The Hindu : Change mindset towards IT: Ekbal

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 04, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Others

Change mindset towards IT: Ekbal

By Our Staff Reporter

IRINJALAKKUDA, FEB. 3. The Vice-Chancellor of the Kerala University, B. Ekbal, has said that the social problems associated with the Information Technology (IT) should not blind society towards its positive applications.

Delivering the E.K. Narayanan Memorial Lecture at the Christ College, Irinjalakkuda, today, Dr. Ekbal said the deployment of IT would bring in positive development in society only if there is a change in the mind-set towards that technology. "We approach IT at present only as a technical subject. But it must be recognised that it is only a tool which can be applied in any field. It must also be understood that no technology is value-free, and all of them have positive and negative sides. Our efforts must be to utilise its positive sides and limit the adverse consequences to the maximum extent possible.''

Dr. Ekbal said the application of IT would yield results only if it was introduced as a package. "There must be reforms in the administration. If we are introducing computers by retaining the sample old colonial structure and norms of administration it will not usher in any positive changes. For example, in Kerala University the file relating to the sanctioning a scholarship to a student has to cross through 40 tables before it is brought to the table of the Vice-Chancellor. It will be absurd if we introduce 40 computers to replace those tables in the name of computerisation.

"Our administrative structures and norms are still following the same old colonial legacy of distrusting the natives and introducing mechanisms for checks and counter-checks at every point. But in spite of all those mechanisms, corruption thrives in this country. Computerisation will be successful only if these procedures are simplified and made more transparent.''

Conceding that there are problems associated with the IT, he said it did create the divide between `IT haves and IT have-nots' because of its high cost and requirements of high levels of skill education. There were also issues like cultural homogenisation, threats to self-reliance, crass commercialisation, and invasion in privacy. But all these issues must not make us turn away from IT. There were solutions to solve them like providing computer education and access to poorer sections free and at subsidised rates, recycling the computers, and starting of common Internet cafes for the poor, Dr. Ekbal said.

He said Kerala had both advantages and handicaps for introduction of IT. The high education levels as well as the presence of basic requirements like high penetration of PC, telephone, cell-phone, optical fibre network, and the sophisticated information gateway at Kochi, along with the infrastructure like Technopark made Kerala an ideal region to become a hundred per cent digital State. But the factors including Kerala's backwardness to other States like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, poor quality of computer education, the low levels of computer literacy, and the absence of a good work culture were threatening the State's prospects for taking rapid strides in IT, he said.

"We do not aim to excel in any field. We must now uphold the need to become efficient and transparent in any field that we are engaged in. We were probably the first to start the institutions like Keltron, ER&DC and Technopark that could have made remarkable contributions to the growth of IT in the State, probably even before the word IT was coined. But we did not follow it up properly,'' Dr. Ekbal said.

Emphasising the importance of IT in the areas like education, health care and administration, Dr. Ekbal said a State like Kerala should however be cautious in introducing this technology.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Kerala

News Update

Stories in this Section

Tourist facilitation centre commissioned at Kallar

Change mindset towards IT: Ekbal