Manish Sharma, Vice President Asia Pacific, NComputing, Inc., writes that, although India has earned its reputation of being an IT superpower, it has been able to do little to bridge the digital divide between the IT haves and have-nots
Compare this. The overall teledensity of India is a whopping 65% whereas the computer penetration rate stands at around 20% and that too in urban India.
Among the reasons for this dismal picture in India are the lack of affordable computing solutions, continuous availability of power, service and support infrastructure, etc.
Surprisingly, while there have been many initiatives to boost the penetration of computers in the country, the education sector seems to have taken the initiative in terms of increasing the use of computers in India. However, even though there have been many initiatives pertaining to increase the penetration of computers in the sector, not all of these initiatives have managed to pick up steam in the real manner.
Affordable computing is the need of the hour
Low cost computing remains the key to increasing the penetration of computers in the country and the education sector also seems to have maintained this as the primary criteria for providing computer access to students. While the cost of computing infrastructure largely depends upon the choice of technology, it is imperative to keep in mind that the technology also take into account the other detrimental factors such as power consumption and ease of maintenance for the successful penetration of computers in the Indian market. However, affordability reigns supreme.
Technologies that can reduce cost
The key to reduce cost is to use innovative hardware-software combinations and share the machine with several users. Various innovative solutions are available to lower the cost of computing. These include thin clients (such as Indian script GIST terminals) and free software such as Linux and other GNU software (as opposed to Windows XP and Office 2000). Such a text terminal needs a host PC to operate from, which could be located nearby or remotely accessible through a telecom network. It is essential to realize the quality and power of free software, which is usually faster and uses less memory space as compared to the priced versions. Computer solutions are designed for shared use. Today’s PCs are so powerful that the vast majority of people use just a fraction of a computer’s capacity.
This unused capacity can be tapped so that it can simultaneously be used by many people. Each person connects their own monitor, keyboard and mouse to a hardware device which is then connected to the shared PC. Each student gets a full PC experience. The solution is easy to deploy, rugged, and only uses one watt of electricity. The low electricity usage is critical because electricity in India can be expensive and often unreliable.
The future of affordable computing
The bottom line is to push for technologies that can lower the price, put smart and simple applications into use and, above all, push for a new marketing strategy that makes IT affordable. From a technological point of view, it will be quite a challenge to offer so many systems in one package to the people at an affordable cost. The story does not end here as there are few IT projects that target basic human needs that can steer sustainable development and narrow the digital divide. On the one hand, we need to undertake applicable projects that could directly benefit society as a whole. On the other, we should popularize IT-based services so that the number of users of such services increases manifold and the use and access to information becomes widespread.
The time seems ripe for both the government and non-governmental sectors to create a movement for affordable computing. We should perhaps also think of an index that can measure the social success of affordable computing. It is high time that rural India became a part of the Indian IT revolution.
