ROLE OF ICT IN RURAL DEVELOPMENT

Science Affairs Information Technology

Management of Programmes :
Availability of the real time information of various projects help the central and state Government agencies to effectively plan, implement and monitor execution at the ground level.
Web / Mobile based application can be deployed to keep track on fund flow, disbursement of benefits to beneficiaries, to mobilize / aware rural masses, to keep track on physical / financial progress

.For e-Governance :

Through ICTs, all Government services can be accessible to common man in his locality, through common service delivery outlets.
ICTs can help to provide common services like land registration, birth/death/caste certificates, pension and insurance, ration card, Aadhaar enrollment etc., under a single roof.

FM, community radio, mobile telephony, soil sensors and testing devices are most compelling for making smart farmers.
Various ICT based systems including touch screen kiosks, online agri clinics, mass/social media etc., can deliver useful information to farmers regarding crop care, animal husbandry, e-trading of produce, fertilizer and feed stock, weather forecasting, seed sources and market prices.

Using ICTs, climatology and agronomics, latest information on weather / climate change can be given to farmers.
ICTs can handle massive data produced at different spatio-temporal scales by various sensors observing earth/environment in order to extract useful climate change information and patterns.
Further, for natural resources, ICTs like RS, GIS etc., can be applied for scientific planning, management and monitoring.

ICTs can offer specialized applications for rural areas including doctor database, visualization of medical reports, geographical disease pattern, hospital MIS and disease
data analysis.
Tele Medicine services can provide access to professional doctors irrespective of geographical location.
Moreover, mobile/web applications can help to broadcast health messages on hand washing, prenatal and delivery care, immunization and nutrition, family planning etc.

The advent of high resolution geographical data, RS and GIS can offer greater capabilities for ICTs based disaster management applications during earthquakes, floods, oil spills, landslides, fires etc., in rural areas especially for remote locations.

With the launch of online courses and availability of e-study material of most of the education boards and universities, rural people also have an opportunity to avail best educational facilities regardless of geographical distance and limited financial resources.
Availability of the online education content will help the rural youth to fulfill their educational needs and enhance their capability to compete with the outside world.

The limited supply of electricity restrains rural areas to fully utilize ICTs applications especially at village level.
Literacy rate is considerably low in rural areas as compare to urban areas and it acts as a stumbling block to each and every awareness programmes.
At village level, few digitally literate professional are available and lack of skilled workforce to penetrate these technologies are absent is a major concern.
The ICTs based applications need uninterrupted services of telecommunication and internet whereas in rural areas where reach of mobile telephony along with internet is still not up to the mark.
The content creation must be addressed altogether in different manner to have the balance between rural and urban context.
Apart from other factors, user acceptance of ICTs applications in the rural areas is a major challenge. In the era of digital world, personal privacy, data security, copyright infringement, computer crimes, cyber crimes etc., are also coming in front as major concerns.