Helping Non-Profit Sector & Rural Communities Bridge the Digital Divide

- from the introduction

"Relying on his rich private sector IT [information technology] background, Satish provides an overview of how successful business practices used to create information architectures can be applied to projects in the development field, and as a result help the non-profit sector bridge the digital divide. Satish Jha is a management consultant who chairs James Martin & Co in India and is the Chairman of South Asian Initiatives of Digital Partners and Managing Trustee of Digital Partners India. James Martin & Co was founded in India by Satish Jha as a joint venture with James Martin Holdings Ltd. in 1993. Satish Jha's experience in information technology and management includes various roles and responsibilities he held in Hoffmann-La Roche in Switzerland including as the head of global information systems and development coordination for its Vitamins Division. Satish Jha is also one of the founders of Tarahaat that has been acknowledged as one of the pioneering models in using ICTs for Development. Later he started the Baramati Initiatives in 2001 with the support of Motoo Kusakabe of The World Bank and Sharad Pawar, a former chief minister of Maharashtra who has turned his constituency of Baramati as a model of development. Baramati Initiatives is an annual event and is now jointly organized by Digital Partners and Baramati's Institute of Information Technology."

Some of the questions asked in this interview include:

• Given your background in corporate information management, what prompted you to take such an interest in ICT and Development?
• What are the commonalities you have found in developing technology applications for the corporate information management world and for the international development world?
• What are the key elements in providing information and digital strategies to organisations so they can fully utilise ICT in their operations?
• What is global information management? Are there any lessons that you can share from your experiences in this profession which can be applied to the governance or management of IT in developing countries?
• Your initiative Tarahaat (click here for a description of this project), comprises a commercially viable model for bringing relevant information, products and services via the Internet to the underserved rural market of India. Now that Tarahaat has been in operation for about three years, how do you see its evolution? Has it followed the path that you and other founders of Tarahaat had intended? What obstacles have you encountered in its implementation?
• How did Baramati Initiative begin? What have you been able to accomplish during the two annual meetings at Baramati regarding managing ICT for development projects and measuring success?

- excerpt from Satish Jha

"The credit for starting Baramati Initiatives must go to Tarahaat, Motoo Kusakabe of The World Bank and Sharad Pawar, a former chief minister of Maharashtra state. It was Mr. Kusakabe who decided to drop in at my house on a Sunday evening sometime in the fall of 2000 and spent several hours discussing the possibilities that Tarahaat could offer and exploring ways of connecting such efforts on a larger scale. It was this meeting that led him to ask me to join in a World Bank conference sponsored by him and Kemal Dervis later that year in Nov 2000. It is here that Mr. Kusakabe asked me to take charge of holding the next conference and Sharad Pawar offered Baramati as a venue. Calling it an Initiative rather than a conference was a conscious decision. It is becoming a symbol of bringing together the experiences of using ICT for development in India and now overseas as well. Its message is reaching out beyond South Asia to Africa and Latin America as well. Our key accomplishment has been to create a platform where people engaged in developing innovative solutions can come together and learn from each other. While maintaining the quality in terms of deliverables expressed during the meeting at the World Bank in Nov 2000, the organization of this initiative remains fluid, interactive, and evolves as the gathering progresses. Bringing together the social entrepreneur as well as the beneficiaries has created a hope in the community by connecting them to each other. The use of smart cards for micro credit management or Drishtee or Datamation or evolution of Computer on Wheels to reach out to a new world through Baramati Initiatives cannot be forgotten. Its success should be seen in terms of stimulating the imagination of "would-be" social entrepreneurs to create new solutions on a larger scale. At this time, the number of projects showcased in the second year has doubled and the success of the projects that were showcased in the first year have contributed in some ways to our achievement a year later...."