DAINET - Grassroot Access to Information
John Borgoyary

Over  the past years there have been growing efforts by governments, independent sector organisations (ISOs), corporations, research institutions and others aimed at sustainable development.  However, in India, like many other developing countries these efforts have been considerably hampered by the lack of timely, reliable and useful information.  As a result, decision making is very often based on partial information and / or conjectures of vested interests.

The independent sector is a constituency of rapidly growing importance in the planning, execution and monitoring of sustainable national development effort.  In addition to environment and development NGOs, ISOs also encompass grass roots movements, women’s organisations, youth groups, indigenous peoples, scientific associations, trade unions, religious groups, etc.

Even when available, information is not easily accessible by the ISO, whose critical role has been widely recognised and endorsed in national and international policy formulations.  Numerous conferences and workshops have highlighted the difficulty faced by ISOs in obtaining the information they need to provide useful inputs to decision making.

While the government, major academic bodies, and the private sector have initiated establishment of information networks using the latest technologies, these will take their own gestation periods  to be fully operational.  The independent sector will not have access to these networks for quite some time.  Even when they become accessible, they will not cater to the specific requirements of the independent organisations.  As a consequence, lack of useful information could continue to cripple the efforts of the independent sector for some time.

1.  Situation Analysis

More specifically the information related  issues confronting the ISOs include :

a. Lack of Connectivity

Electronic connectivity is the lowest among ISOs when compared to other constituencies of society. A few ISOs have taken an e-mail connection from a government or a commercial network service provider.  Even those with connections are unable to use it to its potential.

There are probably about five thousand ISOs with computer and telephone connections, but not electronically connected due to non availability of modems and other support services customised to meet their requirements.  This is the most important group that needs to be systematically connected as soon as possible. 

There are about thirty to one hundred thousand ISOs who are non automated, who also require more systematic information support for their environment and development activities.  Of these at least five thousand have adequate working knowledge of English.  They immediately require a seamless link with the automated world.  The bridge with the rest can be effectively built only if multi-lingual software packages are developed. 

Currently only a couple of user networks are focusing on the requirements of ISOs.  These efforts too are rather rudimentary when compared to the scale and complexity of the requirements.

b.  Lack of timely, reliable and user friendly information on environment and development issues (Refer Table 1: A Preliminary Illustration of Users, their Information Needs and Gaps)

What is available is not automated and thereby, not accessible in the time required and cannot be easily processed into user friendly formats. 

Information is often not available and therefore,  efficient databases and its associated services need to be developed. 

Due to the rapid growth of Internet and associated services, ISOs are often dumped with foreign information.  The information is either not inherently useful or not converted into a format in whereby it can be used effectively by most ISOs in India.

There are some very useful discussion groups on issues of environment and development in India through informal meetings, letters and newsletters.  These have virtually no links with any electronic conferences on similar themes.  Most electronic conferences within India are those in which very few selected Indian groups participate in some global electronic conferences.

Substantive query response and customised information services on environment and development themes are very few in India.  Here again, they operate through conventional means of communication with virtually no use of electronic communication systems.

c.  Potential of mapping and geomatic applications for ISO activities comparatively untapped

Though a very powerful tool for planning, community participation, communication and negotiations among various stakeholders in the sustainable development process, the use of this tool is limited to very few ISOs in the country.

d.  Information support services to major sustainable development support agencies and their associates in India are not adequately systematised

A number of major sustainable development support agencies in India have recognised that more systematic information support services can enhance the impact of their current activities.

2.  Scope for Strengthening Independent Sector Information Services in India

There is an urgent need for three to four networks in India focusing on the information support requirements of the Independent Sectors Organisations. 

In the next five years each of these  can concentrate on approximately 1500 automated users and an equal number of non-automated users.  These networks also need to establish links with other national and international networks focusing on the specific needs and requirements of other constituencies in society.

DAINET has been visualised as one of these networks focusing on strengthening independent sector information services in the Indian Sub-Continent.

ROLE OF DAINET

1.  Background and Current Status

Since inception, Development Alternatives has been involved in a wide range of activities aimed at sustainable development.  Primary focus areas include development and marketing of environmentally sound and appropriate technologies, and the design and implementation of environmental management strategies and institutional systems.

While information services has been a key area of activity since inception, the DAINET programme over the last three years has enabled considerable upgradation of the information systems operations. 

The experience has provided a firm foundation in understanding the issues associated with gathering, processing, storing, retrieving and sharing both spatial and non-spatial information.  A team of young and dedicated professionals, under the guidance of experienced personnel, has been built up as a result of this effort.

A skeletal system of nodes and HUB, customised to the requirements of ISOs, has been developed and field tested. Currently DAINET is operating through ERnet which is the Network Service Provider (NSP).  ERnet is primarily servicing the Educational and Research community and also NGOs and other Independent Sector Organisations working on issues of sustainable development.   The other key NSPs in the country, namely, NICnet and VSNL primarily cater to government and commercial agencies respectively.  The structural configuration of DAINET enables it to shift to any other NSP platform that may provide better services and conditions at a later date.

The operating system and communication software adopted by DAINET is open to virtually all operating platforms such as DOS, Windows-NT, Windows-95, Novell Netware, OS2-WARP, UNIX, etc.  Thus irrespective of the operating system a user can conveniently obtain a connection and also be assured of efficient services. 

Since most of the ISO users are not highly skilled in computers and information technology, DAINET proposes to adopt an incremental approach of virtually providing e-mail connectivity and gradually moving to full Internet connectivity at most locations.   The emphasis of DAINET will be to provide initiation, essential training and other support services during the process of user graduation.  However, if an ISO user is already skilled DAINET will suggest ways by which the user can obtain full Internet access faster; probably initially through another NSP.

DAINET is also gearing itself as a regional information system for sustainable development in Indian sub-continent.  The DAINET Hub at Delhi will act as the main information centre for sustainable development for all its nodes in India and other global partners from where they would be able to retrieve information as and when required. It is in a position to provide a leadership role in bridging the information gap.  In the operational phase, DAINET will consolidate and considerably upgrade the facilities and services through distributed nodes, data centres and partners.

2.  DAINET Vision

Over the next  six to eight years, DAINET aims to fully service the information needs of over 1500 automated users and an equal number of non-automated users in the Indian sub-continent on a regular basis.  Another 5000 random users in the region are expected to be linked to the network each year.  The multipliers with Internet are expected to be enormous.

The structure of the system is envisaged as follows :

a. One DAINET-HUB at Delhi

b. 24 DAINET-Nodes spread across the Sub-Continent growing at the rate of six per year

c. 30 DAINET-DataCentres spread across the Sub-Continent growing at the rate of six per year

d. Over 50 DAINET Partners associated from with the network from time to time for specific requirements   

DAINET hopes to attain and reach this structure through collaborations with about four sustainable development support agencies and 24 ISOs in India. The ISOs would function as nodes and data centres of DAINET in different regions of the country and will cater to the information requirements of the grassroots level organisations.

DAINET would therefore, collaborate with ISOs working in areas of sustainable development in different regions of the country to achieve this goal. The process of identifying suitable partners has just been initiated. We would invite ISOs to come forward to be partners in implementing the DAINET vision.  q

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