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Sustainability Failures of Rural Telecenters: Challenges from the Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) Project

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  • Michael L. Best

    (Sam Nunn School of International Affairs & School of Interactive Computing, Georgia Institute of Technology, 781 Marietta Street, Atlanta, GA 30332 USA.)

  • Rajendra Kumar

    (Senior District Collector, Tiruvallur District, No. 1, Master Plan Complex, Tiruvallur-602001. TN. India.)

Abstract

We have examined longitudinally an ICT for a development project in rural India, closely watching activities and surveying users at as many as 100 Internet facilities in more than 50 different villages. The Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) project in Tamil Nadu, India, enjoyed many successes, including palpable-albeit localized-social and economic development impacts as well as the incubation of an-albeit inconsistently-celebrated ICT for a development start-up company (n-Logue Communications Pvt. Ltd.). Ultimately, however, the SARI project did not sustain itself. In the particular outcomes reported here, we follow the prospects of 36 private telecenters which were opened at various times between November 2001 and February 2004. By May 2005, 32 of these 36 telecenters had closed. However, in the same time period, most of 42 telecenters in the same area that were opened and run by a local NGO continued to function. We provide a comparative analysis between these two groups of facilities. We find that the best explanation for variation in a kiosk lifespan was their level of satisfaction with n-Logue Communications. Moreover, those sites that did express satisfaction with their institutional and technical support were in service for, on average, an additional year compared with dissatisfied sites. In addition to technical and operational support issues, we find that the lack of long-term financial viability was a major reason for the closure of the private telecenters. Financial sustainability was not realized by many centers; indeed, 85% of the operators interviewed cited finances as a major cause for their closure. Finally, telecenters that were owned by individuals with prior training in computers, or that had a separate trained operator, remained operational for a longer period. (c) 2008 by The Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Suggested Citation

  • Michael L. Best & Rajendra Kumar, 2008. "Sustainability Failures of Rural Telecenters: Challenges from the Sustainable Access in Rural India (SARI) Project," Information Technologies and International Development, MIT Press, vol. 4(4), pages 31-45, October/J.
  • Handle: RePEc:tpr:itintd:v:4:y:2008:i:4:p:31-45
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Jake Kendall & Nirvikar Singh, 2012. "Performance of Internet Kiosks in Rural India," Review of Market Integration, India Development Foundation, vol. 4(1), pages 1-43, April.
    2. Michael J. Magro, 2012. "A Review of Social Media Use in E-Government," Administrative Sciences, MDPI, vol. 2(2), pages 1-14, April.
    3. Thai, Do Manh & Duong, Dang & Falch, Morten & Xuan, Chung Bui & Thu, Tran Thi Anh, 2022. "Factors affecting the sustainability of telecentres in developing countries," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(3).
    4. Goswami, Rupak & Ghosh Roy, Jhumpa & Ghose, Jhulan, 2010. "Telesupport Experiment for Agricultural Information Management in West Bengal, India," MPRA Paper 21571, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    5. Abhipsa Pal & Rahul De’ & Tejaswini Herath, 2020. "The Role of Mobile Payment Technology in Sustainable and Human-Centric Development: Evidence from the Post-Demonetization Period in India," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 22(3), pages 607-631, June.
    6. Bhatt, Punita & Ahmad, Ali J. & Roomi, Muhammad Azam, 2016. "Social innovation with open source software: User engagement and development challenges in India," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 52, pages 28-39.
    7. Avgerou, Chrisanthi, 2010. "Discourses on ICT and development," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 35564, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    8. Do Manh Thai & Duong, Dang & Falch, Morten & Chung Bui Xuan & Tran Thi Anh Thu, 2021. "Factors Affecting the Sustainability of Telecentres in the Developing Country," 23rd ITS Biennial Conference, Online Conference / Gothenburg 2021. Digital societies and industrial transformations: Policies, markets, and technologies in a post-Covid world 238017, International Telecommunications Society (ITS).
    9. Singh, J.P. & Flyverbom, Mikkel, 2016. "Representing participation in ICT4D projects," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 692-703.
    10. Liu, Chun, 2016. "Sustainability of rural informatization programs in developing countries: A case study of China׳s Sichuan province," Telecommunications Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 714-724.

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