ePoor.org is a civil society initiative launched to develop IT (Information
Technology) solutions for socio-economic uplift of the poor and the
disadvantaged. It also extends policy advice on the structures and enabling
environment for pro-poor policies addressing the need and importance of using
ICTs’ (Information Communication Technologies) for poverty reduction and
good governance.
As a matter of fact, just as paving roads in forests often leads to
accelerated deforestation likewise socially insensitive incidence of IT may
inject de-skilling phenomena leading to increased unemployment, disequilibria
and inequity in supply and demand of IT, and reinforced zones social and
economic exclusions in societies. This sort of IT penetration in developing
countries like Pakistan would multiply the socio-economic problems and
further
deteriorate the social fabric to further disadvantage, alienate, and
marginalize the poor amid a vibrant global IT revolution.
While there has been a phenomenal growth of IT at the global level, in
Pakistan, less than one percent of people have the possibility even of being
connected to information technology as consumers. Most of them are not in a
position of benefiting economically by using the technology to improve their
earnings or quality of life leaving aside the possibility of becoming
producers of IT.
The philosophy of ePoor.org is to work on the demand side of information,
namely by enhancing peoples' capacity to use knowledge (through creation of
social capital), rather than purely on the supply side of the process (of
which a good example is the creation of IT training schools without attention
to creating the demand for such information in rural areas). This builds upon
the rural community development approach, which has focused similarly on the
demand side of other interventions. Visit ePoor.org

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FREE WEBSITES FOR Indian doctors living anywhere in the globe.
Check http://www.health-india.com Also: global brain scan library available
for free. Visit the site for details.

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ADITYA DEV SOOD from Bangalore, India is working on an ICTs
for Development Guide. He says this is for an upcoming conference in
Bangalore, and it covers different areas of IT and ICT applications for
development, primarily in India.
Aditya is with the Bangalore Centre of Knowledge Societies and is also a
Doctoral CAndidate at the University of Chicago, besides being a 2000-1
Fullbright Scholar. His contact details are B-014 Natasha Golf View, Domlur
Bangalore Karnataka India 560071 Tel: 509-7187 Fax: 535-0181 Mob: 98440-87663
Web: http://www.socsci.org Email [email protected] OR [email protected]

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Madhya Pradesh C.M. Digvijay Singh has stressed the need for developing Hindi
software.He was addressing a function organised by the Forum for creating
awareness among the people about Information Technology.
Narendra Nahata listed the achievements of the state and said that use of
computers in governance has increased. Some departments like commercial taxes
have been computerised. Land records have been computerised.
For further information contact: Alok Awasthi, Joint Director, Madhya Pradesh
Information Centre. Tel 22.2184860 Fax 22.2180614 [email protected]

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ESCAP cautions against over-dependence on IT: The Economic and Social
Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) has cautioned against
over-dependence by some economies on information technology (IT) for export
revenues, saying this new economy sector may be heading for an external
slowdown, says a report from New Delhi by P. Jayaram of India Abroad News
Service.

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VIRTUAL VOLUNTEERS ON THE WEB: Two years ago, Sun Microsystems software
developer Nipun Mehta decided he wanted to use his knowledge and technical
skills to help others. With a group of friends, Mehta, now 25, started
CharityFocus, Inc. (http://www.charityfocus.org/), an online organization
that builds Web sites for nonprofits

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INFO HIGHWAYS promised around Pakistan's major cities. Federal Minister for
Science and Technology Prof Atta-ur-Rehman said highspeed internet fibre
rings would be laid around all major cities and linked together by early next
year. http://www.dawn.com/2001/03/21/nat6.htm

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SWAGATO SARK IS a student of the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS),
in Mumbai and is studying Social Work. Presently, he is doing his internship
with a TV software production called UTV at Mumbai-India. It produces
Indiadotcom for CNN International (Saturdays, 2200 IST). In this it has a
section called NationWatch, where the IT application in the developmental
sector is highlighted. If you know of any such stories, please inform Swagato
at

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PARTHA PRATIM SARKAR
informs about some proposals
received by the BytesForAll team:
(1) The Commonwealth of Learning (COL) invites submissions for
authorship in the Knowledge Series. This ( www.col.org/knowledge ) is an
ongoing sequence of single-subject, start-up guides on topics in distance
education management for practitioners.
(2) Worldbank InfoDev grants is now open to to promote innovative
projects on the use of information and communication technologies
(ICTs) for economic and social development.Worldbank InfoDev's next grant
competition will close on June 1, 2001. Proposals are invited from the
development community. http://www.infodev.org
(3) The World Computer Exchange is looking for used PCs for schools in
the developing countries. Founder Timothy Anderson said the group will take
"anything that will get the kids online." The only requirement is that
equipment be in working order and Internet-accessible. According to Mr.
Anderson, the Exchange (www.WorldComputerExchange.org) has so far signed up
more than 700 schools, orphanages and learning centers in 22 countries.
The first shipment of equipment -- about 380 PCs and monitors, along
with some printers, routers and other gear -- is scheduled to depart
for Cameroon in early April. MandrakeSoft has donated Linux
operating-system software and accompanying handbooks as well as CDs.
www.WorldComputerExchange.org

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INDIAN GOVERNMENT BODY develops five software: Press Trust of India reports
from Panchkula (Haryana, North India) that the Haryana unit of National
Informatics Centre (NIC) has developed a package of five softwares to
"improve efficiency of various departments of the state government".
These five softwares are payroll system, personnel information system, court
cases monitoring system, diary or despatch (DAK) monitoring meetings
information monitoring systems, state informatics officer. (Information
received through S-Asia-IT mailing list/Irfan Khan).
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/29info9.htm

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INDIA- PROGRAMMING AMID POVERTY. The Financial Times of London writes:
The global digital divide is perhaps nowhere better demonstrated than in
Calcutta. Here in India's literary capital, a city built to accommodate
about 300,000 people that is home to 10m, cutting-edge information
technology is juxtaposed with some of the starkest scenes of deprivation
anywhere. It is a commonplace that India is a dynamic centre of IT, the
locus of a technological revolution by which India's software writers act as
intermediaries to the world. But India also remains a place where only 50
per cent of adults are literate, with only an estimated 4.5 personal
computers per 1,000 people.
You can see this divide in Calcutta's Salt Lake "software complex", made up
of 30 or 40 acres of land let out to IT industries. Crows alight on heaps of
roadside rubbish where dogs sprawl with puppies. Cows sacred to Hindus
wander or doze in the potholed streets, seemingly untroubled by a steady
stream of passing auto-rickshaws and battered vehicles belching diesel
fumes. Yet this impoverished setting is the home of Caltiger, an Indian
internet service provider. Orange mock tiger-paw prints set in the marble
floor of Caltiger's lobby direct visitors to reception. Once behind those
glass doors, you could as well be in Seattle or Tokyo.
http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/articles.html?id=010307001530

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Interesting article from WIRED magazine, online at
Nicolas Negroponte writes on one-room rural schools: Will the
information-rich get richer and the information-poor get poorer? Will the
divide shrink, or expand? The question might also be phrased in terms of the
education-rich and the education-poor. The latter category includes some 200
million children who do not complete their primary education.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/6.09/negroponte.html

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THE TIMES OF INDIA newspaper reported on March 27 how the Indian telecom
body, the BSNL, is going in to make a "poor-man's cellphone" a reality. It is
starting limited-mobility telephony in Haryana's Gurgaon city (in North
India), with a monthly rental of Rs 400, free incoming calls and Rs 1.20 for
a three-minute outgoing call. This is far lower than mobile telephone calls
provided by others, though the range of mobility will also be limited. The
department is offering wireless fixed and wireless mobile connections using
wireless in local loop (WLL) technology with a refundable deposit of Rs
10,000 in case of fixed connection.
http://www.timesofindia.com/today/27info10.htm

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PAKISTANI NEWSPAPER JANG reported from Lahore that the website of the Punjab
government was launched. It is http://www.punjab.gov.pk

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ZUBAIR FAISAL ABBASI OF BYTESFORALL.ORG writes: The
implementation of Government of Pakistan's Universal Internet Access
programme leaves much to be desired. The number of lines allocated for this
service is pitifully low - there are only 5 for the whole Makran Division -
and users there were unable to access many ISPs in Karachi, including SDNP.
This problem affected all ISPs operating from PTCL exchanges manufactured by
Alcatel.
However, SDNP has achieved a milestone through the dedicated hard work of the
SDNP Karachi team and some of the prospective users in Makran. Users from
the Makran division (Turbat, Gawader and Panjgoor) can now access the SDNP
online Internet services. Credit goes to the SDNP team's efforts and follow
ups with PTCL (Karachi) and Alcatel offices. Mr. Naveed (DE Pak Capital
exchange, Karachi) and Mr. Azhar Ali Shah (Senior Operations Engineer)
Alcatel also worked really hard to actualize this task. Mr. Ubaid Shad, who
works in Makran resource centre, Turbat has also been actively involved by
advocating net access for remote areas and who had written several letters to
Prof. Atta-ur-Rehman/MoST for this purpose.
With this effort spearheaded by SDNP, other ISPs in Karachi using Alcatel
exchanges have also benefited

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FROM BANGLADESH, we learn from Drik-founder Shahidul Alam about a new portal
for human rights in Bangladesh.
www.banglarights.net a Human Rights Portal for Bangladesh has been recently
launched. The site was the outcome of a week long workshop organised by Drik
Picture Library and Pathshala, The South Asian Institute of Photography. The
Foreign and Commonwealth Office provided financial support for the workshop
while The British Council Bangladesh provided management support. Bangladeshi
journalists from leading media organisations provided the content.
Less than 24 hours after the launch of the site, all outgoing telephone
connections of Drik, including voice, fax and data lines were blocked by the
BTTB (Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board). BTTB has denied any
connection between Drik's activism and the blockade, claiming instead that it
was in response to general ministerial directives regarding Internet
companies. No prior warning was given to Drik before the disconnection.
According to BTTB, connections cannot be restored until 'investigations' have
been carried out. Amongst other issues, the site includes an article
criticising the government's handling of the recent kidnapping of Western
consultants in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Contacts: Shahidul Alam
Drik Picture Library www.drik.net, www.chobimela.org, www.meghbarta.net

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FROM NEPAL, Dikendra Kandel recently wrote to the GKD
mailing list, about a recent effort directed towards bringing Information and
Communication Technologies (ICT) to the rural areas through rural
schools as entry point. "Our cooperation with www.WorldComputerExchange.org
has been very crucial in this endeavor", he writes.
Says Kandel: "It has been about ten or twelve years since television began to
enter widely into the Nepali living rooms. The invasion of this technology
validly raised eyebrows as it was going to Westernize and so spoil the purity
of the culture and society of this 'exotic' Himalayan kingdom. It was
suspected to be accessible only to those who have money and power and the
majority of the people will be left behind and away from what television
might have to give to. Yes there are a lot of things that this technology has
brought about, and, as predicted, some have been detrimental to the
traditional ways and practices in our society. However, would it help us to
fare better if we were not bringing this technology to the rural areas since
the urban areas would be using it profusely anyway? Interestingly, telephone,
Internet and e-mail seem to invade with even more speed and force."
Says Kandel: "Lots of the development organizations are flashing their
computer screens in the remote hills, many businesses and administrative
offices are computerizing their operations, majority of job advertisements
put computer and IT knowledge as part of the application eligibility, and
most of the rural people are doing what they can to send their children to
schools where they can have their children learn computer and IT."
Why cannot Nepal, he asks, find a way into the new possibilities that have
been opened up by the information technology?
Dikendra Kandel, COPPADES, http://www.interconnection.org/coppades

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PAKISTAN -- CHASING THE NEIGHBOUR: Karachi recently saw the launch of a local
chapter of The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE), a California-based lobbyist network
set up by south Asian software engineers-cum-entrepreneurs. TiE wants to
achieve in Pakistan what it has accomplished in neighbouring India: a
relaxation of venture capital rules so that wealthy south Asian IT
professionals may invest back home. There is indeed a business-like attitude
towards creating an information technology industry from scratch in Pakistan,
and much of the credit goes to Dr Atta-Ur-Rahman, the science and technology
minister. Dr Rahman, a noted organic chemist, still oversees some PhD
students,but most of his time is spent on a massive IT drive.
Pakistan's IT sector is minuscule. Its IT ambitions are all the more daunting
given its neighbour's success. Salman Ansari, who has advised several
Pakistani governments on technology, says the country is 15 years behind
India. Yet the success of (software firms like) Align has convinced many in
Pakistan that it can make up for lost time.
From Financial Times
http://news.ft.com/ft/gx.cgi/ftc?pagename=View&c=Collection&cid=FTD4NZ6J...
itle=Pakistan&pagetag=2ctpaks&sectiontag=na/ctyind&gaid=010306001327

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PAKISTAN POST OFFICERS TO GET CYBER CAFES: MULTAN: The Postal Services
Corporation has signed an agreement with Paknet to establish cyber cafes at
major post offices in that country.
http://www.dawn.com/2001/03/16/nat19.htm

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BRAZIL ATTACKS DIGITAL DIVIDE WITH A $300 VOLKSCOMPUTER (AP): Hard disk? Who
needs it? Floppy drive? Surplus! Windows? Send to trash! The small,
transparent acrylic box sitting in Sergio Vale Campos' office at the Federal
University of Minas Gerais has none of the above basics, but it is still a
computer.What's more important in Brazil, where the digital divide is a
gaping
abyss, the machine's lack of frills should mean it can be produced for about
600 reals, or $300. It is a PC for the people, a Volkscomputer.
http://www.siliconvalley.com/docs/news/tech/082944.htm

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RURAL CONNECTIVITY: In its goal to connect rural India to the Internet and
promote livelihood generation through e-commerce and access to information,
TARAhaat.com faced the fundamental problem: connecting rural villages to the
World Wide Web in the first place. Many villages in the Bundelkhand region
where TARAhaat is in its pilot phase do not have access to telephone lines.
The quality of the lines reaching other villages is not sufficient to
transmit data. TARAhaat therefore had to come up with an alternative if it
was to achieve its mission: that alternative was the use of VSAT (Very Small
Aperture Terminal) technology.read complete case study at
http://sdgateway.net/webworks/case/da_vsat.htm

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SURFING VILLAGES: Can Indian villages be logged on to the infotech
highway? Are they for real and do they stand to benefit from artificial
intelligence? Can India's villages ride on the infotech highway to
development? To a certain extent this is already happening but it is
a knotty situation. Can IT evolve to serve rural India’s needs? The
dairy cooperatives of Anand in Gujarat are using IT applications to
streamline procedures, making a significant difference to the lives
of milk producers in surrounding villages. There are several other
positive examples. An important reason for their success is the fact
that their IT solutions service the rural market. People take to IT
only when they are convinced that IT serves some purpose in their
lives. If that happens, they don’t wait for government assistance.
Government IT schemes, however, have done poorly. The e-governance
scheme of Rajasthan state government has failed to deliver because of
extremely centralised planning that did not take local infrastructure
conditions into consideration. Despite the fact that the software is
easy to use and the content is in Hindi, the scheme not only
alienates villagers but also lends credence to the view that IT in
villages is hogwash. (Thanks to S-Asia-IT/Irfan Khan for this link.)
http://www.cseindia.org/html/dte/dte20010215/dte_analy.htm

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PRAKASH SHETTY
announces the launch of the official site
for FreeBSD in India. This site has news reviews,articles,tutorials,forums,
etc. Says he: "We also have a Mailing List to help freebsd users in India
[email protected] The site has recieved almost 10000 hits in
the past 20 days of its existence."
CONTACT DETAILS: Prakash Shetty, Webmaster, FreeBSD Foundation India
www.FreeBSD.org.in

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