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| India's high-tech revolution |
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Struggles in India's high-tech revolution India's Simputer, the award-winning computer for poor, illiterate farmers, has been launched but has yet to really take off. The Simputer I saw in Bangalore looks like a lighter, slightly larger version of a hand-held PDA. You can write in any language and transmit the script. You can store and play music, annotate photographs and send them by email. It translates text to speech and works in a number of Indian languages. People can share the Simputer via a smart card, emphasising access rather than ownership. The concept captured the imagination of those who want to address the digital divide, who feel the future is in innovating for "the bottom of the pyramid". This computer would address the needs of the 5 billion people who have been bypassed by the internet revolution. It was designed with users in mind, keeping their cultural context at the core. What went wrong? Professor Swami Manohar, one of the original group of designers of the Simputer, says: "We have learnt that ideas and technology alone do not make a success . . . You have to succeed in the market." Manohar is a computer scientist with the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. He is also the chief executive of PicoPeta Simputers, one of the two companies developing the Simputer. He says publicity that it was a simple, cheap computer for the poor and illiterate "gave it the stigma of 'ration rice'. Even the poor see the more expensive rice as the better rice. It is marketing and packaging that influence the decision makers." Marketing did not, however, convince the decision makers in and out of government who would have funded the purchase of the Simputer, so now its supporters are going directly to the retail market. The Simputer was released in March as the Amida Simputer (Amida is one of the names for Buddha). It will sell for between $300 and $600. Manohar admits this move means a different mind-set, but says: "We want to see our dream come true. We have a product that meets most of the initial objectives for the technology. It is also a consumer-viable product." Looking back over the five years since the concept was articulated, he says: "We should have marketed it as world-class technology that makes computing simpler for everyone. World-class development is the right thing also for the poor." In 1998 a group of computer scientists in Bangalore, aided by eminent social anthropologist Professor M. N. Srinivas, agreed the computer in India needed to be simple, easy to use and cheap. India's lack of infrastructure and reliable electricity were problems, and the need for extensive training was another obstacle. "We knew that if we were to reach every schoolchild in India, it would require billions of dollars for the purchase, maintenance and upgrade of the technology. And all that money would go out of India," Manohar says. "So we set out to make local technology. We build the basic building block, we control the upgrades. Yes, the components are foreign, but 80 per cent of the cost of hardware is in the integration." Doing the IT rounds in Bangalore and Hyderabad, everybody wishes the Simputer team well. But there is also widespread scepticism about the success of the Amida Simputer. It is the "daughter syndrome", says Professor S. Sadagopan, director of the Indian Institute of Information Technology, also in Bangalore. "You love your daughter so much that you cannot stand to give her away in marriage. Hence they did not make the deals that came to them from foreign companies." Others say the timing is wrong. PCs in 2001 were selling for 50,000 Indian rupees ($1500). PDAs and mobile phones were not as popular. But now some universities are using PCs with Linux and a Taiwanese chip, costing less than $300. Mobile phones in India are now among the cheapest in the world. So why would somebody spend $450 on a hand-held computer? The Simputer team is betting that the quality of the technology, aided by better marketing, will make the difference. "It is the device you want to have," Manohar says. |
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