“Our main objective has been to build Kerala into a knowledge economy”

1. Kerala, as a state, has been a front runner in demystifying IT and taking IT to the masses. What are your views on this and how has the journey been?

Kerala with 31 million people has, always stood apart from the rest of India for its education and health achievements, becoming the first and only fully literate state in the 1980s. Its development is fuelled partly by a huge and thrifty non-resident population that has migrated to the Middle East and repatriates millions of dollars every month.

ICT was seen as an enabler of the region’s socio-economic development and a sound physical infrastructure was put in place to take IT to the masses. Our e-literacy programs are envisaged to make at least one member from every family e-literate and this way we could provide e-literacy training at the grassroots level. So far we have been able to train 33, 55,180 people. Let me tell you the journey was not easy. A majority of the people especially in urban areas were reluctant to come to the Akshaya centers. They would continually ask what benefit they would get if they underwent this training. In many places we went nearer to the people by opening sub centers near their dwellings. We opened 2089 ICT centers through which services are being delivered.

2. The Kerala State IT Mission is a role model, in the way it has evolved creative and innovative projects for deploying and using IT for community development. Please tell us more about KSITM.

“The government of Kerala, which undertook a hundred percent computer literacy campaign “Akshaya” is now embarking on a new initiative of creating content in the local language – Malayalam”.

Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) is a Society registered under the Travancore Cochin Literary Scientific & Charitable Societies Registration Act (Act 12 of 1955). It is an autonomous nodal IT implementation agency for Department of Information Technology, Government of Kerala, which provides managerial support to various initiatives of the Department.

KSITM's primary responsibilities are to interface between the Government and the industry to interact with potential investors and work towards strengthening the IT / ITES industry base. For this we have held various promotional campaigns for hard selling the state.

ICT dissemination to bridge the digital divide, e-Governance, developing Human Resources for IT & ITES and advising the Government on policy matters also comes under our purview.

3. Akshaya is the flagship program for KSITM and an ambitious venture. Please tell us more about it.

In 1999, the state government set up the Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) to introduce ICT in sectors of immediate benefit to citizens but soon recognized that a two-pronged strategy was required. This consisted of a long-term strategy to introduce modern management practices and information systems in Gram Panchayats and a medium term strategy to introduce high visibility ‘people-oriented projects’.

One such grassroots people-oriented project launched in October 2002 by the Kerala State Information Technology Mission (KSITM) is Akshaya; conceived to bridge the digital divide in Kerala and to act as a catalyst for socio-economic development. The project was launched with private sector collaboration in the district of Malappuram in Kerala – the most populous district in the state.

Locally based private entrepreneurs who are known and respected in the village community own the Akshaya centers. Each centre is established within 2-3 kilometers of every household, with an aim to cater to the requirements of 1000-3000 families approximately, providing – information, knowledge and the power of connectivity to the common man. The main objective of the program is to build Kerala into a knowledge economy.

Since its inception, the range of ICT generated applications at the Akshaya centers has been incrementally increasing. It includes provision of services such as bill payments and other government and bank transactions, the dissemination of information on various key sectors such as health and education, a linkage to vital government services previously offered by the Panchayat system and running ICT courses to empower the local youth with collaborative and critical thinking skills in addition to digital literacy.

The courses being implemented in the Akshaya centres include e-vidya, spoken English courses, Arabic typing tutor, co-branded certificate courses of the IT Mission and DOEACC and the Intel Learn Program. It is intended to deliver e-services of the departments through Akshaya centers which are our CSC’s.

4. How has IT integration been adopted by the community and how has it changed the life of the common man?

“IT services to a great extent have today become an integral part of the common man through various project of the Mission like Akshaya”.

The development of ICT in the last two decades has resulted in significant changes in the way communities, companies, governments and countries interact, function and make progress.

Being a 100% literate state, it was prudent that IT integration in Education should take place at the earliest. IT services to a great extent have today become an integral part of the common man through projects of the Mission like Akshaya. The project helped at least one member from all the families in the state to become e-literate. In addition to this all the utility services for the community could be extended through this medium like, e-pay services, e-governance, e-krishi etc.

The common man has come to recognize the importance of technology in day to day life and has shown an interest to use the same What Kerala lacks is locally relevant content in the web sphere. The digital divide is manifested not only in access and tools of access but also in the inability to provide locally relevant information. Here the portals come with solutions. All the web portals under development are in Malayalam.

Unicode encoding is used to adhere to the universal standardization, which in return will make it searchable content in the web. Each web portal covers detailed information of the Panchayat. You will find the history of the land, governance, and information on public services, to mention a few. Locally relevant news and announcements also find their way to the portal.

The Entegramam project is aimed at bringing forth web portals that cater to the needs of the citizens locally. In times to come the portals will be used for local transaction, enabling it with more business features. This project has been implemented in nine Gram Panchayats and one Municipality in Kannur District and the implementation in other local bodies in the Kannur district is in progress, A decision has also been taken to implement this project in selected local bodies in Malappuram and Kollam Districts.

Bridging the digital divide is one of the most challenging issues of the emerging knowledge society. One of the biggest obstacles for non-English speaking population of India is that computing has become synonymous with English. Be it shopping or getting information on health or tourism, most websites provide contents in English. This has discouraged the computer illiterates and neo – literates from actively using the computers and benefiting from it.

The government of Kerala, which undertook a hundred percent computer literacy campaign “Akshaya” is now taking a leadership role by embarking on a new initiative with the objective of creating capacity and content in the local language – Malayalam. Malayalam Computing campaign is being led by the IT Department and KSITM, Akshaya and SPACE are the main implementing agencies of Malayalam Computing campaign. As a result it has improved the life of the common man.

5. How has Kerala integrated ICT interventions in Education? Could you please give us your thoughts on it? What is the vision of KSITM where ICT interventions in Education are concerned?

We all know that quality education is a pre-requisite for attainment of the country’s developmental goals. Technological innovations coupled with increase in knowledge, demand new competencies in all occupations. Today, apart from basic skills like reading, writing, scientific and math aptitude, skills like problem solving, decision-making, critical thinking, and teamwork are considered extremely important to be productive and successful.

We have successfully integrated ICT in education in the state. IT @ School project aims at imparting computer education to the high school students for the qualitative improvement in the conventional learning systems and also to equip teachers to use computers as an educational tool. All the schools in the aided and government sector are being computerized with the vision of taking computer literacy to all schools and every student should reap the benefits of IT integration in schools. Broad band connectivity is also being provided to these schools to avail the internet facility for learning purposes. EDUSAT facility is available in selected schools of all the districts in the state.

6. What were the challenges faced by KSITM for ICT integration in developmental and educational domains? How have they been overcome?

KSITM has had to face many challenges for the integration of ICT; such as the existing attitudes of the common people and even some educationalists regarding integration of ICT in their domains. To nullify the fear of computerization, we had to clarify to people that computerization would help them to perform their jobs in a better manner. Inadequate infrastructure facilities, geographical diversities of the districts and securing support from local self-governance units were some other problems we faced. The time factor incurred for training programs of employees and teachers and so on were all challenges that KSITM and Akshaya addressed jointly but successfully.

These challenges to a great extent could be over come. Our efforts of working together as a team, for campaigning and organizing the infrastructural requirements along with regular interactions with all stakeholders helped us to overcome these challenges. Agencies like Intel have also made this process easy through qualitative and innovative programs.

7. Public private partnership – PPP models for increasing the reach and impact of ICT in Kerala have been quite successful. How do you feel they can be replicated?

Akshaya has conducted one of the world's largest computer literacy drives, reaching over 600,000 households, representing more than 3.6 million people. The success of the Akshaya Project is attributed to the involvment of the private stakeholders for addressing digital inclusion and creation of ICT access points.

The Akshaya project, amongst the other ‘ICT for development’ models, provides the blueprints for possible replication and/or scaling up, allowing for the potential that ICT holds for human development to be realized. The government’s IT Task Force has recommended that the best of these should be replicated across India, but financing issues remain to be addressed. While there are a few over-arching lessons that are being derived from these experiments, the focus needs to be on how to scale and replicate such projects through public-private partnerships.

8. Intel has actively and enthusiastically contributed in Kerala. What effect has it had on the community?

Enabling learners and trained staff to be confident and ‘empowered’ is one of the main outcomes of the Intel® Learn Program. The learners are able to connect to the issues affecting the community and collaborate to find creative solutions. In many cases the learners have been successful in generating awareness on social issues like water scarcity, hygiene and cleanliness etc. The critical thinking skills enable the learners to make value judgment based on reason thus creating the base for a just and tolerant society.

9. The Intel Learn Program has been impacting children in many different ways. What would you say has been the effect of the program on the children in Kerala?

Since 2002, various programs were launched through Akshaya centres, which empowered the lives of the young and the adult citizens. One such program that was launched under the Computer Aided Learning for Students under Akshaya was the Intel Learn Program in 2004. The Intel Learn Program empowers children to develop skills that would help them to succeed in the workplaces of the future. An important aspect of the program is that it develops social responsibility in children as they create projects on issues within the community and get involved in seeking sustainable solutions.

The program not only matches the IT vision of the state - To make at least one person in each of 65 Lakh + families in the state e-literate” – but it also helps in creation of a society which is ready for capitalizing on Knowledge for economic and social development”. The Program has been successfully running in Malappuram and in nine other districts of the state and has already changed the lives of over 50,000 children through training. I am happy to share that the program helped Ms Shahana KT, a woman entrepreneur from Malappuram to win the CII Woman Exemplar Award for 2008 – a national honour and the first of its kind in Kerala. Working hand-in-hand with KSITM and the Akshaya project, I am sure that the Program will continue to benefit more children and youth and help in driving Kerala to be a champion state in the knowledge economy.

10. What other IT based initiatives do you envision for KSITM in future?

The Government of Kerala acknowledges the critical importance of Information Technology as an instrument for the State’s overall development and remains deeply committed to its dissemination, both as a crucial engine of economic growth and as a tool for increasing productivity, speed & transparency in governance and improved quality of life for the common man.

With great pride I can state that Kerala has a systematic and progressive plan for making ICT tools useful and available for the common man. KSITM envisions the use of ICT to ensure transparency, efficiency and a qualitative improvement of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the State’s economy, where all sections of the society are included in the process of transformation specially the disadvantaged. ICT will also encourage productivity and optimize utilization of resources in the state, while increasing the employment potential of the ICT sector by providing the infrastructure.

We have an IT vision to transform Kerala into an IT driven economy by 2010. The vision of KSITM is to make Kerala the cradle of highly skilled manpower for a truly egalitarian knowledge society.