IT For Development

Information technology (IT) is the most important gift of science of the 20th century to humankind. This technology has brought in unprecedented comforts to the people by changing the world into a global village. Anyone with access to IT facilities can know what is happening in any part of the world within a few minutes no matter where he or she is living. You can listen to the sounds and watch images of any incident in front of a screen in your room. And if you happen to miss any of the programmes, you can watch them by just logging onto the Internet at any time. Indeed, Internet services have added further comfort to the people in the recent decades - you can send and receive messages from anyone from any part of the globe within seconds. Nepalese, too, have taken tremendous advantage from the boom in the IT sector. However, these facilities are confined mostly in the urban areas, and the people living in the villages are yet to take much benefit from it. Though we also made a tremendous progress in the field of information and communications, especially after the political change of 1990, they are still not enough, considering the population deprived of telephone and Internet facilities.

Before the change of 1990, many of the district headquarters even lacked telephone services. Today almost all the district headquarters and small bazaars have telephone services, although in some districts the services were disrupted when the insurgents damaged the communications towers during the decade-long violence. Today many people living in the district headquarters and nearby villages use mobile phones. In a least developed country like Nepal where more than 80 per cent people still lack access to electricity, expanding Internet services in the villages is not feasible. However, the villages could be connected through telephone services. The government has shown its seriousness in this regard. In a message delivered on the occasion of World Telecommunication and Information Society Day Thursday, Minister for Information and Communications Krishna Bahadur Mahara hinted that the government was preparing to extend telecommunication services to the villages within the next fiscal year. Certainly, the development of the IT sector is a must for the overall development of a nation, and the government has been giving top priority to its development. However, efforts of the government alone will not be sufficient in the proper development of the sector unless the people as well as other concerned stakeholders support the government in its endevour. Hope World IT Day will inspire all to work for the development and expansion of IT services in the villages.

Source: The Rising Nepal, May 19, 2007