Doing with human intellect what AMUL did with rural milk 40 years ago is the essence of this idea. Basically using modern telecom and internet technology to enhance rural education quality directed towards eventual development of Rural IT, and not ITeS, since Rural IT would be revolutionary for Indian economy due to its higher profit margins and the intellectual nature of work. A Rural India better off monetarily as well as intellectually is obviously more desirable for faster development of our “village” nation and to bridge the urban-rural chasm.
Main social objective here is to bolster the local village-level economy with near-zero disruption to local populace so that our villages bloom organically and not become imbalanced pseudo-towns/cities destroying the cost differential, environment, local identity, etc. as has happened to many a towns that metamorphosed into saturated IT hubs in last 5-10 years. While at the same time Indian IT majors would majorly benefit from atleast 50% cost reduction for their generic IT work thereby radically enhancing their competitiveness.
Evolution of a national Rural IT network would require an organic approach starting with Rural IT in regions that are most ready for it and then spreading out to neighboring regions which in the meanwhile would have been scaled up …and the cycle repeats. Goa, Kerala as well as many districts in other states having high literacy levels provide a large and promising starter base for Rural IT.

Problem

The proposed Indian Rural IT solution caters to needs of diverse constituencies: • Indian IT Majors: Growing competition to Indian IT requires cheaper yet competent and sustainable internal resourcing options besides other possibilities. With around 2/3rd Indian IT generic in nature and contrary to common perception not needing engineers to do it atleast 1 million jobs today could be shipped from Urban to Rural India at less than 50% the current costs with the freed-up Urban engineers available for advanced IT and research work resulting in generation of higher revenues. • Bharat: Perennial migration and accompanying brain drain from Indian villages to cities has depleted Rural India of its intellectual capabilities leading to the increasingly worrying urban-rural divide. This is aggravated further by Bharat’s pitiable human development infrastructure. Rural IT, besides providing Jobs@Doorstep, can be leveraged for all round positive and enabling effect on various facets of village life and economy. • Indian Governments: Rural development efforts are regularly met with resistance due to concerns around environment and loss of local identity. This model is built with these 2 aspects as foundation blocks. • Planet Earth: Our 6lac Villages Nation – with 70% of our population living in villages – needs a radically different village-driven national developmental track in parallel to Urbanization, which has led some of our cities to a point of un-sustainable saturation.

Solution

Proposed solution rides on the fact that generic IT pre-requisites are simple and basic unlike most other modern industries: 1. Regular stable electricity and telecom with high speed broadband: Given low power consumption of IT and the widespread telecom connectivity it is technically feasible to do software development from the remotest corner of India today. 2. Human minds with moderate IQ and plenty of curiosity, perseverance and moderate English skills: An evenly distributed natural IQ nurtured through higher level of experiential and experimental learning in our rural schools inclusive of basic computer programming coupled with inspirational inputs through remote video interactions with prominent experts from diverse fields would result in development of young curious and thinking minds… just the right kind required for IT and who could be ready for productive generic IT work within 6 months of intensive training. Solution involves supplementing existing mega-campuses of Indian IT majors by a network of locally sustainable (in terms of workforce) Micro Development Centers or MicroDCs in village clusters across rural India driven by trained locals mentored and initially supported by Urban IT through controlled deputations. Assuming just 5% Indian villages are enabled towards IT work in next 10 years with each village contributing an average 40 employees to its Village Cluster MicroDC our national Rural IT workforce would be 1.2 million strong!

Exemple

Unique model involving close partnership between state government, village bodies and private sector tied together through an online transparent and objective responsibility-to-benefit governance mechanism to Assess-Identify-Develop-Productionise-Reassess a state’s MicroDC network. Key stakeholders in this solution and their responsibilities are as follows: State government: Most crucial facilitator of Rural IT success. Defines, implements and monitors Rural IT Policy and the supporting governance mechanism. Drives rural infrastructure development i.e. roads, electricity, telecom, schools. Incentivizes Rural IT with sops. State-level Governing Body: Typically the state Dept of IT and directly responsible for the state’s Rural IT competitiveness. Manages online governance mechanism, tracks village-wise progress against templatized Rural IT development plans, sale of MicroDC services to Indian IT majors, school syllabus upgrades for Rural IT, etc. Village Governing Bodies (mostly Panchayats): Directly responsible for Rural IT at village level including ownership and security of MicroDC, development of local IT skills aligned to market needs, etc. Village Schools: Implements IT related extra-curricular subjects and lab facilities collaborating with MicroDC for greater effectiveness. Indian IT Majors: Brings organizational systems and processes, adapted for Rural IT, to provide the required structural strength for uniform quality service delivery to end clients.

Marché

Indian IT majors have been over-cautious and hence taking an incremental approach to driving IT/ITes into Rural India. So in small patches it is either only ITeS moving to rural for Indian clientele or IT moving only to tier 2-3 cities/towns in the hope of getting a cost differential which is however short lived as the cost of living in these towns/cities rises to near metro levels upon any IT major setting up shop. Classic example being Pune 5-10yrs ago and today. Growing competition from other low cost destinations like Brazil, Philippines, China, Eastern Europe, etc. necessitates that we re-invent our IT delivery model and capabilities to make our global IT leadership position unassailable. Well, the same challenges that Indian IT faced 20-30 years ago in metros and which it successfully overcame need to be addressed in the new Rural IT context with a transparent and organic approach spanning the next 20-30 years starting with regions most ready for the proposed model and then spreading out by scaling up neighboring regions with time bound and people-driven plans. Undeniably it is much easier today than in the 1980s with advances in technology and Indian economy. Besides creating favorable infrastructure and economic climate to attract the private sector the government has a pivotal role in upgrading SSC and HSSC education to develop an IT-employable workforce in Rural India.