ICT: Education – Technology - Development

Uday B. Desai
Dept. of Electrical Engineering
IIT-Bombay, Powai
Mumbai, India

Frontiers of Knowledge in Science

and Technology for Africa.
ubdesai@ee.iitb.ac.in University Leaders’ Forum.
www.ee.iitb.ac.in/~ubdesai
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape TownCape Town 1
 Indian GDP
 GDP for India: $650 billion (4th based on PPP, 128th otherwise)
 Rural GDP: $150 billion (25%)
 ICT GDP: ~ $25 billion
 ICT expected to contribute 4.5 to 4.8 % of GDP in the fiscal year
2006-2007
 Indian GDP has shown a growth rate of nearly 8% for the past 5
years and growth rate is expected to continue for the next 5 to 10
years.

22%

56% of GDP from

Service Sector 56%

22%

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 Birds Eye View: ICT Penetration in India and
Africa
India 2003 2004 2005
• Population
PCs 9.37 13 mil 17 mil
1.19 billion
PC penetration 0.89 % 1.2 % 1.54 % • Median Age
Internet Users 18.5 mil 35 mil 60 mil 23.5 yrs
Internet Penetration 1.75 % 3.24 % 5.44 %

Cell Phone Users 26 mil 47 mil 90 mil

Cell Penetration 2.47 % 4.37 % 8.16 %

Africa 2003 2004 2005

PCs 11.7 mil 13.5 mil 17.5 mil
PC penetration 1.53 1.74 % 2.24 %
Population Internet Users 15 mil 22.5 mil 32 mil
0.915 bil Internet Penetration 1.82 % 2.62 % 3.7 %

Cell Phone Users 52.5 mil 80.7 mil 135 mil

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Cell Penetration 6.25 % 9.35 % 15 %
 ICT in India and Africa?
 Computer and Internet
Penetration in India and Africa,
almost comparable
 Number of Internet users in India
almost twice that in Africa
 Cellular penetration and users
much higher in Africa
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town
 Key Reasons for ICT
flourishing in India
 Strong Emphasis on
Education even during
hard economic times
 English proficiency
 Liberalization of the
economy in 1991 by Dr.
Manmohan Singh, then
Finance minister and
present prime minister
4
 Education …

IITs

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 Sir Ardeshir Dalal
(early 1950s, shortly after independence)
Three proposals
(just about the blueprint for
today’s
Science and Technology
Research)
 Set up research laboratories
 Led to the establishment of the
Council of Scientific and Industrial
Research (CSIR)
 Set up Indian Institutes of
Technology
 Technology Mission Program:
 Sir Dalal negotiated with the US
government for training scientists
and engineers under this program.
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town
 These proposals were
implemented when India was
going thru difficult economic
times
 Great testimony to the
vision of India’s first Prime
Minister, Pandit Jawaharlal
Nehru
 Mr. L. S. Chandrakant, a senior
official of the Education Ministry
framed the IIT Act which gave the
IITs a
unprecedented autonomy
 Sir B.N. Sarkar Committee,
planned
the first IIT, took MIT as the model
 Professor Norman Dahl (Mech.
Engrg.) of MIT and his colleagues
were the prime movers of IIT
Kanpur;
a model subsequently followed6by all
 Key Attributes

Rourkee • Freedom
• Selection of best students
Kanpur
2% of those who appear for
the
entrance exa m get in
Kahragpur
• Long term vision and
investment

IISc It took IITs after nearly 40

years
to get global recognition

• Inculcate among them students

More the
There are spirit of excellence
recently,
Besides 7 18 National IIITs have
IITs Institutes of • Should not worry about students
been started
Technology
(private and
(NIT) going overseas.
govt.
Nov 19, 2006 initiatives)
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 Early ICT Initiatives:

Harness the Internet

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 ERNET
backbone is a
judicious mix of
terrestrial and
satellite-based
wide area
networks.
Daily traffic
over ERNET
exceeds 20
Giga Bytes

Today we have
several private
ISPs

ERNET
Educational Research Network, was initiated in 1986 by the, then
Department of Electronics (DoE) (now Department fo Information
Technology – DIT), with funding support from the Government of
India and United Nations Development Program (UNDP)
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 9
 Indian Council for
Agriculture Research-
Net

Intranet and Internet for

Various Initiatives
Agricultural Universities
and Research
institutions 

171 institutions have

been connected.

All India Council

of Technical
Education

Connectivity to
AICTE Recognized
Colleges
and Regional
Centers

Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 48 Institutes 10

 Gyan Vahini
(Knowledge Vehicle
– Started Recently)
 Integrate Internet and
Intranet tools and
computer aided
techniques into the
Learning environment
 Focus
 Upgrade the IT
infrastructure at all the
higher learning institutions
in the country. Connect
them on intranet and
internet to provide
multiple education
services within the
institution.
 Pilot project at Delhi
University
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EDUSAT
 The first Indian satellite
exclusively for serving
the educational sector
 Provide interactive
satellite based distance
education system for
the country
 Operational in 2006
 First phase of Edusat
State Network to be
launched in 9 states
 Jammu and Kashmir,
Kerala, Rajasthan ,
Haryana, Punjab ,
Madhya Pradesh, Tamil
Nadu , West Bengal and
Uttaranchal
11
 Today …
 Internet is ubiquitous on
all educational campuses
 VSAT based distance
education is picking up
strongly
 Plans for Internet based
HDTV quality video for tow
way interactive distance
education.
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town
 For Example:
 IIT-Bombay has 14
universities/colleges on
VSAT based Distance
Education Networks
 Amrita Univ. has 42
universities/colleges on
their VSAT Distanced
Education Network
12
 Industry Interaction

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 Knowledge (ICT) Industry
 India has embraced the knowledge industry
 Fundamental belief:
 In 21st century, economic growth and wealth generation are
driven by acquisition and use of knowledge
 Knowledge:
 research skills
 information assessment skills
 ability to innovate
 ability to implement India’s educational
base has been a
 capacity to continuously learn great asset in this
endeavor

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 Industry Interaction
 Once the economy was liberalized  Bulk of industry partnership in
(1991), industry –academia ICT is with multinationals
interaction flourished
 Microsoft
 Industry started looking at IITs in all  Intel
earnest after 1996-98 time frame:  Analog Devices
 Almost 40 years after IITs establishment  Texas Instruments
 A long sustained vision is mandatory
 Industry sponsored projects increased
 Bell Labs
 IPR sharing is still contentious  Motorola
 Big jump in industrial consultancy  Nokia
 Both, IITs and Industry are anxious to  Ericsson
partner and leverage each others
expertise  Qualcom
 Today, for every Rupee that govt. gives,  Cisco,
IITs and IISc generate about 0.3 to 0.4  HP
Rupees thru industry interactions,
endowments, and sponsored research  …
 And Startups
 Indian industry is coming
forward, but slowly

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 Entrepreneurship another
route

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 Entrepreneurship
 Technology Entrepreneurship
• To encourage began at educational
entrepreneurship institutions in mid to late 90s
and foster
 The drivers for technology
entrepreneurship were
commercialization  Boom in the IT sector across the
of innovations IITs globe
Translate Ideas to Wealth
and IISc have 
 IIT alumni played a big role in
established this boom
business  In silicon valley, a large number
of startups were by IIT alumni
incubators  Latent thirst among faculty and
students to translate their
• Business innovations to products
 Strong belief in technology
incubators entrepreneurship as a driver for
are seen as a link social change
between mind and
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 17
 Some Illustrative Business
Incubators
 IIT-Madras (early starter)  IIT-Kharagpur
 Science and Technology
 Business incubation led by Entrepreneurs Park (STEP)
Ashok Jhunjhunwala  IITK
 IISc  SIDBI Innovation & Incubation
 Society for Innovation and Centre (SIIC)
Development (SID)  RBTI: Rural Technology
Business Incubator (launched
 IIT-Delhi by IIT-Madras)
 Foundation for Innovations  Department of Science (DST)
and Technology Transfer supports entrepreneurship and
(FITT) knowledge transfer through its
STEP and Technology Business
 IIT-Bombay Incubation initiatives
 Society for Innovations  There are other private
and Entrepreneurship business incubators in India
(SINE)

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 Cluster Approach for Industry-
Academia Interaction
 I am just coming from Mobile Multimedia
Workshop in France
 Interesting concept for Industry-Academia
interaction
 Cluster of
 Big enterprises
 SME (small and medium enterprises)
 Academia
 Number of partners could be 10 to 20
 Clusters in a confined geographical region
 I am going to propose to explore this
approach in India
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 ICT for Development

Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 20

 Extensive Fiber Deployed in India

Housing Complex B
Housing Complex A

6
3 4
1 2 5

Fiber drop 500 mts Fiber drop

Rural
Road

Serves Bldg 4,5,6

Serves Bldg 1,2,3 URBAN
25 ~
30 k
m

km
25
Fiber to curb is easily
available in metros

Even fiber to home is

possible

Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 21

 Access Technologies in India

Access Tech.
ISP
LAN (“Last Mile Prob”)

Wireless
(line of sight)
Tata
Wired WiFi Dial-up Cable Satyam
10/100 802.11b Modem
(56.6 Kbps) Reliance
Mbps (Hot Fiber in corDECT
Spot) …
DSL the Loop
802.11b
Based
Cell Phones
802.16d,eWiMax
Based
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 22
 First Initiative for Rural Access:
corDECT, developed by TeNeT Group at IIT-
Madras
Earlier version guaranteed 70
kbps

Broadband CorDECT 2 Mbps

Always on, supports telephony

Commercially deployed in few

thousand villages

n-Logue; Chirag

Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 23

 • Many success stories; all of them
very encouraging

• Scalability and sustainability is still

and concern

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 A Large Number
of Initiatives
 Drishtee dot. com Ltd.
 ITC eChoupal
 Kuppam i- community,
Andhra Pradesh
 Akshaya- Kerala Govt's
Hundred Percent ICT Literacy
Project
VSAT Connectivity  Information Village Research
Project- by M. S.
Swaminathan Research
Foundation
 TARAhaat
 GRAMDOOT
 e-Governance projects
 …

PURA: Providing
Mission 2007
Urban Amenities to
(major initiative)
Rural Areas
Connecting
100,000 villages
Project drive by
President of India
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 25
 Low-Cost Telemed:
A3 Remote Patient Monitoring

WiFi /BT Cell Phone

b (SMS,GPRS,EDGE,
We CDMA)
cam
WiFi /BT
Smart Phone Doctor
BP
P A3
a WiFi/BT Laptop
t ECG RPM Server
i (GPRS/3G1x
e BT/WiFi Desktop
Gluco & WLAN
n GPRS
WiFi /BT Interface enabled)
t
Ox
y mt

WiFi /BT
A3 Wall Set •Patient Data Management
•Communication Software
• Protocol converter Sever •Patient Data Repository GPRS/EDGE/3G1x
•Scheduler •Diagnostics Algorithms enabled
• wireless
•Data •Data Mining Healthcare care van
communicator
Multiplexer •Trend Detection Algorithm
•Hotlink to •Statistical Data Analysis Will have ECG, Oxymt,
•WML/HTML Server and other sensors
doctor
•Hotlink to A3 Wall Set
•Hotlink to Doctor (SMS)
•Interface to other external health
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 26
management systems
 Impacting Role for ICT in
Rural Areas

Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 27

ICT will be impacting to rural areas
once it
 Enables the process cash flow
 Enables villages to be part of the national
market
 Helps monetize more villages
 Enables alternatives for fair loans
 Frees the villager from informal sources like
chit funds, money lenders, bishi’s, etc.)
 Enables rural trade

Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 28

 ICT as a Techno-Socio-Political System

Education

Industry /
Technology Local Entrep.
ICT
for
Developme
nt
Govt./Policy Community
Organization

Financial • All components

Institutions play a critical
role
• Nevertheless, top
three are more
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 29
critical
 Concluding Remarks
 To harness ICT in
developing nations,
price point is most
crucial
India
 In most of the African
countries, annual cost of
Internet access is higher
than the average yearly
income!

 Cost of Internet access can

be lowered thru

 competition,
 deregulation,
India  foreign investments in
Information and
Communications
Technology sector (ICT)
 and in some cases,
government subsidies only
in the initial phase.

 Create Impulses.
 Impulses pull up the base
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town and raise the avg. level
30
Finally …

“It is not our abilities that will

determine what we truly do …
it is our choices”
A minor variation on quote by Dumbledore
Nov 19, 2006 FKSTA: Cape Town 31
from Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets