Factors That Contribute to the Digital Divide
Transportation
One of the crucial factors that contribute to the difficulty to spread technology and business to much of India is the lack of easy transportation. Of the over 1.34 billion people who populate India, 72.2 percent live in 638,000 villages while the remaining 27.8 percent live in only 5,480 towns and urban agglomerations (Population of India 2016, 2016). While urban cities have some paved roads and public transportation means such as trains and subways, much of the country is still exceedingly rural and lacks modern roadways. Very few cities of India have an adequate public transport system (Singh S. K., 2012). A Minneapolis-based company, Bepex, is considering outsourcing to India, …show more content…
The first aspect, electricity infrastructures, such as wired telecommunication devices and technology is challenging. However, the country is compromising and making strides with the introduction and use of mobile communication systems. While a hard-lined infrastructure is ideal and most equipped to support the technological needs of the modern world, mobile devices can be used in the interim. Currently, 87% of the 400 million internet users within India access the internet through mobiles devices, according to the Mobile Association of India (Digital India, 2016). The introduction of technology, such as the digital infrastructure, India Stack is helping to bridge these divides. India Stack is an infrastructure that allows users to participate in any service from anywhere in the country, allows digital records to move with an individual’s identity, a cashless layer that connects to all of the country’s banks, and a layer that allows data to move securely (Jain & Kumar, 2016). While it does not function as well as newer technology, it does present more opportunities. Another stride in overcoming the technological gap is the introduction of kiosks in rural locations. The kiosks provide opportunities for communication and information covering a wide variety of subjects and people. One of the major issues discussed earlier was the lack of education in rural areas was due to textbooks being in English. While English is used in upper education and business, most of the country speaks Hindi or native languages to their villages. The Indian Institute of Technology’s Telecommunications and Computer Networks Group have setup the projects in rural areas and villages. Several educational programs are offered in the rural languages, provide certified computer courses, English-language classes, and online career counseling, as well as
Transportation
One of the crucial factors that contribute to the difficulty to spread technology and business to much of India is the lack of easy transportation. Of the over 1.34 billion people who populate India, 72.2 percent live in 638,000 villages while the remaining 27.8 percent live in only 5,480 towns and urban agglomerations (Population of India 2016, 2016). While urban cities have some paved roads and public transportation means such as trains and subways, much of the country is still exceedingly rural and lacks modern roadways. Very few cities of India have an adequate public transport system (Singh S. K., 2012). A Minneapolis-based company, Bepex, is considering outsourcing to India, …show more content…
The first aspect, electricity infrastructures, such as wired telecommunication devices and technology is challenging. However, the country is compromising and making strides with the introduction and use of mobile communication systems. While a hard-lined infrastructure is ideal and most equipped to support the technological needs of the modern world, mobile devices can be used in the interim. Currently, 87% of the 400 million internet users within India access the internet through mobiles devices, according to the Mobile Association of India (Digital India, 2016). The introduction of technology, such as the digital infrastructure, India Stack is helping to bridge these divides. India Stack is an infrastructure that allows users to participate in any service from anywhere in the country, allows digital records to move with an individual’s identity, a cashless layer that connects to all of the country’s banks, and a layer that allows data to move securely (Jain & Kumar, 2016). While it does not function as well as newer technology, it does present more opportunities. Another stride in overcoming the technological gap is the introduction of kiosks in rural locations. The kiosks provide opportunities for communication and information covering a wide variety of subjects and people. One of the major issues discussed earlier was the lack of education in rural areas was due to textbooks being in English. While English is used in upper education and business, most of the country speaks Hindi or native languages to their villages. The Indian Institute of Technology’s Telecommunications and Computer Networks Group have setup the projects in rural areas and villages. Several educational programs are offered in the rural languages, provide certified computer courses, English-language classes, and online career counseling, as well as