Use digitalization in a sentence

The new Apple watch is an example of digitalization at its best where

technology has taken an ordinary watch and introduced technology into it with phone
capabilities, messaging, and even internet capabilities

n hour outside Ahmedabad is a village where anganwadis have CCTVs and schools
have audio-visual teaching aids. Can this working model of a Digital India really be
replicated?
If you find yourself craving for biscuits in Akodara village, located a little over an hour away from
Ahmedabad, in Sabarkantha district in Gujarat, walk past the village ATM and down to the
little kirana shop opposite the CCTV-monitored anganwadi. Select your biscuit packet, but dont
reach for your wallet to pay for it. Instead, whip out your mobile phone to pay. Dont worry, the
grumpy old shopkeeper will give you instructions on how to do this; he is used to clueless city people!

He will then look at you with mild suspicion until his mobile phone chimes and informs him in
Gujarati that the amount has been transferred from your bank account to his. Congratulations. Your
purchase is now complete. You may now sit in a cool spot under the big peepal tree and eat your
biscuits while surfing Facebook using the village wifi.
A slice of Digital India
Welcome to Akodara, a fully digital village. If you wondered in January, during the high-profile
launch of the Digital India initiative, what digitising rural India meant or would really look like,
little Akodara represents a slice of the vision. The village of 1,200 people has been adopted by ICICI
Bank, helped by the local administration, so that it can be showcased as an example of the banks
vision of the digital future that awaits Indias hinterland. From the merely cosmetic, like
embellishing the archway at the village entrance with the ICICI logo, to the very practical
improvement of providing access to modern banking to the villagers, the bankers at ICICI have gone
all out to showcase their vision in Akodara. If some of the interventions, such as installing CCTV
cameras in the village anganwadi and in schools, seem a bit gimmicky, many others are useful and
potentially revolutionary when imagined on a large scale across whole districts and regions in the
country.
The first of such useful interventions is financial inclusion and access to modern banking. Almost
every adult in Akodara now has a savings bank account with ICICI, which he or she can access
through the local bank branch, or the village ATM, or through mobile phones via SMS. The villagers
most important transactions selling agri-produce at the local mandi or selling milk at the cooperative society have been digitised and made cashless. The system has made them automatically
less susceptible to corruption and fraud. Also, their accounts are linked to their Aadhar cards, which
means that government benefits are now transferred directly into their savings accounts. For the
widows of Akodara, who had to earlier spend Rs. 70 to travel to the district headquarters to receive
their monthly pension of Rs. 800, this direct transfer and easy access to their accounts makes for real
and significant savings.
The second advantage is in the area of education. Earlier, teaching used to be between just the
teacher and the student. Now we have a digital aid, says Pranav Upadhyay, 32, high-school teacher
in Akodara, before beginning his lecture on nanotechnology for Class 10 students. Earlier when I
used to talk about the universe to the students, it was just talk. Now they see it animated on the
screen and it gets them interested and more engaged. The digital aid that Mr. Upadhyay is referring
to is an audio-visual device that integrates a projector and a computer. This brings to life lessons in
science, chiefly through animation. In primary school, children use electronic tablets gifted by ICICI
to learn Gujarati. Also, across all schools, a digital attendance system is being implemented that will
inform parents, via SMS, whether their children have shown up at school or not. Apart from its
practicality, this is also an important safety initiative.
A market for banks
Of course, Akodara is only a model village an artificial model of rural India crossing the digital
frontier rather than being an organic part of a real, larger digital ecology. But to understand its
significance, one has to imagine it as a grand vision, replicated in thousands of villages across the
country.

With a nearly saturated urban market and intense competition over a reducing pie, rural India is
where the future of banks lies. And the key for this growth is technology, as it is only through mobile
phones, the Internet, and tablet banking that banks can keep costs down and open up rural
consumption. Akodaras real symbolic appeal for Indian corporate entities lies in something beyond
what ICICI has done. Hiteshbhai Patel, a resident in the village says, Young men in our village
regularly buy things from Flipkart and Snapdeal. It has become common for them to buy phones and
shoes and clothes online. They dont worry about getting a bad product because they know that they
can return the goods if there is a problem.
But before celebrations begin for the Digital India initiative, it is important to remember why ICICI
chose Akodara. Before the village got digital connectivity, it already had physical connectivity.
Flipkart products come to Akodara on a highway that connects the village to all the urban centres
around it. The village had a high literacy rate long before it got digital, and its habitat and livelihood
opportunities predate the computers. In other words, a digital future is possible only if other socioeconomic indicators are good and the basic needs of the village are already met. A digital future can
only be built on top of a physical one. This means that all the old issues still need to be confronted
first.

A small team of seven made up of Internet Society and Digital Empowerment

Foundation (DEF) staff, two camera men and a future project site contact set out for a
48 hour journey to capture the stories and key learnings that currently live inside
theWirelessFor Communities (W4C) project across rural India.
Covering roughly 1500 km by train and car over the two days, the trip began on
Saturday morning at the train station in Delhi to reach Baran, some 10 hours
away. The goal of the trip was to meet and talk to the local people who are benefiting
from the W4C project that the Internet Society and DEF are sponsoring. DEFs Lead
Engineer, Shahid Ahmed, has developed this barefoot wireless network in Baran,
which is now maintained by localmembers of the local community support that he has
trained himself and who have gone on to become multipliers, training many others. We
learned first-hand about how this project is directly impacting over 50,000 lives that are
now connected to the Internet.
Following our six hour train ride to Kota, we arrived at Sindhu Hospital which acts as
the main tele-medicine center where doctors connect with 10-15 patients a day
live over a web cam to diagnose illness and prescribe medication. Sindhu Hospital
is part of a government funded NGO program and now services the several wireless

sites in Baran as a result of the W4C project which is saving the local folks time and
cost to travel to the nearest major town, Kota, which is 50 km away.
Our second stop in Bhanwargarh, a village three hours away from Kota, is where the
first network tower was built accompanied by solar panels to generate the needed
electricity to run the network. Shahid has set up the technical infrastructure and solar
energy at this location and continues to train others localsly so they can learn how to
maintain the network.
This center provides food, shelter and education to girls whose families cannot provide
the financial support needed to advance their education. Also, at this location, kids can
take advantage of e-learning opportunities online in a computer room with four
computers, access a physical library with books, science equipment and health
information and even become part of the live radio broadcast show that was created
onsite and is now reaching other villages in Baran managed by the children.
One teenage girl who was trained and educated at this location has moved on to
continue to spread her Internet knowledge at our third location and is considered
the local Internet Activist. She now teaches others about using Facebook and other
online tools to help develop a presence online. Currently she has 15 Facebook friends
across the entire network that services the Baran villages, which is amazing considering
this has been a largely unconnected community till W4C arrived.
Our third stop in Khadela included a small center where locals can gather and use this
online learning facility. This location has one computer and leverages the Internet to
process and track government subsidized wages and address labor issues such as
payment problems, unfair treatment and timely processing. As online information is
helping to educate the village, the process of managing local wages has become faster
online and the time and cost to travel to the government facility located more than 50
km away is no longer a factor. This site is also used as a monthly meeting place for the
village to discuss and work together to address labor issues within the community.
In addition to the online collaboration, one young man decided to branch out and
start his own shop where he offers document services to locals such as
printing birth and death certificates as well as licenses and other legal
documents. Using the wireless network, a workstation and his phone, he is able to

access the Internet for profit and makes roughly $200 a month USD offering these types
of services.
Our last stop in Mamomi included visiting a childrens learning center which was made
possible also through the new wireless network and now offers online education
opportunities to those that visit. Many stop in for a few weeks sort of like camp like to
get exposed to using a computer, learn Hindi online and how to use Google and other
tools for online educational purposes. The center Manager was trained by Shahid just
as in the other centers so he can not only maintain the network tower and IT equipment,
but also repair the solar panels and address electricity issues if they arise. In addition
this facility also produces packages and ships the locally known gooseberry candies to
nearby markets and other villages.
As this work continues on the ground across a total of seven centers in Baran, new
project sites are being targeted for 2014 in Indonesia and Burma. The dedicated staff of
DEF and the project promoters likeother project sponsors like the Internet Society will
not only help India get connected, but changes thousands of lives in the process
through online education and holistic community development.

Digital for Rural India

Sep 10, 2015

62 views
4 Likes
0 Comments
Share on LinkedIn
Share on Facebook
Share on Twitter

It has been around a year since the Digital India program was
announced last year. The Infrastructure and eco system needed to
have connected rural India is delayed with challenges in laying fiber
optic cables in around 2,50,000 villages in India.

The cost to laying 3,72,000 miles of cables is estimated to be

around $11.2 billion which appears to be a huge price to pay for. But
what it can do to the Socio-economic world of rural India is priceless
and beyond our limited imagination.

The Basics..
Building eco system of internet connected rural India and providing
low cost broadband service is crucial to a digital India. New
broadband products long distance and solar powered WiFi systems
have been developed by Centre for development of Telematics (CDoT), telecom research division. These are expected to address
connectivity issues in rural, hilly and forest areas.
Villages need to have basic access facilities through road/rails and
transportation. Once the rural areas are equipped with these
necessities, connected with reasonable good Internet speed access
for lower costs, it paves way for limitless opportunities for
employment in local sector.

Use cases
Rural areas will be directly going digital as in mobile, as probably
they may not use the internet through PCs or laptops. These users
may not be IT savvy and social collaboration through internet is not
a priority for them. They do not care for the likes and comments or
their social image on internet or personal branding, they will go
mobile as long as it improves their profitability and improves the
quality of their lives.

Some use cases in small towns and villages:

Local food produces, Dairy, local small scale, arts & crafts industries
can benefit through the connectivity, Local farmers can contact
distributors and wholesale retailers and can compare the prices in
local area. This can prevent monopoly and farmers and local
manufacturers have better bargaining power and better control of
their economy without need for local government intervention.
It may appear that it requires extensive training, it may not be so.
Often, a small portion of population is enough to trigger a major
change and local groups and word of mouth spread is still useful in
small towns and villages where internet usage has not yet pervaded.
Through access to information, learning/awareness on agriculture or
e-agriculture becomes possible.
In field of education, it will be useful in schools for improving the
training methods and for students to have online access for
expanding their knowledge gained from text books. It also means
access to higher education and opportunities previously unknown.
In field of health care, it can mean implementation of preventive
care and access to online medical records, better medical diagnosis
and access to doctors/pharmacists.

eGovernance will be made possible by providing records online and

local governance can be simplified by digitizing registrations in
government offices (Land, Houses, birth, death etc), similar to many
of cities today.
One of most prominent benefits is in Banking and Access to
online Banking means having better control over their
finances and future.
A model digital village Aodhara, was adopted by ICICI bank, to
showcase digital future and banks vision. Every Adult in village has
savings bank account and has access to it through the bank branch,
access to ATM and mobile phones. Mobile payment/ Digital wallet is
already operational in Aodhara. Local youth are used for online retail
and ordering items through Flipkart and Amazon.
There have been few villages in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh
where some of these developments in Banking have already begun.
Once connectivity is available, Local markets and shops will soon
take to technology and make themselves available for mobile
shopping. This will pave way for new retail applications catering to
local market.
Going the Mobile way
Scope of developing mobile solutions for this sector of the society
are limitless and bring a major shift in social and economic change
in their lives.

Small scale technology providers can be encouraged and groomed

who can work with local government organizations and institutions
to cater to their areas major challenges and develop solutions
through apps. This will improve the employment rate in local area
and access to better life need not mean migrating to cities.
As challenges are common but with different local flavors, it is
possible to unify the diverse range of population across thousands of
villages through common platforms/solutions for the common
challenges. These applications though common would have to adopt
a local language to cater to local audiences.
Once segment of population appreciates the power of digital and
information through access to information at hand, there is a level
playing field and equalizer in terms of access to information and
progression.
There is a huge market for all industries which is untapped which
will boost the Indian economy in all sections of society. Only hurdles
to digitization of India are basic transportation, telecom connectivity
and once they are available, rate of digitization in rural India will be
exponential.
As C-DoTs executive director puts it, "Roti, kapda, makaan
(food, clothing, shelter) and broadband are basic needs of
human beings".

Digitizing India
Dinesh Malkani, President and Country Head, Cisco India &SAARC
The article was published in the Financial Express
Z of 1.2 billion Indians and drive Indias return to the centre of the worlds stage.

Digital: transforming rural life in India

March 27, 2014

by Debu C

The digital penetration in the Indian hinterland is growing silently but rapidly. Several initiatives taken
by the government, NGOS, private social groups are now using technology for efficient delivery of a
variety of services that is showing remarkable results.
Indias population now exceeds 1.21 billion with 69% of the population located in rural areas. Internet
penetration is increasing with Mobile playing the major catalyst. Studies conducted by IAMAI reflect
some interesting patterns. 90% of those accessing the internet were using it for entertainment, 80%
were using it for communications, 67% for online services, 65% for e-commerce and 60% for social
networking. The number of Internet users in rural India is estimated to cross 85 million by June 2014
making India the worlds second largest market for Internet users. All these put together is now
changing attitudes, awareness and lifestyles in rural India. A decade ago, the awareness, information
and knowledge gap between the rural youth and his urban counterpart was significant. This has now
rapidly narrowed and the gap is closing.
In any developing economy, the success of any social development initiative depends on not only
the governments involvement but active participation from both the private sector, as well as, people
themselves. India is continuing to demonstrate several success stories that can lead to other
initiatives by various interest groups. Bottom line: people participation.
The use of Digital technology to better lives is now beginning to unfold in the Indian hinterland. Some
of the interesting experiences come from the Rural Health Connect initiative of NewDigm
Healthcare Technologies. They have taken the initiative to utilize the large pool of Village Health
Workers (VHW) that provides a wide variety of health care support to the last mile areas of rural

India. Creating a mobile platform to collect, streamline, analyze, offer medical advice and the next
course of possible action to the VHW. The results are well documented. In a field trial conducted with
the National Rural Health Mission, Tamil Nadu saw 95% pregnancies registered and monitored, 20%
reduction in outpatient costs including drugs, 75% VHWs registering an increase in diagnostic
efficiency and ease of operation. In the next three years, the target market penetration is going to
significantly increase with its impact on both healthcare and rural incomes.
Google has launched an initiative to introduce women to the internet especially those in the rural
areas. They have launched a website Helping Women Get Online. They have partnered with
leading companies like Hindustan Levers, Axis Bank, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Shaadi.com,
Babyoye&iDiva. The website offers a step-by-step guide to computer basics, internet skills, chat &
email and watching videos online. Each topic has different topics ranging from how to start and shut
down your computer, how to create an email account. In addition, the site also offers information on
a variety of topics such as cooking recipes, childcare, financial, healthcare, maternity, relationship
and style & beauty. They also offer a Toll-free helpline.
Another initiative from Human Welfare Association called Mahila Shakti. HWA works with
underserved, disadvantaged and minority communities in the Varanasi area through education,
literacy and livelihood by using personal contact programs, group meetings, SMS, education hubs
etc. Their other well recognized projects are PES Project, Global Fund for Children, e-NGO National
Program and Rajiv Gandhi Foundation amongst others.
Launched in June 2000, ITCs e-choupal initiative has emerged as the largest internet based
intervention in rural India, reaching out to 4 million farmers in over 40,000 villages through 6,500
internet kiosks. The initiative leverages technology through internet kiosks managed by farmers
themselves and providing all relevant information to the farming community covering weather,
market prices, information on best farming practices and risk management, while providing all
information to facilitate sale and optimizing farmer profitability. A fact that the rural farming
community has wholeheartedly accepted and adopted best practices using technology has shown its
impact and success on rising agricultural production and income.
Those of us in urban areas often desire to reach out and do something that can make a difference to
someones life but never get around to taking that first step. It just may be a great idea to take
inspiration from the above and see what you could offer based on your time, talent and skill set.
Technology can help you reach out to a larger number more efficiently. Remember we all have
something positive to offer we just need the right platform.

Bridging digital divide, with focus on rural India:

Ravi Shankar Prasad
ET Bureau Feb 5, 2015, 04.17AM IST

Tags:

Ravi Shankar Prasad|

Rajendra Kumar|
Prime Minister|
NarendraModi|
Digital India Summit|
Digital India

(There are immense opportunities)

NEW DELHI: The Centre is all set to facilitate efficiency in governance through a series of programmes
that include digital literacy and electronic delivery of services, in line with Prime Minister NarendraModi's
ambitious Digital India initiative.
"Online on-demand digital signature is being developed, which has a very transformational architecture.
The day is not far when every Indian will have a digital identity and a mobile connection linked to it," RS
Sharma, secretary at the Department of Electronics and IT (DeitY), said at the Digital India summit,
hosted by the Times Television Network.

"The department is re-engineering software and systems in light of changing technology scenario. We can
store, share online certificates that will bring convenience and eliminate paperwork," he added.
The government has embarked on a comprehensive plan and is working on putting integrated services for
citizens that allow single-window interface, Sharma said, and added that at least one person in every
family would be digitally empowered.
The government's ambitious Digital India plan, which is an umbrella initiative with an initial outlay of Rs
1.13-lakh crore, covers nine programmes that include broadband highways, 100% mobile density,
electronic manufacturing and eKranti or electronic delivery of services by 2018.
Speaking at the event a day earlier, telecom and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that the
government wanted to facilitate industry-friendly environment and that there were immense opportunities
for private players across sectors in their ongoing Digital India initiative.
Digital India, Prasad said, rests on three pillars that include architecture and utility, delivery of government
services and digital empowerment of people, and with the mega initiative that aims to bridge the digital
divide. He also said that Digital India offers an 'enabling platform for change' and that it would not be
fulfilled without the indigenous manufacturing that requires Indian skills to be leveraged, and added that
content in local language is necessary.
"With digital services delivery model eKranti, the government is expanding the horizon with mobile
intervention and open to adopt cloud-based technologies," DeitY joint secretary Rajendra Kumar said,
adding that new technology models help in faster e-governance services delivery.
Out of 31 e-governance projects, 21 initiatives are online and operational, enabling 90-lakh transactions a
day and touching the lives of nearly 30-crore individuals, Kumar said, and added that they were bringing
in private sector to participate widely to facilitate the Digital India initiative.
Digital literacy though is one of the biggest challenges and the government has come out with a vision to
make at least one family member digitally literate, National Institute of Electronics and Information
Technology (NIELIT) Managing Director Ashwini Kumar Sharma said.
The government expects to make 1 crore people digitally literate in five years while aiming to train 10 lakh
individuals by the end of this year. The government has already introduced a 20-hour basic learning
course and is running another programme for the ESDM sector with a goal to train 4.5-lakh youth in five

years. "To align with modern technological needs; the government is currently working on an open source
online course concept and availability of content in local languages," Sharma said.

India Wants To Build Massive Digital Infrastructure To

Cover 800 Million Rural Citizens by 2019
SarithaRai ,
CONTRIBUTOR

I write about business in India, especially the new economy.

(215)

FOLLOW ON FORBES

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.

A $17-billion government program to build a national optical fiber

network that will connect Indias gram panchayats, or village-level
governments, aims to cover the entire country in three years and could
be a game changer, an Indian minister told Forbes.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, minister of communications and IT, and the
head of the advisory group which supervises the implementation of
the Digital India program, as it is called, said the program
was approved by the Indian cabinet last month, and aims to cover
50,000 gram panchayats this year, 100,000 next year and the

remaining 100,000 the following year. Indias 600,000 villages where

over 800 million live, are administered by these local selfgovernments.
The entire country will be covered by broadband within three years
and the internet will reach the remotest villages, Prasad said. Prime
Minister NarendraModi, who steered the Digital India policy, is
personally overseeing the project to ensure deadlines are met, he said.
The program would rapidly drive internet usage in India and boost the
economy. India is sitting at the cusp of a huge digital revolution, said
Prasad.
Something big is unfolding, said Hemant Joshi, partner at advisory
firm, Deloitte Haskins & Sells. But the Digital India program is not
without challenges, experts said. Finding the financial resources and
meeting program deadlines could be foremost among those. Indias
structure where governments ruling the country and the states are
sometimes led by different political parties could throw up additional
complications, Joshi said. There is also the matter of right of way
when laying thousands of miles of fiber optic cable.
The government plans to hire at least 10 CIOs to oversee the Digital
India program in key ministries, and create four other senior positions
for dealing with adoption of standards and security aspects.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, Indias Communications and IT minister (Image: Wikipedia)

The government will create an enabling platform that will aid in delivering
government services to citizens as well as services in education, healthcare,
entertainment and e-commerce. Public services like land records and caste
certificates will be made available online on demand online, Prasad said. In
conjunction with state governments, 20-hour e-literacy training programs in
local languages will be conducted in 200,000 community service centers across
the country.