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Abstract
The currently influential model for information and communication technologies for development (ICT4D) is based on increasing the well-being of the poor through market-based solutions, and by using low-cost but advanced technologies. Using ethnographic methods, we chart out the contradictions that could arise when such a development-through-entrepreneurship model is implemented. We examine the Akshaya project, a franchise of computer-service kiosks in Kerala, India, which strives simultaneously for social development through access to computers and financial viability through cost recovery and entrepreneurship. We show that tensions within the state and among entrepreneurs and perceptions of public versus private among consumers make it challenging to meet the twin goals of commercial profitability and social development.
The authors thank the Kerala IT Mission, Akshaya project staff, G. R. Kiran, M. S. Vinod, and Balaji Parthasarathy for assistance in this research. Thanks to Janaki Srinivasan, Jennifer Bussell, Harmeet Sawhney, and three anonymous reviewers for comments on the article. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 0326582 and by Microsoft Research India.
Notes
a Used conversion of $1 = 45 Rs.
2. “The distribution of wealth and capacity to generate income” forms an economic pyramid, with 4 billion people living at the bottom on less than $2/day (Prahalad, 4, 2005).
3. Interview with multiple officials from the Government of India, Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, March 2006.
4. The term “entrepreneur” is used in many different ways in the context of ICTs and the knowledge-based economy. These include: a person serving a particular function in an economy (such as innovation); a new business startup; a small business owner or a person with a set of personal sociopsychological (“entrepreneurial”) characteristics and/or a form of behavior (CitationMcQuaid 2002). In order to understand entrepreneurship in our analysis, we focus on the psychological, social, and cultural characteristics of individuals who own and/or operate kiosks. In particular, we situate these individual characteristics within the larger social and economic contexts in which they operate.
5. The average literacy rate in Kerala is 91%, compared to 65% in India. The female literacy is 91% in Kerala, compared to 65% in India. Life expectancy at birth is 73 years in Kerala, compared to 61 years in India.
6. Kerala statistics as stated in the February 9, 2006, Hindu article “9.2 p.c. growth rate in 2004–05: Review.” National statistics found at World Bank (http://devdata.worldbank.org/external/CPProfile.asp?PTYPE=CP&CCODE=IND).
7. Modernizing Government Programme (MGP) www.keralamgp.org.
8. Interview with Kerala IT Mission project official, February 2006.
9. (www.akshaya.net).
10. Data sources for table: http://www.undp.org.in/programme/undpini/factsheet/Kerala.pdf; http://www.mlp.kerala.gov.in/barefacts.htm; http://www.kerala.gov.in/.
11. Interview with Kerala IT Mission project official, February 2006.
12. Panchayat is an Indian political system that groups five villages together for administration. “Panchayat” literally means assembly of wise and respected elders chosen and accepted by the village community. Traditionally, these assemblies settle disputes between individuals and villages.
13. Interview with Kerala IT Mission project official, February 2006.
14. Interview with Kerala IT Mission project official, June 2004.
15. (www.akshaya.net).
16. For the 65 interviews with households, we created a stratified nonrandom sample by speaking with both males and females and with individuals of different religions and income levels: 46% percent of the individuals interviewed were female and 56% were male; 57% of the sample was Muslim, 40% was Hindu, and 3% was Christian. Of the households interviewed, 5% identified themselves as part of a high-income class, 35% as middle-income, 26% as low-income, and 34% did not identify with any income class. Our sample included users of the centers, nonusers, and some individuals who had participated only in the e-literacy phase: 34% of the sampled households had used the Akshaya centers for some type of service; 26% had attended the e-literacy training; and 9% of the individuals paid their bills through the Akshaya e-pay service.
17. The population size of the rural and urban areas varied with some peri-urban areas included.
18. Interviews were conducted with panchayat members, municipal council members, Akshaya project office staff in Malappuram, and officials in the Information Technology Mission of Kerala in Thiruvanthapuram.
19. This is often referred to as the developmental state, which uses state power to direct economic growth and a development agenda. Kerala is known as a developmental state (CitationEvans, 1995).
20. All names have been changed to protect the identities of the respondents.
21. Government Of Kerala. 2001. http://www.kerala.gov.in/statistical/.
22. This is based on an exchange rate of 45 Rs/$1. The average per capita income in Malappuram is $306. Operating expenses of a center typically include rent, phone, electricity, and staff salaries. Revenue per month generally comes from computer classes, browsing, e-pay, printing, and desktop publishing.
23. Moosa meant that because there used to be a scarcity of computer courses in general, people would have been willing to attend a course in a rural area 2 years ago. However, now with the prevalence of courses in town areas and the fact that Akshaya created opportunities for rural people to also study computers in these areas, higher income people prefer the town, where they perceive there to be higher quality courses.
24. Government of Kerala. 2001. http://www.kerala.gov.in/statistical/.
25. In addition to the profits made through the kiosk, he also has an additional source of income through teaching computer classes in a college. (This income is not included in these figures).
27. Henna's father paid for her daughters' education in a private school. Her husband is a shop owner and he pays for all the other family expenses. So Henna's income from her center is not her only source of income to support her livelihood.
28. Although consumers often perceive Akshaya to be rural and aimed at villagers, many kiosks are not located in truly rural areas. But as the Moosa case indicates, simply locating a kiosk in a peri urban or urban area is no guarantee of success.
29. Panchayat members had to sign off on the lists the entrepreneurs provided on the numbers of people who had attended the e-literacy program in order to sanction the funds for each person trained.
30. One concrete example can be seen from the financial success of Ram's kiosk (which had a population of 49,000 people) and operated in an urban center compared to the kiosk of an entrepreneur like Moosa and operated in a peri-urban areas. Kiosks in areas that are considered rural (less than 5000 people) were generally not feasible.