The Hindu Business Line : `Chiraag project deviating from objective of delivering essential services'

Industry & Economy - Rural Development
Government - E-Governance
States - Tamil Nadu
`Chiraag project deviating from objective of delivering essential services'

Raja Simhan T.E.

Used for offline services such as DTP, telephony and Web browsing

Chennai , Oct. 25

Chiraag, the Internet kiosk project in Tamil Nadu meant to deliver e-governance, e-commerce and e-banking, is used for offline services such as DTP, telephony, photocopying and Web browsing, according to a research.

In one of the districts, the project implemented under Rural Access to Services through Internet (RASI) has deviated from its objectives of delivering essential services such as education, healthcare and tele-administration. This is due to lack of government support, non-scalable technology and lack of motivation among kiosks operators, the research said.

In the Erode district (Bhavani zone) of Tamil Nadu, 35 out of 60 kiosks were either closed or non-functional. "This shows that there are key issues of concern for policy makers and service deliverers," said Mr M.J. Xavier, Professor, Marketing, Institute for Financial Management and Research, Chennai, co-author of the research — Rural Development through Internet Kiosks - A Longitudinal Evaluation of RASI Project in India.

"We cannot generalise and say the project is not working well elsewhere. This research is only in Bhavani," he said.

The types and quality of services have moved targeted users away from the project. Dr G. Kannabiran, Department of Management Studies, National Institute of Technology, Tiruchi, and Ms T. Banumathi, Department of Management Studies, Kongu Arts and Science College, Erode, were also involved in the research.

RASI was conceived by the TeNeT (Telecommunications and Computer Networks) group at Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, and n-Logue Communications. It set up a network of village Internet centres called Chiraag (means enlightenment) to eliminate the remoteness and backwardness, and provide a sense of enlightenment to those who are deprived.

The project functions in 40 districts and 200 centres in different States. These kiosks work on the self-sustainable rural entrepreneurship model. The entrepreneurs in Tamil Nadu get some funding support from the government in the form of subsidy.

The research finding

The research evaluated services offered through Chiraag and data was collected through survey and interviews in two different time periods (2004 and 2006). It covered end-users (citizens) and operators, and revealed that the initial motivation of rural masses to avail themselves of government services was diluted over these two years.

The research found that the entire profile of users has changed now, and there is a considerable shift in the user profile in terms of literacy and nature of employment. There is a gradual change towards upmarket users. "People at the bottom of the pyramid do not seem to be benefiting by these centres," said Mr Xavier.

Low speed has been identified as one of the critical problems faced by the citizens and operators. Mr Xavier, quoting an operator, said the speed of connectivity was much less because of corDECT wireless technology. This technology was found to be relevant during the initial time periods because of few services and low volume of usage. However, when other services such as agricultural advice and healthcare delivery were introduced, the bandwidth became a bottleneck in the overall service quality, he said.

Despite many issues, 80 per cent of the present users are willing to recommend the centre to other potential users as compared to only 74 per cent in 2004. This is a positive factor that can be utilised for getting more users, he said.

"According to an operator, the project was conceived in early 2000. But at the time of implementation the government was not encouraging the project. This clearly shows that such political factors play an important role in implementing projects successfully," said Mr Xavier.

Dr Ashok Jhunjhunwala, who leads the TeNeT group at IIT - Madras, said, "I glanced through the findings of the paper. I agree with most of what is written. N-Logue has to improve services. As far as I know, it has been working on it and over the last few months, things are slowly building back."