHNIasu] Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits by Atanu Dey
Why Telephones, Radio, and TVs Don't Make The Conference Circuits
In late February, immediately upon my return from my brief trip to
California, I went to attend what is called the Baramati Conference
in Baramati. Baramati is a small town in Sharad Pawar's
constituency. {One of these days I will put up some pictures of the
VIIT campus where the conference took place.} The conference was
on "Information Kiosks and Sustainability". I sat through the
presentations. After a while it gets mighty boring to hear about ICT-
this and ICT-that and all the wonderful things that computers and
the internet are going to do for development of poor people. My mind
wanders when I get bored. So I sat there wondering what motivates
these people who wish to push computers and internet as the solution
to all problems. Why?
The banners all over the place proclaimed proudly the sponsors of
the conference. Intel, Microsoft, HP, and a bunch of others. The
makers of hammers promoting the notion that every problem is a nail
and the best thing one can do is to stock up on hammers. Never mind
that what you may really need is a bottle-opener and that a hammer
on a bottle will result in a mess that you will have to pay to clean
up.
When bored I also become cynical. Selling hardware is hard in a
world that can barely afford decent square meals. Roping in NGOs to
push hardware seems like an excellent marketing strategy and so
these conferences get funded. Almost every presentation in these
sort of meetings is about PCs and internet. There is practically
zero mention of radio and TV. Radio and TV make more sense in a lot
of contexts for developing countries. Telephones, radio, and TV
(TRTV, henceforth) are orders of magnitude cheaper, easy to use, and
in many aspects more robust than PCs. So what explains the neglect
of TRTVs?
Two factors explain the neglect of TRTVs as a solution to the
information and communications needs of the poor. First, the TVTR
industry is fragmented compared to the industry for computers. The
computer industry is a virtual monopoly of the Intel-Microsoft
behemoths. Monopolists have market power and therefore they capture
all the profits (or, rents) that are generated by increased demand
for their products. Compared to the computer industry, the TRTV
market is more competitive. No single entity there controls any
significant part of the market, and therefore economic profits are
non-existent. Consequently, no entity has an incentive to push TRTVs
as a solution for the information and communications needs of the
poor.
The second factor for the neglect of TRTV is that TRTVs deliver
services that have public goods characteristics and have major
positive externalities that cannot be captured by the firms in the
market. The market therefore underprovides the amount of TRTV as
would be predicted by economic theory.
The classical response to the second factor is of course to
subsidize TRTVs so that the socially optimal quantity is delivered
and consumed. The first factor can only be confronted by regulation.
Courts have been routinely trying to break Microsoft's monopoly in
the US an Europe. Perhaps one of these days with a little bit of
luck, the stranglehold will be broken.
India has to adopt the most cost-effective means of delivering
information and education. Computers and the internet are an
expensive solution that most of India cannot afford. The money
available for subsidizing the information and communications
solutions can be more efficiently used in the TVTR sector than the
computer/internet sector. Is anyone paying attention?
La vie..
http://www.stanford.edu/~yamanoor
http://yamanoor.tblog.com
---------------------------------
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Small Business $15K Web Design Giveaway - Enter today