Putting people first

Amidst the euphoria and hype surrounding the new Indo-American business deals and US Exim bank loans during President Bill Clinton’s last day in India, it was reassuring that two leaders at least made a special point of emphasising the need for a broad social vision. In Hyderabad Clinton spoke of the enormous potential of new information and telecommunications technology to transform the lives of people. That would come with the pursuit of a higher purpose and not just higher profit. In Mumbai, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh described Maharashtra as a cultural melting pot, not unlike the US, and said, in effect, that the energy, innovation and adaptability of its people accounted for its successes in the old and new economy. Hence, not only was the state a financial and industrial giant it was producing exceptionally talented computer engineers and accounted for a third of India’s software exports.

Both leaders were right to put people first and restore a much needed sense of perspective. Chandrababu Naidu has demonstrated to the world how the Internet can be used to streamline the administration. He needs to go further and show that jobs get done, that action follows when information is received of water shortages, for example, and that merely linking up all the districts of Andhra Pradesh with the CEO in Hyderabad is not an end in itself. In theory, computers and the Internet provide an exceptional opportunity to provide education and health services to all. Those are revolutions waiting to happen. In practice, the private sector is showing signs of activity, setting up advanced institutions for computer sciences and new clinics for high-tech diagnostics are mushrooming in every city but people in remote villages and poor districts still wait for state government to act. Internet opportunities cannot be seized until then. Without information or the education or the equipment, they remain where theyare unable to advance even one step.

To the American president it seemed that the best educational material from anywhere in the world was within reach of every child. Before every Indian child can get access to the best in the world every child must get the basics and learn to read and write, and every village must be equipped with a computer. It can be done and must be done without delay. Governments will have to stop thinking in the old way of allocating budgetary increases to existing programmes of education or health care whether they are producing results or not. Partnerships with the private sector district by district should be explored. The goal must be to put every child in school and to achieve universal literacy within a decade. In order to harness the new technology to achieve this goal an infotech mission for education should be set up to provide ideas and policy inputs for central and state governments.

Special emphasis is needed for states like Bihar, UP and Orissa which are falling dangerously behind in economic growth and social sector provision. They need a combination of two things: information technology would not be adopted fast enough or well enough unless socio-economic policies reward energy, innovation and adaptability.