ICT4D and Sikkim

Post 2001

Social Issues Digital divideDigital divide education, education, knowledge, knowledge, health, health, communication, communication, job opportunities, job opportunities, business, business, cultural invasion cultural invasion economic divide economic divide

Issues in ICT Induction Change Management Issues Change Management Issues Technology Issues Technology Issues Process re-engineering Issues Process re-engineering Issues Knowledge Gap Issues Knowledge Gap Issues Prevailing laws Prevailing laws Funding for ICT Funding for ICT Trained manpower Trained manpower

Change Management Issues Ingredients Required for Change  Force / Motivation / Cause for change  Awareness / Education in all Sectors to utilize IT  Participation by one and all (movement)  Information Infrastructure  Technology.

Cause of Change Inability to handle ever-increasing volume of work due to factors like population growth Inability to handle ever-increasing volume of work due to factors like population growth Minimize corruption by making processes transparent Minimize corruption by making processes transparent To reduce the Government control and improve citizens' services To reduce the Government control and improve citizens' services To bring in higher individual and organizational Productivity To bring in higher individual and organizational Productivity

Technology Issues  Awareness about Technology  Access to Technology Information  Availability of Technology  Research and Development and localization

Process re-engineering Issues A technology that totally transforms a service or production process. - Automating the existing manual process is easy,as it does not need major retraining and management can see the results. - Radical changes preferred for ICT induction in existing process, though associated change in work culture is slow and uncertain - It is also difficult for the managers to visualize the expected outcome. -ICT induction and process change done in stages to ensure good results and absorption

Funding for ICT - Central Government has initiated negp to ensure proper ICT infrastructure is in place: SWAN, SDC, CSC and others -Citizen funding model for services is still not mature - Private investment- a good possibility but needs reforms and change of mindset

Trained Manpower -Absence of Consulting skills -Absence of ICT skills in public servants -Lack of local ICT manpower in industry -Absence of training infrastructure

Policy Elements Infrastructure Issues Development of skills Citizen Services Issues Business Issues Content Issues Security Issues Legal Issues Institutional development and coordination Domestic Demand for ICT

Infrastructure Issues - Infrastructure development (poor telecom, power) - Interoperation of information systems - Cost effective service delivery, purchasing power, communication, etc. - Secure transactions for electronic commerce - Development of technological standards

Content Issues - Absence of local contents - Support of local Language issues - Inadequate back-end automation to give relevant information and e - readiness - Absence of information sharing practices ( transparency )

Food for thought - Are my people prepared for the change ? - Where do I realistically feel my state will go in short term ? -What needs to be done to speed up the change ? -Based on my state’ strengths/weakness what can we plan for long term ? -Lessons from success and failures in my state and from outside ?

Food for thought -Am I able to assess barriers in different facets of ICT4D and prioritize them? -How do I go about it? -Do I have some expertise locally? -Does my government give priority to overcome these barriers? -Where do I get funds from?

Food for thought - - Do we genuinely believe that ICT can trigger the desired development in the society - Acceptance of ICT is driven by conviction or fear of being left behind - What can convince us - What can we contribute in ICT4D - What and how do we prepare - Do we need to develop regional cooopration

Thank You