Project Proposal Factors Affecting Success of Akshaya e-Centers Sreejith S

1. Introduction Akshaya a Kerala Government initiated project for the purpose of enhancing the speed of e-literacy in public especially in rural areas through a Public Private Partnership (PPP) entrepreneurship programme. Akshaya which means, "Ever Lasting." It stems from the Sanskrit word which means, "Kshaya means loss. Akshaya means 'complete, never ending, eternal'. References can be given for this meaning from the Mahabharat's famous 'Akshaya-patra' story. It was a vessel that would endow unending riches, especially food to its bearer. It addresses the Information and communication technology enabled Kendra (Centre) as an information and communication technology access point, one for every 1000 families living in two/three municipal or Panchayat wards. The project was launched on November 2002 with the model of social entrepreneurship as an initiative to provide equitable access to information and communication technology throughout the state. This project has involved setting up of around 5,000 multipurpose community technology centers across Kerala.

2. Information and communication technology Projects

The diffusion of information technology and communication in emerging economies is in a supernormal speed as a result of the information and communication technology initiatives to bring it into common people. Utilities and velocity of information and communication technology is experienced all over the world and people are confronting with new technologies including third world Furthermore, the Internet offers opportunities for education, science and health improvement. However, the introduction of information and communication technology requires a certain amount of adaptability from people. In Europe and North America this process of adoption and acceptation is at a very different stage; people have had many years to get used to these new technologies and have given them a place in their lives. In many other economies however, people

still have to find a way to combine their traditional way of living with new technologies such as computers and the Internet. Information and communication technology appears to be a vital component of expansion initiative and can act as a powerful overall strengthening of development.

The organisations such as the UNESCO (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation) detect information and communication technology as very important; this organisation gives high priority to the development of information and communication technology in developing countries and identifies many opportunities for information and communication technology it can play a role in economic development, social transformation, political empowerment and cultural enrichment. UNESCO started projects all over the world. In 2003 e.g. they carried out a research to study the impact of information and communication technologies, which resulted in a handbook to innovate and research information and communication technology applications for poverty eradication. According to this report information and communication technology links to empowerment in extremely diverse ways, this can lead to poverty reduction.

3. Some successful Information And Communication Technology-projects

Warana Wired Village Project in Pune, Maharshtra India, which was a pilot to bring the benefits of information and communication technology to rural India. Bobde et al. (2002) evaluated this project. Warana is a cluster of seventy villages, forty-six from Kolhapur and twenty-four from Sangli district, in the Western State of Maharashtra. There are several cooperative societies actively working in Warana complex like Sugar Cooperative, Dairy Development Society, Cooperative Bank, Womens Cooperative Society, Super Market, Educational Institutions, etc. Sugarcane is the major crop of this area and most of its production in Kolhapur and Sangli districts is processed at the Warana Sugar Co-operative factory. Each village has about 200-300 farmers registered as members of various cooperative societies

In November 2003 the Global Knowledge Partnership (GKP), which is a worldwide network committed to harnessing the potential of information and communication technologies for sustainable and equitable development published information and communication technology

Success Stories in Development, and distinguished three categories: youth, poverty and gender. An example is the project Digital Divide Data (DDD) Cambodia that tries to connect young people, who are struggling to survive in one of the world's least developed nations. This project has great benefits; it succeeds in reaching poor young people who dropped out of school, and provides training and job opportunities. This successful project received numerous recognitions. E-seva (e-services), another successful project in Hudrabad Andhrapredesh was launched in Dec 1999. This project established web enabled rural kiosks to provide a range of services for the citizens. Through these kiosks people can carry their grievance to the authorities instead of going there themselves. This project helps to bridge the digital divide, improves womens positions and brings the government closer to the people. The centres are totally run by women self-help-groups. This project was a great success as well.

Through these successful projects it appeared that several aspects need to be taken into account when starting an information and communication technology -project in a developing country. First of all it is important to gain the trust of the local community. This can be attained by involving local people in the development of the project. Secondly, it is necessary to study the needs of the locals and indicate the target group..

The access to information is a point of worldwide attention. In December 2004 many countries agreed with a plan of action, which includes this point, at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) conference in Geneva. information and communication technology -projects are a way to realise this point of attention. In this case technology is used to provide the access to information.

Despite of all these initiatives, projects do not always succeed at once. Following a report (2003) of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the main failing to make a project a success lies within the lack of awareness of what information and communication technology could offer. They see an important role for governments in informing their people. Other problems are sufficient telecommunication infrastructure and Internet connectivity, expensive Internet access, absence of adequate legal and regulatory frameworks, shortage of requisite human capacity, failure to use local language and content, and lack of entrepreneurship

and a business culture open to change, transparency and democracy (UNCTAD, 2003).Information and communication technology offers access to a lot of information (for example through the Internet and computer software) and can be, considering these four points, very important in the lives of poor people. They need information to get more developed and information and communication technology can help them to reach that goal. Now, for the poor without any access to this information would mean more acute form of deprivation of resources that are important for their livelihoods, education, health, survival etc. and would mean recessions in perpetual ways of poverty (Sarker, 2002).

There are objects from people who think that information and communication technology does not belong in the needs of poor people. Sarker (2002) goes further into this matter and explains the relation between information and development. He noticed the following four points: Information leads to resources; Information leads to opportunities that generate resources; Access to information leads to access to resources; Access to information leads to access to opportunities that generate resources. It seems that there are a lot of problems with which developing countries are confronted. The government and project developers should inform people extensively about the opportunities of information and communication technology. When people are enthusiastic and see the advantages of the new technologies, it might be possible to overcome the technical, social and political problems. But sometimes it is a frustrating process.

Kenneth Keniston (2002) points out that, despite the hope that information and communication technology could close the gap between the rich and poor, a lot of information and communication technology -projects do not succeed. Kenistons research focuses on India, the hope that bringing information and communication technology to masses can overcome problems like poverty, illiteracy and unemployment. The IT for the masses and bridging the digital divide movement has an inordinate amount of exaggeration and wishful thinking. But there are in fact real cases of information and communication technology projects that actually help poor people in India to meet their basic needs and assert their fundamental rights and need to define the characteristics of those projects and try to spread the word about what works and what does not. Richard Heeks (2003) noticed that many e-government projects in developing countries fail. He distinguished the costs and benefits of failures, and identified six categories of potential costs of

e-government failure: direct financial costs, indirect financial costs, opportunity costs, political costs, beneficiary costs and future costs. Besides the costs, Heeks also identified some benefits, the failure of the project can provide: application learning, e-government learning, situational learning, skills acquisition and laying infrastructural foundations.

4. Information and Communication Technology Scenario in Kerala

Kerala is the most literate state in the country with maximum Human Development Index. The standard of living of Keralites is also on the high. Kerala Model development is discussed a lot in economic development i.e. gives more important to service industry for the development of the state. The state shows lots of initiatives for the development and implementation of the development events in the economy. Keralas distinctive edge in information and

communication technology lies in the quality and adaptability of its human resources base. The high quality of manpower available can be leveraged not only for attracting IT investments into the major IT hubs of the State, but also to small towns spanning the entire length and breadth of the State. Kerala has the highest density of science and technology personnel in the country, with its engineering colleges producing more than 23,000 qualified engineers each year.

Kerala is one of the best-networked States in the country in terms of telecom and datacom. The states tele-density is double the national average and all the telephone exchanges are digital. VSNLs International Communication Gateway, with 2 high speed submarine cable landings (SEA-ME-WE-3 and SAFE) offering 15 Gbps bandwidth, is in Kochi. This gateway currently handles more than two thirds of the countrys data traffic. Optical Fibre connectivity up to the grass-root level makes high quality, reliable bandwidth available in any part of the State. Information transfer and communication were integral part of human existence right from the dawn of civilization. Recent developments in Information and Communication technologies have increased the speed and reach of communication. The volume and diversity of information being processed have multiplied by leaps and bounds in the recent decades. Information and communication technology has virtually come to rule almost all activities of the modern society. Keeping in view the pivotal role of information and communication technology in the functioning of the modern society, the Government strives to promote the use of information and

communication technology in the society and make it accessible to common man. The Government has already taken up initiatives to make information and communication technology accessible to all citizens, thereby addressing the issue of digital divide in a holistic manner through projects such as Akshaya, IT@School, e-distrinformation and communication technologys, FRIENDS and Citizen Call.

5. Statement of the problem

The problem is that Information And Communication Technology most initiatives do not even generate benefits; there is no learning, because knowledge about the failure is not captured, transferred or applied. Following Heeks four steps must be taken for a learning approach: (1) recognition, (2) capture knowledge, (3) transfer knowledge, and (4) apply knowledge.

The findings of Heeks correspondent with the remarks of Keniston: both researchers see a problem in the lack of information about existing or failed projects. It is a pity that failures of information and communication technology projects are not always recognised and captured. Failures can serve as information and can prevent making the same mistakes again. It would be helpful if failures would be mapped and finally result in guidelines for future initiatives. If information and communication technology projects do not fail due to common problems anymore, much more successful initiatives could exist.

To ensure that the benefits of information and communication technology services reach the common man, Government of Kerala make the first move of around 3000 broadband-enabled information hubs called Akshaya e-Centres throughout the state. The Project provides functional computer literacy training to at least one person from each of 64 lakhs families in the State. Working on a Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode, the focus of Akshaya will be for making technology and e-government services accessible to common man.

The Akshaya e-centres also intend to deliver several value added services to the people. E-payment, e-learning, e-business etc are the priority objectives of the Akshaya e-centres. The

Akshaya will tailor its services on locally relevant themes and in Malayalam language, so that it will be directly relevant to the ordinary people. Akshaya e-Centres have their presence throughout the State. In association with local bodies, the Government uses these e-Centres for internet based training, education, skill development etc., especially in rural areas of the State.

This prompted the researcher to do a study on the factors affecting the success of Akshaya e-centers, the role of the government, PPP model of entrepreneurships, and moreover IT missions policies.

6 Objectives of the Study (i) To probe the current status of Akshaya e-centers in Kerala (ii) To know the effectiveness of utilisation of government funding on Akshaya. (iii)To explore the effectiveness of PPP model. (iv) To learn the effectiveness of Akshaya center in delivering the social objectives (v) To find out measures to enhance the effectiveness of Akshaya centers thus meeting the social objectives.

Scope of the Study

The study will equip the policy makers with all predominant socio-economic factors influenced through the project and based on that the government can formulate policies. Economic development of the economy through the PPP model and the issues and problems related to the same in Governing organizations, center owners and users of the Akshaya Project initiatives. This study may help the industry to plan its investment based on the consumer preference. It is possible for the Government and owners to fine tune their production mix and brand portfolio based. There are lots of services can be linked with the project from Government and from private players, so these players can make use of this study for identifying Akshaya e-Centers as an alternative channel for their service delivery.

8.

Research Methodology

Descriptive and exploratory research design is for carrying out the study. The study will describe about all predominant socio-economic factors influencing the Akshaya project and issues and problems related to the project in Governing organizations, center owners and users of the Akshaya Project initiatives.

8.1

Data Source

Primary and secondary data will be explored for the requirements of the study. The preliminary study and extensive literature review will be carried out. The scope of World Wide Web for collecting data may be exploited. Secondary data regarding Akshaya Centers in Kerala collected from Akshaya State Project Office Thiruvananthapuram. Primary data will be collect from the respondents, using a pre-tested interview schedule.

8.2

Research Approach

Survey research using an interview schedule shall adopt in this study, as facts need to be collected directly from the population under study.

8.3

Research Instrument

An interview schedule will prepare with the objective of collecting all relevant information required for achieving the research objectives. The researcher will conduct detailed discussions with some of the officials of Akshaya and governing authorities social activists, center owners and users for selecting the questions to be included in the schedule. The prepared schedule will be pre-tested with a pilot study before being used for the study purpose.

8.4

The Population

All Akshaya centers in Kerala will be considered as the population. The details of the population are furnished in Table 1.

Table 1 District Wise Akshaya e-Centers in Kerala Sl No 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 District Thiruvananthapuram Kollam Alappuzha Pathanamthitta Kottayam Idukki Ernakulam Trissur Palakkad Kozhikode Wayanad Malappuram Kannur Kasargode Total Source: - Akshaya State Project Office Number of Akshaya Centers 146 99 135 67 117 77 140 178 204 120 61 115 155 58 1672

8.5

Pilot Study

A pilot study will be conducted by using the framed questionnaire with a sample of appropriate respondents. The collected data from fifty respondents will be studied in detail. Necessary changes can be incorporated to the questionnaire after the pilot study and by usind the data thus obtained, reliability analysis may be attempted.

8.6

Sample Size

For an assumed level of 5% error in the known population of 1672 Akshaya centers, the sample size of 313 is estimated by keeping the confidence interval as 5.. Hence the sample size may be fixed conveniently as 350. This sample size is allocated to each district based on the total population size in each segment as shown in Table 2. Table 2 Allocation of Sample Size Percentage of Sl No District Population 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Thiruvananthapuram Kollam Alappuzha Pathanamthitta Kottayam Idukki Ernakulam Trissur Palakkad Kozhikode Wayanad Malappuram Kannur Kasargode Total 8.73 5.92 8.07 4.01 6.99 4.60 8.37 10.64 12.20 7.17 3.64 6.87 9.27 3.46 100 Sample Size Allocation 31 21 28 14 25 16 29 37 43 25 13 24 32 12 350

8.7

Sampling Procedure

The respondents for the study may be randomly selected from each district to fill the quota thus formed. For randomly selecting samples, lottery method may be adopted. 9 Organization of the Report The study will be presented in five chapters. The first chapter will introduce the study and present the statement of problem, objectives of the study; explain the research methodology, limitations of the study and the scheme of the report. Chapter two will include a review of literature on information and communication technology enabled on Government initiatives; it presents the status of research in the related field in India and abroad with specific reference to Kerala in particular. Chapter three will examine a brief conceptual framework on information and communication technology enabled on Government initiatives and discusses the status of Akshaya Project in Kerala. Moreover this chapter details about the information and communication technology Initiatives worldwide and details of information and communication technology initiatives in India and outside. Chapter four is data analysis and interpretation. Chapter five will be the concluding chapter.

References 1. Bobde D. P., Deb A., and Rane R. R. The Warana Wired Village Project (India) in Retrospect, National Informatics Centre, Department of IT, Government of India 2. United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2003), "Ecommerce and development report 2003", United Nations New York and Geneva 2003. 3. Sarker, P. P. (2002), ICTs for Development Initiatives in South Asia, Bytes for All, http://www.bytesforall.org 4. Keniston, K. (2002), Grassroots ICT Projects in India: Some Preliminary Hypotheses in ASCI journal of management, vol. 31 (1&2). 5. Heeks, R. (2003), eGovernment for Development, The Impact of eGovernment Failure, IDPM, University of Manchester, UK, http://www.egov4dev.org/impactfailure.htm 6. Akshaya <http://www.akshaya.kerala.gov.in>