But I also had doubts about the project’s overall impact because of its nano-scale: the coverage area was only 10 villages. My belief that a project like this deserves a nationwide footprint was reinforced when Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi launched his ‘E-Gram Vishwa Gram (E-Village, Global Village)’ project, which aims to provide broadband connectivity and a large bouquet of IT-enabled services to all the 13,693 gram panchayats in the state. Modi inaugurated it on the birth anniversary of Subhas Chandra Bose on January 23 this year in Haripura village, where Netaji had given the call for Swarajya (Self-Governance) in 1938. Modi described the goal of his project as ‘Su-Rajya’ (Good Governance).

The ‘E Gram Vishwa Gram’ scheme envisages provision of Internet-enabled education, telemedicine, veterinary services, market linkage and other agriculture-related services to kisans, payment of electricity and telephone bills, issuance of death and birth certificates, land ownership records, application forms for various development and welfare schemes, postal services, reservation and purchase of bus and railway tickets, video conferencing and video broadcasting.

I have alluded to these two examples because they, along with several other initiatives aimed at bridging the digital divide in India and other developing countries, inspired my colleagues and me in preparing the BJP’s IT Vision document. Released by L.K. Advani last week, it presents a comprehensive picture of how the BJP, if elected to form the next government, will endeavour to empower Bharat by using the revolutionary power of IT. Until now, only a small part of India’s urbancentric economy and society has benefited from IT. Agriculture and the rest of the rural economy, small and medium enterprises, and the informal sector have remained largely untouched by its productivity-enhancement potential. The same can be said about education, healthcare, delivery of government services, and administration of law and justice. It is our belief that there is an urgent need, and also a historic opportunity, to increase Bharat’s bandwidth of progress.

The BJP’s IT Vision promises broadband connectivity to each of the 6,38,365 villages in India by implementing the digital avatars of the two ambitious projects that are associated with Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government: National Digital Highway Development Project and the Pradhan Mantri Digital Gram Sadak Yojana. Using this robust broadband Internet infrastructure, upgrading the skills of rural youth, and universalising the use of IT in Indian languages through a mission-mode initiative, it is possible to create over one crore IT-enabled employment opportunities in rural India.

Over-ambitious? To those who say so, I can only respond by invoking the words of our former President Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam: “To think small is a crime in today’s India.” A majority of development-hungry Indians, especially the youth, are impatient for change. Their aspirations and expectations are soaring. But the system’s capacity to fulfill them is sorely lagging behind. Let us remember that China’s success in alleviating acute poverty in rural areas has been largely due to its focus on building better physical and digital infrastructure, combined with its stronger emphasis on agriculture, healthcare and education, especially vocational education. Here is a comparative snapshot of where China stands vis-à-vis India: China’s per-acre farm yields are, on an average, three times higher. China has 5,00,000 it is, as against India’s 5,000. China’s enrolment rate in higher education is 30 per cent, as against India’s 12 per cent. China has 16.2 crore PCs, 8.5 crore broadband subscribers and 29.8 crore Internet users, as against India’s 2.8 crore, 0.54 crore and 5.2 crore respectively. It is for this reason that the BJP’s IT Vision document has promised that India would equal China in every IT parameter in five years. Can India achieve this? Of course, we can.

Naysayers, including some in my own party, asked me, “What’s the point in assuring laptops to rural students and smart mobile phones to BPL families, when what they need is power, safe drinking water, and good roads?” Good question. But the answer is: Bharat needs both. It needs bijlee, sadak, paani. It needs roti, kapda, makaan. But it also needs IT and the cornucopia of tools and services it provides for faster and guaranteed provision of power, roads, water, food, clothing and shelter.

Bharat needs IT also to check corruption. Imagine the financial benefits under various poverty alleviation schemes like NREGS, old-age pension, etc, being directly deposited into the bank accounts of end beneficiaries. It will no doubt ensure full financial inclusion (only 50 per cent of Indians have bank accounts; ironically, it is the financially excluded who need reliable banking services the most). But it will also, hopefully, minimise the corruption that has plagued all our welfare schemes.

In short, IT is not merely technology. It is the Vision Thing for the rejuvenation of Bharat.

sudheenkulkarni@gmail.com