Thursday, December 21, 2006

Indian villagers try 'e-policing' to close the digital divide

India's IT revolution is sometimes thought to benefit only the better off, but developments in Bhanegaon village in Maharashtra state, and 10,000 other Indian villages, suggest that it is slowly taking deeper roots.

Until a few weeks ago the village was on the have-not side of the digital divide.

Now some of its 8,000 inhabitants have used computers, e-mailed scanned documents and above all been part of regular video conferencing between the village and the district police headquarters in Nagpur city.

Read full story - Indian villagers try 'e-policing' via bbc news

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Wednesday, December 20, 2006

US economist warns India over the impact of globalisation

A Nobel-prize winning US economist has warned that public services could suffer in countries like India as a result of globalisation.

Professor Joseph Stiglitz told the BBC News website that globalisation had led to lower tariffs, an important source of public revenue.

"A decline in tariff leads to less money for the governments to spend on its people," Professor Stiglitz said.

He won the Nobel Prize in 2001 for his work on the economics of information.

Read full story - India warning on globalisation via bbc news

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