Indian Telecentre Forum 2007

Introduction

The present write-up on Telecentre Tales would cover the discussions and suggestions that came up during Indian Telecentre Forum of the eIndia 2007 Conference, which was held in Hotel Taj Palace (New Delhi, India), from 31 July 2007 to 2 August, 2007. Ms. Rumi Mallick from Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS), Noida (India) introduced the Indian Telecentre Forum, 2007. She informed that it was for the second time, Indian Telecentre Forum, a part of the eIndia Conference, would be taking stock of the telecentre movement in India and elsewhere. She said that the telecentre forum discussion would focus on Government of India's CSCs (Common Service Centres) scheme, and the other telecentre initiatives in the country. The objectives of the Indian Telecentre Forum is to raise awareness about the growing telecentre movement in general, and India in particular; raise key issues and challenges of telecentres; take up the recommendations of the current deliberation to the policy-makers for appropriate policy changes and build a community of practices (CoP) for knowledge-sharing and capacity-building.

July 31, 2007
Reviewing the emerging telecentre ecosystem

The first session of the Telecentre Forum of e-India Conference was chaired by Dr Srinivasan Ramakrishnan, Director General C-DAC, Pune. He informed that a lot of projects pertaining to telecentres in the ground are running on pilot basis. An entire gamut of factors determine the success of telecentres which include: infrastructure, content of portals, language of the content provided etc. He said that revolution in Information Technology has captured the imagination of people. There are very successful case studies. Nowadays, non-government organisations (NGOs) too are working together with the private sector. The Indian Telecentre Forum is a space which helps one to listen to various case studies. Y.S. Kim, e-Government Advisor, NITC, Government of Nepal (Republic of Korea), was the first speaker at the first session on telecentre. He informed that he has worked for 3 years in Nepal in the area of ICTs learning from rural Korea. Korea has good broadband connectivity. In rural areas of Korea, there still exists digital divide. Budget related to Information Technology is important. Korea has made huge investment on IT. In every village, investment on IT has been made. The budget for IT comes from the central and the local government. Information content is important since it generates income for people.

Dr. Baseerhamad Shadrach (Shaddy), Senior Programme officer, International Development Research Centre, New Delhi, said that his organisation was the one which introduced the term 'telecentre ecosystem'. Shaddy said that there are four key concepts to understand telecentres—Actor, Action, Actant and Tool. He added that the term ecosystem is related to tools. He reminded that IDRC funded telecentres for 20 years (the first generation telecentres). But 2-3 years back IDRC realised that telecentres cannot be funded in isolation. IDRC realised that for funding the second generation telecentres, there is need for investment in telecentre ecosystem. While explaining the term 'action', Shaddy said that 'action' in telecentre means connecting source (supply) with demand or vice-versa. While explaining the term 'actor', he said that actor is the telecentre manager. It should be ensured that the telecentre manager is not isolated. 'Actant' (although there is no such term in the dictionary) has been defined by Shaddy, as the people on which the act is acted upon. It basically refers to the community. The term 'Tool' was defined by Shaddy as the telecentre itself. The 'Tool' can be the computer, community radio or mobile handset. The answer lies with the community, on what should be termed as the tool. Balasundaram Muthukumara, Project Executer, Dhan Foundation who was the third speaker in the first session on 31 July, 2007 talked about Thagavalagam Telecentre movement. He informed that Dhan Foundation is a professional development organisation, which is working in India for the upliftment of the poor communities. He added that Thagavalagam telecentres are clustered under 15 hubs. The telecentres are supported by Dhan Foundation, ISRO and CAPART. He said that there are different wireless-based technologies in order to connect the telecentres such as CorDECT technology, and 802.16 Pre WiMax Technology. Offline services are offered by the telecentres in the areas like: computer education, e-School, job-related works, digital photography, Photo 2 CD services, Infotainment, functional literacy, agriculture, animal husbandry, health, gender, microfinance, insurance, adult literacy, fisheries, etc. Dr. Subarna Shakya, Executive Director, NITC, Nepal was the next speaker. He informed about school telecentres in Nepal which are located at the villages. Regarding the school telecentre, there was a survey study of Government telecentres in 2005. Results indicated that 80 percent of the telecentres were not sustainable. Majority of the community members including the students could not afford services offered at the telecentres. The long-term benefits of telecentres are: increased literacy rate; ICT driven education and ICT for village development. The short-term benefits of telecentres are: decreased drop out rate among students; increased enrollment rate among students; students can become part of the Information Revolution after training, etc. Sandeep Kaur, Researcher, P.S.G. College of Arts and Science, Coimbatore, was the fifth speaker. Her presentation cross-checked whether e-Governance was a hype or reality. The presentation focused on the potential challenges on implementing e-Governance in Tamil Nadu to serve the marginalised populace via the RASI kiosks, and the significance of kiosks in this respect. Her presentation was an attempt to examine the significance of kiosk development in the context of e-Government policies through a case study on RASI Kiosks implemented in Melur district in the state of Tamil Nadu. Though the e-Government services were received with great enthusiasm by rural communities since its inception in November 2001, the project failed to sustain and came to an end by December 2002 while some of the private services sustained. To have greater future success, policymakers and public IT managers should pay close attention to long-term business planning, strategic management, and stakeholder partnership in future kiosk development and similar e-Government projects, as per Sandeep Kaur. The final speaker of the day was Ahmad MM Eisa, Chairman of GDCO, Sudan. He informed that Gedaref Digital City has community telecentres equipped with a high technical facilities. It is the first digital city in Sudan. He informed about the partnership between the great people of Eindhoven represented by digital city of Eindhoven (DSE-Netherlands- Ben Waumans and the Board of Directors) and Gedaref community which is represented by Gedaref Digital City (GDCO). He said that the objective of GDCO is to develop the community by using Information Technology. The goals are to enable the community to reach and cope with the electronic era, capacity building of the community, and help the society have their voice heard, and their memory activated for utilisation and documentation for the state. He explained how the GDCO is helping the disabled. He said that disabled individuals are still excluded from many areas of life including information technologies (IT). GDCO is helping the disabled in the areas of IT and ICTs because ICT training is an important key qualification. Most of the disabled are very poor. Disabled are considered a useless community and no one care about them. Usage of ICTs is not part of Sudanese culture. However, imparting ICTs training can make the disabled to be self dependent and help their families. There is need for the integration of disabled in the community. There is also the need for fighting poverty through ICT, as per Ahmad. Because of GDCO's efforts, disabled are using ICTs for communications (chatting and emailing) instead of using sign languages. GDCO established telecentres for them which help both the disabled (by providing them employment opportunities) and the community (training and capacity building). The main challenges before GDCO are: lack of strategic and executable plans with clear time-bound targets; poor infrastructure especially power supply, high cost of ICT equipment, poorly designed schools' capacity and curriculum, lack of community involvement, awareness and interaction, unavailability of funding and non-usage of Internet (which is part of Sudanese culture).

August 1, 2007

CSC Programme: Sharing visions for shared access

S. Abbasi, Sr.Director, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, GoI, chaired the first session held on 1 August 2007. He informed that private sectors are going for the CSCs scheme for tapping the rural market, despite agriculture contributing a lower proportion to the gross domestic product (GDP). He said that in the recent years, the impact of policies on CSCs scheme has been noticed. In the next 2-3 years, reliable broadband connectivity would be seen. R.K. Maiti, Joint Secretary, Department of PR&RD, West Bengal, informed that the CSCs scheme in West Bengal has been termed as Tathya Mitra. West Bengal has to establish 6,797 rural CSCs, he added. SREI Sahaj e-Village Ltd., WIPRO, Reliance Communications, and Samtec Technologies were elected through open bidding. Objective of ICT policy are: economic development, improving quality of life, ensuring good governance and promote high internal efficiency. The letter of intent has been issued on 2nd March, 2007 and signing of MSA took place on 5th April, 2007 with SREI and on 7th May, 2007 with Reliance. Rural West Bengal has been divided into 8 zones—two zones have been awarded to Reliance and 6 zones have been awarded to SREI infrastructure. Main areas to be targeted under MMP of NeGP are: Land and Land Reforms department, social welfare, agriculture and allied activities, transport, police, education, registration, etc. Other schemers covered for e-Governance are: e-Health, e-Medicine. He said that eliminating middle-men is the need of the day. Kshatrapati Shivaji, Secretary IT, Government of Maharashtra, the next speaker, said that ICTs has brought revolutionary changes. ICTs has blurred geographical barriers, economic barriers, and is an effective instrument in globalisation. Virtual world has taken over the real world. Places where there is no infrastructure can be reached out through ICTs. CSCs will help in economic development. He informed that Maharashtra has its own SETU programme. There exists Mahanet in Maharashtra, which provides grid all over the state. Upgradation of district headquarters will take place via SWAN. A roadmap for a period of 3 years has been prepared for Maharashtra. New projects are planned to be started on pilot basis which can be replicated. Capacity-building of Department of Information Technology (DIT) is needed. In Maharashtra, SCAs will go for bidding in 6 different places, he added. 7,285 CSCs will come up in Maharashtra, and they will be integrated. The CSCs will be opened in the gram panchayat premises. In Baramati, IL&FS has started a pilot project on CSCs from January, 2007 onwards.

V.S. Kundu, Special Secretary IT, Haryana was the third speaker. He said that e-Governance revolution is just around the corner. The time is ripe for e-Governance because e-Government measures are coming into existence. A lot of technological solutions are available. Citizens and government are becoming more aware about e-Governance. People have realised that e-Governance improves efficiency and saves time. Even 'babus' and 'clerks' have changed their attitude towards e-Governance. A lot of help is coming from the Right to Information Act. CSCs scheme have been prepared carefully under the public private partnership (PPP) mode to make it successful. Sustainability is assured through B2B services. Private players cannot provide neutral playing field to their competitors. In Haryana, flexibilities were given to SCAs to design the B2C services. In Haryana, SCAs were appointed on the basis of revenue-division. 3iInfotech is working in Gurgaon. Hughes Network Systems is working in Rohtak. 1,159 rural CSCs have come up in rural Haryana and 212 CSCs have come up in urban areas of Haryana. Some of the CSCs are already operating. The mandate is to make 40 percent of CSCs workable by October, 2007. SCAs believe that the target will be met earlier. The real challenge is readiness of G2C services. The SCAs will identify the VLEs. In 3 out of 4 divisions of Haryana, CSCs are operating. There are 6 CSCs in Ambala, 1 in Hissar, and more than 40 in Rohtak. In Gurgaon, sample centres would be coming up. Navin Kumar, Principal Secretary, IT, Government of Bihar, said that CSCs scheme is about government's initiative to provide web-enabled services to citizens. There are critical areas such as: SWAN, SCAs and CSCs. He informed that Bihar has 8,463 panchayats. So one CSC in each panchayat is envisioned to be established. For 8 of the 9 divisions, SCAs have been identified. Apart from SREI, there are two more players. The MSA is expected to be signed in the month of August, 2007. He informed about kisan soochna kendras run by Jai Kisan in Uttarakhand. He informed that SCAs will take up the onus to set up infrastructure, by partnering with VLEs. But no roll-out of CSCs has taken place in Bihar.

Pranav Roach, President, Hughes Network Systems India, said that in 2000, the IT scenario was far from being fair. The IT policy of 1999 was not conducive for the growth of the IT industry. In India, there are 200 million mobile users, but voice connectivity is missing. There are some futuristic application. The success of the IT industry can affect the CSCs scheme. PC penetration is low in India. There are only 20 million PCs for a population of 1.1 billion people. Availability of online connectivity device for serious applications is negligible in India. The vital issue is what type of services would be delivered by the private players. There is excessive optimism about the effective implementation of CSCs scheme. The critical factor is policy framework. The type of business and revenue sharing model chosen would determine the fate of the sustainability of CSCs. For inclusive growth, access, community infrastructure is required along with broadband connectivity. The ecosystems will be shaped by government policy. In Haryana, there are 1,500 telecentres which are working outside the purview of CSCs scheme. In the case of B2C services, one telecentre located in a developed area can earn a revenue of INR 20,000 to 25,000. People are now ready to use IT and ICT applications. CSC Programme: Stocktaking on key opportunities and challengesAruna Sundararajan, CEO, CSC programme, IL & FS, New Delhi chaired the second session held on 1 August, 2007. R.P. Pal, IT Secretary, Government of Goa, was the first speaker in this session. He informed that Goa performed well in areas like: quality of life, health and infrastructure, apart from e-Governance. Optical fibres have been laid in all talukas. Government would be getting revenue under the PPP mode of CSCs scheme. In 2002, Goa set up 13 experimental CSCs, which are called Mahiti Ghars. 10 services are provided through Mahiti Ghars, which include land records, licenses, etc. Regulating the pricing of the services being provided is essential. When more services are offered, the prices charged should go down. For broadband network, end-users would be charged. Currently, the bandwidth provided is sufficient for business transaction in Goa. Ravi Kumar, Executive Director, Alternative for India Development, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, said that the programmes of the Government of India should target the poor. He informed that his organisation is working for more than 25 years. He took the case study of Jharkhand. He informed that his organisation provides a lot of services like basic education, health services, opportunities for livelihood for the poor etc. CSCs scheme is a convergent programme. There are 600 panchayats with 3,000 villages with a population of 3 million in Jharkhand. CSCs uses the power of ICTs to reach out to the poor. The approach of CSCs scheme should be bottom-up and not top-down. CSCs should be community-driven. He explained about the problem of political extremism, which is affecting the implementation of the CSCs scheme in Jharkhand. Mass migration and hunger related deaths take place in Jharkhand. In the last 30 years, no election has taken place for the panchayats. Decentralisation has not taken place in Jharkhand. Even district collectors are unaware of the Right to Information Act. They think that RTI Act is used for blackmailing bureaucrats. Although Jharkhand is resource-rich, but its people are poor. L.K. Tiwari, Additional Chief General Manager, MPDCL, Madhya Pradesh, said that SCAs have not been appointed in Madhya Pradesh. CSCs are functioning in some form or the other on an experimental basis in various states. ITC established e-Choupal in MP, under a special ordinance. ITC was allowed to procure food grain/crops directly from farmers and pay the 'mandi' tax directly to the government. He informed that the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad has selected the transport department of MP for its study. The process of issuing driving license is completely computerised in MP. There is no manual processing of Treasury Bills. Srinivas Tadigadapa, Head South Asia, World Ahead Programme, Intel, spoke about the problem of power shortage in rural India. He said that last mile connectivity in rural hinterland is required. D.C. Mishra, Senior Technical Director, NIC, New Delhi, was the last speaker. He said that CSCs can be helpful for entrepreneurs to enter the market. In the recent years automation of the government programmes have taken place. He informed that the NIC and Stanford University USA (Asia Pacific Research Centre in Stanford) study looked at adoption and consumption capacity of village-level community to use CSCs. He mentioned about some projects like Gyandoot, HPI community initiative, panchayat driven initiatives in Belandhar, Buddhi Kote, n-Logue, Akshaya project of Kerala and Warana Wired Village. If need arises, adequate changes need to be made in CSC logistics. He drew everyone's attention to: poor quality of web-content, digital divide, lack of proper business models, financial sustainability, technological sustainability, inadequate generation of capital, inadequate connectivity and 24x7 delivery modes. He said that laying of optical fibres can be helpful in getting broadband connectivity. It was also informed that CSC investment would range from INR 1.25-INR 3.00 lakh. Aruna Sundararajan during the question and answer session, said that the role of IL&FS is to support SCA as well as SDA. Once the bidding process is over, SCA has the responsibility to run and maintain the centre. IL&FS is working at national level and supporting DIT to bring some of the big service providers and give them platform. But still lots of challenges are there.

The key challenges are: a) Setting up infrastructure on the ground level; b) Delivery of services; and c) Sustainability of kiosks. She informed that there is no corporate involved in ground level. While replying to Vijay from iKisan, D.C. Mishra said that e-Governance services are meant for block panchayat, district panchayat and tehsil level. Other services, which can be provided are IGNOU, computer training and certificating programmes. There are departmental exams, online exams, which can be conducted through CSC centres. Content services and financial sustainability-making the connectionV. Balaji, Head of Knowledge Management and Sharing, ICRISAT chaired the third session. He asked Dr. Kentaro Toyama, Assistant Managing Director, Microsoft Research India to give his presentation. Dr. Kentaro Toyama quoted the definition of telcentres as PC equipped centre facilitating people for various services. These are some kind of services, which are computerised. He said that he is not focusing on those telecentres, which are fully funded by NGOs or the government, but on those telecentres, which are willing to work as a business. He visited around 50 kiosks, and culled out some key challenges and opportunities for e-Kiosks. To run PC based kiosks is a difficult proposition, and also it is challenging to garner funds. There are a long list of services for running the kiosk. There was mention of e-Seva, and Comat telecentres in Karnataka. The government their has closed these e-Services from their government offices and now it is these kiosks that are providing the e-Services. Eventually the customers are forced to go to these kiosks. Since these are private businesses, so they provide better services than traditional government offices. Also, there is much demand for kiosks as computer training centres.

Building partnership for outreach, scaling up and sustainability

Vikram Chand, Senior Public Sector Management Specialist, World Bank India, chaired the fourth session. The other discussants were: Gerolf Weigel, Head - ICT4D, Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Berne, Switzerland; Rufina Fernandes, CEO, NASSCOM Foundation, Mumbai; Dr Harsha Liyanage, Managing Director - Fusion, Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka; Vikas Goswami, Lead-Corporate Social Responsi-bility, Microsoft, India; and Shahid Akbar, ICT Consultant, KATALYST, Bangladesh.

August 2, 2007

Addressing the access challenge

Ashis Sanyal, Sr. Director, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, GoI, chaired the first session held on 2 August, 2007. He informed that BSNL has the mandate of reaching out to the rural areas for providing access points. He also reminded about the PCO model and Cyber Cafe model that spread in the entire India. R.N. Padukone, Sr. Deputy Director General (TEC), Ministry of Communications & IT, GoI (http://www.tec.gov.in/), was the first speaker in Telecentre Tales forum during the first session on 2nd August 2007. He spoke on the nationwide inter-operable broadband network for rural safety requirement. He said that 700 Mhz is the ideal spectrum for rural areas, as per the legislation in USA, which can cover a radius of 30 km. He also spoke about the creation of National Broadband Authority--NBA (a government body). The roles of NBA would be: a) Defining terrestrial coverage requirement; b) Defining network specifications; c) Defining user control and establish necessary protocols for user-priority and inter-operability; d) Defining reliability levels and work in the area of redundancy arrangements; e) Establishing capacity requirements; f) Developing procedures for setting additional capacity when necessary; g) Developing procedures to manage authorities relationship with commercial carrier licenses; h) Negotiating with equipment and service vendors; i) Coding at optimal pricing and packages; j) Looking at activation and deactivation units; k) Developing technological and production roadmap for public safety by keeping the network evergreen; l) Administering revenue stream including distribution of negative auction money; m) Looking at network usage charges. Sweta Jain, WIMAX/WIMESH Solutions Manager, Nortel Networks, India, made her presentation on government services reaching to rural masses through e-Governance. She informed that services of e-Governance can be in the area of G2B, G2C and G2G. She said that ICTs can also be provided to government employees. She informed that there exists spectral shortage in India. Masses can be reached via 5.8 and 2.4 Ghz. GSM, CDMA and WiMax, are needed to be placed in an inter-operable platform. She also talked on Orthogonal Frequency Divisional Multiple (OFDM), which comprises of High Speed Downing Packet Access (HSDPA), EVTO (for CDMA) and LTE (for 3G). OFDM provides spectral efficiency. WiMax can work on unlicensed bands. WiFi's range in rural areas is not good. WiMax has low operational cost. There are standards for WiMax which is 802.16 B. 270. Operators globally have deployed WiMax. She spoke on network infrastructure too. CPE is used for getting access to broadbands. K.B. Narayanan, Director, Head - Broadband Technology Division, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Government of India spoke on the status of broadband last mile accessibility. Affordability aspect was the focus of his presentation. He said that broadband supports high-speed data transfer. Broadband brings efficiency. Internet and broadband are catalysts for social and economic development. Broadband provides end-users with packet based digital voice, video and data services. Last mile bandwidth bottlenecks is solved via broadband. There is need for e-Inclusion of rural masses. In October 2004 Government of India announced the broadband policy, which specifies 256 Kbps as the minimum downloadable speed. The factors affecting broadband are: access cost, availability of local language content, customer premises equipment, value proposition, increasing demand for bandwidth application, making bandwidth available at reasonable cost etc. The effort made by Government of India are: a) Progressive reduction in call charges, national long distance bandwidth charges and international long-distance bandwidth charges; b) Reduction in customer premises equipment price; c) Local language content is rising; and d) More spectrum is available to service providers by releasing it for other captive uses. He informed that the Year 2007 has been announced the Year of the Broadband. Sandeep Gupta, Senior Engineering Manager, Product Marketing and Management, Motorola, informed that Motorola helps in provision of broadband services. Broadband can help in provision of e-governance services, tele-medicine services etc. which can transform the economy and society. The challenges are: a) Poor infrastructure; b) Poor infrastructure including power supply; c) Low affordability; and d) Lack of spectrum efficiency. Solutions are needed in the form of low Opex and Capex to provide affordable broadband connectivity. Measuring the social impacts of telecentresDuring the second session held on 2nd August 2007, Alok Bhargava, Chief Executive, Rural CSC Programme, IL&FS, explained that IL&FS is working with Government of India for implementation of CSCs scheme. There is need for looking at the outcomes of establishing CSCs.

Chetan Sharma Founder, Datamation Foundation Charitable Trust, New Delhi, informed that one-third of government services and two-third of private services are going to be delivered via telecentres and CSCs. Enormous changes have taken place in India. Sharma also mentioned about Bhoomi (Karnataka), Akshaya (Malappuram), Datamation Foundation, Warana Milk Co-operative, etc. He asked for the need of institutional sustainability, technological and infrastructural sustainability, and livelihood sustainability. Namrata Bali, General Secretary, SEWA, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, said that village knowledge centres, CSCs and CLCs are essential for rural development. She informed that SEWA has a membership of more than 10 lakh women. She mentioned about the presence of SHGs, mandals, DWCRA groups, co-operative societies in Gujarat. SEWA women members have created various indicators via focus group discussion on employment, income, nutrition, health (including reproductive health), micro-finance and asset-building, housing (including housing, sanitation, sewerage), women's empowerment and leadership, self-reliance, collective and social empowerment. Diaries are written by grass-root women on a daily basis which is reflective of the problems they face regularly pertaining to livelihood, poverty, income generation, etc. Ram Gopal, Partner, Byrraju Foundation, Hyderabad informed about his organisation and the functions it performs. He said that Byrraju Foundation works in 180 villages of 6 districts of Andhra Pradesh. It has implemented a project on rural bandwidth wireless connectivity project, which offers a basket of services by working with Media Lab Asia and United Nations Development Programme. Knowledge sharing for strengthening community and networks: How do we leverage the web 2.0?Ashwant Gnanavelu, Manager HR, DesiCrew Solutions, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, informed that DesiCrew established rural BPO centre apart from investing in infrastructure. DesiCrew offer backoffice services to clients. They are working in Tamil Nadu. 50 percent of DesiCrew's associates are girls. R.K. Maiti's (Jt Secretary, Department of PR and RE, West Bengal) presentation was on knowledge sharing. He said that Indian society must be knowledge-based, but it will have to be a knowledge-sharing society. He said that there is necessity of change in the mindset from one that works for the people to one that works with the people. He also asked for democratic institutions of service delivery. Ashis Sanyal also participated in this session which brought out some key recommendations to continue the dialogue.

What do we mean by Education for All?

The World Education Forum (26-28 April 2000, Dakar) adopted the Dakar Framework for Action, Education for All: Meeting Our Collective Commitments. In doing so, its participants reaffirmed the vision of the World Declaration on Education for All adopted ten years earlier (Jomtien, Thailand, 1990). The Dakar Framework for Action is based on the most extensive evaluation of education ever undertaken, the Education for All (EFA) 2000 Assessment. Each country assessed its progress towards the goals of Jomtien and reported its findings at six regional conferences in 1999 and 2000:
1. Sub-Saharan Conference on Education for All, Johannesburg, South Africa, 6-10 December, 1999;
2. Asia and Pacific Conference on the EFA 2000 Assessment Bangkok, Thailand, 17-20 January, 2000;
3. The Arab Regional Conference on EFA, Cairo, Egypt, 24-27, January 2000;
4. The Third Inter-Ministerial review Meeting of the E-9 Countries, Recife, Brazil, 31 January-2 February, 2000;
5. Conference on Education for All in Europe and North America, Warsaw, Poland, 6-8 February, 2000; and
6. Regional Education for All Conference in the Americas, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 10-12 February 2000. The Dakar Framework for Action states that the heart of EFA lies at country level. It also affirms that no countries seriously committed to education for all will be
thwarted in their achievement of this goal by a lack of resource.

The Purpose
Article 1: Meeting Basic Learning Needs
Article 2: Shaping the Vision
Article 3: Universalizing Access and Promoting Equity
Article 4: Focusing on Learning
Article 5: Broadening the Means and Scope of Basic Education
Article 6: Enhancing the Environment for Learning

Article 7: Strengthening Partnerships

The Requirements
Article 8: Developing a Supportive Policy Context
Article 9: Mobilizing Resources
Article 10: Strengthening International Solidarity

Goals
1. Expanding and improving comprehensive early childhood care and education, especially for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children
2. Ensuring that by 2015 all children, particularly girls, children in difficult circumstances and those belonging to ethnic minorities, have access to and complete free and compulsory primary education of good quality
3. Ensuring that the learning needs of all young people and adults are met through equitable access to appropriate learning and life skills programmes
4. Achieving a 50 percent improvement in levels of adult literacy by 2015, especially for women and equitable access to basic and continuing education for all adults
5. Eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality in education by 2015, with a focus on ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement in basic education of good quality
6. Improving every aspect of education, and ensuring their excellence so that recognized and measurable learning outcomes are achieved by all, especially in literacy, numeracy, and essential life skills

Strategy
1. Mobilize strong national and international political commitment political commitment for Education for All, develop national action plans and enhance significantly investment in basic education.
2. Promote EFA policies within a sustainable and well-integrated sector framework clearly linked to poverty elimination and development strategies.
3. Ensure the engagement and participation of civil society in the formulation, implementation and monitoring of strategies for educational development.
4. Develop responsive, participatory and accountable systems of educational governance and management.
5. Meet the needs of education systems affected by conflict, natural calamities and instability, and conduct educational programmes in ways that promote mutual understanding, peace and tolerance and that help toprevent violence and conflict.
6. Implement integrated strategies for gender equality in education that recognize the need for change in attitudes, values and practices.
7. Implement education programmes and actions to combat the HIV/ AIDS pandemic as a matter of urgency

8. Create safe, healthy, inclusive and equitably resourced educational environments conducive to excellence in learning, with clearly defined levels of achievement for all.
9. Enhance the status, morale and professionalism of teachers

10.Harness new information and communication technologies to help achieve

EFA goals
11.Systematically monitor progress toward EFA goals and strategies at the national, regional and international levels.
12.Build on existing mechanisms to accelerate progress towards Education for All.

Source:

Various UNESCO reports on EFA

Economic development and sectoral analysis

The economy of any modern nation comprises of three basic sectors, namely—primary sector, secondary sector and tertiary sector. The primary sector comprises of agricultural and allied activities. Economic activities such as fishing, forestry, horticulture, bee-keeping etc. can be put together under the heading of allied activities. Secondary sector mainly includes mining, industries and manufacturing. The services sector comprises of community, social and personal services, insurance, finance, banking, shipping and transport. All these sectors are inter-related; any imbalance or shock in one sector can produce repercussions in the other two sectors.

Development of an economy can be judged in terms of the sectoral contribution of each of these sectors to the nation’s total output and employment generated. In an underdeveloped economy, majority of the employment is generated by the primary sector. Also, primary sector holds a large share in the total output (or Gross National Product) produced. In the case of India and China 24.7% and 15.2% of the total GDP came from the agricultural sector, respectively. But in case of South Korea[1], only 4.4% of the GDP came from the agricultural sector during the year 2001.

Since most of the people are engaged in agriculture, so we find that land (area-wise) to man (population-wise) ratio is quite low in agriculture for the underdeveloped countries compared to the developed countries. In such a situation, if agricultural land is concentrated (owned by) in few hands, then this will cause landlessness to majority of the people. There will be widespread poverty with very low purchasing power in the hands of majority of the rural population. State intervention in such a situation becomes important—first of all, to carry out land reforms (redistribution of land to the poor landless and marginal labourers and peasants, either by purchasing land from the land rich section and selling it at subsidized rates to the land poor section, or by ‘radical land reforms’ as was carried out in some countries such as China, where State took away the land from the land rich section without paying any kind of economic compensation). One must know that fragmentation of land is a big problem among South Asian nations. Hence, sometimes it is said that land reforms can lead to lower output unless there is creation of land co-operatives or ‘communes’. But this is a difficult task. Formation of communes can fail if there is no trust among the land-owners. Countries where a majority of the population is engaged in agriculture are generally poor. But there are some exceptions such as Australia, New Zealand etc. Second of all, if land reforms were improperly implemented or could not be carried out, then the State can play a crucial role in the creation of the secondary sector (diversification), by investing in the secondary sector through deficit financing. This was done in the case of India during the 2nd and 3rd Five Year Plans based on the Mahalanobis model for industrialisation. However, the plans were criticised for neglecting the agricultural sector, which led to food insecurity and later led to the adoption of green revolution[2].

It becomes necessary to expand the secondary sector for the following reasons:

(i) Technological growth can take place in an economy which has a vibrant secondary sector. It is in the secondary sector where modern inputs such as fertilisers (chemical/ bio), pesticides (chemical/ bio) are manufactured, which are crucial inputs for modern agriculture.
(ii) The newly developed industrial sector will become a new arena for generating employment, which can reduce the pressure on agricultural land. This can help in modernizing agriculture thru mechanisation (like using tractors, electrical harvesters). Again introduction of machines and new technology will raise the productivity of labour in agriculture and hence the purchasing power.
(iii) The growth of the secondary sector is bound to be greater than that of the primary sector in the initial phase because of its comparative advantage in terms of technology. This will lift up the gross output and place the economy in a new steady state growth path. But if the agricultural sector fails to catch up with the growing demand for food grains coming from the growing industrial sector, then this will lead to inflationary tendencies in the economy.

After an economy is already into the modern phase, it is essential to give a thrust to the tertiary sector. There is a substantial amount of difference between the tertiary sector and the other two remaining sectors. In the tertiary sector, no tangible goods are produced. Tertiary sector do not produce anything but services. It is not involved directly in the production process but helps the production process itself by raising the efficiency/ productivity level and reducing transaction costs. Services are intangible goods; they themselves cannot be seen but their effects can be seen. For example, services of a doctor cannot be seen, but its effect can be seen when patient gets cured and starts working, thus contributing to the production of output. In today’s world, the most powerful economy is the one, which has a substantial share of the working population, engaged in the tertiary sector. Labour productivity is very much high in the tertiary sector thus leading to better emoluments of the workers employed in it. One reason behind this is the higher skill levels of the workers engaged in the tertiary sector. According to Simon Kuznets, when the secondary expands along with the growth of GDP during the earlier stage of growth of a developing economy, then income inequality starts rising.

All these do not add upto underestimating the role of the primary or more precisely the agricultural sector. Johnston and Mellor in their article ‘The Role of Agriculture in Economic Development’, published in 1961 in The American Economic Review, wrote about the relationship between industry and agriculture in the structural transformation of the modernizing economy. Agricultural development and productivity growth, they argued, not only provided surplus labour and food to the industrial sector, but also created demand for manufacturing sector output and became a source of foreign currency export earnings. Given the labour abundance and capital scarcity that characterised agriculture in many developing countries, they argued that growth could be achieved partly with the application of a rapid succession of labour-intensive, capital-saving innovations. So, instead of going for capital-intensive technology such as application of tractors, electrical harvesters, the developing countries should go for labour-intensive technology such as application of fertilisers, pesticides, hybrid rice (since all these needs more labour). So there are two types of technologies—labour intensive technology and capital intensive technology. Labour intensive technology can be applied in countries with high population density in agriculture (such as South Asian countries), and capital intensive technology needs to be applied in countries with scarce population density in agriculture (such as Western European countries). It has been argued that investment in rural infrastructure, extension and education systems, credit services, farmers' collective action programmes, input industries, and agricultural R & D (research and development) are essential to achieving agricultural sector growth.

Supply-side bottlenecks of the agricultural sector may put an obstacle on the growth of the industrial sector, because this particular sector not only provides ‘wage’ goods to the workers engaged in the industrial sector but is also a source of raw material. It is a fact that Great Britain had to rely on the supply of raw agricultural goods from India such as jute, cotton, indigo during the time of industrial revolution. Price inflation in agricultural goods in general and food grains in particular may begin when the industry starts expanding too fast thus creating demand for food, while the agricultural sector is failing to supply the growing demand. This will set the terms of trade in favour of the agricultural sector, which will be economically beneficial for the big land owning farmers who have the marketable surplus. The small and marginal farmers along with the agricultural labourers in the villages, and the industrial workers of the urban areas will face price inflation in food. Since a major portion of the worker’s budget/ income is spent on food as their marginal propensity to consume is very high vis-à-vis the capitalists/ industrialists, so food price inflation can have serious consequences. It can lead to cost-push inflation in case when industrial workers demand for an increase in the salary / remuneration through the formation of trade unions. Industrial growth may come to a halt since the profit maximising industrialist may think that it is in his/ her best interest, not to invest anymore because the labour costs are too high. It can also happen that capitalists then start moving towards more capital intensive technology. If a country depends on food processing industry and industries where agricultural goods are intensively used as raw material, then in such a case the unresponsiveness of the agricultural sector to the growing demand from the industrial sector may put an impediment on the growth of industry. In both the cases the government can take the following steps:

(i) Modernizing the agricultural sector through adoption of appropriate technology to overcome the supply bottlenecks in agriculture. Investment in R & D becomes pertinent during such times.
(ii) The government can import agricultural goods and food grains provided it has sufficient foreign exchange reserves.
(iii) The industrialists should change the composition of the production basket i.e. switch to producing goods, which requires capital-intensive technology.
(iv) The government can open up rationing system for the distribution of food to rural and urban working people at subsidised rates.

Inter-sectoral analysis of an economy is interesting as it helps us to see the economy in terms of structural changes. In the input-output analysis, we basically try to see the linkages between various sectors of the economy and consequently their relationship to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Inter-sectoral analysis becomes essential since all the sectors are not homogenous and the input intensities vary across different sectors and there are sub-sectors too, within each sector. Finally, centralised (socialistic) planning, mixed economic model/s, market based economic planning are just policy choices before any nation.
[1] In the case of S. Korea, there had been lot of investment on human capital formation.
[2] There is also the need to look at employment elasticity of the secondary and tertiary sectors, when the economy is growing.

The demon named ‘inflation’

During the last year or so, the global economy has seen various crises, and will no doubt see more, as have been predicted by numerous reports sponsored by the United Nations and the World Bank. It is feared that due to stagflation occurring in the United States along with the real estate crisis (sub prime crisis), with many of the export-oriented countries relying for its exports on the US, the growth rate of the world’s gross income/ product, would slow down in 2008. Doomsday economists, have alleged that this phenomenon is somewhat related to the crisis with the global capitalist order, where countries are much more interconnected and interdependent in terms of global finance capital and trade flows compared to the past because of the openness policies being adopted during the post-WTO era. The credit led economic growth of the US has come to a standstill in the backdrop of the so called subprime crisis—a phenomenon which took place due to economic short-sightedness and mismanagement, which led to lowering of the real value of assets and estate.[1] It is high-time to bid farewell to the defenders of free-market capitalism who could not even learn from events of the past such as the 1997 South-East Asian financial crisis, the bubble burst of 2001 at NASDAQ during the beginning days of dot-com era and the present sub-prime mortgage crisis in the United States when banks are unable to collect capital. Sub-prime mortgage loans are usually considered as risky in the present context. These loans are given to people with unstable incomes or low creditworthiness. These individuals borrowing loans are not financially sound enough to be given as loan when judged from the point of view of strict standards that should normally be followed by a bank or lending institution. It has been found that the crisis is spreading from sub-prime to prime mortgages, home equity loans, to commercial real estate, to unsecured consumer credit (credit cards, student loans, auto loans), to leveraged loans that financed reckless debt-laden leveraged buy outs, to municipal bonds, to industrial and commercial loans, to corporate bonds, to the derivative markets whose risk are indeterminate, etc. This time, however, the crisis began with the bursting of the United States housing bubble. One could thus see with open eyes a slowing US economy, high interest rates, unrealistic real estate prices, high level of inflation and rising oil tags together. All these have led to growth stagnation, job losses, low level of consumer spending, shortfall in creation of new jobs, and foreclosures and defaults by banks such as Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The stock markets all over the world too have been affected. It is high time that economists recognize the problem of crony capitalism which could be seen from the case studies of Enron, Arthur Andersen LLP et al.

Let us look at the figure above to check the trend in the WPI of selected commodities. Similarly, have a look at the next figure which provides the time trend of consumer price index in various South Asian countries.

During the past 3-4 months, both India and the rest of the world have experienced inflation, over which many of the incidents have cropped up such as food riots, political bashing of the government/s in power, abusing of the accountable institutions et al. The present article is intended to understanding the inflationary situation, academically. The monetarist school might relate the present inflationary trend to India’s rising foreign exchange reserves (see: table 1) and growth in money supply (see table 2). Hence, the obvious policy choices would be to go for sterilization, raise cash reserve ratio, raise interest rates etc. However, the Keynesian school might relate the inflationary trend with rising effective demand, which has been generated in the economy pertaining to India, with inadequate supply. In such a situation, the obvious policy choices would to build capacity of production by investing in infrastructure, increasing food production, banning of exports and reducing of duties, and tariff rates of those goods, which are facing inflationary buoyancy. However, all these measures can be looked critically. There exist arguments and counter-arguments among economists and social scientists’ regarding which measure is the appropriate one. It is also important to see whether the measure taken does not adversely affect economic growth, consumption, savings and investment both in the long and the short run.

One of the most amazing things about these global crises is that India’s economic growth and prospect would not be affected by it in the short-run due to its relative insulation in term of capital inflows (see table 3). Although many scholars around are more interested to provide answers to this new ‘discovery’ but the present article here would however look at a completely different story—the story of inflation, which has gripped India and the rest of the globe. According to standard economic theory, price-inflation not only affects the trade balance of a country (by creating competitive disadvantage), but also adversely impacts upon the distribution of income. Price inflation arising due to cost-push inflation (because of pressures for keeping the real wage rate same as before, by the trade unionists or working classes) can also lead to higher unemployment rates. In the case of India, one finds that the wholesale price index increased by 6.68 per cent between March 17, 2007 and March 15, 2008.[2] The wholesale price index on March 17, 2007 and March 15, 2008 were 209.6 and 223.6, respectively. Wholesale price index rose due to rise in prices of food articles. There was also rise in cost of living of agricultural and rural labourers.[3]

Factors,[4]that could have triggered or are responsible for this inflationary trend are:

a. India is dependent on imports of various commodities such as crude oil/ petroleum, oilseeds (edible) and pulses. Due to rise in crude oil prices to more than US $ 100 a barrel (in the past one year or so), the import bills of India have risen (see the figure above). But an economy, which continuously has to maintain its fiscal deficit vis-à-vis the gross domestic product (GDP) at a lower level, thanks to the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act 2003, the domestic price of the oil needs to be raised (without going for excessive subsidization). Under the FRBM Act, it was promised that fiscal deficit as percentage of GDP would be brought down to 3 per cent by the 2007-08 Budget, as part of fiscal disciple. Due to this, transportation cost has risen, and so one could observe a rise in prices of various commodities. The cost of fertilizers, which is made from ‘crude’, has also increased that led to price rise of food commodities (assuming farmers want to keep the profit margin for production the same as before, while facing rise in input costs).

b. The rise in prices of oilseeds and pulses could be because of low production of the same, domestically. Their productions have come down in the recent years, since the government is not eager to provide economic incentives to farmers in terms of higher minimum support prices (one should not forget to mention about Technology Mission on Oilseeds and Pulses)[5]. Hence, in order to meet the domestic demand, India relies increasingly on imports of oilseeds and pulses. One can mention here that opening up of the economy for cheaper imports, had also attracted criticisms and agitations by various farmers’ lobbies in the past.

c. In countries from Latin America, and in the US, a huge share of cereals and oilseeds are increasingly diverted to produce bio-fuels (an alternative to petroleum), for reducing their import dependence on petroleum particularly from the Gulf-region, for strategic reasons—both economic and ‘geo-political’. Some earlier thinkers had the idea that biofuel production would be environmentally and economically sustainable, and hence it is justified. But since a huge share of cereals/ foodgrains (like soyabean, corn, wheat) and oilseeds (including sugarcane) go for biofuel production (for energy requirements), without satisfying the existing consumption needs of the human population, so a mismatch is created between demand and supply (--a kind of shortage) that leads to inflation in these commodities. Moreover, biofuel production as a part of large-scale industrial production (which includes mono-cropping) has adversely affected biodiversity, soil health and fertility, and productivity of agriculture. All these factors have overall contributed to shortages (fall in supply vis-à-vis demand), that is leading to inflation. In this connection, one should also consider the adverse impact of ‘commercialization’ of Indian agriculture on food security.

d. In India and elsewhere, there had been change in the consumption pattern of the population. Compared to the past, the better-off sections of the Indian population now spend more share of their incomes for consuming meat, milk (and other dairy products), eggs etc, in the face of globalization (as part of changes in lifestyle) and increase in real income of a section of population. (One should not forget to mention Bennet’s law). But in order to grow and maintain livestock, a huge share of foodgrain and cereals now is being diverted, without satisfying the existing direct consumption need (as staple diet), in the backdrop of stagnant foodgrain and cereals production. So, this artificially created shortage has led to inflation in such food commodities.

e. Processed food is now more preferred (viewed as a part of commercialization of agriculture) since it adds value and provide better returns to the growers and the rest in the supply chain, and can be preserved for long. Processed food is also considered important for earning valuable foreign exchange via exports. Due to this, a vast share of foodgrain is diverted for consumption purposes of the elites (or goes as exports) without satisfying the existing consumption need of the domestic poorer sections (as staple diet). This created shortage can be another factor behind inflation.

f. Scientists have found that emission of green house gases (GHGs) has contributed to global warming and climate change, which adversely affects biodiversity and global food production. Perhaps, the current trend of inflation, is somewhat related to global warming, directly or indirectly.

g. A common argument among economists has been that agricultural productivity has gone down, and the initial push for green-revolution towards more production has come to an end. Green revolution, which initially centred on wheat and then on rice, has proven to be affecting soil health (due to over usage of chemical fertilizers, chemical pesticides et al), causing over-exploitation of resources, bringing down water-table etc, that affected productivity in the long-run. This ‘technological fatigue’ has been well-discussed within the circles of Indian economists. Agricultural productivity is also affected due to fall in the share of public investment in agriculture[6]. Institutional factors such as land reforms[7], tenancy reforms, creation of land banks, crop-insurance, better credit facilities etc. can also affect agricultural production and productivity. Some economists think that falling agricultural productivity can lead to inflationary trend due to shortages. A major question is whether rise in food prices is going to increase productive investment in agriculture (if and only if the rising economic returns/ gains due to price rise are going directly to the growers, who are eager to re-invest). Diversification of Indian agriculture although have raised returns to farmers/ growers, but one could also see that area under horticulture and floriculture have gone up along with falling area under cereals, that affected food self-sufficiency.

h. For taking advantage of the current rise in prices of food commodities, hoarders and agents engaged in black marketing have entered into various speculative malpractices. The rise in prices of important food articles in the short-run can be due to this particular phenomenon. Presence of too many middlemen between the growers and sellers may have also contributed to inflation. A certain section of economists feel that existence of multi-commodities exchange (MCX), NCEDX etc. has led to speculative behaviour among traders, thus leading to the present inflationary trend.

i. There exist a growing number of believers who argue that farming is no more profitable. So, farmers are increasingly switching towards other professions or occupations. Agricultural land is now increasingly sold for industrial purposes. One can thus point out that agricultural production, in this connection, is bound to slow down, without meeting the existing demand, thus leading to inflation.

j. Some have argued that the current inflationary pressures in food commodities could be due to breakdown of the existing public distribution system (in the era of globalization), and the (unnecessary) amendments made to the Essential Commodities Act, in 2000.[8]

k. Some of the countries, who are major exporters/ sellers of rice (like Thailand, Vietnam) and wheat in the global market have recently put curbs on their exports, in order to ensure their own food security, in the backdrop of global crisis in food grain production. This can create further shortage in food supply, thus leading to inflation.

Recently, the Government of India has undertaken certain steps to curtail inflationary pressure, which include:

i. Elimination of import duty on non-refined vegetable oils
ii. Ban on export of non-basmati rice
iii. Rise in the minimum export price of basmati rice

Inflation is not only an economic but a social and political problem as well. There is a lot of hue and cry currently about containing inflation in food articles. It is imperative for the government to curb this trend as soon as possible through a prudent mix of fiscal, monetary and trade policies and measures. There is also the need for ‘political will’ to see inflation as a menace, which can do ‘big’ damage to the economic growth, which India is currently facing. Policy-makers should also bear in mind that it is the poor who suffer the most due to inflation, particularly, when one could see the corrosion of the public distribution system in India. The rationing system in India in the past has overlooked the idea of providing coarse cereals like: bajra, maize etc., particularly to the poorer sections of the population.

[The present article has been written to disseminate information and not to hurt anybody. The views expressed and conclusions drawn in this article belong solely to the author. ]

Notes:
[1] Some of the earlier writings which can be mentioned here are: i. Jayati Ghosh and CP Chandrasekhar The Global Liquidity Paradox, March 2008, http://www.macroscan.com/fet/mar08/Global_Liquidity.pdf; ii. Jayati Ghosh, ‘Global Stagflation’, Frontline, Volume 25-Issue 07::Mar.29-Apr. 11, 2008, http://www.frontlineonnet.com/stories/20080411250704300.htm; iii. National Bureau of Economic Research, US Business Cycle Expansions and Contractions, http://www.nber.org/cycles/cyclesmain.html
[2] The present article has been written in the backdrop of a handful of farmers/ potato-growers committing suicides in West Bengal, a state from eastern part of India. These potato farmers, who borrowed from moneylenders (informal source) instead from the rural-banks/ co-operatives (formal source), spent nearly INR 250 to INR 300 per quintal for producing potato. However, due to excess production, the market price of potato has come down to INR 100 to INR 120 per quintal of potato. These farmers were afraid that they would not be able to cover the cost of producing potato, despite the Government of West Bengal’s promise of minimum support prices for potato that comes around INR 250 per quintal of potato. Hence they would be unable to repay back their loans to the moneylenders. Lack of proper marketing channels, lack of spending on innovation and R&D, and shortage of cold storage facilities have led to distress sale of potato by the farmers (from Burdwan district, etc.). Some have argued that government’s help and initiative would be inefficient, cumbersome and time consuming. There are allegations that only big farmers are getting cold storage facilities. It is pertinent to ask whether the farmers would have benefited had there been presence of contract farming in rural West Bengal. The situation would have been different, had these farmers who committed suicides had borrowed from rural banks/ co-operatives, that are supported by the government, given the fact that the Government of India in its 2007-08 Budget has promised a massive loan waiver scheme for small and marginal farmers (owning up to 2 hectares of cultivable land).
[3] India has also experienced rise in prices of steel. The competition policy of the Government of India is geared towards removing all forms of cartels and monopolistic practices as could be observed in product markets for rubber, steel, iron, cement et al.
[4] Some of the earlier writings which can be mentioned here are: Joachim von Brauer, The World Food Situation, Food Policy Report No. 18, December 2007, IFPRI, http://www.ifpri.org/pubs/fpr/pr18.pdf; Dipankar Dasgupta, Links in the food chain, The Telegraph, March 17, 2008, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1080317/jsp/opinion/story_9023814.jsp.
[5]Raising Minimum Support Price (MSP) or procurement price may not be the only policy choice to raise production as this can lead to buoyancy in price level, particularly, when the gap between MSP and prices at which commodities are sold via the rationing system goes up, with the policy-makers emphasizing upon reduction in subsidies on food.
[6] The need for public investment in irrigation (micro-irrigation, watershed management etc.) has been stressed upon by a number of economists, for raising agricultural productivity.
[7] In the context of land reforms, it is important to consider whether smaller farms are more productive compared to bigger ones in terms of return and profitability.
[8] The EC Act, 1955 gives powers to control production, supply, distribution etc. of essential commodities for maintaining or increasing supplies and for securing their equitable distribution and availability at fair prices. Using the powers under the Act, various Ministries/Departments of the Central Government have issued Control Orders for regulating production/distribution/quality aspects/movement etc. pertaining to the commodities which are essential and administered by them

Brief Note on e Agriculture

E-agriculture is about how ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) can be used by the community of development practitioners (people from the government/s, NGOs, universities/schools/local bodies and donor agencies), scientists, farmers and other agencies in a modern institutional framework to share and manage knowledge and information (on agricultural practices, prices of commodities, soil condition and weather condition) in order to boost the growth of agriculture and allied activities for economic reasons. This is expected to improve the well-being, quality of life and income levels of those who are directly or indirectly depending on agriculture. In most of the developing and the third world nations, more than 60 percent of the working population derive its livelihoods, directly or indirectly, from agriculture and allied activities (which includes animal husbandry, dairy, forestry, fishing et al). The major constraints with developing countries’ agriculture is that it is traditional and subject to rain fed irrigation, apart from being subject to lack of investment, insufficient land reforms and rampant corruption. This is not to undermine the advantages of traditional agriculture over modern agriculture in the sense that the former is sustainable and more environment-friendly. However, with the advent of modern State adopting Green Revolution technology in various countries of the South, what has been found in reality are the lack of skills, storage facilities and marketing channels, which majority of the farmers suffer from. In this connection let us see the foodgrain production and yield per hectare in India (figures above).

Important initiatives in the area of e-agriculture are:

1. Geo-stationary satellites help us to forecast weather conditions, and perform GIS and MIS mapping. Initiatives by Government and private organizations in the spread of landline and mobile telephony are taking place thanks to the conducive atmosphere created particularly in India during the late 1980s that has helped the farmers in the rural hinterlands in communicating with the traders/ grain merchants, including their kith and kin.
2. With the aid of radio (including community radio) and televisions, farmers and peasants in the developing world of Africa and South Asia could be educated about modern farming practices. This is opposed to traditional system of farming when knowledge about farming practices (and alternative avenues of livelihood) used to trickle down from father to son, verbally/ orally.
3. Important ICTs related initiatives could help farmers in knowledge and information collection and processing pertaining to education, health and agriculture that will empower them in the long run. IT kiosks and telecentres in rural areas which are working in collaboration with local government and non-government bodies (comprising of development practitioners, and agencies, including rural banks and co-operatives) can help the agriculture-dependent communities in getting information on prices at which traders are ready to purchase food or non-food grains/ vegetables. Such telecentres also help in providing information on various government schemes pertaining to agriculture and rural development. They can help in e-registration (digitization) of land and housing records and village level agricultural production. Even RTI (right to information) forms, for ensuring transparency, can be filled digitally to check corruption pertaining to government-sponsored schemes in the area of agriculture and rural development. Information about prices and quality of inputs like fertilizers, seeds et al can also be accessed thru ICTs.
4. The importance of biotechnology and nano-technology [as a part of R&D by Government—Krishi Viswa Vidyalayas and private sectors] to improve agricultural productivity. Use of ICTs for storage, distribution et al.
5. ICTs can also be used for promoting organic farming and sustainable agriculture.

Remark/s: There is need to look at the techno-legal framework of WTO (World Trade Organisation), if one is interested. But how far IT-related development projects can help the poor remains a moot question, since there have been cases where public money meant for such projects are under/ mis-utilized. There are problems related to corruption present at the very roots of the society, since those who are involved in such projects are themselves not clean. People involved in such projects do not even try to learn from the past mistakes in order to scale-up or replicate. Moreover, people are hardly aware of the fact/s that poor people and the marginalized in the developing nations lack basic necessities including housing, livelihood, education et al. Until and unless, the poor and the needy get their basic amenities, it would be foolish to think that they can make full utilization of IT. How far the developing nations could achieve the millennium development goals (MDGs) by 2015, is another moot question. Moreover, there is need to invest in basic infrastructure in the rural areas. People should be aware of the concept of e-waste.

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Case Study: Mobile phone penetration in Africa helps trade in agri-goods

The technology revolution may be coming to poor countries via the mobile phone, not the personal computer, as it did in rich ones. In Africa, technology revolution is expected to happen with the same kind of entrepreneureal ethos as it happened with the creation of dotcom firms in the rich nations, but it will be tailored to suit local needs and in the area of mobile telephony. TradeNet, a software company based in Accra, Ghana, is planning to introduce a simple sort of eBay for agricultural products across a dozen countries in West Africa. It allows buyers and sellers indicate what they are seeking for and their contact information, which is sent to all relevant subscribers thru a SMS text message in any one of the four languages. Parties which are interested could then reach out to others directly to do a deal. Mobile-phone use in sub-Saharan Africa has increased in the recent past. A number of other mobile-phone market-places taking shape also started as aid projects. For e.g., Trade at Hand, a project funded by the United Nation's International Trade Centre in Geneva, provides daily price information for fruit and vegetable exports in Burkina Faso and Mali, with plans to reach out to more countries. Manobi, another telecoms firm, based in Senegal, provides real-time information on agricultural and fish prices to subscribers who pays fee, is also backed by aid money. But TradeNet's approach is different as it collects valuable economic data—names, locations, business interests and telephone numbers—and then sells them to the advertisers. The economic logic behind all such projects is reduced transaction costs, with more informed markets.

Source: The Economist
Accessed from:

http://www.economist.com/world/africa/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8597377)

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In India, there have been efforts by institutions such as Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, the World Bank, private organizations and individuals, to start up IT networks, which can help buyers and sellers (in retail businesses and elsewhere) to trade online, agri-goods and commodities. Such efforts also help in accessing information related to product quality, the place where it is grown and other useful information.

Similar efforts are being initiated in some of the African nations. The purpose behind introducing IT and ICTs in the developing nations is to reduce transaction costs in trading, and other official processes. IT also helps in stopping harassment of the poor people.

Voices for Innovation Strategic Meet, 15 December, 2006, New Delhi, India

The Prosperity through Innovation—Strengthening Entrepreneurship, Enterprise Ecosystem meet was organized jointly by Voices for Innovation (a platform by Microsoft), VIKAS, CSDMS, NMCC and Clusterkraft. The meet took place on 15th December, 2006 in Ambassador Hotel, New Delhi (near Khan market), India. The motive behind the meet was to share and disseminate knowledge from experts in the areas of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and information and communication technologies (ICTs) to promote cluster development, entrepreneurship and innovation. Ms. Jayalakshami Chittoor from the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS ) opened the session by briefly introducing everybody about CSDMS. She informed that Voices for Innovation offers an online knowledge-sharing platform for the knowledge workers, which is relevant for entrepreneurship and innovation.

Honourable Union Minister of State (Independent in-Charge) for Science and Technology and Ocean development, Government of India Shri Kapil Sibal talked about the importance of innovation in the era of globalization, where market forces play a key role in diffusion of technology even in the rural areas. He said there is a need to see how global changes in technology affect lives, even in the rural hinterlands. He said that small-and-medium manufacturing enterprises play a key role in generating employment. In order to boost productivity, SMEs (small and medium enterprises) do depend on IT since usage of IT reduces transaction costs and improves productivity. The usage of IT also helps in communicating. The SMEs exists in various sectors of the economy such as information technology, textiles et al. There is need to have a legal framework to ensure investment in small and medium enterprises. There is also the need to look how the knowledge economy works. Mr. Kapil Sibal emphasized the need for cluster development at the village level, where IT can play a key role.

Shri Govindarajan (Member Secretary, National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council, Government of India) said that the economy of a modern nation under the modern development paradigm shifts from agriculture, to manufacturing and finally to services sector, over time, which means that at the initial stage of development, a majority of the workforce depend on agriculture, and the primary sector contributes the major portion of the gross domestic product (GDP). In the second stage, the majority of the work force depends on manufacturing (the secondary sector), and the majority of the GDP comes from manufacturing sector. In the final stage, services sector hold a majority of the workforce, and it contributes a major portion of the GDP. The economy reaches the final stage when the majority of the work force is skilled and the economy is termed as the knowledge economy. What has happened in the case of India is that the economy has entirely jumped from the initial stage to the final stage, leading to social tensions, since a large part of the population are lacking basic amenities like literacy, housing et al. The employment elasticity in the case of manufacturing sector has fallen between the successive NSSO (National Sample Survey Organisation) surveys. This can explain the case of India’s jobless growth scenario. Moreover, India’s manufacturing sector has not grown because of lack of competitiveness, access to capital and redundancy in technology at the firm level. There is a need to see how innovatively ICTs can be used in small and medium manufacturing units, and how ICTs affect productivities of SMEs. Investment in SMEs can be done through public-private partnership mode.

Mr. Doug Hauger (COO, Microsoft India), spoke about the use of ICTs in an innovative way to boost economic growth. He informed that mostly innovation happens in an informal way in small companies/ firms. He said that innovation ecosystem faces challenges. There is need to look at issues like patents, intellectual property rights, and taxation. Patents, copyrights and intellectual property rights help innovators to innovate, since they act as incentives to create new product. The tax structure should be such that it helps the innovators. He said that Voices for Innovation is a platform for the community to participate and exchange ideas and provide solutions to problems.

Ms. Sheetal Mehta (CEO, Innovative Social Ventures) gave an extensive presentation on innovation, entrepreneurship, policy making and IT. She said that there is a need to define innovation, whether it is a new one or a ‘fix it’ type. There is also the question of accessibility to resources (both economic and non-economic) and for innovation to take place. Experience plays a key role in innovation, since intrinsic knowledge is related to experience. For innovation to take place there is need for funding (both fixed and working capital), incentives to patent, adequate infrastructure and skilled labour. The return on innovation should be measurable for monitoring, deriving conclusion and planning. There is a need to look at the sustainability (economic) aspect of innovation. The main inhibitors of innovation are wrong government policies, and entrepreneurship culture. Ms. Mehta said that in order to generate innovation, there is need to look at the ‘ecosystem’ which comprise of the government, academics, corporations, financial influences (venture capital), entrepreneurs, ISVs, SMEs and analysts. There is need of co-opetition (or cooperation) instead of competition. There is a thin line of difference between social entrepreneurship and innovation. No longer greed (or profit motive) among the firms is termed good. Instead, day-by-day, firms are going for creating social goods, such as following environmental standards. Karma is a principal of action but innovation is about creating changes. Innovation is not about reacting to change. Corporate social responsibility is done for innovative social welfare as is being promoted by the UK government. Under the global entrepreneurship programme, dealmakers are going global. There is need to access smart money (venture capital), and promote technology and life sciences. There is also the need for attracting and matching talent. In UK, there had been efforts to enhance the entrepreneurial gene pool in United Kingdom. In India, efforts have been taken to promote economic growth through foreign direct investment. But now there have been efforts to look into areas like human capital, R&D, and spin offs. Innovations have taken place in sectors like Information Technology, biotech, wireless, semiconductor and pharmaceuticals. SMEs constitute 90% of all industrial units, 40% of industrial output and 45% of formal industrial employment. There is need to look at MINE Relief, Capstan Learning, Voices for Innovation. Ms. Mehta also mentioned about the launch of IMEA VFI, where there had been partnership at the local and at the global level. What is needed by the private sector is to initiate the process of dialogue with the government. For enhancing growth, there is need to implement innovative technology, and focus on competition. There should be focus on working together and closer. There is also the need to engage in prosperity thru innovation, and strengthening entrepreneurship.

Prof. Richard Duncombe (IDPM, University of Manchester) spoke about the ICT in strengthening innovation and entrepreneurship. He said that innovation should be seen as a change process. There are standard models for innovation. If somebody is working in the area of SMEs, there is need to look at the mature manufacturing sector, who have a strong domestic and export orientation, and face increasing global competition. The key driving force for innovation is determined by low ICT knowledge and skill. There is also the need to look at regenerated manufacturing base with greater competitiveness, productivity, export market and R&D, as they determine SME upgradation and development. The key internal drivers for ICTs are leadership and strategic focus. The key external drivers for innovation are market and customers. The constraints for innovation are generic constraints (that affect all firms) and specific constraints (largely internal and firm specific). The resistance to change can also become constraint for innovation.

Mr. Richard Duncombe said that the problems with standard model are:

Tend to be supply driven and technology led.
Over-simplifies complex innovation processes (push-pull)
Fails to distinguish between sectors and size.
People create change not technology
Ignores social dimension

For developing SMEs, one needs to keep in mind the above five factors (i.e. Organizational Readiness, Managerial Capability, ICT Capability, Motivation and Value Chain Positioning.) along with forward and backward linkages.

The key soft factors for developing SMEs is to emphasize upon:

Motivation—Respond to incentives via more effective commodity chain positioning
Awareness—Management Practices (e.g. intellectual property rights)
Leadership—Foster vision and commitment
Human resources—Key ingredients—can consider outsourced solutions (ISPs/ ASPs)—control and internal capability should be retained in the business
Financial Resources
Managerial Capability—the ability to link innovation

Policy suggestions by Mr. Duncombe were:

Support the enabling environment –manufacturing and social enterprise sectors (macro level interventions)
Awareness raising among SME support agency staff about the role of ICTs for productivity and competitiveness
Develop demand driven information services incorporating e-partnership
Develop an authoritative knowledge base of good practice on ICT innovation in SMEs.
Support the development of the localized ICT sector and ICT technical capability and the localization of IT support sector with a sustainability component

The meet ended with a discussion by participants (including the audience) to be followed by dinner hosted by the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS).

Release of OECD India Economic Surveys Report, 9 October, 2007, Hotel Imperial, New Delhi, India

On 9 November, 2007, Angel Gurria, Secretary-General, OECD, released the first Economic Surveys, India Report, in the presence of D Subba Rao, Finance Secretary, Ministry of Finance, Government of India, Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia, Chairperson, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), Rajiv Kumar, Director and Chief Executive, ICRIER and Salu Kapila.. The Report was released in Hotel Imperial, New Delhi (India). The Academic Foundation published the Indian Economic Survey of the OECD for the Indian market. The Report release ceremony were attended by Shambhu Ghatak and J Chittoor from the Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies (CSDMS, Noida).

Welcome session
In his opening presentation, Angel Gurria informed that the OECD Economic Survey provides an overview of economic policies in India and proposes a number of reforms. The Report is the result of extensive discussions between the staff of the OECD and a wide range of experts in India both in the central and state governments, and in the private sector. He said that during the economic reforms in India, government control over business investment has been terminated; entry barriers to most industries have been lowered or eliminated; income tax rates have been reduced and public intervention in most forms of foreign trade has been ended, with tariffs being lowered markedly. Financial markets have been improved and the macro-economic environment made more stable. Globalisation and economic reforms also helped in the rise of IT (information technology) and ITES (IT-enabled services). Due to all these factors, India recently experienced growth rate of nearly 9.0%. While talking on reforms, Angel Gurria focused upon four major areas, namely: improving business environment; infrastructure development; public finances and labour market reforms. He also talked about red tapism in the government agencies, which hampers doing business in India. He talked on Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act and the current state of fiscal consolidation. He asked for labour market reforms in India, in the backdrop of restrictive employment regulation in the formal sector, and the growing unorganised sector where much of the employment is created. Dr. Isher Judge Ahluwalia while speaking about the OECD Economic Survey, said that the Report lacked focusing on India's ailing agricultural sector. D Subba Rao said that the OECD Report is very comprehensive, and despite its limitations, has provided a road map of what is needed for India's future economic and social development.

The OECD Indian Economic Survey Report
India’s annual economic growth could reach a sustainable 10 percent and be spread more evenly across the country if it pursues ambitious and wide-ranging reforms, says a new OECD report. In its first Economic Survey of India, the OECD says market-based reforms since the 1980s have helped reduce poverty and average incomes are expected to double within the next decade. Economic growth is currently running at a sustainable eight percent a year. India is now the world’s third largest economy behind the US and China when measured in terms of real prices and purchasing power. But red tape still holds back business. The survey says state governments need to become much better organised and build on improvements made at the national level. The new Competition Commission needs to start work as quickly as possible now that it has full legal backing. A modern bankruptcy law is also needed to simplify the restructuring of insolvent firms. Privatisation of more publicly-owned firms should resume to help improve productivity and profitability. In the meantime, public companies should be controlled by a government investment agency rather than by a sponsoring ministry, in order to separate ownership and policy-making. The report says the government should continue its programme of increased discipline in public spending. This will make room for higher levels of private investment. Spending on subsidies should be better targeted to help the poor. The survey also recommends reducing tax exemptions to allow more money to be transferred to fund public services in urban areas. “India’s infrastructure is seriously overstretched,” the survey warns. The country’s “high rate of economic growth is at risk if infrastructure development does not increase and keep pace with demand.” Electricity shortages are one such brake on growth. To boost investment in this area consumers should pay for all of their electricity, the report says. Business should no longer be forced to subsidise consumers by paying overly high electricity prices. Banks should be gradually moved out of the public sector while the government should stop directing bank lending. These moves would improve allocation of capital and boost growth. More foreign competition is needed in financial services. The report calls for the removal of the ban on foreign direct investment in retail shops. This would help improve productivity and supply chain management, reduce the high rates of waste of farm products and lower prices for the consumer. Labour market laws need to be reformed so that more people can benefit from economic growth. Existing laws are pushing jobs into low productivity small-scale firms. Reform would help ensure that India benefits fully from its abundant labour, the report says. To ensure higher incomes, India will need a better educated population. The OECD survey proposes ways of ensuring that all children complete eight years of schooling through such schemes as improving incentives for teachers and providing the poor with cash grants dependent on their children continuing at school.

Chapter 1: India’s key challenges to sustaining high growth
The Indian economy has undergone a remarkable transformation over the past two decades. The growth rate of average incomes has increased from 1¼ per cent prior to 1980 to 7% by 2006. Between 1999 and 2004, the absolute number of people living under the national poverty line has fallen for the first time since Independence. Faster growth has been brought about by a paradigm shift in economic polices that has opened the economy to foreign trade and markedly reduced direct tax rates and government influence over most investment decisions. Despite this favourable performance, there is still much room for improving policy settings to further raise growth potential. This chapter first looks at India’s past reforms and the main sources of its improved growth performance and then identifies a number of key challenges that could make growth faster, more sustainable and more even across the country: i) making goods and service markets more competitive; ii) enhancing employment in the formal sector through broadranging labour market reforms; iii) further liberalising the banking sector; iv) improving public finances to achieve more rapid growth through a more ambitious fiscal consolidation, reducing subsidies and further reducing tax distortions; v) improving infrastructure and facilitating urbanisation by involving private players more intensely; and vi) upgrading the quality of educational outcomes through institutional reforms.

Chapter 2: India’s growth pattern and obstacles to higher growth
India’s growth performance has improved significantly over the past 20 years, but it has been uneven across industries and states. While some service industries, notably the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, have become highly competitive in world markets – yielding considerable gains for employees and investors – manufacturing industries have lagged and improved their performance only recently. A divergence in performance has taken place, with firms in those states and sectors with the best institutions gaining, and those in the more tightly regulated states and sectors falling further behind. As a result, the competitive landscape is uneven across sectors and states and a high degree of concentration continues in different industries. While this is partly the result of the legacy of licensing, change has been politically difficult, making it harder for the manufacturing sector than for the service sector to expand. The need for further institutional reforms is urgent, focusing on product and labour market regulations at the central and state levels.

Chapter 3: Reforming India’s product and service markets
The degree of competition in product markets has been found to be an important determinant of economic growth in both developed and developing countries. This chapter uses the OECD’s indicators of product market regulation to assess the extent to which the regulatory environment in India is supportive of competition in markets for goods and services. The results indicate that although liberalisation has improved the regulatory environment to international best practices in some areas, the overall level of product market regulation is still relatively restrictive. In addition, estimating the product market regulation indicators for 21 Indian states shows that the relatively more liberal states have higher labour productivity, attract more foreign direct investment, and have a larger share of employment in the private formal sector in comparison to the relatively more restrictive states. The chapter goes on to review various aspects of India’s product market regulation and suggests a number of policy initiatives that would improve the degree to which competitive market forces are able to operate.

Chapter 4: Improving the performance of the labour market
Over the past decade, labour market outcomes have improved in India, with net employment rising markedly for the economy as a whole. However, these gains have arisen primarily in the unorganised and informal sectors of the economy, where productivity and wages are generally much lower than in the formal organised sector. It is only India’s organised sector that is subject to labour market regulation, and here employment has fallen. The role of employment protection legislation in affecting employment outcomes is controversial both in the OECD area and in India. This chapter looks at the impact of employment protection legislation and related regulation on the dynamics of employment in the organised sector of the economy, using newly constructed measures of national regulation and state labour reforms. We find that while reforms have taken some of the bite out of core labour laws, more comprehensive reforms are needed to address the distortions that have emerged.

Chapter 5: Reforming the financial system
This chapter examines the performance of India’s financial sector and compares its structure to that of other emerging economies. The financial sector went through a period of considerable re-organisation during the last 15 years. New regulators were introduced for all sectors of the market and this has boosted the development of highly efficient equity and commodity markets. The health of the banking sector has also improved and competition within the sector has increased. Nonetheless, costs remain high in a sector that is still dominated by public sector banks. The corporate bond market is still underdeveloped, as is the foreign exchange market. Considerable scope exists for improving efficiency in the financial sector by opening it to more foreign direct investment and removing a number of regulatory constraints that impede the development of a full set of financial markets.

Chapter 6: Improving the fiscal system
This chapter examines areas of government spending, taxation and fiscal federalism where further reforms are desirable to reduce economic distortions and improve the provision of public services. As to government spending, it finds that a large share is used to subsidise commercial undertakings, agriculture and food distribution and that there is much room to improve the quality of spending and target it better to reduce poverty. On taxes, which have undergone major reforms since the early 1990s, it points to the large number of loopholes and suggests that a broadening of the tax bases would allow further reductions in tax rates and make the system simpler and more efficient. Reforms of indirect taxes should focus on creating a common market within India so that goods can move between states without border controls. India’s federal structure has led to a well-developed system of tax-sharing and transfers, both through constitutionally empowered bodies and delivered through the annual budget. Overall, this transfer system has worked well; moving resources towards the poorest states, but the system has become very complex and, in the past, weakened fiscal discipline. Furthermore, it has not been able to create an effective local government system; this would be important for improving accountability and responsiveness to citizens’ needs as three-quarters of the population live in states with over 50 million inhabitants.

Chapter 7: Removing infrastructure bottlenecks
With high rates of economic growth and low public sector investment, India’s infrastructure is in short supply and potentially a major constraint on future growth. To alleviate fiscal constraints and improve infrastructure productivity, the government is turning increasingly to the private sector to finance and run infrastructure projects. In some infrastructure sectors in which the regulatory environment is conducive to private sector involvement, performance has improved significantly. However, although infrastructure policy is moving in the right direction in some sectors, there are still a number of ways in which the regulatory environment could be improved further. This chapter outlines a range of policy initiatives that would increase private sector participation and improve infrastructure service delivery to international standards. It begins by discussing the role of public-private partnerships in the provision of infrastructure services before moving on to review the regulatory environment in a number of infrastructure sectors with a focus on regulatory settings that constrain competition.

Chapter 8: Improving human capital formation
The provision of high-quality education and health care to all of the population is considered a core element of public policy in most countries. In India, the government is active in both education and health but the private sector also plays an important role, notably for heath, and to a lesser extent in education. At present, the quality and quantity of the outputs from education, and also form public health care, are holding back the process of economic development. Steps are being taken to draw more children into primary education and the chapter considers ways to keep children in school. The chapter also considers institutional changes that may help to improve the performance of the educational system and so boost human capital formation.

(For more info, go to:
http://www.oecd.org/document/5/0,3343,en_2649_201185_39428741_1_1_1_1,00.html)