Search

This article presents a series of preliminary, quantitative results on rural PC kiosks in India. An analysis of the data confirms many expected trends and correlations and shows that kiosks still face the challenge of sustainability as a business. This study is based on questionnaires presented to kiosk operators and customers of kiosks operated or franchised by Drishtee and n-Logue, two for-profit rural kiosk companies that operate in various geographies throughout India. Recurring surveys are being run with three questionnaires concerning the daily operation and demographic context of the kiosks. The recurring questionnaires will be repeated once a quarter for three years; the results for this article are from the first two sets only. (Contains 2 notes.)

The Akshaya project in the rural Malappuram district of Kerala, India is home to the first and largest district-wide e-literacy project in India, and one of the largest known Internet Protocol-based networks. Through a network of 600 kiosks, the project has been designed to reach computer literacy into over 600,000 households, and bring 3.6 million residents of the district into regular affordable access to computer use. This study uses a regional analysis of Malappuram, and its parent state, to understand the context within which the project is situated and consider questions of generalizability from inferences drawn here. Second, the authors examine the technical network itself and read logs of how residents of the district are actually using the kiosks to discuss the case for content tailored to low-income users, and the larger case of state-underwritten shared-access computer centers. (Contains 21 notes, 13 tables, and 13 figures.)

Background: Community health workers (CHWs) have been placed in many rural areas in India to increase villagers’ connections to basic preventive health care. In this study, we describe how pregnant women and mothers of young children react when CHWs inform them that they, or their child, are at high risk of pregnancy-related complications or early childhood developmental delays, and further screening and health care from a physician is recommended. Methods: In this longitudinal study in rural villages in West Bengal, India, pregnant mothers, as well as mothers of children aged 12–24 months, were screened for high risk complications. They were re-contacted and asked questions regarding how and to what extent did visits by the CHWs improve their household’s overall health behavior, along with details about what additional care, if any, they sought. These responses are presented by different demographic and medical characteristics. Results: Of the 231 pregnant women, all said they had sought additional care in response to the CHW visit, and all stated that feedback from the CHW resulted in improvement to their health behaviors. Most (90%) pregnant women gave birth at an institution. Among the 213 mothers of young children who were followed up, all sought additional care in response to the CHW’s visit. Most (67%) mentioned that they had a significant improvement in their health behaviors following feedback from the CHW, and the rest stated that they had some improvement. Conclusions: With the proper training, CHWs can be partners in health care to improve the health of vulnerable populations, not only in rural areas of India, but also in other developing countries. CHWs can promote positive health outcomes in their villages of residence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our analysis of tweets from @narendramodi demonstrates how the Indian prime minister used political irony, enacted through sarcasm and wordplay, to refashion his political style and practice into a more broadly appealing populist ethic. We deconstruct confrontational Twitter messages laced with innuendo to explore the use of language as a means of political self-representation. Modi's use of irony provides a form of political spectacle and demonstrably resonates on social media, as quantified by the high retweeting of his sarcastically worded messages. We identify three rhetorical strategies in these tweets: (1) appeals to the base through the use of popular idiom, (2) creation of a shared cognitive environment to allow followers in on inside jokes and a means of affiliating with the leader, and (3) the performance of righteousness in underlining the leader's use of wit and restraint. We argue that the use of political irony in these tweets must be seen as part of a longer-term performative effort to recast Modi's political image from a regional strongman into a sophisticated communicator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest for a low-cost computer has been among the primary motivations of innovation and practice in the ICTD world. We discuss developments using the case of the low-cost Indian tablet, Aakash, publicized as the world's cheapest tablet, and situate these within a history of India's quest for development through technology in the last two decades. We analyzed 212 articles on Aakash and found four dominant themes in the popular media: the cult of a technocratic leadership, the discourse of indigenous technology, the re-creation of the Silicon Valley dream, and the face of the marginal user . We argue that Aakash has gone from being a technology artifact to a device representative of Indian aspirations on several levels: as a forward-thinking state, as an ingenious entrepreneurial class, and as an energetic population whose success would primarily depend on access to technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past decade, the role of information technology in development has seen an exceptional spike in interest. A positive discourse on the potential of information technology exists not only in the booming metropolises of the developing world, but also in those geographical regions where digital technologies such as computers are mostly absent. Examining the public discourse on IT, we find that mass media may well be important in constructing how people in villages and even cities perceive computers. Taking the specific example of popular cinema in India, we find a strong aspirational discourse in the ways in which computers and technology users are portrayed. These, in turn, relate to how IT and development have been portrayed in cinematic discourse over generations, in cinema from around the world, from even the earliest days of silent film. Reflecting on this, we find that the study of technological artifacts as represented in popular media in the public sphere has been a critical missing piece of work on information technology and development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The quest for the low-cost computer has been one of the most significant pursuits of ICTD since the 1990s. This article examines the experiences of low-cost computing projects in developing regions and looks at some of the common entrepreneurial and technical problems faced by past and current initiatives. Focusing specifically on the domain of education, we look at the quest for low-cost devices and consider their economic and socio-cultural appropriateness to the typical classroom in the developing world. Using field studies and interviews conducted in rural Indian classrooms, we show that shared rather than single-user devices constitute a more realistic and sustainable approach for low-cost computing projects targeting children's education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the perception of technology from the frame of aspiration in rural India. We argue here that the idea of technology as a critical part of modernity has been deeply tied to India's discourse of development, and that this was in turn a portrayal of technology in a range of outlets in the public sphere. In villages of rural south India, we found an environment of great expectations from technology to reduce poverty and open urban opportunities, including from those who had never used a computer before. Specifically in schools, where this research was conducted, we found that computers played a much larger role than just as a delivery mechanism for digital educational material since they represented an aspirational artifact to children and parents alike. With historically low performance records at public schools, the computer frequently has been seen as a device offering a cure to systemic educational problems. Children, in part imbibing a discourse of technology from their own parents and media, have seen the computer as a critical part of their schooling experience. The device, and its mastery, then became an affirmation of pecking order among children themselves, and influenced the way that they interacted with fellow students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]