National Alliance on ICTs for basic human needs

CHENNAI, May 21, 2004: More than 50 development experts come together for a consultation here this week to form a National Alliance for Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for Basic Human Needs. Representatives drawn from civil society organizations, government departments, private sector and academia took part in the consultations on May 19 & 20. Taking ICTs among the poor and the disadvantaged in rural and urban communities was the focus. The National Alliance will seek to take the knowledge-led services harnessed by ICTs to every village in India by 2007, when the country celebrates its 60th year of independence. Prof. M S Swaminathan is the Chairman of the Alliance. Ms Sukanya Rath, Executive Director of NASSCOM Foundation is the Secretary General. B. Shadrach, Director, OneWorld South Asia and Prof. Subbiah Arunachalam of MSSRF are the two Joint Secretaries. According to Dr. Swaminathan, some of the challenges involving the ICT endeavors were to see how can such initiatives, “culminate in a national strategy to reach the benefits of the tools to human well-being and the happiness of every villager in the country?” The Alliance will act as a catalyst for technology innovation for rural ICT applications and connectivity. It will work to bring the private sector and the academia together with strong support from civil society organizations for experimenting every innovation among the target communities. Seven task forces have been set up under the Alliance. These are on Connectivity, Content, Policy, Capacity building, Resources, Organization and Management and Programme design. Active partners of the alliance will convene these. Also, the alliance will use the ongoing efforts by the government and the private sector in creating an ICT infrastructure, human networks and political institutions to provide multipurpose infokiosks in rural areas. The info-kiosk of tomorrow would serve as a communication hub, providing multiple telephone and communication services to the village, a virtual academy and training center and banking, financial, insurance and trading outlet and much more. ------ For more information, contact: Mr Subbiah Arunachalam Distinguished Fellow, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation arun@mssrf.res.in Dr Basheerhamad Shadrach Director, OneWorld South Asia Basheerhamad.shadrach@oneword.net

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