UNDP ICT Programme Officer/Focal Point

ICT Programme Office/Focal Point A

Full Name

Mithulina Chatterjee

Designation/Position

ICT Programme Officer

Station (UNDP Country Office)

UNDP India

Email Address

mithulina.chatterjee@undp.org

Telephone Number

91-11-4651819

Fax Number

National Development Priorities

Please list the Government’s primary developmental and sectoral priorities:

GOI's efforts in ICT for development in development sectors include education, health, e-governance, disaster management
http://www.mit.gov.in
http://www.dotindia.com/plans/planindex.htm

e-Readiness Assessment

Has the Government (or any third party or donor) conducted a multi-sectoral ICT or e-readiness assessment of the country?

YES

The Ministry of Information Technology, GOI set up a working group (WG) on IT for Masses in May 2000.  They are reviewing various schemes and major initiatives taken by govt. agencies for taking IT for masses, identifying potential areas and applications for deployment for IT for masses.  The WG with a mandate to develop a comprehensive plan for taking IT to masses has made wide-ranging recommendations relating to infrastructure and services, electronic governance, education and mass campaign for IT awareness. 

The complete report is available at http://intra.undp.org.in/nw312/prmu/itfordev.

Existing e-Policies, -Strategies, Acts, Decrees, etc

Has the Government developed, or is the Government planning to develop, ICT policies?
YES

·         The 10th Five year plan of GOI has laid out the objectives for affordable and effective communication facilities to all citizens esp. in rural and tribal areas, development of telecom in rural areas, research and development, etc.

·         A perspective plan for the 1997-2007 has been prepared outlining the consolidation of  the network through telephone connection, digital connectivity, Optical Fibre system, WLL technology.
 

Ministry/Agency in Charge of ICT Policy Formulation

Scope of ICT Policies

·         New Telecom Policy 1999 recognises that telecommunications infrastructure and information is the key to rapid economic and social development of the country. 

·         There are a number of telecom related Acts and Legislation - Information Technology Act 2000, Draft Communication and Convergence Bill 2000, etc.

·         There is a National Task Force on IT and Software Development (1998) under the Chairpersonship of the Deputy Chairperson of Planning Commission which discusses the policy for the IT industry, research and development, human resource development, Citizen-IT interface, content creation.

·         The plans of GOI focus on schemes on tele-medicine and tele-education and it will have govt. to citizen portal in all departments including agriculture, water resources, energy, women and child development, health and family welfare, rural development and education, e-governance.

·         The Department of Information Technology dealing with policy matters to IT has established a number of public sector undertakings and autonomous societies for different purposes.
 

Was the process of ICT policy formulation participatory in nature, and did it involve stakeholders?

Towards the formulation of the Tenth Plan, a Steering Committee had been set up on Communications and Information. This mainly comprised of the Government and Private Sector reps. Participation of NGOs and civil society has been limited.

Constitution of the working group on IT for Masses has been indicated above.
 

Does the Government have an official policy on ICT and Gender?

This has not been specifically discussed with the Government.  However, Ministry of Human Resource Development and Ministry of Information Technology has formulated a number of schemes,  particularly in the area of education and training in ICT.  The policy of IT is not gender sensitive. The ICT policy when looked at from gender perspective must take into consideration the various dimensions including education, employment and empowerment.
 

Does the Government have an official policy on Open Source Software?

The Ministry of Communication & Information Technology (MCIT), Government of India, acknowledges the complexities of using open source copyrighted software in terms of its use for e-governance and digital divide, including policies, Intellectual Property issues and the technical and economical viability of using Open source software in the Indian context. The principal players will be National Informatics Centre (a Govt. autonomous institution) from the government and the Department of  Information Technology.  The NGO players include Free Software Foundation-India and Free  Developers India, Mahiti, etc.
 

Access

How is the Government addressing the issue of equitable access to ICT for all of its citizens, especially marginalized groups and those in rural communities?

80 % of the villages in rural areas are connected by public telephone. The 10th Five year

plan clearly outlines the provision of universal service to all uncovered areas including rural areas.  It talks about encouragement of telecom in rural areas making it more affordable by suitable tariff structure and making provision of rural communications mandatory for all fixed service providers. There is a separate tribal sub-plan for providing telecom facilities in the tribal areas and Dept. of telecommunications is treating these areas as special focus areas -public telephone, NSD facility.

Government is seeking the support of Media Lab Asia for development of local languages to improve access. Some of the State Governments have also initiated efforts in this direction.
 

What is the Government planning to do to increase local connectivity to the Internet?

At the national level, Dept. of Telecommunication’s plans
·         Provision of Optical fibre in major transmission routes
·         Upgradation of transmission systems from Analog to Digital
·         Setting up National internet backbone
·         Provision of internet services to all the district HQs.
·         Introduction of the WLL technology

GOI is working with Media Lab Asia and Indian Institutes of Technology to improve village connectivity.
State Government’s efforts
·         Connectivity Backbone - Hybrid consisting of OFC and VSATs
·         Last mile connectivity - LAN or wireless connectivity
 

Has the Government implemented, or is it planning to implement, e-government/e-governance initiatives to better deliver government services through the application of ICT and to improve government transparency and efficiency?

Dept of IT has initiated an e-governance initiative- identified functional areas, developed and linked databases to the public domain, initiated pilot projects, ensure seamless transfer of information between offices dealing with administration in the Centre as well as the State, develop suitable software packages for EG, initiated amendments in Central and State Acts, rules and regulations under various govt. depts to put in place IT and web enabled citizen services.   The National Task Force on IT and software development and the High Powered Committee on improving efficiency in government through use of IT under the Chairpersonship of Cabinet Secretary is also looking at this issue of e-governance.

Most of the e-governance initiatives are at the State level.
 

Local Content Development and Knowledge Management

Is the Government aware of or is it active in standardization and localization of ICTs (e.g. local input/output conventions and standards for digital exchange, development of local language character sets conforming to international UNICODE and other standards) for fostering local content development and knowledge management?

Government is aware of the issue however standardisation of local language character sets has not been done.  Media Lab Asia is supporting the government in this direction. There are many NGOs in India working in this area.
 

International Donors of ICT for Development

Please list (in order of total contributions for 2002) the top five donors who have invested in ICT for Development.  DO NOT include UNDP.

Donor

Specific Area of Support

1

IDRC

Innovative demonstrative models

2

CIDA

Rural telecom sector, seeking to change the govt’s policy and practice with regard to viability and utility of internet access in rural India.

3

USAID

Workshops on ICT for Development case studies

4

UNESCO

Promoting community radio

5

DFID

ICT for income generation projects

6

UNICEF

ICT for education, health, and nutrition

7

Friedrich Eibert Stiftung (FES) and Dutch Devt. Agency HIVOS

sponsoring seminars and publications thematizing ICT for Development.

Please list and describe the three primary ICT for Development areas of focus for your UNDP Country Office.

NOTE: Please DO NOT list actual projects/activities, there is another section for this information.  Please describe the general focus areas (e-policies, e-government, e-commerce, e-learning, etc.) instead.

Area One
Support platforms for policy advocacy

Area Two
Support open source software development/centre

Area Three
Support innovative field interventions in decentralised planning, citizen-govt. interface, disaster management through community radio, ICT kiosks.

Check List: Please provide additional comments where applicable.

What are the major external obstacles in delivering ICT for Development outputs, thus far?  And how has the Country Office overcome these obstacles?

·         Limitations of electricity, telephony, net-connectivity.
·         Remote areas shrouded in communication darkness.
·         Inequalities keep the poor/women on other end of digital divide.
·         Limited Citizen to Citizen (C2C) or Citizen to Government communication.
·         Technology focus keeps stakeholders out.
·         Few community-based business /sustainable models.
·         Limited local level capacity. \
·         UNDP by working in partnership with State Govts, responsible for policy formulation, infrastructure development and by advocating a citizen-centric and women-centric approach, it is expected this will help to increase access by the marginalised communities.
·         Secondly by organising large stakeholder consultations to discuss citizen-centric strategies and approaches.
·         UNDP is also assisting in development of softwares for localised planning.
 

What are the major internal obstacles in delivering ICT for Development outputs, thus far?  And how has the Country Office overcome these obstacles?  Please provide suggestions on how to overcome these obstacles.

·         Lack of clarity of in the areas of support in ICT for development
·         Inconsistency in understanding of sustainable models in ICT