Over the decade technology has transcended poverty, race and economics to become a driving force in the lives of people across the world. Billions of us now have access to the internet and mobile phones. Increasingly, technology is being seen as a powerful development tool, used in the global battle to hit child and youth-focused targets in global education, livelihoods and health and it has enabled millions of young people in developing countries to join the digital world. Several high-profile tech companies, including Google, Microsoft, IBM and Oracle have launched global initiatives to increase access to technology by children and young people in the world's poorest countries, pouring millions of computers and educational materials into ICT training programmes.
I found an interesting article published by IEEE written by Gaurav Bhatia and Ajay Lala (http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6395909&url=http%3A%2F%2Fieeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D6395909) on Implementation of Cloud Computing technology in Indian education system. Way back in early 2000’s, education policy makers in India were envisaging a centralized system for the government to check the educational institutional standards which can enable them in monitoring of all the education institutes in India. What came out of the discussion was implementation of cloud computing, as it is the most promising technology that binds solution to all the prevailing deficiencies.
In order to utilise and harness the benefits of Cloud Computing, Government of India has embarked upon a very ambitious and important initiative – “GI Cloud” which has been coined as ‘Meghraj’. The focus of this initiative is to evolve a Strategy and implement various components including governance mechanism to ensure proliferation of Cloud in government. Formulation of the Cloud Policy is one of the primary steps that will facilitate large scale adoption of cloud by government. (Source: http://deity.gov.in/content/gi-cloud-initiative-meghraj)
Some of the interesting recent digital initiatives taken by the Government of India includes, DIGITAL LOCKER which allows every citizen to store digital copies of their certificates issued by government, such as birth certificate or residence proof in a national depository that will hold these records and can be accessed anywhere. Another interesting digital initiative to communicate with the citizen is TWITTER SAMVAD, which will enable the citizens to be the first to know about new government initiatives and actions. It is a service that lets leaders and government agencies communicate with the people through tweets and SMS. One of the initiatives, which i feel can bring accountability and transparency in governance is PRAGATI: It is an interactive platform launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for public grievances redressal. It is aimed at monitoring and reviewing programs and projects of the Government of India as well as state government initiatives and also addressing common man’s grievances. (More analysis on the Digital India initiatives available on http://www.dqindia.com/top-10-digital-initiatives-by-indian-government/)
Although use of technology is changing lives across the globe, yet the wholesale embracement of the idea of reaching young people through technology has also proved problematic. In fact, despite all the big-name sponsors and tech-led education initiatives there have been rather not-so encouraging results in efforts to integrate ICTs into education systems in developing and poor countries.
Another area of concern is transfer of technology to the developing countries. The technological gap between the rich and the poor countries lies at the root of the economic distance between these two areas. It, however, offers a certain advantage to the acceleration of the rate of economic and social growth of the “late-comer” to development. Its origin lies in the accumulation of technological knowledge in the advanced countries. In the growth of such knowledge, no single nation or race has remained pioneer for long. Technological transfer should not respond to the private interest of a few transnational corporations that dominate the world economy but rather advance the need, and support the drive, by the South for development.
I would like to summarize that technology has the potential to be a huge force for good but it is not a silver bullet, a fix-all solution to how to fix the education and employment problems for young people in developing countries. Yes, it undoubtedly plays an increasingly important part of millions of young people's lives across the world.
Image Source: http://digitalindia.gov.in
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