Contrasting uses of technology
During my present stay in India (I’m on vacation), I’ve come across many contrasting experiences with respect to techology and its adaptation by the people here. This is a blurt-out and may not make sense to many as it does to me (I am a native). So, here goes:
To the first time visitor, Bangalore is shocking. Traffic is a mess. State politics are a ridicule. Exorbitant room rates. Did I mention they were more expensive than in Kuala Lumpur or Singapore with a lot less facilities? Inspite of it all, my experiences in Bangalore with regards to technology have always been good.
From mushrooming of cyber cafes from way back in 1996 to the first Indian online banking pilot by Citibank (Suvidha) and paying with your debit cards in your regular grocery stores and making utility payments, Bangalore has had a home run in my memories. It’s like every mind (even the common ones) understands technology fairly well. Dare I say, Bangalore is not a beautiful city (it once was), but is a city of beautiful minds.
ePayment: The former chief minister, Mr S M Krishna, did some in-roads in improving general life by subtle use of technology for ordinary people. One particular project is Bangalore One. It is a local cell in each of the city’s areas (or nagars) where people can avail various services, make payments related to utility, property tax, passport, ticket offense, learner’s driving license renewal, etc.
To the people that have known yesterday’s India, this is heaven. Prompt assistance is offered and you’re directed to a counter when you step in, as I did in RT Nagar’s cell in Bangalore last week. Of course, you could pay many of these services online, but a wonderful help like this to the general public is just fantastic. First time users really come out smiling, thinking out loud, is this really my India?
Another one that I found nice was a KPTCL’s 24 hours payment center at various locations in Bangalore for making payments at ATM like kiosks. The concept of an ATM has been used here to make payments. I visited one at Anand Rao circle’s KPTCL premises where a guard and an assistant greet you and help you with your payment.
The concept of a manual assistance is nice and is really required. I’ll explain why. This machine has a scanner and reads the bar code printed on your electricity bill to pick-up various details of your account RR Number, and other details and then you insert cash like you do when you pay for your parking. The assistant takes your bill and scans it and inserts the money you give him to feed the ATM like machine. He takes care of the non-adventurous types =) and he’s quite helpful. I just had one gripe, it wouldn’t take a 1000 rupee note. The max was a 500.
Cellphones: Cellphones and services are hot in India and people are hooked to it like mad. Ten years ago, we craved for peek at a device. Today, everyone, I mean, everyone owns a phone. I believe AirTel’s ad reflects just that. From your paanwalla’s assistant to the barber’s aid to your bai, everyone tote one. It’s a good thing too.
My dad said when he was constructing our home in Belgaum some 20 years ago, he couldn’t get hold of his favorite mason. He actually went to his village to get him to come and work for us. Today, he is our Bob-the-builder with a cellphone. To a lot of non-tech savvy users here, their cellphone is their most powerful device, and I tend to agree with that. With that device they can get almost everything done. So why not.
Blind adaptation: While a lot of good is happening in the technology capital, Bangalore, I find it odd that the rest of the state fails to catch that ride. I was amused, frustrated and felt so dumb that the state people voted a good man out of power because there were no rains that year and because he concentrated on urban upliftment first and IT first.
People fail to understand that the reformation and improvement would eventually trickle down in greater good (by revenues, by using techology for the mass like the above and more). If only they’d have more faith =(
I went to get some legal matter printed today. I typed the matter myself on my mom’s pc and wanted a printout on a government stamp paper. I had to go out and get it printed (my old Canon BJ200 has no cartridge). So, I took a copy on my pen-drive and went out in the town. It came as a rude shock when many of the DTP centres that I visited asked me what this particular device (pen drive) was.
I had to eventually buy a floppy disk, come back home, format it, transfer the file from the pen drive to the disc and then take it to get it printed. I couldn’t have asked for a low-tech method. All this in the state whose capital city is Bangalore.
When I visited India I was pleasantly surprised by the general improvements there. Everybody seemed to have cell phone and the fact that you could check your railway reservation stats through SMS was simply great!
Aug 9, 05 at 23:10