Comments from Ajit Maru, FAO (Rome)
First of all, in my opinion, the challenge India faces is not only of taking ICTs to every village but in enabling access to relevant and useful information and, if possible, knowledge, in time through appropriate use of ICTs to every village community and individual in rural areas. The focus should be on the social appropriation of ICTs by its village communities to access information and the ability to use it for development. We, in India, have made the mistake of not doing this when we tried to "take" electricity, water and even radio and TV to Indian villages. The consequences of this approach is there for all of us to see. Large sections of the village communities have been left out from accessing what was "taken" to them. We have had problems in sustaining what little we had "taken" to the villages. more...
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