The Hindu Business Line : `Computer kiosks speeding up development in N-E'

The findings
Twenty per cent of individual users feel that their average monthly income/savings have increased up to 10 per cent in the last one year.
The survey results corroborate that Computer Information Centres should be located in schools as profit realisation is maximum there.

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New Delhi Feb. 17 Computer kiosks using information and communication technology (ICT) and set up in 487 block levels in north-eastern India in 2002 in just 100 days with an outlay of Rs 240 crore have become "catalytic investments" to accelerate the development process in these eight States.

This is the conclusion of a study sponsored by the Department of Information Technology and National Informatics Centre and undertaken by a research team led by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) Senior Fellow & Head, Industry Programme Area, Mr R. Venkatesan.

The social cost-benefit analysis of setting up such kiosks, otherwise called Computer Information Centre (CIC), was designed to assess the social benefits as well as the financial viability of CICs comprising all stakeholders — Block Development Officer (BDO), State Informatics Officer (SIO), users and non-users — individual and institutional, CIC operators as well as a few corporates.

Among the beneficiaries, it was observed that schools (46 per cent), NGOs (14 per cent) and government organisations (13 per cent) are the main institutional users while students (55 per cent), private services (6 per cent), agriculture (8 per cent), business (9 per cent) and housewives (3 per cent) are the main individual users.

Income rise

Twenty per cent of individual users feel that their average monthly income/savings have increased up to 10 per cent in the last one year, while 9 per cent have reported a 10 to 20 percent increase and 4 per cent claim an increase of more than 20 per cent. The survey results corroborate that CICs should be located in schools as profit realisation is maximum there.

The revenue generated by CICs was, as per the survey, government to citizens — G2C — (61.5 per cent), B2C (14.6 per cent), G2G (12.5 per cent) and Common Services (11.4 per cent). The survey reveals that the percentage of revenue from G2C services has shown an increasing trend over the three-year period, while share of B2C is decreasing and that of G2G is stagnant at around 12 per cent. In the G2C services segment, training courses account for the maximum share in revenue generation followed by Internet usage.

The survey found social benefits do supervene if the CICs are located in the backward regions. The economic IRR (internal rate of return) is 10 per cent for CICs with high current revenue and relatively high growth while it is around 4 per cent for CICs where current revenue is high but the relative revenue growth is low.

Stating that viability gap funding is indispensable in such cases, the study said that since user charges could not be hiked without defeating the major objectives, viability gap funding could be put into force by giving the NIC the requisite authority.

Financial viability

The study states that financial viability could be improved through a mix of one or two tactical approaches. These include, among others, setting up CICs in optimal locations — schools to maximise revenue, BDO office if the BDOs pay and or provide staff, one operator per CIC instead of two with the concept of TTT (Training the Trainee) volunteer groups and promotion of e-governance applications.

Mr Venkatesan, the lead author of the report told Business Line that if the "communitisation" of CICs are occurring in certain States (disseminating information pertinent to community deciphered through CICs) or if insurgents spare the kiosks from destruction (as that would earn the wrath of the community), the kiosks have verily served the integration of remote areas, of unserved and underserved customers with the rest of the country".

This is done by kiosks ably which no major infrastructure project or fortified defense personnel presence can gain for the region and at a negligible fraction of a cost," he added.