Policy briefs

2009
A number of state education departments in India are launching computer learning programmes in schools. The predominant model for this programme is to outsource the entire program to vendors. However a few states like Kerala have successfully in-sourced this program, by building in-house capacities to conduct this programme.   This paper discusses…
2009

IT for Change (ITfC) submitted a solicited paper on the role of Common Services Centres (CSCs) to the e-governance division of the Department of Information Technology of the Government of India. The paper briefly examines the CSC model of employing ICTs for community development, wherein one telecentre is being set up in…

2009

ICT programmes in schools in India have largely failed to achieve their goals of positively impacting learning processes and outcomes in schools. Implemented usually through 'PPP' (Public Private Partnership) models, these programmes have been treated largely as  silos. Schools and teachers have not seen  computer learning as…

2008

This paper was contributed for a report prepared for the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UN GAID) Global Forum on Access and Connectivity in least developed countries and small islands developing states in Asia/Pacific and innovative financing mechanisms for ICTD, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, on 18-20…

2008

This paper is a contribution to the Second Administrative Reforms Commission on 'Citizen Centric Governance'. The paper introduces e-governance in the Indian context and provides suggestions both from the strategic level to implementation on how the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can improve…

2008
IT for Change was at the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) Ministerial Meeting on 'The Future of the Internet Economy', an event held in June 2008 in Seoul (Korea). Parminder Jeet Singh was a panelist on the Civil Society - Organised Labour Forum on a policy round-table titled 'The future of the Internet: The human and…
2008

This paper was prepared for the United Nations Global Alliance for ICT and Development (UNGAID) Global Forum on Access and Connectivity: Innovative Funding for ICT for Development (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) in May 2008 The analysis captures the significance of a rights-based approach to ICTD, which can provide a new point of…

2007

This paper was written for the second IGF – Access Plenary Panel (Rio de Janeiro, 2007). It posits that ICTD models for poor people cannot be driven by financial considerations, and neither can they be demand-driven. Access to ICTs for the information poor has a very direct impact on their development status; consequently, ICTs cannot be…

2007

In this piece written for the South Centre Bulletin (issue 5, December 2007), Parminder Jeet Singh and Gurumurthy Kasinathan highlight Internet governance issues that are important from a development perspective. The World Summit on Information Society was the first step towards debating issues of Internet governance and its…

2006

IT for Change presented a paper titled 'Project development for expanding women's digital opportunities: some reflections' at the Policy and Strategy for Digital Opportunities from the Gender Perspectives organised by the Asian Pacific Women's Information Network Center (APWINC) in Seoul (South Korea) in July 2006. In this…