a different kind of interview!
"s adhikari" <[email protected]> Tue, 29 Oct 2002 15:28:43 +0000
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<html><div style=3D'background-color:'><DIV> <P>Dear All:</P> <P>I found this interview interesting. Do you think it is a more pra= gmatic approach to ICT and development issues?<BR><BR></P></DIV> <DIV></DIV><IMG height=3D181 hspace=3D10 src=3D"http://lw8fd.law8.hotmail= .msn.com/cgi-bin/getmsg?curmbox=3DF000000001&a=3D9cbb7c7697770742b554= b254bc93ee21&msg=3DMSG1035433101.92&start=3D1487486&len=3D758= 19&mimepart=3D6" width=3D150 align=3Dleft vspace=3D6 border=3D0> <DIV></DIV><[email protected]>Meet the Champions: DG Interview with S= atish Jha about Digital Partners=20 <DIV></DIV>=20 <DIV></DIV>=20 <DIV></DIV>Satish Jha is a management consultant who chairs James Martin = & Co in India and is the Chairman of South Asian Initiatives of Digit= al 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 tec= hnology and management includes various roles and responsibilities he hel= d in Hoffmann-La Roche in Switzerland including as the head of global inf= ormation systems and development coordination for its Vitamins Division. = Satish Jha is also one of the founders of Tarahaat that has been acknowle= dged as one of the pioneering s in using ICTs for Development. Later he s= tarted the Baramati Initiatives in 2001 with the support of Motoo Kusakab= e of The World bank and Sharad Pawar, a former chief minister of Maharash= tra who has turned his constituency of Baramati as a of development. Bara= mati Initiatives is an annual event and is now jointly organized by Digit= al Partners and Baramati=C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=84=A2s Institute of Informatio= n Technology.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>To learn more about Satish and contact him visit his publi= c profile on the ICT for Development on the Development Gateway.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>---------------------------------=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Q: Given your background in corporate information manageme= nt, what prompted you to take such an interest in ICT and Development?=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>A: I came to the corporate sector from a background in non= -governmental sector, academics, research and the print media. While work= ing in Switzerland, I founded FREND (Foundation for Renewable Energy Dece= ntralized) and DESI (Decentralized Energy Systems Integrated) along with = some other Swiss professionals with interest in development issues. Later= FREND and DESI established DESI Power India in collaboration with Develo= pment Alternatives and that brought me in contact with Ashok Khosla. By t= his time I had returned to India to establish James Martin & Co, a ma= nagement consulting firm with focus on information technologies. The deve= lopment of Tarahaat was born from what information technologies can do fo= r making life easier for the rural poor coupled with Development Alternat= ive' expertise in looking for technological solutions. In the first year,= my company gave pro-bono support to the project and I was personally ass= ociated with creating its strategy, as well as technical and information = architectures. Tarahaat became a symbol of the possibilities that could b= e addressed with the help of ICTs. My orientation was to use the best pra= ctices from the corporate world to create an elegant solution that would = bring down the costs of development and implementation as well as the tra= nsaction costs in the rural areas. This would lead to an overall improvem= ent in the quality of life in villages. It proved to be a milestone and I= have been getting more deeply engaged in ICTs and Development related in= itiatives.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Q: You stated that your organization ".. works hard to cre= ate strong relationships through proactive engagements with our clients a= nd develop solutions that support our clients in creating lasting value."= What are the commonalities you have found in developing technology appli= cations for the corporate information management world and for the intern= ational development world?=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>A: As of now there are few processes followed by developme= nt communities that conform to the best practices used by the corporate s= ector. There are passionate people who know programming and piece togethe= r small applications that serve disparate purposes for social projects. B= ut to take them to any level of efficiency known to the corporate sector = requires more than a few extraordinary people. Corporate principles requi= re processes, procedures, methodologies while understanding with passion = a culture of embracing the best practices. It was this lack of experience= base in managing information complexity by the development community whi= ch interested me. I wanted to help the development community understand h= ow to create large, complex applications which can bring order to the cul= ture of creativity that generally exists, and by doing this make the task= of non-profit sector a little easier and free them up to pursue their go= als. However, in terms of what needs to be done in practice to decrease t= he digital divide by employing ICT applications, there is a substantial c= ommonality between the non-profit and the profit sectors. What clearly se= ts them apart is the level of resources they can deploy- in terms of fund= s, skills, learning curve etc.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Q: You have supported more than 50 consulting assignments = from developing an Information Strategy to creating a Digital Strategy, a= s well as organizational restructuring for the Digital Age. What are the = key elements in providing information and digital strategies to organizat= ions so they can fully utilize ICT in their operations?=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>A: The most common point of departure is generally an emph= asis on integrated architectures. Large corporations have been using info= rmation technologies for several decades. New corporations can also easil= y acquire the experience base by recruiting the right people to build the= necessary culture of creating a digital organization with the resources = they have. However, even these corporations began in a way similar to wha= t we notice in the small sector and non-profit organizations. The temptat= ion to build an application generally run very high and most organization= s begin developing applications before they have created a structure for = their information flows. Several others start choosing from what is avail= able off the shelf and could be used with little changes. These simply ad= d to the complexity and manageability of transaction costs, total cost of= ownership of technology, and the cost of fixing any problems. The result= is multiple, overlapping systems that instead of reducing transaction co= sts, continue to add to it and the net result adversely impacts the compe= titiveness of businesses.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>However, corporations that have learned to manage their in= formation resources well emphasize integrated architectures, invest in ge= tting the processes and procedures right, establish technical architectur= es that are not only scalable but permit change in scope without complete= ly revamping the system. These corporations keep the maintenance low and = are geared to addressing the management issues that may arise from time t= o time. Imagine a sizeable building that was started without having an ar= chitecture?=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Q: What is global information management? Are there any le= ssons that you can share from your experiences in this profession which c= an be applied to the governance or management of IT in developing countri= es?=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>A: In some ways anyone in the field of information technol= ogy tends to be global in terms of the knowledge-base. However, managing = information technology resources globally forces anyone to contend with t= he complexity of various approaches that have evolved. These approaches a= ddress various issues that range from platforms, operating systems, philo= sophies, methodologies, architectures across functions and geographies. I= t requires an understanding of "managing" them rather than addressing the= m in a narrow technical way. For example, anyone can create an applicatio= n system that works in one environment. But managing across 150 countries= with each of them having an environment that has evolved out of local pr= actices can be a manager's nightmare. It was much easier in the era of ma= inframe when one corporate office could make the decisions and IBM could = run it for the corporation. Of course, it had severe limitations that led= to multitudes of technologies and made the responsibilities of managers = so much more challenging.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>The non-profit sector also has to reckon with all those is= sues if it needs to scale up. That is where the lessons of global informa= tion management become useful and more often than not, these practices im= prove quality, make life of the users a little easier and generally at a = much lower cost. What is needed is a desire to learn from that culture an= d have the capability to absorb appropriate experiences. The same can be = applied to the process of government turning digital as well. But unless = orchestrated well, it can lead to frustrations, cost over-runs, and syste= ms not being available for implementation for along time.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Q: Your initiative Tarahaat, named after the all-purpose h= aat (meaning a village bazaar), comprises a commercially viable for bring= ing relevant information, products and services via the Internet to the u= nderserved rural market of India. Now that Tarahaat has been in operation= for about three year, 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?=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>A. I would call it the initiative that coincided with my a= ssociation with Development Alternatives. Tarahaat grew out of a desire t= o address two issues simultaneously: 1) to create value by using this new= technological means that would help the villagers take a great leap forw= ard and 2) to generate enough value to sustain the activities of Developm= ent Alternatives (DA) which was thinking of moving into this space. I hav= e been on the Board of one of the associate organizations of DA and I was= invited by Ashok Khosla to support him with our consulting skills in foc= using the organization, developing a new vision, creating processes, proc= edures and relevant structures etc. This process was very educational for= us in the sense that DA as an organization needed a lot of reorientation= and preparedness to achieve goals which Khosla envisioned. It was over a= couple of years of such dialogue that the organization became receptive = to the idea of creating "something" with the help of ICTs that would help= bridge the divide between the cities and the villages. The goal was to o= vercome the lack of physical infrastructure by means of the new technolog= ies and generate enough wealth and sustainability that DA would not have = to depend on seeking grants. The idea was to create a web-based infrastru= cture that would address the issues of e-governance, e-commerce, e-learni= ng and e-communities. All these concepts and dreams were visible in the i= nitial rendition of Tarahaat that got a lot of people thinking about it.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>However, it was a very ambitious dream and required a lot = of resources. In the beginning we brought together friends who could offe= r pro-bono services and products. James Martin & Co offered the consu= lting services. Shashi Ullal, then the head of Hughs Networks in India, o= ffered VSAT services. IBM considered giving some hardware away. Oracle co= nsidered offering free licenses. Thus, a whole prototype was created. Thi= s initiative seemed feasible if we could align with a major corporation t= hat also had interest in the rural markets. In parallel, however, educati= onal efforts to train people in the skills that they needed in villages w= as also being pursued and we had found someone willing to dedicate himsel= f in this area. What has happened since is that the concept has moved tow= ards doing what is possible while continuing to pursue the dream by refin= ing the to become viable. As of now, education has only succeeded in larg= er, semi-urban habitats and Tarahaat has faced difficulties in addressing= other areas. I look at Tarahaat as a lap in the long relay race of devel= opment. It fired the imagination of a lot of people. As a result, a numbe= r of experiments, both in the corporate and the non-profit sectors, have = begun in India and elsewhere. In India itself a number of initiatives inc= luding large ones being pursued by ITC and Hindustan Levers seem inspired= by Tarahaat. And that is a major contribution that it has made.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Q: Through the Baramati Initiatives with Digital Partners,= you are achieving connectivity for the Poor in India, and showcasing ini= tiatives which demonstrate how ICT can be employed to provide sustainable= solutions to the needs of poor communities. How did Baramati Initiative = begin? What have you been able to accomplish during the two annual meetin= gs at Baramati regarding managing ICT for development projects and measur= ing success?=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>A: The credit for starting Baramati Initiatives must go to= Tarahaat, M Kusakabe of The World Bank and Sharad Pawar, a former chief = minister of Maharashtra state. It was Kusakabe who decided to drop in at = my house on a Sunday evening sometime in the fall of 2000 and spent sever= al hours discussing the possibilities that Tarahaat could offer and explo= ring ways of connecting such efforts on a larger scale. It was this meeti= ng 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 Kusaka= be asked me to take charge of holding the next conference and Sharad Pawa= r offered Baramati as a venue. Calling it an Initiative rather than a con= ference was a conscious decision. It is becoming a symbol of bringing tog= ether the experiences of using ICT for development in India and now overs= eas 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 platfo= rm where people engaged in developing innovative solutions can come toget= her and learn from each other. Its organization, while maintaining the qu= ality in terms of deliverables similar to the meeting at the World Bank i= n Nov 2000 that triggered it, also remains fluid, interactive, evolves as= the gathering progresses, brings together the social entrepreneur as wel= l as the beneficiaries and has created a hope in the community by connect= ing them to each other. The use of smart cards for micro credit managemen= t or Drishtee or Datamation or evolution of Computer on Wheels to reach o= ut to a new world through Baramati Initiatives cannot be forgotten. Its s= uccess should be seen in terms of stimulating the imagination of "would-b= e" social entrepreneurs to create new solutions on a larger scale. At thi= s time, the number of projects showcased in the second year has doubled a= nd the success of the projects that were showcased in the first year have= contributed in some ways to our achievement a year later.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Q: How does Digital Partners support Baramati Initiatives = and partner with organizations to implement solutions? What are the other= roles of Digital Partners in employing ICT in India?=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>A: The steps to start Baramati began in Dec 2000. Digital = Partners joined to support the Baramati Initiatives in early March 2001 a= nd Akhtar Badshah invited me to support and chair the South Asia Initiati= ve of Digital Partners. In that sense Digital Partners has now become the= prime organizer of the process and helps make opportunities for people w= ho want to become engaged in furthering the charter of Baramati. Digital = Partners in India is engaged in pursuing a Social Entrepreneurship progra= m and this year we have selected five organizations from south Asia that = are trying to use ICTs for healthcare, micro-credit, artisans, trade etc.= Other projects include the Global Classmates program which connects scho= ol students from India to the US and some other countries including in Af= rica. This program aims at using ICTs to get the students in the 11-15 ye= ars age group to connect with their global counterparts, share projects t= hat are facilitated by the respective schools, and use emails, net-meetin= gs, videoconferences etc to pursue their goals through interaction. We ha= ve also supported policy dialogues with the government officials and brin= g global resources at no cost to the government to share perspectives and= help find solutions to tricky issues of policy.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>October, 2002=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>---------------------------------=20 <DIV></DIV>>About this Interview=20 <DIV></DIV>>This is an exclusive interview for the ICT for Development= community on the Development Gateway, as part of our "Meet the Champions= " series, conducted by DG ICT for Development Advisor Anne Marie DiNardo.= We welcome your comments on this interview, additional questions to Sati= sh as well as suggestions for future interview topics and other ICT champ= ions we could interview. If you have any suggestions or would like to be = interviewed yourself, please feel free to contact the Editor.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>To read other interviews visit the DG ICT for Development = Archive: Interviews.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>---------------------------------=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Related Links=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>> Digital Partners=20 <DIV></DIV>> James Martin & Co, India=20 <DIV></DIV>> TARAhaat: Achieving Connectivity for the Poor Case Study=20 <DIV></DIV>> Utilizing the Knowledge=C3=A2=E2=82=AC=E2=80=9CBased Econ= omy to Empower the Poor in India=20 <DIV></DIV>> Villagers try out net on wheels (BBC)=20 <DIV></DIV>> Baramati conference a great success=20 <DIV></DIV>> Order the right thali=20 <DIV></DIV>> Kuppam: An =C3=A2=E2=82=AC=CB=9Ci-community=C3=A2=E2=82=AC= =E2=84=A2 in the making=20 <DIV></DIV>> TARAhaat=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>On behalf of the ICT for Development Community on the Gate= way our Editorial Team would like to thank Satish Jha=20 <DIV></DIV>>Published on October 21, 2002=20 <DIV></DIV>>Return to top=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>Best., S.=20 <DIV></DIV>>=20 <DIV></DIV>>---------------------------------=20 <DIV></DIV>>Get a speedy connection with MSN Broadband. 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