New ICT4D magazine for India

India needs all the help it can get on the ICT front for development. Frederick Noronha writes about a new magazine which does just that

Finally, the loose ends are coming together. Or so it seems. But getting together diverse strands interested in deploying IT for the poor is not going to be an easy task. Because, each group simply doesn’t speak the other’s language. Now, a new magazine specially designed to end the proliferation of tongues and help build understanding on this task—crucial for India—has begun making it to the stands.

Ravi Gupta, a young engineer and alumni of the prestigious IIT-Kanpur, was bold to venture into publishing the first monthly magazine on ICT4D. It’s called simply i4d, and offers “information for development.” Incidentally, ICT4D is the development’s world jargon for ‘information and communication technologies for development’. Check it out online at www.i4donline.net—and you can also get a daily newsletter of stories of interest to this field.

Now just a year old, Ravi Gupta’s publication, brought out by his young team located in Noida, just across the Delhi border, brings across stories of optimism. It shares ideas on what is possible in terms of harnessing the potential of these new technologies for the poor, and shows what is already being done.

For instance, recently Gupta argued that, apart from the three traditional R’s, today a fourth is needed besides Reading, wRiting and aRithmetic, and that’s the computeR. It’s getting to play an important role in the developed world in the field of education. He sees the Internet as a “big equaliser”—with the possibility of an interchange for both content and ideas, and scalable to the level of its user.

But, at the same time, Gupta cautions: “Computers and the Internet (alone) do not comprise ICT (information and communication technology). The fact that the majority of students and teachers in developing nations are bereft of these ICTs raises doubts as to what ICT actually does.”

Gupta runs his Centre for Spatial Database Management and Solutions (CSDMS), which is deep into Geographical Information Systems (GIS). For many years, this man in his thirties has worked to unveil the role of Geographical Information Systems in ensure a citizen’s access to information—including scientific information, and especially geographic information. By some coincidence, a conference in early 2003 sparked off the idea in him that India, a country closely watched globally in the ICT4D field, needed its own monthly focusing on this issue. Today, this is probably the only monthly in the world of its kind.

Nonetheless, his is basically a message of optimism. With a strong flavour from India.

Recent stories in Gupta’s magazines focused on Free Software effectively translating 13 languages at the World Social Forum in Mumbai recently; Shyam Telecom’s efforts in Rajasthan to equip a fleet of rickshaws with mobile phones to take these to the poor, and attempts to promote IT education among Mumbai’s poor Muslims.

Then, there are stories of students from North India mapping their areas with PDAs and GPS. Likewise, in a special issue on education, the issue dealt with students giving their board exams through the Internet.

Other well known experiments (NIIT’s hole-in-the-wall), and model ways of teaching children ICT skills are also included. Another issue earlier this year focused on micro-finance. Upcoming themes deal with ICT and health (March 2004), wireless communication (April), ICT for the poor (May) and local language content (June).

There is still uncertainty about this new publication, and Gupta is eagerly seeking support to keep it going. But one thing there’s no doubt over: this could help build links between the diverse players in the ICT4D space (computer geeks, NGOs, development organisations and journalists) who need to start by understanding each other’s concerns and potential better before they can join hands to make a wider impact across India.