Governance Support
The Governance Support stream of research mobilises current information and communication technologies, and the recent rollout of high speed broadband financial services to rural India, to identify and to provide for better rural development governance of public, private and community sector investments. It builds on two Indian government initiatives: the rapid roll out of broadband to rural villages, and bank accounts for every Indian citizen.
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Smart Data Platform
A unified database for policy, planning and implementing government projects. This project consolidates diverse sectoral data in a single GIS platform.
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Citizen Exchange of Ideas, Goods, Services, Concerns
This area of investigation allows local people to use ITC to advertise and exchange capacities and needs, and thus improve market function and development debate and organising.
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Citizen Feedback and Government Accountability
This area of investigation allows to citizens to access key government data, including government budgeting and expenditure. It also allows government to communicate directly with citizens, and vice versa.
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Access to a Set of Rural Improvement Solutions
This area aims to investigate ways of using ICT to enable villagers, local governments and rural professionals to access a region-specific encyclopaedia of solutions to problems, with links to where to get further help.
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Coordinating Emergency Response
ICTs are today used extensively in coordinating emergency response. However, their use is usually restricted to NGOs and governments. This stream looks at how the expansion of broadband and low cost wireless Internet access might enable villages to join in the process.